Long gone are the days of going to twitter.com to tweet but with all the twitter platform options available, it’s hard to find the perfect one. Especially if you have multiple twitter accounts or watch several twitter searches.
Here are my two favorites:
TweetDeck: I like TweetDeck because it provides real-time tweets. This is great for things like participating in #tourismchat as you don’t have to refresh the column. You can customize the visual and audio notifications for each column and there doesn’t seem to be a limit on columns. I currently have 25 columns, 80% of which are for hashtags, searches or lists of followers. TweetDeck is free but you have to download the platform, which might not be ideal if you’re using an office computer.
HootSuite: One of the best features of HootSuite is the ability to set up separate tabs with multiple columns in each tab. So I can have a tab for each twitter account and then a separate tab for searches or hashtags. Or I can mix search or hashtag columns in my main tab. However there is a limit of 10 columns (streams) per tab. Another great feature is to set up team users, if you have multiple people managing the same twitter account, so that you can see who replies to which tweet. With additional team members, plans can get a little pricey. Free plans are available. Pro plans ($5.99/month) are needed for teams ($15/member per month). HootSuite is web-based so there’s nothing to download.
These are a two platforms I’m exploring but I don’t currently use for tweeting:
Sprout Social: I love the follower demographics and message summary that analyzes your mentions, replies and retweets. You can also manage your Facebook pages here (also with TweetDeck and HootSuite) however I feel like the Inbox tab is a little too “pretty” which is great to look at and functions fine, I just like something a little more down and dirty. Organization is my middle name. I personally like to see hashtag searches on the same screen as my twitter feeds. And maybe this is possible. I’ve only played with this platform a little. The Pro plan is $9/month, Business is $49/month. I believe they will be coming out with a new feature that allows multiple users per account.
Crowdbooster: Known as an intelligent social media dashboard, Crowdbooster not only analyzes your stats but it also gives you insights to help your social media efforts. For example, Crowdbooster recommends that I send more tweets at 11am, 1pm and 3pm because “scores are based on when your followers are most active and how your previous tweets have performed.” It also lists follower growth (by day), influential followers and top retweeters as well as an awesome retweet graph/table that analyzes twitter impressions. Perhaps the best feature for businesses, though, it the ability to export your data (paid plan). Personal accounts are free, Business accounts are $20/month.
Some other platforms that I’ve heard of but do not use:
What platforms are you using for twitter?
Ricky Yean
Anne Hornyak
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