With a reported 1,300% year-over-year growth between April 2008 and April 2009, Twitter has definitely hit the big time. Simultaneously, the list of Twitter tools, applications and services has grown exponentially to assist executives in every facet of micro-blogging, from monitoring conversations and managing followers to more offbeat services like tweeting mp3s.
The following resources—the first installment of a periodic feature in which PR News compiles lists of various platforms and services pertinent to communications—are just part of the ever-expanding universe of Twitter tools and applications.
Given the speed and frequency with which new tools emerge, it is impossible to say this list is comprehensive; at the very least, though, it will give communications professionals a sampling of the many options they have for finding/measuring/monitoring/filtering/researching/indexing their tweets and followers.
URL-SHORTENING SERVICES
• Bit.ly: Tracks number of users who clicked on your tweeted URL.
• Doiop: Also lets you choose a keyword within the shortened link to provide your followers with context.
• TinyURL: Lets you incorporate a bookmarklet on your browser so you can shorten a URL with a single click without having to go to a different site; also has a preview feature.
• ReadThisUrl: Allows you to tag shortened URLs with multiple keywords.
• MemURL: Creates mnemonic links that don’t necessarily include a keyword, but at least are easy to pronounce; also has a bookmarking feature.
• DwarfURL: Tracks statistics and traffic of shortened URLs—great for quantifying click-throughs.
• Cli.gs: Provides stats in real time; allows you to create custom URLs based on the country of users.
• Zi.ma: Bulk URL shortening service.
• SnipURL: Also has an RSS feed; lets you export your “snips” to Excel.
• POPrl: Shows public statistics.
• Twurl: Organizes URLs for visual searching; tracks the number of clicks your “twurled” URLs get.
SEARCH SERVICES AND MONITORING APPS
• Twitter Search: A mini-search engine built directly into Twitter.
• Tweet Scan: Searches Twitter and other microblogging sites.
• TwitterTroll: Searches in real time.
• Hashtags.org: Keeps track of tweeted hashtags.
• TwitStat: Search tool that also provides analytics and query trends.
• TweetDeck: Allows users to organize tweets according to @replies, direct messages and keyword searches.
• Twitturly: Tracks the most popular URLs based on how many times they’ve been shared on Twitter.
• Twibs: Provides a list of businesses currently on Twitter and helps them build followings.
• Twits Like Me: Helps you find Twitter users who share your interests.
• Twitter Feed: Sends your blog/RSS feed directly to Twitter, tweeting updates.
• tweet140: Tracks the length of your tweets.
• Does Follow: Organically expands your network by following people your friends follow.
• twAITer: Lets users schedule tweets to be released at a specific time; also helps users track and manage their overall feed.
• Friend or Follow: Quickly double checks who’s following you with this tool.
• Tracking Twitter: Tracks brands, celebrities, media and TV tweets.
• Tweetizen: Create groups and track stories and posts that are meaningful to you.
• Twitterfall: Filter trends or do a custom search to see upcoming posts in a free-fall format.
ANALYTICS-GATHERING SERVICES
• TwitterCounter: Gathers statistics about other users.
• TweetStats: View Twitter feed stats in bar graph format.
• TwitterSpy: Monitors the most recent tweets coming from a particular location.
• TweetBeep: Alerts you via e-mail when preferred conversations and keywords are tweeted.
• MyTweetMap: Displays tweets by location on Google Maps.
• SiteVolume: Find out how often a phrase, word or Web site is tweeted about.
• Tweetburner: Track URLs as they appear on Twitter in real time.
• Twist: Lets you compare the stats for keywords, topics and more.
• Twitalyzer: Helps discover and determine the influence of different Twitter users.
• Twitstat Mobile: Look up analytics from your mobile phone.
ORGANIZATION APPS
• Twhirl: Connects to Twitter, displays notifications of new messages, shortens URLs, cross-posts updates to other sites and more.
