Darren Rowse
@problogger

5 Twitter Applications and Tools that Made Me a Better Twitter User in 2008

Which Twitter Applications have you valued the most in 2008?

Here’s a quick list of 5 that have enhanced my own use of Twitter this year and why:

1. TweetDeck

tweetdeck.pngTweetDeck has become my primary Desktop Twitter client over the last 6 months of the year and has quite literally changed the way that I Tweet on a number of levels.

One of the biggest impacts that it has had is in the way that it builds ‘groups’ into my twitter workflow. This has helped me immensely to manage the noise that is associated with following and being followed by thousands of people.

Groups enable you to select any number of Twitter users to follow in a special window. This means that if you miss their twees in the ‘all tweets’ timeline you are likely to see their tweets in the group you’ve set up.

Also powerful in TweetDeck is the ‘Search’ feature which enables you to track keywords and who is using them right from within your Twitter Client.

tweet-deck.jpg

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Darren Rowse
@problogger

What Twitter Tools and Services Do You Use?

Twitter-Tools
Over the last year there seems to have been a tool or service released for Twitter users every few days. There are:

  • Twitter desktop clients (I’m a fan of Twhirl and TweetDeck)
  • Twitter Applications for iPhone (I’m a user of Twittelator Pro)
  • Twitter user ranking services (like Twitterholic)
  • Visualization tools (like TweetWheel)
  • Tools to import RSS feeds to your Twitter account (I use Twitterfeed)
  • Tools for setting tweets to go off later (Tweetlater)
  • Metrics tool (TweetStats – Twinfluence)
  • Tools for sharing pictures on Twitter (Twitpic)
  • Services to tweet to groups (GroupTweet)
  • Twitter Directories (Twellow)
  • Tools for finding new people to follow (Twubble)
  • Tools for helping you to track Twitter Conversations (Tweet2Tweet)
  • Trend Tracking tools for what’s hot on Twitter (Twitscoop)
  • Tools to help Twitter integrate with other applications (TwitterCal – which lets you add items to your Google calandar by Twitter)
  • Services for groups to tag and organize tweets (HashTags)
  • Twitter updaters (Ping.fm – which allows you to update status on multiple sites like Twitter)
  • Twitter backup services (TweetTake)
  • Services to let you track which links people are clicking on in your Tweets (TweetBurner)

These are just some of the tools services I’ve used in the last few weeks and they only scratch the surface at the hundreds of Twitter tools that are released.

What Twitter Tools and Services do you use? Leave the ones you love in comments below.

I’m looking forward to finding out which ones get mentioned most and finding some new ones that I’d not previously discovered.