Writer Wednesday: Twitter Tools You Can’t Do Without

Most of the Twitter tools in the following reblog are tools I also use, and Mae Clair does a great job of explaining their value.

MY FAVORITE TWITTER TOOLS BY MAE CLAIR

Reblogged from Marcia Meara Writes  via Carmen Stefanescu’s Shadows of the Past

August 25, 2016 / Mae Clair  

Hi, 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 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.

You 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 

Read the whole post here: Marcia Meara Writes