5 Powerful Twitter Tools For A Business Marketing Boost

Everyone knows Twitter can be a great business building vehicle…we get reminded every day in email promotions, seminars, webinars and just about every other medium you can think of. We are literally inundated with new products and services for Twitter every day.

The issue with Twitter is it’s a double sided opportunity. You can quickly get into a the “hamster mode” where you are just spinning like crazy and not feel like you are getting anywhere. If you manage your time and relationships right, Twitter really can be a valuable customer building opportunity.  Here are five powerful tools that are simple to use and will make your time spent much more effective:

• Tweet Adder – You need to build a targeted audience quickly to have an impact. Obviously you will do this with other tools like email to your list, promotion on your website and blog etc. Now, you have another way to add very targeted followers to your list with Tweet Adder. You can target followers by keyword and geography. You can also automate the process of following and un-following.
• CoTweet – One of the biggest issues with Twitter is keeping track of what is being discussed about your business and market.  I have tried some of the other products where you can have “stacks” of keyword related tweets flying by to find out what is being tweeted in your market and then try and jump into the conversation. These are effective, but very time consuming. What I like about CoTweet is that if focuses your attention on relationships with your followers.  So you avoid the “boil the ocean” approach to Twitter. In fact, if you work it right, you can develop real relationships with your followers because CoTweet has great tools to help you flag messages directed to you and act on them very easily (even assign them to an assistant on your team).
• Ping.FM – Broadcasting tweets to your other social media pages is a great way to broaden your exposure and engage a larger audience.  Ping.FM is a very easy to set up and use syndication tool that will auto-magically manage your micro blogging and send them to most of the major sites including Facebook (Pages and Profiles), LinkedIn and Twitter.
• Muck Rack – Getting publicity for your business is hard. This Twitter tool makes it easy to find and communicate with the right journalists. Muck Rack is a great tool for locating journalists who cover your market and are on Twitter. You can find them by the type of information they report on or by their news organization. Even better, you can use the site to “tweet” your press releases to them.
• MediaOntwitter – This is a database of media contacts who use Twitter. Sometimes, this site can take some digging: people are arranged by country and then alphabetically by the name of their media outlet. But, it’s a growing list and you will be able to locate the person’s Twitter name through this list.
• WeFollow – This database is made up of anyone (not strictly media) who chooses to add themselves. If you have a blog, you should add yourself to this list. People choose their current location and five “categories” that describe themselves. What’s useful about this is that you may be able to connect with people who are outside of the traditional media realm, such as bloggers.

Go implement some of these over the next few weeks and see if your Twittering becomes more targeted and productive.  Let us know!

What other tools do you use that we should know about?