• Twitter Karma: Quickly paginate through your friends’ listings. Sort alphabetically or by another system so that it’s easier to view your friends.
• Tweet Clouds: View your tweets as a word cloud.
• Twitter Notes: Take and tag notes from Twitter.
• My Tweeple: Helps organize friends and followers.
• Foamee: Keeps up with who owes you drinks, and how many.
• Twitterator: This script helps you stay organized and monitor different groups of tweeters simultaneously.
• GroupTweet: Privately tweet with your project group members.
• Twickie: Archives and organizes Twitter response threads.
DIRECTORIES AND PEOPLE-FINDING APPS
• Twitterholic: Find out who the most popular Twitter users are at any given moment.
• ExecTweets: Helps you find and follow the top business executives on Twitter.
• Social Brand Index: Helps users find competitors and potential clients on Twitter.
• WeFollow: This directory categorizes users through a tagging system.
• Twellow: Search by location, friends, followers, keyword or by category.
• Who Should I Follow?: Helps you find new friends on Twitter.
• Tracking Twitter: Discover which Twitter feeds are the most popular in media, entertainment and consumer products.
• Just Tweet It: Find people to follow by clicking on industry categories like education, domainers, aviation, filmmakers and more.
• Twemes: Twemes is another word for hashtags, and this site follows popular subject matter and keywords.
• twittervision: Find random tweeters whose conversations pop up on a Google map.
• Tweeter Tags: Declare your tweets by tagging yourself on this site. Then, find other like-minded users to follow and research.
• Twitter Fan Wiki: This research source finds conversations, non-person Twitterers, feature requests, fakers, media and more.
• TwitterPacks: Find people according to their “pack” or interest group, like coaching, baby boomers or organizing experts.
• Twubble: Helps you find more friends and popular Twitter users.
• GovTwit: Find Twitter names for government agencies and people here.
• Twibs: Look up businesses that tweet.
RESEARCHING AND INDEXING SERVICES
• Twitt Poll: Create polls to find out what your Twitter friends think on a particular subject.
• Twitter Answers: Ask questions into the Twittersphere to get answers and opinions from your followers.
• Twitter Snipe: Auto-follows users based on your niche.
• Trazzler Buzz: Researches deals and news for travel, museums, music and more.
• Twit Bear: Keep up with all the replies regarding a particular conversation or topic.
• Google Search with Twitter integration: This script combines the best of Twitter and Google.
• TBuzz: When surfing the Web, discover each site’s tweet history.
• PicFog: Conduct a Twitter image search here.
• peekr: Check out Twitter backgrounds before opening up the whole page.
• Twitter Toolbar for Firefox: Download this toolbar to quickly access Twitter or your favorite Twitter feeds.
FILTERS AND NICHE-SEARCH APPS
• bkkeepr: Keeps up with reading lists.
• FoodFeed: If you only want to research tweets related to what people are eating, head to this feed.
• Localtweeps: Filter tweets by zip code using this tool.
• Commuter Feed: View traffic reports for Houston, Boston, Detroit, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, New York and other top metro areas.
• Twitter Job Search: Research job openings here.
• Omnee: Filter your list of people to research or follow by first checking this site. Omnee categorizes users by the ones with the most social capital, most reach, least centralized and more.
• TwitZap: Keep your Twitter page open and active without having to refresh it.
• Cursebird: Tracks posts that contain curse words.
WHO-WOULDA-THOUGHT APPS
• TwitterGram: Lets you tweet mp3s.
• Twitsay: Allows you to post audio recordings to Twitter.
• TwitterCal: Posts events from your Google calendar directly to Twitter.
• TweetLater: Schedules tweets to automatically post at a certain time.
• Twibler: Posts eBay listings as tweets.
• TwitPic: Post a photo and share the link via Twitter.
• Twistori: Hover over an emotion such as love or hate, and read the incoming tweets that incorporate that feeling. PRN