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Social Media: Different Platform, Different Language

May 21, 2013 By Carol Stephen 19 Comments

Social Media: Different Platform, Different Language

Recently, talking to social media “experts,” I’ve run across some very different opinions about how to use social media. One “expert” admitted she only checks her Twitter account once a week. Another admitted that he pushes his Facebook posts through to Twitter. And a third says she uses the exact same material at the exact same time across all platforms. So do some of these practices seem not very social? Here are some of my reasons for using different language on each platform.

Each Platform is its Own Country

Let’s talk LinkedIn. To me, LinkedIn is the land of complete sentences, good punctuation, no slang, and professionalism. The demographic is more business-oriented and less casual. I probably would not share a BBQ sauce recipe on LinkedIn as I might on Pinterest or Twitter. Nor would I use a bunch of hashtags or acronyms there. Facebook, similar to LinkedIn, is about connecting, but the language is different again. Although Facebook recently adopted hashtags from Twitter, I still wouldn’t use them there, since many people don’t fully understand them. The language of Pinterest is more casual, but still not as casual as Twitter. And so on.

One Post Across All Platforms Seems Lazy

Using one post across all platforms seems lazy

If I see someone using the same post across multiple platforms, what runs through my mind is this person isn’t taking the time to fully engage on any platform. So I’m not likely to engage with this person. They give the impression of being too busy to interact and of someone who only wants to broadcast.

Why Follow Different Platforms if Posts Are the Same?

If I see the same post in two or more platforms, why would I want to follow on all those platforms when I could get the same content by following in just one place? If you’d like to recycle your content, why not just wait a couple of days (people have a short memory on social media), then post that content in a different place? As long as the content isn’t “stale,” you can still use it again.

Do You Use the Same Language Everywhere You’re Social?

I’m very curious about this. I know people want to save time, but does saving time for ourselves make us less accessible to our potential audience? What do you think?

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Facebook, hashtag, Language, LinkedIn, Media, Platform, Social, Twitter

Twitter By The Numbers

May 14, 2013 By Carol Stephen 6 Comments

Numbers Matter in Twitter

Maybe you weren’t good with numbers in school. Maybe numbers were boring to you and now you’re happier letting someone else deal with the “math” of your life. There are just a few numbers that you might want to consider when you delve into Twitter a little deeper. You could use some of these numbers to help you track your progress on Twitter.

Ratio of Followers to Following

Twitter by the Numbers

Like your cholesterol’s HDL versus LDL ratio, it’s important to shoot for a “good ratio.” On Twitter, that means roughly one follower to one following. Celebrities or superstars may have a huge number of followers and follow very few people. Some people won’t follow those with low numbers of followers (something to keep in mind if you’re going to run out and follow 2,000 accounts when only 17 people follow you). Decide if you want to follow a million people without many of them following you back. What do you get out of following all those celebrities, anyway? You could cut them loose and just put them on a list. For me, the most important thing when deciding to follow is good content and conversation.

Number of Tweets

You might want to look at an account’s number of tweets to decide if they would be a good fit. I am fairly chatty (which is prolific) on Twitter, so someone with only a few tweets may not be the best fit for me. If the account has only 23 followers, I will probably dominate their Twitstream, since I tweet 20+ times a day and that’s on a slow day. However, some newbies find that they really like the chatty nature of Twitter. But if you’re not going to have conversations on Twitter, you might not want to follow people with huge numbers of tweets. First check how many tweets a user averages before following them if too many tweets is a concern to you.

Number of Listings

The number of times you’ve been listed by others is a good indication of Twitter success in my book. So although this isn’t your usual key performance indicator, it’s one that is more important than followers, especially since followers can be bought. Being listed is a real badge of honor because it means that someone took the time to create a list and then put you on it. Take a look at my friend, @TerriNakamura’s listings, for example. She has been listed over 3,500 times. To me, that’s a real sign of success on Twitter.

Total Number of Followers

The total number of followers isn’t the most important number to many social media experts. Partly that has to do with how easy it is to plunk down some cash and buy followers. There are ways to tell if someone bought Twitter followers. And if you think big accounts are all truthful, Gizmodo has a great article about celebrities and their fake followers. In fact, selling followers on Twitter has become a huge business lately.

Which Numbers Impress You?

Are you impressed by large numbers of followers? Why or why not?

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Followers, Following, Listings, Numbers, Ratio, Twitter

Facebook: How to Channel Your Inner Grumpy Cat

May 7, 2013 By Carol Stephen 4 Comments

Facebook: Channel Your Inner Grumpy Cat

Some people naturally understand what others want to hear, and then either have no fear or no shame in saying it. There are those who can always strike a balance and share every detail of their beautiful, perfect lives. It’s great to be balanced (especially if you work from home), but today I’d rather talk about Grumpy Cat.

Everyone loves Grumpy Cat because she tells the truth, and the truth shall set us free. So here are some ways you can be set free.

Share Small Grumpy Moments

Facebook: Channel Your Inner Grumpy Cat

Don’t you hate when you haven’t had enough sleep? Your bed is lumpy and your pillow mysteriously disappeared during the night? That’s awful, right? Or your glass has a chip in it. Or maybe someone looked at you the wrong way–grrrr! So many perfectly shareable grumpy moments. How can you choose just one?

Be the Opposite of Perfect

People like to hear about those less-than-perfect moments. Moments such as the day your toddler bit you, the fantastic lemon tart you made except you used baking soda instead of flour, how after you drove away from getting your new car washed and detailed and filled with gas, you forgot to remove the hose from the tank, or how your cat fell asleep on a pile of grapefruit. And they want pictures.

