Top 75 Twitter Tools, Apps & Plugins

So, I have been a member of twitter for some time now. I used it intermittently primarily to see what the experts in the Internet Marketing field did during their day to day lives. It wasn't until I downloaded TweetDeck that being a full-fledged 'Twit' took hold.

I quickly realized that there are tons of tools and Twitter specific websites that many probably don't know about. Like me, these tools or websites could potentially make other's tweeting efforts much easier. With that in mind, I've come up with the following list. I know there are many more so please feel free to add your favorites in the comments and I will be sure to update the list!

Top Twitter Tools

Twootball - Where Twitter meets the NFL Football. Want to make a post about the Jets? Just add #jets to your tweet and your message will appear immediately on the Jets homepage!


Friend or Follow - FriendOrFollow.com helps you manage your Twitter contacts by showing who you're following that's not following you back, and who's following you that you're not following back.


Twitscoop - Want to know what's hot on twitter? Use Twitscoop to stay on top of Twitters hot topics or discussions. The results are displayed in a tag cloud.


Twinfluence - Measures the combined influence of twitterers and their followers, with a few social network statistics thrown in as bonus. What is your influence? Just put in your Twitter user name to find out.


Twitpic - TwitPic lets you share photos easily on Twitter by posting pictures to TwitPic from your phone, TwitPic's API, or through the website itself.


Tweetdeck - TweetDeck is an Adobe Air desktop application that is currently in public beta. It is a personal favorite because it separates the large amounts of data into manageable columns - Group messages, Direct messages, Replies, etc.


Quitter - Sends you a short e-mail when someone stops following you on Twitter.


Twitter Grader - Twitter Grader gives you a grade based on the power of your Twitter profile. Not only that, based on your description the tool suggests 'like-minded' Twits to follow on Twitter. (I scored a 96.6 out of 100)




Web Design Experts on Twitter - Looking to connect with web designers? Thomson Chemmanoor has done a lot of the legwork for you! His web designer Twitter list will give you a chance to follow some very talented web designers

Twithire - Review job openings or post an open position for programming or design specifically. There is also an 'other' category that includes all jobs under the sun.

Tweet Later - As the name might suggest, you can schedule future posts to keep your Twitter stream ticking over with new tweets even when you're not in front of your computer. Or, use it as your personal reminder system. It's best feature in my opinion is the ability to send automated thank you notes to new followers, and automatically follow new followers,
if you choose to do so.

Twhirl - twhirl is a desktop client for Twitter that acts much like an instant messaging client. It connects to multiple accounts: Twitter, laconi.ca, Friendfeed and seesmic. It also allows for cross-posting twitter updates to Pownce and Jaiku

Tweetburner - Allows for both shortening URLs but also provides analytic data on the links your share via Twitter and Friendfeed.

Tweeterized - Provides dynamic Twitter signature images that you can use on forums, websites, myspace profiles and more. The dynamic images display your profile image, last update as well as how long ago you did the update.

Hellotxt - HelloTxt lets you to update your status and read your friends' status across all main
microblogging and social networks all at once.. there are too many supported networks to list. Pretty cool service!

Twerp Scan - A helpful tool to analyze your followers and helps keep an eye on your growing list of friends and followers.

Twitter Karma - A Flash application that fetches your friends and followers from Twitter, then displays them for you, letting you quickly paginate through them. You can sort the list alphabetically either ascending or descending by Twitter ID. You can filter the list in several ways: only friends or only followers, all friends or all followers, and mutual friends.

Twubble - Twubble simply helps you find more friends by analyzing your friends graph and picking out twits you might like to follow.

Twittervision - A real-time geographic visualization of posts to Twitter. Keep in mind, you profile must have a location and an image defined to appear on the public feed.

Twittermeter - Twitter meter let's you query an index of all the words that have been sent to twitter's public timeline since 11/6/2007. The data then plots the number of times that word was used over time.

GroupTweet - This cool service allows grouptweet piggy-backs on the Twitter service via the Twitter API. All you need to do is set up a group!

