Top 6 Tools to Streamline Your Twitter Usage

The name sounds like what a bird’s wings do which is appropriate for Twitter. It is a micro-blogging website that has grown by leaps and bounds. Everyone who is anyone is now using Twitter. If you are interested in using it yourself, here are five tools that will help you make the most of your experience.

Twitter users can send short messages up to 140 characters that can be sent to anyone in any location. It’s just like text messaging only on your PC or MAC. Now that twitter has taken flight there are dozens of tools available in the Internet to help manage your tweets (the messages that you send and receive.)

1. TweetDeck – This application works on your PC desktop. It is a way for you to manage your Twitter account without having to visit the site each time. You can create groups for friends, business associates or anyone else you like with this application. Best of all, TweetDeck works in the background and also can be used offline at your leisure. Some cool things about TweetDeck to point out include:

• The ability to post your Facebook status and keep up with your friends within your TweetDeck window.

• You can group certain users together in one window so you don’t miss any tweets from them.

• You have a separate window for your @ replies, direct messages and your main stream.

• No need to refresh the page as it updates automatically for you and you can change the amount of time in between updates.

2. Twhirl – This handy feature works on the PC desktop as well. Instead of spending most of your day checking and rechecking your accounts, this handy tool notifies you when you have new messages. Also, it shrinks long URLs to more manageable shorter ones for anyone who wants to click on a link in your tweets. You can search tweets for interesting new subjects and there is a spell checker so you don’t send out illegible tweets.

3. Seesmic Desktop – With Seesmic, you can group your social contacts into lists like family, co-workers and best friends, easily and quickly share links, pictures and video with your friends and get live updates from your friends on Twitter and Facebook. Seesmic Desktop is a great tool if you have more than one Twitter account. With Seemic, you have the ability to monitor and tweet from numerous accounts, without having to go to the Twitter website to monitor each account.

4. TweetLater – Just like the name says it allows you to schedule your Twitter messages much like an email system. If you are using Twitter for business, it is helpful to schedule tweet delivery, create draft tweets to be used at a later date, set up alerts such as notification when certain users send tweets and tracking users you want to follow.

5. TweeTake – It is always important to backup files that you might need later. Computers can crash at any time. With this tool, you can backup your Twitter information. Us it to backup files, documents and photos. You can save a copy of Twitter account information as well as your tweets and group lists just in case your computer decides to give up the ghost.

6. Twitterment – Well, Twitter has its own search engine as well. Use Twitterment to search for tweets using keywords or phrases. It’s also a buzz tracker to see what’s hot and what’s not in the Twitter universe.

Twitter has caught on in a big way. If you are an avid Twitter user, the above six tools will help you manage your Twitter accounts without tying up your entire day.