Twitter recently announced that they will no longer be counting media attachments (like photos, GIFs, videos, etc.) and Twitter handles/usernames in replies against the 140-character limit. This signals a noteworthy change for the social media platform, which had previously based its identity around unblinking adherence to limitations that defined its conversations. Those limits – the 140 character limit being the most noteworthy – force people to converse along a common format, making ideas flow and bounce off of one another more quickly. As user growth has been stagnating, though, returning CEO Jack Dorsey has been forced to rethink that strategy.
Part of that rethinking process will also likely involve third party Twitter apps. Third party applications are software tools developed outside of Twitter’s official domain but that still access its data. While these tools can enhance the experience of a given platform’s users, they can also dip into the revenues that some of the finance-oriented executives at large social media companies would prefer to stay wholly in-house. Each social media company has their own way of approaching that predicament, but Twitter – at least for now – appears to be adopting a policy of openness. The restrictions on developers outside of Twitter HQ using their API to create tools that benefit the experience of all users have been loosened to a large extent. Here are a few of the most useful tools that have hit the market in the wake of that strategy shift.
Buffer
Perfecting the timing of tweeting can be extremely difficult. When a major event occurs and you want your brand to be a part of the conversation, it’s fairly simple: you’ll want your tweets to go out as close in proximity to the event as possible. But what about all the other times you should or shouldn’t be tweeting? Constructing a consistent and reliable tweeting schedule is important for your brand message to stay top-of-mind for your audience, and wavering from that strategy at any point can lead to a loss of followers. At the same time, though, you can’t be expected to constantly interrupt your day to go back to tweeting – you’d never be productive and would spend far too much time harried by the frustration of doing too much at once.
Apps like Buffer are perfect for this little predicament.
Buffer allows you to group, categorize, and (most importantly) schedule your tweets as far in advance as you’d like. This way, you can devote one chunk of time to compiling the content worth tweeting (both original and outsourced via retweet) and then go about the rest of your day as you would otherwise, while Buffer takes care of the actual posting. Also, Buffer has a great Chrome extension that allows you to schedule posts seamlessly as you surf the web.
Buffer also offers a great way to access some rudimentary analytics directly within their interface. The weekly social insights report is a great way to stay updated on your social performance without having to do very much digging or tabulating. One metric we look at consistently is the top 10 posts in the past 30 days. These give us a good sense of what our audience might want to see more of. Then Buffer gives you the option to re-Buffer for more potential engagement. Finally, this page can provide 7, 30, and 90-day social analysis. This can be even further customized with available tallies of Likes, Retweets, Mentions, Clicks, Reach, Followers, and New Followers.
All in all, Buffer is a great way to organize your tweeting schedule, allowing for consistent branding and improved productivity.
TweetDeck
Twitter’s native desktop interface is designed with individual users in mind. Tweets cascade downwards in a singular, vertical column that takes up the majority of the screen. Within the menu bar at the top of the screen there are buttons for accessing direct messages, notifications, the search bar, and the newly instituted Moments function. For many users, this interface works perfectly: presenting them with only the tweets from the people they’ve personally chosen to follow (and tweets from other accounts that are retweeted) in an easy-to-read, (mostly) chronological format.
What about the more committed Twitter user, though? People who use Twitter as an important part of their marketing strategy – or even just rely on it to stay educated in their field – may want to reorganize that basic interface with more flexibility than what standalone Twitter offers.
TweetDeck is the perfect tool to accomplish this. Though it was acquired by Twitter in 2011 (thus making it not technically third party anymore), its uniqueness and usefulness warrant its inclusion in this post. This tool has the ability to create columns of tweets that stand next to each other across the interface. Users can scroll horizontally across the screen to move back and forth amongst the different columns that they have created. The columns themselves can be based on the following attributes:
Notifications – These are your standard updates from Twitter, letting you know when your tweets have been favorited, retweeted, or when you’ve acquired a new follower.