TweetStats - Pulls together cool graphs based on your Twitter posting habits. Includes graphs for Tweets per hour, Tweets per month, Tweet timeline and reply statistics.

Twittervision - See where in the world people are submitting tweets from, real time.

TwitThis - Allow visitors to your site to easily share a page or post via Twitter.

MoniTwitter - Receive important updates about your site via Twitter.

TwitterNotes - Share private or public notes via Twitter.

RSS2Twitter - Share any RSS feed on Twitter, and have new RSS items automatically be tweeted.

TwitterBuzz - Find out what is being most linked to on Twitter.

Twitterholic - Shows the top users and accounts on Twitter.

iTweet - A mobile Twitter site designed for the iPhone.

iTwit - Mobile version of Twitter made for the iPhone.

Tweeter - Twitter on your mobile phone while avoiding text message charges.

Jargong - Browse Flickr, do some social networking, but most importantly, check and publish tweets.

WildSets - Extensve Twitter app for mobile phones.

TwitterBerry - Twitter built for various BlackBerry devices. Update and view timelines with ease.

jTwitter - View timelines, enter updates, and more, all on your mobile phone.

TreoTwit - Easily check and update your Twitter right from your Treo.

TwitBin - Send and view tweets right within Firefox.

TwittyTunes - A FoxyTunes addon that posts what you’re currently listening to Twitter.

Shareaholic - Share links and webpages via Twitter right within Firefox.

Search Plugin - Tweet right from the Firefox search box.

Tweetbar - Put Twitter on your Firefox sidebar.

Twippera - Twitter widget for Opera that can send and view tweets.

TwitterFox - Compact Firefox extension that can publish and view tweets.

Twitterverse - Search through archived public timelines and tweets.

Twittersearch - Search Twitter and tweets by word.

Terraminds - Search for specific users or tweets.

TwitDir - Allows user to search for users by name, location, or username.

Tweetr - Submit tweets, upload files, urltea built in, delete messages.

Spaz - Cross-platform client built with AIR.

Tweeter - Java based client with customizable UI.

Twinja - AIR based client which allows you to follow users on the fly.

Triqqr - Submit tweets directly to Twitter and view user profiles.

Pwytter - Cross platform Python Twitter client with Asian character support.

Teletwitter - Experimental open source client.

TwitBox - View and submit tweets, see replies and direct messages, delete your own tweets, and multiple account support.

Twitterlicious - Update Twitter status, easily check replies and direct messages.

Twitteroo - Client with rurl URL shortening, clickable links and tweets, customization, and both public and friend timelines.

Chirrup - Twitter client with extensive Japanese language support.

TwittIt - Extremely compact and simple app for submitting tweets.

MadTwitter - A reincarnation of Twitterrific, except on Windows.

Tweetwheel - A cool tool that, in graphical form, shows which of your friends know each other.

Twitt(url)y - Twitturly is a service for tracking what URLs people are talking about as they talk about them on Twitter.

Twitter CLI - Post tweets via the command line.

What’s Up? - Gadget that allows you to see latest tweets from your friends.

Twadget - Simple gadget that lets you view and submit tweets right from Vista’s Sidebar.

KipFolio Widget - Simple Twitter widget for KipFolio.

Twitter-Sync for Yahoo - Syncs Twitter status with Yahoo Messenger status.

TwitterYM - Simple Yahoo Messenger status updater.

Twessenger - Updates Live Messenger status to reflect latest tweet.

Twit4Live - Set status message as latest tweet, send tweets from within Live Messenger, and send tweets to contacts.

Twitterment: Search Twitter using keywords, and compare the buzz between different words.

Where.com’s GPS Twitter: Adds your current GPS-based location to your Twitter feeds from your mobile phone.

Twitter Tool: Give your WordPress blog the Twitter treatment.

Twitterphone - Send messages to Twitter by speaking your message.

Got any others I may have missed?? Add them below!

