When it comes to social media, I’m a big fan of Twitter. It’s quick, allows me to connect with other Tweeps, catch up on events, follow trending topics, and experience news as it happens. All in one neat little social media platform.
As good as Twitter is, it’s even better paired with other applications. Today, I’d like to share a few I’ve found particularly helpful.
One of the things I like best about Twitter is the ability to create lists. As an example, I have a Twitter list for my writer friends (that’s you guys) one for cryptozoology, another for family (not too many of them on Twitter) and another for celebrities and best-selling authors (i.e, Lana Parrilla, Jennifer McMahon, Jackson Galaxy, Australia Zoo). These are just a few my lists. I have a dozen of them and with all of those lists, things can get a little cumbersome.
That’s where Hootsuite comes in.
Hootsuite
Hootsuite is a free platform that complements Twitter and other forms of social media. There are pay plans, but I haven’t needed to go that route, and I’ve been using Hootsuite for three years. I like that I can turn my Twitter lists into “streams” within Hootsuite.
When I open my Hootsuite dashboard, all of my Twitter lists appear in one place. In addition to the lists I mentioned above, I also have streams for anytime someone @mentions me, and a stream for scheduled messages. Whenever I promote another author or guest blogger on my site, I schedule several tweets throughout the day connecting to their post, and Hootsuite sends them at the appropriate time.
I’ve also got Hootsuite set up to stream my Facebook page and my Facebook author page so I can view both FB and Twitter in one place. It also supports Google+ and Instagram.
Pretty cool, huh? There’s even more…
Hootsuite has a built-in URL link shortener called Ow.ly which is extremely handy. So now instead of https://maeclair.net/2016/01/04/cover-reveal-a-thousand-yesteryears-by-mae-clair/ I get http://ow.ly/Xmr4L This directs users to the same post and is a lot handier when sticking to Twitter’s 140 character count.
You can also set up streams within Hootsuite to grab Tweets related to a specific hashtag. I have one set for #Mothman. Any time someone uses that hashtag in a Tweet, Hootsuite grabs it for me. Why would I care about those Tweets? Because I’m writing a series that prominently features Point Pleasant’s notorious cryptid. Whenever Mothy gets a mention, I want to know what’s being discussed. I might also want to follow the Tweeps doing the Tweeting. If they’re interested in the Mothman, they might be potential readers for my series.
I positively LOVE Hootsuite! You can learn more about it and create your own free account at https://hootsuite.com/
ManageFlitter
This is another freebie and it’s great for managing your followers. When you sign in with Twitter it gives you a list of how many people you’re following who are NOT following you back. Phhf! The nerve! 🙂
ManageFlitter makes it easy to prune your account and eliminate those followers. I follow a number of people who don’t follow me back, but most of them fall into the celebrity/news/bestselling author/specific interest category.
Generally, when I follow someone, I wait a week, then check ManageFlitter. If they haven’t followed me back, I click the unfollow button. ManageFlitter also lets me see which of my followers aren’t “talkative.” So, if I’m following someone and they haven’t made a single Tweet in eight months, I unfollow them. This keeps my Twitter account pruned to Tweeps who are active. Finally, ManageFlitter will also tell me if I’ve picked up any spam accounts so I can unfollow them, too.
Get your free ManageFlitter account at https://manageflitter.com/
Crowdfire
I’ve only recently started using Crowdfire and really like it. It’s also free and does everything ManageFlitter does, with some additional bells and whistles. The layout is a bit better, plus it has the added benefit of showing you who RECENTLY unfollowed and followed you, so you’re viewing less Tweeps at a time.
It has a handy “copy followers” feature, which allows you to import another user’s followers and see who you might want to follow (think target auidences for your genre). You can also pop a hashtag or keywords into Crowdfire (i.e, #Mothman, Jennifer McMahon) and it will kick back a list of relevant Tweeps. These are all people you might want to follow.
This link will tell you about Crowdfire and let you set up a free account https://www.crowdfireapp.com/about-us
Triberr
I didn’t expect this post to be this long, but this is the last one. I promise!
Triberr is a platform where bloggers with like interests have banded together to form “tribes.” Tribe members support each other by sharing other members’ posts with their Twitter followers. This expands the reach of each Tweet.
As an example, I have 4732 followers on Twitter, but I belong to three tribes. One tribe has a combined follower count of 77,746, another has 54,170 followers, and the last 43,310. As a result, any blog post I make has the potential of being Tweeted to 105,226 followers. I say “potential” because not everyone will share every post, and not everyone is active all the time. If nothing else, I’ve built a lot of great relationships through Triberr. You can find out about it here http://triberr.com/
Triberr is free, but you have to be invited to join a tribe (at least that was the case when I joined three years ago). Suggestion: If you find a tribe you like, become a “follower” and comment on the tribe’s posts. I’ve heard that’s a good way to get invited in.
I hope each of you find something of value in at least one of these tools. They’ve all been of great use to me, and I highly recommend them. If you have other tools that work well with Twitter or social media in general, I’d love for you to comment about them!
From the Pen of Mae Clair 
I will definitely check these out. Thanks for sharing.
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Hi, Christina. Great to have you drop by! *waving*
I love Twitter and these tools really help make it the best it can be. I hope you find one that you like.
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I swear by BufferApp and TweetDeck. It’s nice to see what some of these other apps do. Thanks for sharing.
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I’m going go have to check into BufferApp. I’m not familiar with that one. I have heard that TweetDeck is awesome, too. Thanks for sharing, Staci.
