Twitter Marketing Software Tool

Twitter is great marketing software tool. But for the new, "what is the best way to promote yourself"?  read on for some Twitter marketing tips.

There are a lot of tools available to use twitter, such as Tweetdeck, Tweet Adder, Tweet Whistle or SocialOomph, to name just a few.  If you have done any googling you will actually find 100s of different tools you can use.  I've wasted many hours trying these different twitter marketing tools.

So here are my best Twitter marketing tips, for you...

What Twitter Application is Right for you?

Web: probably the most widely used application to Twitter is through the simple web interface at Twitter.com. Upsides: simple, clean, and easy to use. Downsides: none link shortening ability, so you have to go shorten links somewhere else; you cannot see @ mentions of your tweets; you cannoit easily retweet, although is is becoming easier with the new interface; and if you follow lots of people it’s easy for tweets to get missed.

PowerTwitter: PowerTwitter is a Firefox add-on that allows you to still use the web interface, but have additional features such as including Facebook status updates, allows you to see all @mentions, allows easy searches, photos, easy link shortening. Upsides: includes a lot of the features that the web interface misses. Downside: still have to go to twitter.com in your browser to use it.

Twhirl: Twhirl is one of the most popular desktop clients for Twitter, and has a running stream of Tweets that updates every few minutes so you never miss a thing. Upsides: constantly updating stream, catches all @replies. Downsides: no groups or other advanced features; pretty functional.

TweetDeck: TweetDeck is another one of the most popular desktop clients for Twitter. The main function that distinguishes TweetDeck is its ability to let you create groups/lists and add your favorite Tweeters to these groups. Downside: clunky, large, takes up whole screen; often takes a while to update DMs. Upside: easy organization of groups, can incorporate facebook statuses, catches all @mentions

Nambu: Nambu is a great OS X application which integrats well into the desktop look and feel.  It is easy to use, has good URL shortening and expands them in your tweet timeline so you see the real URL and has great support for using groups/lists.

Hotot: Hotot is the best twitter client for linux that I have come across.  It is light weight, fast and open source Microblogging Client, coding using Python language and designed for Linux.

iPhone Apps

For the IPhone user, there’s tons of different apps out there; It is not possibly cover them, but here are what I consider some of the better ones:

Tweetie: One of the most popular. Heavy on the features; allows you to tweet from multiple accounts, easy organization of tweets, replies, and DMs. Upsides: has almost every feature you could want. Downsides: costs $3; doesn’t cache Tweets.

Twittelator Pro: Referred to by Gizmodo as the “Big daddy” of Twitter iPhone apps. Has almost every feature you could want: search, custom groups, multiple accounts, check nearby tweets, etc. Upside: every imaginable feature. Downside: cost, and also freezes up often Cost: $5. There is also a free version of Twittelator available with less features.

Twitterific: Presents all incoming Tweets in a single stream, including @replies and DMs. Upside: extremely easy-to-read stream of Tweets. Downside: Since its focus is more on reading than doing, it lacks other major features. Cost: there’s a free version and a $10 version — but both are similar

TwitterFon: one of the most full-featured free apps. Upsides: allows TwitPic, search, easy-to-read layout, fast load time. Downsides: no multiple accounts or themes.

BlackBerry Apps

TwitterBerry: Is the most widely used Blackberry app. It’s free, but has limited features. Upsides: allows Twitpic, organizes DMs and @ replies and timeline. Downsides: doesn’t show @mentions, no groups, no multiple accounts

Other mobile phone apps

TinyTwitter: will work on any Windows mobile phone, smartphone, BlackBerry, or other Java-enabled phone.Has most basic features, although you cannot follow new users.

PockeTwit: also works on any Windows Mobile phone or Smartphone; popular with Windows Mobile users. Upsides: search, link shortening, multiple accounts, free.

Manage your Tweets

If you are going to seriously use Twitter to market yourself then you would do well to use a tool whereby you are able to manage your tweets.  There are a lot of tools which allow you to schedule tweets, which allow you to keep a constantly timeline alive even while you are away from your desktop.

After some in depth comparisons of Social Oomph and Hootsuite I decided that the following features were the best to bring up on both programs: Social Oomph or Hootsuite will both do what you want them to manage your Twitter account and automate it for you.

Hootsuite

• Is currently Free 

• Beautiful Layout - lots of eye candy and the ability to make many adjustments 

• Twittsphere - this neat program allows you to track conversations based on key words you pick 

• Very easy to follow and or un follow people based on your interests, brands or groups 

• Grouping - allows you to group "like" people together i.e. family, friends, famous people, clubs or groups of people 

• Feeding your Blog - allows you to upload your blog updates automatically to Twitter 

• Ow.ly - this is a url reducer that allows a long url to be reduced - this helps since "tweets" can only be 140 characters compared to a standard text of 160 characters.

Social Oomph

• Is a free service with extra premium paid service.

• Auto replies - you can set up an auto reply for people that follow you - great for building a network, you can also put in a link to your blog 

• Daily digest of replies - this allows you to save so much time - anyone that replied to you or your tweet can be found very quickly - just think of how much time it would take to go through a thousand emails looking for one - 

• Auto Follow or Un follow - this allows you to follow or un follow people automatically - this is a benefit since once you reach 2000 people you are following you cannot follow anymore until your followers are within 10 percent. 

• Vetting - this allows you to follow whoever you want manually 

• Grouping - just like Hootsuite you can group people together 

• Like Hootsuite you can reduce url's on the mainpage - really easy to do

While both of these programs offer so many more options, they do tend to complement each other. From Social Oomph's awesome automation abilities to Hootsuite's customization, tracking and user friendly features, they are both great programs to use.

Followers

If your Twitter page is brand new and you've just started using it, using your Twitter marketing tools, follow up to 50 members per day for the first few weeks or so. Don't purely add 500 members to your list or you may well be banned from Twitter. Better to build up your followers slowly over time.  Check out the followers of people similar to them and follow those that fit your profile.  Usually they will follow you back.

With Twitter marketing you'll need to have some patience. As you add followers onto your list unfollow the users who have not followed you in return.  This'll keep your ratio looking more believable to your potential brand new members.

After a couple you can increase the number you add daily (around one hundred a day). 

One of the important things to realize with twitter is that it is a conversational tool.  Share about yourself, photos, give people tips.  Build a profile which shows you as a contributer to the community.  Occasionally you can promote a marketing opportunity but do it too often and people will either ignore you or unfollow you.    Build relationships with your followers.

Being successful on twitter is about being heard, taking part in the community by giving and sharing of yourself.

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