Google Analytics: Tracking 3rd Party PPC

If any of you have utilized your Google analytics account to track PPC programs outside of Google Adwords you have no doubt run into a tracking issue or two. Here is a quick run-down of how to get your URLs tagged appropriately in order to track accurately:

Data from Google AdWords is automatically included in your Analytics reports (assuming you have AdWords and Analytics linked). For your 3^rd party PPC campaigns, the “how” is pretty simple. First, go to Google’s URL Builder tool, and enter the destination URL from your ad texts (i.e. landing page). From here you can enter the five parameters that will become your URL tag.

• utm_source: This is the name of the search engine or the source of traffic (i.e. Yahoo, MSN, email newsletter, blue banner ad).
• utm_medium: This is how you tell Analytics what type of traffic your source is (i.e. cpc, email, banner).
• utm_term: This is where you detail keywords! This can be manually entered or dynamically generated with Yahoo’s {OVKEY} or MSN’s {QueryString} parameters.
• utm_content: Consider this the ad variation or ad group. You choose how detailed you want to get. Typically, I designate this as the ad group for my PPC campaigns.
• utm_campaign: If the name isn’t obvious enough – this is where you designate the name of your campaigns!

Once the tool gives you the fully tagged URL, all you need to do is copy and paste that URL into your ad texts. Google Analytics will do the rest of the work for you and begin giving you keyword level data for all of your PPC campaigns!

Have any additional tips? Please feel free to add in the comments!

MSN adCenter New Updates: Pause Ads & Keywords

I just got an e-mail full of new features now available in adCenter. In addition, the new adCenter interface has gone through a light design update - what are your thoughts on the new re-branding?

Regardless, here are a few quick notes included in the e-mail:

• Pause the delivery of your ads and keywords. Now you have more control and flexibility as you manage your campaigns.
• Receive better help with disapproved ads and keywords. Get easier-to-find information about the reasons for the disapproval and how to update the ads and keywords for resubmission.
• Create multiple users for your account. You’ll find new options for easily creating multiple account users and assigning user permissions.

To get step by step instructions on the new features you can also visit the what's new with adCenter website.

Free Dunkin Donuts Coffee

Free Dunkin Donuts Coffee Offer

So, I'm not really one for posting 'free offers' or even keeping e-mail forward chains alive. Even more rarely do I make a post on this blog that does not relate directly to search marketing on some level (well, maybe the PPC Rap videos are stretching it), but my love for all things coffee made me do it!

Click on the image above and get Free Dunkin Donuts Coffee delivered right to your door!

Holiday Retail PPC Strategies

So, this post will be short and sweet. With the holidays right around the corner, I wanted to point a couple key dates that every pay per click marketer should be focused on. Shift budget, changed ad copy, expand keywords, etc but make sure your accounts are 'live' and online all 24 hours during these huge retail days!


2008 Expected Busiest Shopping Days of Holiday Season:

1. Black Friday: 11/21/2008
2. Cyber Monday: 11/24/2008
3. Green Monday: 12/08/2008

Here are a couple additional trends to focus on for the holiday season:

1. All Mondays during the month of December tend to generate more revenue than other days during the week.
2. On average, the first and second week in December are the highest revenue generating days online.

One final note .. make sure you are calling out your promotions, competitive price points, etc in your ad copy and reinforcing it on your landing pages! Here's to big holiday retail sales!

PPC Terminology & Glossary for Pay Per Click Marketing

I have been in the Internet Marketing industry for 5+ years and moved up the 'ranks' from a pay per click specialist, to a search account manager to search engine marketing manager. One thing I realized, however, is that as I interacted with clients more and more via conference calls, in person presentations and e-mail, the conversations were filled with industry language that some PPC beginners may not understand - much less a small business owner. I ran across a number of these industry definitions at PPC Hero's Blog and thought it was great information to share! If you have any more to add please leave a comment and I'll update to the list!

1. Adwords Editor - A software application by Google to make account changes without posting live until you’re ready. Adwords editor is free and allows you to add new campaigns/ad groups/keywords or to make bid changes and more.