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I have all of these, except ManageFilter, but it sounds like Crowdfire does the same thing. But even though I’ve had Hootsuite for about a year, I’ve never used it. Crazy, right? I really need to set it up. Thanks for the reminder. In Triberr, you can request to become a member (there’s a button for it once you become a follower). I belong to way too many tribes (l2), but rather than go every day I go once a week and share everything I missed. If anyone intends to go this route, I suggest making it clear when you join. I also use Roundteam, which I love because it keeps my account active while I’m away from Twitter. Then when check in, I go over what Roundteam RT’d for me, and I comment or like. I don’t want my account totally automated, so I only use it for two lists and three hashtags, but it’s been wonderful for the days when SM must take a backseat to writing. And it’s free!
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Sue, you’ll love Hootsuite. It’s definitely worth taking the time to set it up.
And I don’t know how you manage 12 tribes!! At one time I belonged to 6, but I couldn’t keep up with them and had to cut back. I should probably check out some new tribes that are more in line with mystery and suspense. Thanks for sharing tips on how to join!
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I too love Crowdfire, Hootsuite, and Triberr. I haven’t used the other one. You’re right about twitter being so much more effective with these complementary apps.
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I think they really help you manage things better. I’ve just recently discovered Crowdfire. I’m always on the lookout for new apps to help make social media time more efficient 🙂
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I’ve downloaded Hootsuite a couple of times and failed to use it. It sounds like an afternoon setting it up might be time well spent.
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Hootsuite is my go-to favorite. It’s definitely worth the investment of time, and it’s easy to grasp. If you can fit that afternoon in somewhere, I say go for it! 🙂
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I’ve heard of Hootsuite and it’s something I’ll definitely look into if I go back to Twitter properly. I was a Twitter addict a couple of years ago but not so much now. I do use lists though, very handy when faced with an overloaded timeline.
I remember using Triberr a few years back but ended up feeling under pressure to get tweets out for everyone every day so I left that.
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Triberr can put pressure on you, especially if you’re in a tribe where you’re expected to share EVERY post. I dropped out of three tribes (and kept 3) because managing them all was just too much.
If you do become a Twitter addict again 😀 I think you’ll love Hootsuite, Emma!
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I love HootSuite, but don’t use all the bells and whistles–I’ll definitely change that and will be investigating the other apps this weekend. I also use Chrome. It has an extension or add-on called Hootlet–you can tweet items of interest from any web page. I’m a member of a tribe, but don’t support it much–will have to do better. Thanks for sharing, Mae.
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Thanks for sharing as well, Alicia. I forgot about Hootlet on Chrome. I use that, too, and it’s a wonderful extension. Thanks for mentioning it, and for popping in! 🙂
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It’s really terrific when someone else has done the research and share what the like. Thanks Mae! I use Hootsuite, but haven’t tried the others. I’ll need to check them out.
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Crowdfire and ManageFlitter are great for keeping your follower/following lists healthy. And they’ve got a lot of other bells and whistles to recommend them, too. I think you’ll find either extremely helpful, Stanalei!
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Thanks! Awesome post.
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Hi, Judith! Thanks so much. I’m glad you found it helpful!
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Thanks, bud. I just tried the Manage Flitter. I like it! You are so much farther techno-ly evolved than I am. sigh.
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Ooo, so glad you checked out ManageFlitter. I found out about it when I hit the 2K mark on followers and couldn’t go any further. I had 600 people I was following who weren’t following me back and I gradually purged them from my account over the next week. It really made a difference.
So glad I could help!
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Great post, Mae! I use Hootsuite–it’s great for Twitter pitch parties. I can schedule pitches, and keep an eye on the feed. Triberr sounds interesting. I’ve heard of Crowdfire; I’ll have to check it out.
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I’ve never been to a Twitter pitch party but I can see how Hootsuite would make it easy to manage. I’m going to have to try it sometime!
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Great info! I haven’t had as much Twitter time lately, which makes me very sad. I don’t think you and I are on there at the same time anymore! I’m kind of Twitter bingeing today, going over there during “writing breaks”. Maybe we’ll bump into each other. 🙂
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We do seem to miss each other these days. I used to be able to hop on in the morning a lot, but not so much any more. Right now we’re trying to survive the snow and hoping we don’t lose power. It’s going to take days to dig out of this one, even with a snow blower. Hope you aren’t getting hit as bad!
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I’ll definitely look into these apps you speak about here, Mae. I’m just a bit busy with a tour but I bookmarked your post. Thanks for5 sharing!
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HI, Carmen! I didn’t know you were doing a tour. I eed to find it and follow along. Hope it’s a successful one for you!
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This is really useful Mae, and after I’ve read it another three times I hope I will be able to understand twitter a little better. It isn’t you, it’s my lack of intellectual capacity that’s at fault. That, and having an apple dropped on my head when I was very young. They said it was an omen,,,,
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Fred, I think you do just fine with Twitter, but these tools might help if you want to dig in a little deeper. And trust me….even with that apple issue, you’ll do just fine 🙂 Thanks for checking out the post!
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Loved it!
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ManageFlitter.com and CrowdFire.com are very good i’ve used them extensivly in the past, however a new one that just popped up is SwiftSocial.com, seems to combine all the tools of the other two with a nicer UI.
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Hi, Jake. Thanks for popping in and sharing. I’m not familiar with SwiftSocial but it sounds like a great tool. I will definitely check it out!
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