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Cindy Ratzlaff

Bestselling author, award winning brand marketing and social media pro, Cindy Ratzlaff, creates sales driving campaigns for authors, books and publishers.

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8 Free or Low-Cost Twitter Timesaving Tools | *Twitter Toolkit*

By Cindy Ratzlaff June 7, 2011

UPDATE: Since the writing of this blog, Twitter has changed it’s policy on third party auto-follow apps. So Tool #3 below is no longer recommended for auto-following.

 

Twitter continues to help entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 companies alike increase their brand awareness, exponentially expand their marketing message reach and create more a sense of relationship between customer or client and brand or product.

Many still fear that Twitter is a time rabbit hole and that building a large following on Twitter will unleash a time commitment they can’t accommodate.

Here are eight timesaving tools to help any sized business or individual entrepreneur find, follow, engage or manage their time on Twitter for productive results.

  1. Twellow: This site is the Yellow Pages of Twitter.  This free site allows you to register your Twitter account under three different keywords such as marketing, branding, social media or whatever keywords a potential client might enter to find your business.  Listing your Twitter account here will help others to find you when searching for the service or product you provide. Therefore, leads or followers coming from Twellow are more likely than average to be seeking what you have to offer. It’s fast and easy to register and worth your time.  Additionally, if you use Twellow while logged into your Twitter account and Twellow, you can search, find and follow others directly from the platform.
  2. Twitter App for Facebook: The Twitter stream is a fast moving conversation and therefore, your tweets once out of sight are out of mind.  Making any content you create do double duty is a good timesaving strategy.  Using this app to cause Facebook to auto-post from Facebook to your Twitter account makes your daily Facebook post work harder by also speaking to your Twitter followers. And, the added benefit is the way this app creates a truncated link to bring people back to your Facebook page to read a post that is longer.  This is a subtle invitation for Twitter followers interested enough to click the link to continue reading to “like” your Facebook page.  Again, always ask your content to work in multiple ways.
  3. SocialToo: Auto follow everyone who follows you. I’m a believer in auto following everyone who follows me on Twitter. It’s an easy way to build your following and allows people who find you to DM or Direct Message you on Twitter. I’ve been interviewed by national newspapers and contacted by future clients this way and had I not employed a policy of auto following, they would not have been able to reach me as easily and quickly.  I upgraded from a free account at SocialToo to a one-time $10 fee to use their set it and forget it auto follow tool. I love this feature and cannot recommend it enough.
  4. Hootsuite: In my opinion, Hootsuite is one of the best social media dashboards for managing Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin accounts at a glance and pre-scheduling tweets. I use it regularly manage 10 or more Twitter accounts alone, using Hootsuite and their newly enhanced metrics are terrific for creating client reports and for insight into which marketing messages are working and which are falling on deaf ears and may need tweaking.
  5. Tweetbeep: Google for Twitter. Set alerts for your keywords, your business name and your competitors to keep yourself in the loop and to find good information to tweet to your followers.
  6. Tweepi: This handy site allows you to weed out the accounts that don’t follow you back, to reciprocate those that follow you first and to clean out inactive accounts from your Twitter tribe.  A free version is suitable for smaller accounts and a paid version adds significantly more functionality for larger accounts or agencies.
  7. Tweetchat: Follow hashtag conversations in real time without distractions.  By doing so, you can quickly and easily find people talking about keywords and topics that interest you or your potential customer. Use hashtag conversations to bring yourself and your brand to the attention of others by participating in interesting, on-point twitter conversations.
  8. Timely: Analyze your Twitter patterns and get recommendations on times of day when your followers are most likely see, read and respond to your posts.

What other tools are in your Twitter toolkit?  If you have tools and strategies for maximizing your time on Twitter, I’d love to hear about them.  Let’s share with one another.

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Filed Under: Twitter Tagged With: brand strategy, entrepreneurs, Marketing, Social Media, Twitter

About Cindy Ratzlaff

Cindy Ratzlaff was named to the Forbes “20 Best Branded Women on Twitter” list and Forbes Woman called her one of the “Most Influential Women Tweeting about Entrepreneurship.”

During her 20-plus years as a publishing executive, Cindy created branded marketing and PR campaigns that ushered more than 200 books onto the New York Times bestseller lists. She was named to the Ad Age Marketing 50 list for the launch campaign behind The South Beach Diet.

She is the author of three books, and her essays on happiness have appeared on Oprah.com, CNN.com and her articles on social marketing have can be read on Business Insider. She speaks to conferences such as BookExpo America, Pennsylvania Conference for Women, Romance Writers of America, Ernst & Young, Garden Writers Association, Texas Conference for Women, United Way’s Ignite Leadership Network, Massachusetts Conference for Women, and more on the topics of happiness, personal branding and creating a digital footprint.

She engages daily with more than 450,000 people through her popular Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and blog sites.

Comments & Feedback:

  1. Bonnie Pond

    June 7, 2011 at 11:58 am

    Cindy, thanks for sharing these sites. I’ve been avoiding Twitter most of the time, just because it’s so time-consuming. Your suggested tools make using Twitter much more manageable.

    Reply
    • cindyratzlaff

      June 7, 2011 at 12:01 pm

      Thanks Bonnie. I can’t recommend Twitter enough. It truly does amplify all of your other marketing touch points.

      Reply
  2. Radek

    August 17, 2011 at 5:24 am

    Hi Cindy,

    nice list but i miss one tool! click.to

    Reply
    • cindyratzlaff

      August 17, 2011 at 7:36 am

      I’ll check it out Radek. Thanks for the heads up.

      Reply

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