2. Application Program Interface (API) - The Google Adwords program allows developers to use applications that interact directly with the AdWords server. With these applications, advertisers can more efficiently manage large AdWords accounts.

3. Assist - When a keyword helps another keyword convert into a sale/lead. Assists currently only occur in Yahoo!.

4. Bounce Rate - Percent of people who enter your site but leave without visiting any other page.

5. Clicks - A click is registered when someone clicks on your pay-per-click ad.

6. Click-Through rate (CTR) - A way of measuring the success of an online advertising campaign. A CTR is determined by dividing the number of users who clicked on an ad by the number of times the ad was delivered (impressions).

7. Content network - The content network is available on all three of the major search engines and it allows advertisers to display their ads on other websites, blogs and email programs that have partnered with Google.

8. Conversion - When a user/customer completes a sale, a form, submits and email or downloads a whitepaper, etc. A conversion is essentially the same as a lead.

9. Cost-per-Click (CPC) - The amount of money an advertiser pays search engines and other Internet publishers for a single click on its advertisement that brings one visitor to its website.

10. Cost-per-lead (CPL) - The amount of money an advertiser pays search engines and other internet publishers for a lead generated on its advertisement.

11. Cost per thousand impressions (CPM) - Pricing means advertisers pay their maximum bid amount for every one thousand impressions received.

12. Google Checkout - Google Checkout is a service that makes buying and selling across the web fast, convenient, and secure. When you utilize Google Checkout an icon will be displayed within your pay-per-click ad and this can build trust with users and increase your click-through rate.

13. Impressions - Number of people who see your PPC ad.

14. Keyword - a word or phrase that PPC advertisers use to display their ads in the sponsored search results.

15. Lead - When a user/customer completes a sale, a form, submits and email or downloads a whitepaper, etc. A lead is typically what every advertiser is trying to increase.

16. Longtail Keywords - A specific keyword phrase that consists of 2 or more words. Most advertisers use long-tail keywords to target the customer at or near their buying stage.

17. Match types - Match types allow an advertiser to control when their ad shows for a particular search query that may or may not contain a keyword listed in their ad group. There are three different match types, Broad, Phrase and Exact; these occur in Google and MSN. However Yahoo! has Standard and Advanced Match.

18. MSN Adcenter Desktop - A software application by MSN to make account changes without posting live until you’re ready.

19. My Client Center (MCC) - A powerful tool for handling multiple AdWords accounts. MCC is ideal for large advertisers with more than one account.'

20. Negative keywords - Advertisers add negative keywords to their account so their ads do not display when a customer types in a search query containing that keyword. Negative keywords help you qualify the clicks to your site more effectively.

21. Pay-Per- Click (PPC) - A method of advertising where the advertiser pays for each click he receives on the search engines.

22. Placement targeting - Placement targeting lets AdWords advertisers choose individual spots in the Google content network where they’d like to see their ads displayed.

23. Quality Score - A ranking system that Google uses based off relevancy to determine bid price.

24. Quality Index - A ranking system that Yahoo uses based off relevancy to determine bid price.

25. Return on Advertising Spend (ROAS) - Ratio of money gained or lost on an investment relative to the amount of advertising (PPC) money invested.

26. Return on Investment (ROI) - Ratio of money gained or lost on an investment relative to the amount of money invested.

27. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - The method of increasing organic (free) rankings on various search engines.

28. Search query - A basic search query is a keyword or a keyword phrase a user enters when searching on any search engine.

29. Search Engine Results Page (SERP)- The results a user sees in the search engines after typing in a search query. The results would consist of a series of Organic ads as well as Paid or sponsored search ads.

30. Website Optimizer - Website Optimizer allows you to test changes in the website content of your pages in order to determine what will be most effective in getting conversions.

Search Engine Rap Battles

So, I've posted a blog post or two in the past with pay per click raps or SEO raps, but I came across these last week and thought I would share. If you are familiar with the 'underground' rap battles featured in the movie 8-mile, imagine that type of setting only you have search engines battling it out for the top spot. 

