4 Little Known Twitter Tools For Business

As you can see from AllTwitter’s Twitter infographic (and your competitors), there’s no denying how important Twitter is for businesses.

But as each month passes, there seem to be more and more Twitter tools flooding the already crowded market. Each with their own unique features to help your businesses effectively market your brand.

Today, I’ll detail 4 little known Twitter tools for business (or gems as I like to call them) packed with awesome features to help you get the upper hand on your competitors and build stronger ties with your target audience.

Create Interactive Images

We’ve all heard the adage ‘A picture is worth a thousand words’. It’s amazing how much is conveyed in a single still image.

Not surprisingly images images have become effective content for Twitter marketing with several studies reporting images as the content most shared and engaged with. In fact, a recent BuddyMedia report found images increase engagement rates up to two times more than tweets without images.

Now Twitter images just got a whole lot better with the introduction of interactive images powered by ThingLink.

Interactive images have small icons strategically placed throughout the image. Hover over these to see videos, audio player, links to webpages, additional words and more.

As you can imagine, it provides a rich experience for your target audience as it offers multiple points of engagement between you and your followers.

Take this Good as Gold image for example. Instead of simply displaying an image, users can hover over to view pricing information and get links to the specific product they’re interested in.

On the other hand CNBC encourages users to follow them on other social sites.

The marketing and promotion possibilities from a simple image has taken on a whole new level with Interactive images.

To get started head over the the Thinglink website.

1. Login with your Twitter account.
2. Click on ‘Create’ on the top right hand corner.
3. Click on ‘Choose images or drag-and-drop here’ to upload an image from your computer.
4. Now simply click on any part of the image you want to provide more details of, then add a link and description and click ‘Save’.

Now just use the sharing buttons to share it to your Twitter account.

Share Screencasts on Twitter

Another great way to perk up your Twitter stream, and save it from the monotony of tweets that look the same is to take advantage of Twitter’s multimedia features and post a screencast.

Let’s be honest. Most of us don’t have the budget or equipment to create pretty videos with high production value.

But a screencast simply requires a webcam (built into most laptops) and a decent inbuilt or external speaker.

Screenr is a free app that lets you to create screencasts quickly and easily, including the option to add an audio commentary.

1. On the homepage, you just need to sign in with your Twitter account.
2. While still on the homepage, click ‘Record’ or ‘Launch screen recorder now’.

1. Click ‘Run’ on the pop up to run the Screenr app and a frame will appear.
2. Now just open the webpage you want to record in another Browser tab or open the program or file you want to record (the frame will stay on your screen regardless of what’s showing on your computer screen).

1. Often you’ll only want to record part of your computer screen. Screenr lets you move the frame by clicking on the edges and dragging it, or adjust the size of the frame by clicking on the corners of the frame and dragging it in and out. When you are happy with the part of your computer it will record, click on the red circle underneath the frame.

1. When you’re finished, click ‘Done’.

This screencast can then be shared straight to Twitter and YouTube and embedded onto your blog posts!

It’s great for sharing new products and services, website redesigns, creating video demos of product features and anything else you like.

It’s also likely to engage your followers a bit more as they might not be used to seeing this kind of content within Twitter.

RJ Jacquez did just this, and even got a retweet out of it!

A Twitter Search Tip for making sure you never miss a mention or RT, especially from newcomers. screenr.com/E63s

— RJ Jacquez (@rjacquez) January 10, 2012

Schedule messages at optimal times’

I’m always surprised with the lack of people using a Twitter scheduler tool. There are dozens on the market, each with its unique algorithm to determine the best time to schedule tweets.

While I can’t say which is the best I do recommend you try the new SocialMotus Optimal Scheduler tool. As you might expect it queues and delivers content from its users at optimal times throughout the day the user specifies.

The existing part is Optimal Scheduler is the first of its kind to let you choose the day of the week you want it delivered!

Other scheduler tools limit the number of queued messages delivered each day and rollover messages to the next day once this limit is reached.

You can access this anywhere where you could previously schedule posts including the Engagement and Monitor sections at optimal times and days.

To schedule a post at optimal times, simply:

1. Click the ‘Schedule’ icon when editing a new post.

1. Select ‘Auto Schedule’ from the drop down.

1. By default SocialMotus will choose an optimal time for the current day. To change this simply click on another day.

1. Click ‘Publish’

Your message is now scheduled for an optimal time.

Make Tweetups better

Tweetups as its name suggests was created to help Twitter users create invitations to offline meetings between Twitter users. However, its usefulness extends beyond this initial function. You can use the platform to invite participants and promote all types of events on Twitter including product launches, seminars, shows and so on.

By using Tweetup you gain additional free promotion. For example, tweetvite allows you to assign a hashtag for your event so if your attendee posts in the comment section, it can easily be copied to Twitter with a link and hashtag to your event.

Better yet, when they accept your Tweevite invitation using their Twitter accounts with this RSVP being shown publicly for their followers to see as you can see from this Conkers tweetup below. It also encourages interaction among attendees as they can see others who will be attending on the Tweetvite invitation.

 

You might also think about using Tweetvite as the admin page for your regular Twitter chats like #qrchat does.

As you can see, it’s just a great way to create a community around your project.

To get started, head over to Tweetvite.

1. From the top right hand corner of the homepage, click “Login” and then log in with your Twitter account.
2. Click the dark blue button called “Create A Tweetup.”
3. Now fill in all the details. Tip: If you want to create a hashtag for your event, make it the same as your event name. This makes it easier for people to find tweets about your event when they search for it in Twitter.
4. Scroll to the bottom of the page to “Public URL” field. Here you should customize the link so your event name is in the link that is shared. This helps with branding.
5. Now you just need to promote it!

Know any other great, underutilised Twitter tools? Let us know in the comments below!

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