20 Essential Twitter Tools For Business. (Atomic Ideas

I subscribe to an essential tool for marketers. It's called marketingprofs. For a nominal fee you gain access to a phenomenal information resource and other goodies. For instance, today I was able to download a marketingprofs white paper on Twitter which includes 11 case studies of businesses using the platform and the extremely useful list below... $49.95 for the complete study to non-subscribers, FREE to me. Outstanding!

In the the spirit of the holidays I'm sharing. But if you want the rest of the info, I highly recommend you sign up at marketingprofs.com. You won't regret it.

Twitter Account Management

• TweetDeck: This popular desktop widget offers great functionality for posting business tweets, including the ability to sort tweets into direct messages, topics and keywords. For instance, you can set up a specific column for mentions of your company or industry, and another for those of your competitor. TweetDeck has a sleek Adobe Air interface that looks like a cockpit on your desktop. Plus, it integrates with Facebook.

• HootSuite: A fast-growing free Web service, HootSuite is perfect for businesses needing multiple Twitter profiles and multiple users. It allows you to easily schedule tweets and switch back and forth between accounts. The service also includes a URL-shortening service called “ow.ly” that lets you see how many times your links are clicked. HootSuite counts Google Enterprise, Steve Case and Threadless as users.

• CoTweet: Multiple people from the same company can communicate through a single Twitter account, thanks to CoTweet. Each person maintains his or her own profile and activity record. CoTweet boasts such customers as Macworld, Ford and Whole Foods. CoTweet is accepting private beta registration.

Contact Management & Directories

• FriendOrFollow.com: This is a powerful tool for seeing 1) which of the people you follow are following you back and 2) which people are following you, but you have yet to reciprocate.

• Twitoria: You may have a lot of followers, but how many of those are active? This simple application allows you to see which of your followers are active on Twitter over the last week, two weeks, month, two months, etc.

• WeFollow.com: It is a user-powered Twitter directory. Simply enter the tags you want to be known for (e.g. #socialmedia, #marketing, #measurement, etc.) and you’re finished.

• Twellow: This tool bills itself as the Twitter Yellow Pages. You can search for users by a wide range of categories. You can also add yourself to a group so people can find you.

• Just Tweet It: Another directory service that notifies you of new additions to people in your particular industry.

Tracking & Metrics

• TwitterCounter: This sleek tool lets you chart the number of followers over time, from last week to last month.

• Bit.ly: This incredibly useful tool not only shortens your URL but enables you to track metrics on how many people click on your links. This provides insight into what types of links resonate with your client base. Retailers, such as Dell, use bit.ly to track click-through rates.

• Twitalyzer: A new tool from the folks at Web Analytics Demystified, Twitalyzer goes beyond basic metrics to show the influence, signal-to-noise ratio, generosity and a whole host of other metrics related to your Twitter account. Take one trip through Twitalyzer, and you’ll have a clear idea of where you need to focus to make your Twitter use more effective.

• Google Analytics: To measure the number of people visiting your website from the Twitter.com domain, try Google Analytics.

• Omniture: This enterprise Web analytics package recently added Twitter integration, enabling clients to view brand comments over time, influencers vs. detractors, and a host of other metrics.

Monitoring & Alert Services

• Search.Twitter.com: Though there are several options for monitoring what people are saying about your brand on Twitter, this one might be the easiest. And it’s free. Use this service to set up RSS feeds related to the words you care about. (Please note: It does have limitations, such as how far back in time you can go.)

• TweetBeep.com: This service is like Google Alerts for Twitter. Enter your keywords
(e.g. company name, product, competitors, etc.) and receive regular updates whenever someone mentions those words in social media.

• Monitter: This new service provides a live streaming view of what people in your location are saying about your company or employees.

• Radian6 and Techrigy: These two enterprise-class monitoring tools help a company listen to conversations happening throughout the social media universe, not just Twitter. The tools are loaded with additional powerful functionality for managing your brand.

Marketing Tools

• TwtQpon: Use TwtQpon to create exclusive deals for your products or services, and share them with your followers.

• TwitterHawk: A novel marketing application, TwitterHawk connects you with people actively talking about your product or service within your area. For example, if you own a sandwich shop and someone in town tweets about getting a sandwich, you can automatically send them a customized response. The service costs five cent per tweet.

• TwitBacks.com and TwitterGallery.com: Want more than the design options that Twitter provides? Use either of these services to improve the look and feel of your Twitter page. TwitBacks.com allows you to provide additional business contact information, and a photo or logo as well.

So there you have it, so have at it. And don't forget to thank marketingprofs by signing up and getting access to all the great stuff available on their site. And by the way, I'm just a big fan - they're not endorsing my admiration.

Tweet us @atomicideas

Happy holidays!