These search engine rap battles are pretty entertaining!

PPC Quick Fixes: PayPer Click & Low Ad Position

Pay Per Click Advertising and Low Ad Position

Let’s face it: you can write the most amazing ads and your landing page can be wonderful and marvelous, but if your ad isn’t getting noticed, then the rest doesn’t matter. A sure-fire way to gain more attention is by increasing your ad position. Here are some quick fixes to get you ranked higher:

1. Raise your bids! Again, that may seem rudimentary, but let’s just get that out of the way. You need to keep your CPC and ROI in mind. Don’t raise your bids beyond your comfort level, but could a slightly higher ad position increase your clicks, and conversions? It might pay off!
2. AdWords has a very handy tool to help regulate your ad position: Position Preference. This tool does exactly what it’s name says; you can choose your preferred position. This is helpful when determining your “sweet spot”: the ad position where you get the right amount of clicks and conversions.

SEO Training Options Online

SEO Training Courses and Book Reviews Below

As you start looking around for a training course for SEO you need to ask yourself what style of training suits you best. If online SEO training is something that appeals to you, there are many options available.

One of the main benefits of online training is you can learn at your own pace. You also don't have to worry about travel costs or what to wear to class. In some of the in-person, instructor-led courses, travel costs alone can be a significant expense.

On the other hand, online courses do not provide the classroom style that provides an instructor to ask questions, clarify principles, or share personal experiences. If in-person learning is your preference, then tune in to my next column, when I'll take a look at those options.

Online SEO Training Courses

SEMPO Institute
A great place to get a gain an education about search marketing is the SEMPO Institute. One of the mandates of the organization is education. Last year, SEMPO embarked on developing a distance learning program for both beginners and practitioners of search. It originally came from the need for more educational resources to be available for its members.

Today the SEMPO Institute is available to members and non-members worldwide. Although if you are considering taking the course, you should know that there are discounts up to 30 percent for SEMPO members. Current pricing is $399 for the "Insiders Guide to Search Marketing" course on SEO and PPC fundamentals, and $1399 each for the Advanced SEO and Advanced PPC courses.

Recently Jeffrey Pruitt, SEMPO's president, and Fionn Downhill, chair of the SEMPO Institute, were interviewed on Online Marketing with RSS Ray. These two segments, Part 1 and Part 2, provide more insight into SEMPO and the SEMPO Institute. They even bring in a recent "graduate" of the institute to share his views on the course.

Search Engine College
Search Engine College, run by Kalena Jordan, is another great place for online training. There are several courses to choose from: you can take an individual course or a full program they call "Certified Pathways." Their Certified PPC Marketer Pathway is $695, as is their Certified Search Engine Optimizer Pathway. The Certified Search Engine Marketer Pathway, combining SEO and PPC, is $1,195.

On their site, they offer a sample course and a sneak peak into the online classroom structure. For those looking for expansion in specific areas of SEO, they also offer specific classes in Keyword Research, Linkbuilding, Copywriting, and other areas.

Online Web Training from Search Engine Workshops
Online SEO Training from Search Engine Workshops approaches the training process from the same angle as the previous two sources mentioned, with a $149 Beginner SEO Course and $179 Advanced SEO course. However, they also add a new dimension by offering – for about $100 more for each module – 32 weeks of access to an instructor to help you through the course. Search Engine Workshops also holds yearly refresher courses, both online and in an in-person workshop format at locations all over the country.

GNC Web Creations
GNC Web Creations is a web design, graphics, and SEO company based out of Mississippi that takes SEO Training into a new methodology by building it into Yahoo Groups. By signing up for the private group, you will receive emails through the group that will guide you through the basics of SEO. This is also the first offering we've covered that is completely free. That's right: free. As in no cost is involved. If this is linkbait, it's very good linkbait. They also offer eBooks on SEO and other topics at a modest price.

Computer Geek Books
Computer Geek Books offers a highly interactive, six week (12 lesson) SEO course delivered online. This offering goes for $250 and is very much in the same tradition as the first few classes we've discussed.