If you’re juggling multiple Twitter accounts and you’re not using HootSuite yet, your life is way too difficult.
As a busy PR account executive who enjoys a healthy dose of social media each day, I’m currently managing and/or contributing to more than five Twitter accounts. I have one personal account, but, like all of my colleagues, I also chime in on our company account and help Tweet new and interesting news on behalf of a number of our clients. This seems to be a lot of work, but it’s actually a lot easier than it sounds.
That is, of course, if you have a handy-dandy tool like HootSuite. Now, before I go any further, let me be perfectly clear that while I would love a little kickback for this healthy endorsement, there aren’t any checks in the mail. I’ve simply test-driven a couple Twitter tools and I happen to like HootSuite the best. Well, actually, I like HootSuite for Tweeting on multiple accounts and I love Tweetdeck for keeping track of it all. Someday, when someone develops an application that combines both tools’ best features, life will be even easier.
So, what is this glorious, self-proclaimed, “ultimate Twitter toolbox”? It’s an easy-to-use interface that allows you to manage all of your Twitter accounts from one place. You simply enter all of your usernames and passwords, and they are forever stored on your HootSuite account. Then, when you are ready to Tweet, you use a drop-down menu to view those accounts or simply click on the account icon to Tweet from that username.
There’s no logging in and logging out of your various accounts and, if you want to, you can Tweet from several accounts at once. Aside from making it really easy to jump from account to account, there are two other things that I really like about HootSuite: it allows you to schedule Tweets for a later date and its built-in URL shortener, ow.ly, tracks and collects stats based the number of times people click on the links you Tweet.
Rafe Needleman, CNET’s Webware editor, recently did a nice piece about HootSuite and another similar, yet now unavailable, technology called CoTweet. My colleagues and I have had several conversations about what Twitter tools are best and, in general, it often boils down to personal choice. I’d encourage everyone to take a few tools for a spin to determine what works best for you. In the meantime, check out Needleman’s piece here. Happy Tweeting!