Twitter, like all technology and social media platforms, has changed drastically over the last couple of years.  While the technology and platforms have changed, the impact and value gained have only increased.  The problem is a great social strategy and philosophy will only get Twitter users so far.

The learning curve for new users on Twitter today is still drastically high, but for those that are finding value on Twitter or have had that “aha moment” the question I’m always asked is: “how do I scale, how do I engage more, how do I become a power user?”

Ok, I admit I’m a technology and tools geek, (see my post: “40+ Social Tools I use for Personal Branding Success”) but before I share with you my favorite tools, you must understand that there is no easy button and to find value and build relationships, it takes effort and lots of work,  just like it does offline.

Here are the 14 Apps, Tools, and Tactics that I use when engaging on Twitter!  For me, as I spoke about at my Ignite Talk “ Sharing Your Story in 140 Characters”, engagement on Twitter must go beyond an RT, Favorite, or 280 character tweet.  Embracing content and embedded posts such as custom graphics, audio clips, and video in combination with scheduling and social listening tools like Buffer and Hootsuite not only allows you to stand out from the crowd but allows you to create engagement and conversations.  My social media and personal branding philosophy is #ShowUcare, and if you embrace these tools and tactics you’ll be able to scale and have more time to focus on being human, telling your story, building relationships, and finding ways to #ShowUcare!

  1. TweetDeck – Active, Real-Time Dashboard that allows you to engage & share from multiple Twitter accounts.
  2. Buffer – Tweet Scheduling, RSS feed management, Content Suggestions, Engagement Analytics, Team Collaboration.
  3. Hootsuite – Social Media Management, RSS feed management, Social Listening Feeds, Team & Account Collaboration.
  4. Canva & Pablo by Buffer – Create custom graphics easily to share on Twitter.
  5. Periscope / Meerkat – New Live Stream Video Apps, Leverages Twitter Connections, Posts Live Stream Links to Twitter Feed.

6. Twitter Lists – Organize and filter your Twitter followers into organized feeds, subscribe, and follow other’s lists.

7. ManageFlitter – Manage your followers, clear inactive followers, compare your followers to others, find new people to follow.

8. Mention – Social Listening with alerts for each time your name, Twitter handle, or other words.

9. Twtrland – Dashboard view of your account, influencers accounts, and content being shared by your followers and followers of topics you follow

10. Twitter Video – 30-second video’s embedded into Twitter, take videos saying thank you or storytelling beyond 140 characters.

11. TweetBot or Twitter Mobile App – Leverage downtimes with mobile Twitter apps, customize notifications to understand when you’re mentioned so you can engage in real-time.

12. Topsy – Search Hashtags, Compare Hashtags, and Trends to better understand hashtags being used and which hashtags are best.

13. TweetChat – Sites dedicated to Twitter Chats, Allows users to follow only a specific chat hashtag to organize the conversation.  Read more on Twitter Chats here!

14. Meshfire – Twitter dashboard organized for team and campaign engagement, leverages artificial intelligence to give a unique view of Twitter conversations.

 

Originally titled “14 Apps, Tools and Tactics To Transform Your Twitter Engagement” and posted on Millennial CEO. Later reposted on Linkedin.  It is republished here with permission

Brian Fanzo in his own words: “I Talk Fast & Tweet Faster | Change Evangelist – Social Media Business Strategist | | Podcast: & Meerkat”