The Next Level with Twitter: The Tools You Need

There is a lot of activity in social media these days and Twitter is one of the fastest growing communities (Alexa.com indicates a 127% growth in reach over the past 3 months).  In addition, a recent report by the Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research indicates that nonprofits are outpacing fortune 500 companies in the use of social media as part of their operations.

However, having a Twitter account and being able to use it effectively to accomplish the mission of your organization are different things all together.  Here are a few tips and tools that can help your organization get from simply present into top Twitter form.

Teaching a Man (or Woman for that matter) to Fish

We all know that technology and the tools are changing almost daily.  So rather than just point out some tools and leave it at that it is important to know where to go to stay ahead of current trends, tools and information.  A great one- stop place for constantly updating information on all things Twitter is the Twitter Guide Book by Mashable.

Using a Suite of Tools

If you are serious about using Twitter as part of your social media and online communication strategies, you will probably find that you need a suite of tools to accomplish everything.  Here are a few of the tools I have found useful.

General Monitoring and Managing

TweetDeck
This is a great desktop application that allows you to monitor a range of activities for your accounts (updates from those you follow, direct messages, mentions, monitor a search, etc) all at the same time.

Click here for a comparison of 19 desktop apps.

URL Shortening Service

If you have used Twitter at all, you know how important it is to be able to shorten the URL of your links.  Is also important that you are able to track how many clicks your link got.  I have found that bit.ly is simple and give easy to see results on clicks.  There are many tools out there so review the options and pick one that meets your needs.

Multiple Accounts & Schedule Posts

One of the tricks with Twitter is that you don't always have time throughout your day to be on and active with posts.  Being able to schedule tweets to post throughout the day can be a great way to keep your presence active without having to give up everything else you have to do in your busy schedule.

Hootsuite
A great tool that allows you to not only schedule post but also easily manage and post to multiple accounts.  It also has a URL shortening service built right in that can give great click tracking.

See a list of 25 apps that can help you manage multiple accounts

What other resources would you share?  What's your favorite tool?

You can get more tools, tips and resource like this by following us on twitter at @TACS_NPower