My Favorite Twitter Tools by Mae Clair

/ Mae Clair

Twitter LogoHi, everyone….Mae here again. I hope you don’t mind me popping in to share.

When it comes to social media, I’m a big fan of Twitter. It’s quick, allows me to connect with other Tweeps, catch up on events, follow trending topics, and experience news as it happens. All in one neat little social media platform.

As good as Twitter is, it’s even better paired with other applications. Today, I’d like to share a few I’ve found particularly helpful. I know many of these are commonly used, but hopefully, I’ll hit on something of use to someone out there 🙂

One of the things I like best about Twitter is the ability to create lists. As an example, I have a Twitter list for my writer friends, one for cryptozoology  (a favorite topic of mine), another for family (not too many of them on Twitter) and another for celebrities and best-selling authors (i.e, Lana Parrilla, Jennifer McMahon, Jackson Galaxy, Australia Zoo). These are just a few my lists. I have a dozen of them and with all of those lists, things can get a little cumbersome.

That’s where Hootsuite comes in.

Hootsuite
Hootsuite LogoHootsuite is a free platform that complements Twitter and other forms of social media. There are pay plans, but I haven’t needed to go that route, and I’ve been using Hootsuite for three years. I like that I can turn my Twitter lists into “streams” within Hootsuite.

When I open my Hootsuite dashboard, all of my Twitter lists appear in one place. In addition to the lists I mentioned above, I also have streams for anytime someone @mentions me, and a stream for scheduled messages. Whenever I promote another author or guest blogger on my site, I schedule several tweets throughout the day connecting to their post, and Hootsuite sends them at the appropriate time.

I’ve also got Hootsuite set up to stream my Facebook page and my Facebook author page so I can view both FB and Twitter in one place. It also supports Google+ and Instagram.

Pretty cool, huh? There’s even more…

Hootsuite has a built-in URL link shortener called Ow.ly which is extremely handy. So now instead of http://maeclair.net/2016/01/04/cover-reveal-a-thousand-yesteryears-by-mae-clair/ I get http://ow.ly/Xmr4L This directs users to the same post and is a lot handier when sticking to Twitter’s 140 character count.

Statue of the Mothman in Point Pleasant, West VirginiaYou can also set up streams within Hootsuite to grab Tweets related to a specific hashtag. I have one set for #Mothman. Any time someone uses that hashtag in a Tweet, Hootsuite grabs it for me. Why would I care about those Tweets? Because I’m writing a series that prominently features Point Pleasant’s notorious cryptid. Whenever Mothy gets a mention, I want to know what’s being discussed. I might also want to follow the Tweeps doing the Tweeting. If they’re interested in the Mothman, they might be potential readers for my series.

I positively LOVE Hootsuite! You can learn more about it and create your own free account at https://hootsuite.com/

ManageFlitter
This is another freebie and it’s great for managing your followers. When you sign in with Twitter it gives you a list of how many people you’re following who are NOT following you back. Phhf! The nerve! 🙂

ManageFlitter makes it easy to prune your account and eliminate those followers. I follow a number of people who don’t follow me back, but most of them fall into the celebrity/news/bestselling author/specific interest category.

Generally, when I follow someone, I wait a week, then check ManageFlitter. If they haven’t followed me back, I click the unfollow button. ManageFlitter also lets me see which of my followers aren’t “talkative.” So, if I’m following someone and they haven’t made a single Tweet in say…five months, I unfollow them. This keeps my Twitter account pruned to Tweeps who are active. Finally, ManageFlitter will also tell me if I’ve picked up any spam accounts so I can unfollow them, too.

Get your free ManageFlitter account at https://manageflitter.com/

Crowdfire
I’ve only been using Crowdfire for a short time, but I love it. It’s also free and does everything ManageFlitter does, with some additional bells and whistles. The layout is a bit better, plus it has the added benefit of showing you who RECENTLY unfollowed and followed you, so you’re viewing less Tweeps at a time.

It has a handy “copy followers” feature, which allows you to import another user’s followers and see who you might want to follow (think target auidences for your genre). You can also pop a hashtag or keywords into Crowdfire (i.e, #Mothman, Jennifer McMahon) and it will kick back a list of relevant Tweeps. These are all people you might want to follow.

This link will tell you about Crowdfire and let you set up a free account https://www.crowdfireapp.com/about-us

Triberr
I didn’t expect this post to be this long, but this is the last one. I promise!

Triberr is a platform where bloggers with like interests have banded together to form “tribes.” Tribe members support each other by sharing other members’ posts with their Twitter followers. This expands the reach of each Tweet.

As an example, I have 5831 followers on Twitter, but I belong to three tribes. One tribe has a combined follower count of 77,746, another has 54,170 followers, and the last  43,310. As a result, any blog post I make has the potential of being Tweeted to 105,226 followers. I say “potential” because not everyone will share every post, and not everyone is active all the time. If nothing else, I’ve built a lot of great relationships through Triberr.  You can find out about it here http://triberr.com/

Triberr is free, but you have to be invited to join a tribe (at least that was the case when I joined three years ago). Suggestion: If you find a tribe you like, become a “follower” and comment on the tribe’s posts. I’ve heard that’s a good way to get invited in.

