Michelle Sullivan Communications

10 of my favourite lesser-known Twitter apps

A quick look at my Pearltrees account tells me that I’ve accumulated a nice collection of Twitter-related applications. Have you heard of some of my favourites?

1. Formulists – I use this one to develop niche networks for myself and my clients. Choose the « Find Tweeps like someone else » option and Formulists will lead you discover some great profiles. Add them to your Twitter list, and start developing relationships from there!

2. Follower Wonk – This app is great for searching Twitter bios for keywords (ex: your brand or industry). It also draws comparisons between Twitter users, with venn diagrams showing overlaps in followers and influencers and charts tracking Twitter activity.

3. DoesFollow – This is a nice, simple tool that lets you know if Person A is following Person B. Handy if you want to be doubly sure your DM will reach your favourite journalist or blogger, or if you want to get a sense of the impact a tweet or retweet can have. Twitter can be like a cocktail party. Sometimes it’s nice when someone can introduce you to that fetching creature across the room.

4. TweetPsych – This app gives you the « psychological » profile of any Twitter user. Far from wanting to play armchair therapist, I use this to get a sense of who any given Twitter user is – what he or she is interested in etc. Bios are one thing. An analysis of tweets to build a profile is another. In case you’re curious, I tweet about media 47% more often than the average user and about learning 8% more. If you’re looking for someone who tweets about leisure, I’m apparently not your girl. I tweet about leisure activities 70% less than the average user. Hrm .. I’m not sure that’s a good sign. On the other hand, @pmharper tweets about money, work and leisure 276%, 210% and 126% more often than the average user and reflects anxiety 86% less than the average user. No comment.

5. Foller – If you want to get an idea of what the influencers you’ve identified are interested in these days, Foller is the one-stop shop for you. Particularly interesting for hashtags. It also displays a map showing geographical influence. I’m popular in Canada, the US, Europe .. and India! (Hi Rajesh!)

6. TweetReach – I’ll often use a special hashtag or trackable URL like budurl or bit.ly on Twitter. When I want to have an idea of how far those tweets might have reached, I plug the unique identifier URL into TweetReach. The free version of this app has its limitations, but it’s a nice start.

7. TweetEffect – Curious to know what kinds of tweets make people start or stop following you? Tweet Effect your last 170 or so updates and highlights those where you gained and lost. I suppose making a second #rapture joke on Saturday was too much for some. I lost 7 followers with what I thought was a link to a cute video. Strangely enough, a link to a photo I took of my tonkinese earned me a new follower. Proof that, online at least, cute cats win over zombies everytime.

8. Nearby Tweets – Hyperlocal is trendy for a reason. Find out what tweets are originating near you or in cities around the world using this Twitter app. When an important story hits — the Mumbai terrorist attacks for example — you can target the city (Mumbai) and keywords (Taj, terrorist etc) that are of particular interest.

9. Keepstream – I’m always on the look out for good ways to present Twitter content to clients. Keepstream lets you curate tweets, get a glimpse of hyperlinked content, add commentary and then share the content on Twitter or Facebook. There’s an embed code so the content can be published on a website or blog. This app has potential. I’d like to see a premium version that would allow me to share content only with specified users, like my clients and colleagues. This would make the comment field that much more useful. Still, it’s not a bad start.

10. The Archivist – Tweets are fleeting. Twitter search only goes back so far and no third party application I know of guarantees it can deliver the full archive of Twitter search results going back the 5 or so years Twitter has been around. Cue The Archivist. Sure, it’s no time traveller, and no, it doesn’t have access to Twitter’s pipeline, but it does get you started and gives you some insight into the identity of the top users chatting about your brand, top related keywords and top URLs. I depend on platforms like Sysomos’ MAP, but it’s nice to be able to complement a paid service like that with a free service like this.

What are your favourite Twitter apps?

Voir aussi / See also

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