Messages – These are the private, direct messages that you can exchange with other Twitter users that follow you.
Mentions –These are tweets that include your @handle somewhere in them. They aren’t all meant to be tweeted “at” you directly, but the fact that you’re handle is mentioned means they often warrant a response.
Activity – Similar to a Facebook timeline, whereby a user is privy to the actions of other users other than actual tweets, such as liking other tweets, following other users, etc.
User/List – This enables you to set up columns so you can see the equivalent of someone’s Twitter profile – all of their tweets and those from others that they’ve retweeted – without having to leave your main interface like you would on the basic app. Also, you can create a column that contains tweets from a specific list of multiple users.
Hashtag – As it sounds, this allows you to pull up all tweets that contain a specific hashtag using the Search column type.
Trending Topic – This column type is great for keeping up on news events as they happen in real time. While the dust is still settling, hashtags haven’t necessarily been pinned down, so it’s good to be able to group tweets based on general topic.
Collection – These columns contain a collection of tweets that you curate at your own discretion (great for marketers who want to create a bank of tweets that apply to a general topic that you’d like to address, but aren’t easily linked by hashtag or wording.)
Crowdfire
As far as Twitter analytics go, it can be hard to find one tool that gives you all of the information you need. Certain tools are great for seeing things from a big picture perspective, while others are great for bringing analytics down to a more minute level. Crowdfire can be considered squarely in the latter category. Its main benefit is allowing you to attribute increases and decreases in followers to specific posts. So if you notice your follower count has dropped below what you’d become accustomed to, you’ll be able to look for (admittedly unscientific) correlations between types of tweets and followers lost.
Now, if the first thing that this functionality brings to mind is a diabolical plan to bring all those former followers into the light to exact revenge on… we can’t really blame you. It hurts. But, we’d suggest that you focus on the positive things that a function like this can do for your brand, instead! When you’re able to see when someone unfollows you, you can gain a better understanding of why they did so. Patterns will start to emerge around topics and hashtags that aren’t sitting well with your followers. Use that to your advantage by removing those negativity-creating strategies from your arsenal.
Lastly, Crowdfire is also a great way to manage and curate the list of users that you follow. It offers tools like the Keyword Follow to find users that are interested in the same things you are. Another feature, Copy Followers, allows you to make wholesale additions to who you follow based on who other users follow. This is great for making a name for yourself among the followers of your competitors. While Twitter has a ‘Suggested Users’ feature on its native interface, it will only include two at any given time and cannot be personalized and controlled in the way that Crowdfire’s algorithm allows.
Twitter Counter
Finally, there’s Twitter Counter. Twitter Counter is similar to CrowdFire in that it can give you detailed information about the fluctuations in your follower count, but there are other features that distinguish it as well.
As you can see, Twitter Counter’s interface gives the user an immediate, visual understanding of his/her Twitter growth. Follower and Following counts are tracked in different colors so you know how quickly you’ve been spreading the love, and how quickly you’ve been receiving it. It’s also great at presenting metrics in a way that’s actionable: giving insights into specific tweets that caused upticks or drop-offs.
Finally, Twitter Counter deserves an inclusion here for the little things. They do a good job of finding creative, fun ways to help you understand and improve your audience: worldwide rankings, profile “Health Checkups” (as seen below), and competition comparison reports provide some of the best examples of this.
Pro Tip: All of the tools mentioned here feature paid plans as well – with even more exhaustive tools and metrics – that are worth looking into. But there’s plenty of insight and fun to be had with the free versions.
It’s no secret that Twitter is an important tool for spreading your brand’s message. Its popularity skyrocketed so quickly after its debut (despite consistent server issues for much of the platform’s early history) in large part due to its ability to facilitate conversations between brands and consumers. Over time, that ability has been supplemented by developers outside of Twitter HQ who have their own ideas about how tweets and hashtags can be best organized, curated, exchanged, and responded to. The tools these developers have created benefit Twitter and all of its users and will continue to for as long as they are being made.