I hope each of you find something of value in at least one of these tools. They’ve all been of great use to me, and I highly recommend them. If you have other tools that work well with Twitter or social media in general, I’d love for you to comment about them!

~ooOOoo~

Close up photo of author Mae Clair, who is wearing black fedora hat and hold penMae Clair has been chasing myth, monsters and folklore through research and reading since she was a child. In 2013 and 2015, she journeyed to West Virginia to learn more about the legendary Mothman, a creature who factors into her latest release.

Mae pens tales of mystery and suspense with a touch of romance. Married to her high school sweetheart, she lives in Pennsylvania and numbers cats, history and exploring old graveyards among her passions.  Look for Mae on her website at MaeClair.net

29 thoughts on “My Favorite Twitter Tools by Mae Clair”

  1. Absolutely GREAT post, Mae! I slowed down on Twitter in the last year, but I’m planning to revamp my approach and work it a good deal more, very soon. I do use Hootsuite to schedule a week’s worth of posts at a time (when I’m actively tweeting), but I’ve never availed myself of all the tricks you’ve mentioned. I’m going to check it all out, for sure. And I’m also making note of the other apps you’ve shared. Maybe if I put my mind to it, I can conquer that little BLUEBIRD, this time! 😀 Thanks so much for sharing this with us. (Man, I love this blog, and every ONE of you followers and contributors, too!!)

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    • Twitter is probably the form of social media I enjoy best, Marcia. It’s just so quick and easy, and that little bluebird always has the latest news and trending topics. And it sounds like you’ve already got a handle on Hootsuite. The hashtag alert can be a nice one to add and ManageFlitter and CrowdFire are great for sorting out who has unfollowed you or is not following.

      There’s also another tool I use off and on called RoundTeam. It allows to choose what you want to RT by Tweep or topic (you can even add filters) and then it automates everything. Personally, I don’t really care for that level of automatic but it do activate it now and then for a short time.

      Glad you found this post helpful!

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      • For me, blogging wins hands down over Twitter, because, as you may have guessed, restricting me to 140 characters is next to impossible! What can I say? I like to write! 😀 BUT, I do understand the value of Tweeting, and I’m going to try to get better about it. I’ve often seen my tweets being RT’d by RoundTeam, and that makes me not want to use it, myself. If I’m going to retweet, it’s going to be a tweet I read and wanted to share, rather than automated sharing. Hence, I don’t retweet as often as I should because I don’t have time. 😦 So I know why folks use RoundTeam, and it’s tempting, for sure. But I think maybe it’s not for me. Yet.

        The others apps you mention seem more like something I’d be comfortable with, so I’m really going to look closely at them. I need to do BETTER, before my personal Bluebird falls featherless to the ground from neglect! 😯

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        • LOL! I think your bluebird will do fine with a little tweaking…or is that tweeting 😀 I definitely love blogging more than Twitter, I just wish I could do it more. So I guess I need to step up to blogging more while you work on the bluebird. Between us, hopefully, we’ll both score successes!

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  3. Absolutely great, useful post! Thank you so much!
    If I and facebook are 2 parallel lines, Twitter is a tool I use daily. But I admit there are a few things you presented here that I wasn’t familiar with. Especially that one of knowing who doesn’t follow back. I must study the links thoroughly.
    Have great sales, Mae! One of your fans.

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  4. Hi, Carmen *waving* Always great to have you comment on a post! 🙂
    Definitely check out ManageFlitter or Crowdfire. Both are super easy to use and they both do a great job of showing you who has unfollowed you and/or who isn’t following you back. There’s also other nice things built in, but that’s mainly what I use them for. I’ve really just been sticking with using Crowdfire lately and it’s exceptional!

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  5. Like most social media sites, Twitter is time-consuming. However, with Lists, Hootsuite, ManageFlitter and/or CrowdFire, users can get Twitter to work more efficiently for them. When I have the time, I’d like to try your suggestions, Mae. I’m sure that other authors would, too! Pinned & shared. 🙂

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    • Hi, Linda Lee. Many thanks for the share! I definitely agree with you that using apps and lists in conjunction with Twitter makes it much easier to handle and far less time-consuming. I hope some of the programs I mentioned are helpful. They’ve made a huge difference for me! 🙂

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    • Hi, Kassandra! I have a number of friends who use Tweetdeck and I think it’s probably very similar in nature to Hootsuite, so you’re probably already getting all those benefits. The other programs I mentioned are really basic….create a free account (email and password) then the programs connect your Twitter account and show you who isn’t following you back. I check CrowdFire every week or so and prune my following accordingly 🙂

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