How to Use 5 Twitter Tools to Turn You into a Power Tweeter

New to Twitter? Twitter is a microblog that makes it easy to keep in touch. Twitter tools make Twitter work even better for you. These tools make it easy to get the most out of your Twitter experience.

Things You'll Need

• A Twitter account

Instructions

1. Tweader. The more followers you get and the more conversations you have, the harder it can be to figure out who is replying to which of your comments. That's where Tweader repeatedly comes in handy. Just type in the URL number of your tweet and it will show you the whole thread of conversation connected to that Tweet.

2. Tweetdeck. Tweetdeck is the way to always catch what the people you follow are saying. It allows you to track several groups based on communities you set, and watch for your replies there too. It even catches some of the @replies that Twitter doesn't see. Especially when your name is mentioned in a list of several @s.

3. Budurl and Tweetburner. Ever wonder if anyone is really listening to you? Shorten your links with either of these tools and you can track how many people opened them. Budurl is great because it will show you how many people are opening your links in real time. Tweetburner is a good tool because you can see what the hottest links of the moment are on it, as well. Using these tools, you'll get better at writing headlines that pull traffic to your links because you can see how well you're doing.

4. TweetGrid and Search.Twitter. Ever wonder what everyone is saying about a specific topic at the moment? These cool search sites will do the trick. Search.Twitter, formerly Summize, is the Twitter engine behind Election2008. TweetGrid allows you to track multiple topics in one window. You can use these tools to find people when Twiiter's people search is down or see who is responding to a particular topic or question posed by a rockstar Tweeter.

5. TweetBeep. This takes the information you can find in TweetGrid and Search.Twitter and wraps it all up in a nice little email that you can get hourly or daily. Very handy for keeping up with topics, products and companies you are following.

Tips & Warnings

• In case that's not enough for you. Here are a few extra tools...

• TweatLater: I've never used this product so I can't attest to its functionality. But it's purported to tweet messages you schedule in advance. Helpful if you are wanting to broadcast a planned message series or announcement.

• SnagIt: Be sure to make your own profile on your twitter home page. Don't have a fancy graphics program? No worries. You can assemble your content on Word, then use SnagIt to make the jpg. SnagIt is an amazingly inexpensive tool, considering how powerful it is. You won't know how you lived without it.

• Qwitter: Want to find out when people stop following you? Qwitter emails you when people drop you. Not for the person with easily hurt feelings, however!

• Pingfm : Use it to broadcast your Tweets across all your social media with one click.

References

• Site sketch 101; 5 Tools to Power Up Your Twitter Influence; Nicholas Cardot