Managing Twitter on a Bigger Scale
Tweetdeck is owned by Twitter, and is a good way to manage more than one account, if you have more than one (for personal and professional use, or perhaps an individual one and an official one on behalf of an institution). However, you can also use Tweetdeck to split your Twitter stream into columns divided by people. It will import any lists you have made on Twitter too.
You will need to create an account, with an email address and password. Once you have set up an account, you can connect your Twitter account(s). You can use it as a web-based application to access from anywhere, or you can download the Tweetdeck app to your computer (there is no app for smartphones or tablets). Tweetdeck is organised into a number of columns, and gives you a number of columns automatically, such as your timeline, your own tweets or your @mentions (tweets that mention you), and you can add new columns for the lists you create. You can also create new lists in Tweetdeck. Click on ‘add column’, and choose ‘lists’ (or any other column you want to add!).
ou can do everything we’ve covered in Twitter on Tweetdeck too, including shortening URLs. Tweetdeck also makes some other things in Twitter a little bit easier. For example, when you retweet, it will ask you if you simply want to retweet or if you want to edit the tweet, as we discussed in Day 6. On Twitter, you need to copy and paste the tweet if you want to edit it, which can be fiddly; this does it automatically.
Hootsuite is similar application to Tweetdeck, but it allows you also to import other social media accounts such as Facebook, and it is also available as an app for mobile devices. You can sign up using Facebook, or if you prefer to keep Facebook separate from your professional social media use, you can sign up with an email address, name and password. It will then ask you to add your chosen social network accounts. You can then add streams of content similarly as in Tweetdeck, and tabs for the different social networks. Hootsuite has a quick start guide to help you set up your account.
This is another cool option. According to Buffer their website:
… you can write a bunch of posts at one time, choose which social profiles to send them to, and then Buffer will spread them out throughout the day or week …
Sprout Social is another service that you may want to investigate, possibly later once you’ve been using Twitter for a while. Like Hootsuite, it allows you to integrate other social media accounts into one dashboard. I’ve found it’s actually quite good — the downside? It’s not free. You can get a free trial for a month.
The other bonus of tools like Sprout Social, Tweetdeck and Hootsuite is that you don’t see the advertising ‘promoted tweets’ from companies you don’t follow!
This is a useful tool for managing your follower/following ratio, and naturally, there is a premium service that gives you some more automated options.
This is a paid service that allows you to do a bit more than Tweepi. In addition to managing your followers, it will allow you to break your audience down into segments and analyze their interests.
Search & Content Targetting Tools
Of course, there is Twitter’s resident advanced search function, which works fairly well. There are also some excellent 3rd-party services to check out.
This is a nifty little tool that can help you refine your hashtags, so that you’re using the best options for your Tweets. You can find related hashtags, see who the top influencers are, and search for usage patterns too. h/t @martakellercan
This one is quite sophisticated. It allows you to enter any search term/keywords and see what topics are being discussed, and what forms of media are being used to discuss them.
And don’t forget to mine your own Twitter feed for useful information on what performs well, and what your audience is looking for.
Bonus link: How to use Twitter Analytics to Create Smarter Content
Articles:
21 Twitter Tools that Every Power User Must Know