Twitter has made it official: the old design has been upgraded to the new and improved Twitter interface along with an additional option to upload an image and location. Even though this change was forced upon users they have been giving us nearly a year to get used to the new Twitter and this has made the change much smoother. Personally I love the look of the new Twitter as it’s quicker and gives us better options to manage the conversations, the image upload option is also great.
The growth of Twitter from a small micro-blogging site to one of the most sought after social media tools has been quite explosive and has prompted internet marketers and brands to look for new ways to manage their Twitter accounts. After the release of the Twitter API tons of third-party applications are being developed at lightning pace; here are the list of the best Twitter applications to manage your Twitter account:
Formulists
Formulists helps users to manage your Twitter account into smart and effective Twitter lists. The lists generated using Formulists can be deleted or edited anytime as and (when the user wants it to) it self-updates without needing to sign in to the application.
Formulists provides a group of options to organize the network, expand your network, track followers, and strengthen social ties or to track competitors. These lists are designed to help you organize your timeline and to track the changes in your network. I found this application to be one of the best tools for managing Twitter because of its sheer simplicity and user friendliness.
Twylah
Similar to how Facebook has developed fan pages (which have become an important element of a successful social campaign) Twylah creates a fan page (of sorts) out of your Twitter feed. Twyla is still in its beta phase and you will require an invite. It has a lot of potential that promises to benefit the user experience and make your tweets have more staying power.
Twylah turns your “Tweets” into a customizable landing page and there’s also an option for your readers to “follow you on Twitter” along with different categories that you tweet about. Take a look at the Twyla landing page created for Red Bull (pictured left):
They have added another feature which is called a “power tweet” where one of your “tweets” will create its own attractive landing page. The power tweet option can retain the attention span of a user for 4 to 5 minutes. The power tweet has been dubbed as “Twitter on steroids” and is said to increase engagement levels by nearly 300%.
Twylah is currently in beta, to request an invite go to Twylah.com
Nutshell Mail
Nutshell mail is a very cool application that can help you track reports on hashtags, search terms, mentions, etc. The application takes a copy of your latest tweets and updates and places them in a “snapshot email” which is then sent to you on a user-determined schedule. Nutshell Mail helps you to track your brand’s social media activity and supports almost all your social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
Klout
Klout helps you keep a track of influencers and can be used mostly as a social media measurement tool. The past couple of years has seen a rise in people looking for standards to measure their social activity and Klout has addressed this need.
Apart from tracking Twitter influencers Klout helps you to link to Facebook and LinkedIn and it also provides a handy dashboard of social activity stats. Klout has recently added YouTube integration which further cements their firm grasp on the social measurement space.
Polly.IM
Polly.IM helps to keep in touch with customers through Twitter and to respond to mentions about your business/brand to better manage customer relationships. This application can be used to track mentions and it can auto thank people for checking in, welcome new followers with a custom direct message and can also respond to a positive or negative comment.
There are a plethora of Twitter applications that are available to enhance your social media marketing efforts and to spice up your tweets. The applications mentioned in this blog are the five that I believe are the most effective, now it’s over to you: what are the top applications you’ve been using for your Twitter marketing efforts?