Five Free Twitter Tools for Maximum Leverage

Since it’s birth in October 2006, Twitter has not been given the serious consideration it deserves. For some reason or another, serious folks have looked upon those 140 characters as a way for teens to share minutiae or lonely net addicts to feel connected. Just recently, though, there seems to have been a shift in thinking.

When I first logged into Twitter last year, I wasn’t really sure how it would benefit me. I could see that people enjoyed it and that it looked cool, but the present state of the site didn’t really seem to lend itself to anything much. I was also quite annoyed by the term Tweet. For those of you who don’t know, a post on Twitter is called a Tweet. I’m not really sure what irritated me about that name, but it just bugged me. A year later I still don’t like the term tweet, but I can’t say the same about Twitter itself.

It’s not clear what sparked this sudden upsurge of interest in Twitter. Perhaps it has been brewing for awhile now, but everyone just started talking about it. Twitter is quickly becoming my favorite social media site. And I don’t think I am alone in this. Just this week I have seen at least half a dozen articles about Twitter in high-authority blogs. These include: How Twitter Helped me Get 3 Solid Job Offers, How I use Twitter to Promote my Blog and Exploiting Twitter for Backlinks.

I installed a plug-in a couple of months ago that tweets every time I post to my blog. Some part of me knew that this was something I need to do and I’m glad I did. Last weekend, I installed Twhirl, a desktop Twitter client - more about that in a moment. But that is as far as I have gotten in terms of Twitter-izing my social media interactions.

The truth is, I haven’t been very consistent with social media at all. But I am really starting to enjoy (read: become obsessed with) Twitter. So I thought it was time to dig around a bit to see what cool tools and plug-ins everyone was using to optimize the Twitter experience. After a bit of trial and error, I present to you this list of five free Twitter tools that can maximize the experience and help bloggers leverage this increasingly popular medium.

Twhirl

Twhirl is a desktop Twitter client that does everything you need it to do and nothing that you don’t. It’s a small install and sits demurely in your taskbar, popping up a window when someone you follow posts an update. You have a choice of several different views (friends, timeline, followers, etc.) and you can also search from within Twhirl. Basically, anything you can do on Twitter you can do on Twhirl, but you get to customize the look and behavior and you don’t have to use your browser. I like Twhirl because I’m still working on making Twitter a habit and it reminds me to check in. At the same time, it’s not so invasive or disruptive that I am constantly pulled off-task. There is a Mac only application called Twitterific ($14.95) that is supposed to be quite cool as well, but I don’t have a Mac so I can’t recommend.

TwitterFox

For those of you who want your Tweets close at hand, but completely unobtrusive, I suggest TwitterFox. This plugin for Firefox installs a tiny little icon and number in the bottom right corner of your browser. If you click on the icon, you can read tweets (the number is the number of new tweets from your friends), post tweets and also view messages and replies.

Twitter Tools

Twitter Tools is a simple Wordpress plug-in that tweets whenever I publish to my blog. If I had read the sentence I just wrote ten years ago I would have thought I must have gone insane. Anyway, I love Twitter Tools. You can choose to post a tweet manually or have it done automatically. Twitter Tools will also create a blog post each time you tweet if you want it to.

Twitterfeed

Another way to tweet your blog posts is by using Twitterfeed. Basically you log in to Twitterfeed with an Open ID that is also associated with your Twitter account. You then enter your RSS URL and tell Twitterfeed how often you want it to check your blog for new posts. And that’s basically it. I haven’t tried it, but people are definitely saying good things about Twitterfeed.

TwitKu 2

TwitKu posts to the three major social networking sites (Twitter, Jaiku and Pownce) all at once, a self-described “social network mashup.” The page shows friends’ posts from all three networks and when you post, it goes to all three as well. This seems like the very best way to maximize social networking time and really get yourself (and your blog or site) out there. Has anyone developed a plugin for Wordpress that does this? In the meantime, I am going to spend some time with TwitKu and I will let you all know how it goes.

These tools should get you started. There are many out there and more every day. If there is an application you use to enhance your Twitter experience and I haven’t mentioned it here, let me know about it in the comments section.

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