Be Real

Maybe you do have the most gorgeous house in your entire city, county, and the world. But if that’s all you share, people may get tired of hearing from you, and hide you or report you as spam on social media. Not every moment is perfect, and some of the better moments come when you least expect them. Like turning away for an instant, and falling into your lovely pool and ruining your Coach handbag. (Now that’s the kind of moment we’d like to see!) Share proudly, and often.

Have a Little Fun with Tagging

Facebook: Have a Little Fun with Tagging

How about tagging some sneakers with the names of all your friends? Or something even more inexplicable, such as a sad dog looking out a window? It’s imperative that whatever object you tag has nothing to do with your friend whatsoever. Grumpy Cat would be so proud. Or, better still, jealous.

Forget About Saying Nice Things

What is it that everyone is thinking, but no one has the guts to say? Say that. If you want to learn to use good manners, that’s not the subject of this post.

USE ALL CAPS

THERE’S JUST SOMETHING, WELL, LOUD ABOUT CAPS. YOU BARELY EVEN NEED ANY EXCLAMATION MARKS WITH ALL CAPS!

THE END

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Cat, Facebook, Grumpy, How, To

Social Media: You’re Not Katie Couric!

April 30, 2013 By Carol Stephen 4 Comments

Social Media: How to Engage Like a Pro

Although this has been said a million times, I’ve only said it 999,999 times: you must engage on social media. And lately, I’ve been seeing more companies of all sizes broadcasting, instead of engaging. Katie Couric is a famous and beloved correspondent. We expect her to broadcast. However, it is likely that you are not a famous correspondent.

What do I mean by engagement? Here are a few ideas about ways you can step up your game.

Keep Your Focus on the Other Guy

If you’re shy, knowing what to say can feel uncomfortable. But asking a question about the other person is something anyone can do. The question shouldn’t be a yes or no question, but something more open-ended, like “how do you know [the person who introduced you to the other person on social media]?” or “what did you think about that news story?” You can ask about their home town. Were they born there? How do they like living there? Those questions are not so personal as to be off-putting.

Conversing on Facebook

On social media, keeping your focus on the other guy could mean gaining a friend and maybe later, a loyal customer. For example, take a look at how Starbucks dominates the social media landscape with conversations galore. They’re on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, have apps, and share seasonal specials that always reflect their own branding. They’re good listeners and also manage to talk frequently about the social good that they do, such as charities they’re involved in. As a smaller brand, you can ask yourself how you can do something similar, on a tinier scale. Pay attention to what your audience wants to see and hear. Of course, the content shouldn’t be completely off-topic, or that would cause confusion about your brand. The trick is to balance posts that your audience would like to hear about with what you’re sharing while actually listening and talking.

Converse on Facebook

If you don’t like to talk much, you can always “lurk” on Facebook. But it’s a lot more satisfying to like, comment on, or share a post. So try clicking “like” first of all. Then you can try a short comment, like “Yes!” or “I like it.” If you get very brave, you can share a post to your own wall. Being generous first is a good way to be social on social media.

Schmooze on Twitter

On Twitter, that most social of social media platforms, there are a million questions you can ask people. That’s a gorgeous profile picture! Where was it taken? You have an unusual name–are you related to___? You’re interested in Slow Food, what do you think of Michael Pollan’s work? Have you met my friend___, who is also interested in baseball and apple pie? And so on. And by the way, having a good profile picture is a good conversation starter for anyone.

Comment on Pinterest

Talking on Pinterest is like putting a message in a bottle. You might or might not hear back, and if you do hear back, a lot of time could have passed. People don’t talk as much on Pinterest. So if you do comment, you’ll stand out. Try commenting on Pinterest and then tag the person who’s meant to see the comment (even if you’re on their board, they might not see it!). To tag them, type the “@” sign, start typing their name and –wait for it!–their name should auto-fill. For brands, there are lots of ways to connect with fans on Pinterest.

Are you Engaged?

If you like to chat on social media, what has worked for you? Seriously, I’d love to hear your views!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Engagement, Social Media

Twitter: Four Reasons You Don’t Get Retweeted

April 23, 2013 By Carol Stephen 8 Comments

You just got on Twitter and you spend a lot of time retweeting other people’s stuff. In fact, it seems like all you do is retweet other people’s stuff. But they don’t retweet your stuff! Is there something wrong with what you’re doing? Here are a few factors to consider about why that person on the other end–who you just retweeted (one hundred times!)–might not retweet you.

Their Audience is Not Your Audience

You sell hub caps and you’re in Australia. They sell umbrellas and they’re in Canada. Their audience is expecting tweets about umbrellas, rain, raincoats, bad weather, and galoshes. They are not expecting tweets about hub caps, or anything car-related. So is it any wonder that that person is not willing to retweet your tweets? They don’t want to alienate their audience by sending tweets about hub caps.

That Other Guy Has 100 Times Your Followers

You have 80 followers, and that guy you expect to retweet your stuff has 8000 followers. He has spent a considerable amount of time building a following (if his followers are legitimate). There are some telltale signs that those followers might be fake, but let’s assume that they’re real followers for now. So if you have 80 followers, why would someone with 8000 followers want to retweet one of your tweets each time you retweet one of theirs? They probably don’t!

You’re Telling the Other Guy to Retweet You

When you have to tell someone to retweet you, it sounds desperate. Not only that, but it’s bossy. And no one likes to be told what to do! Why not let people find your wonderful content about your fabulous hub caps, rather than shout at them to retweet you? We’ve all heard the adage “Good Things Come to Those Who Wait.” And being social on social media does take some patience.

Your Tweets Are Too Long

A tweet is only 140 characters long. Once a person copies and pastes your tweet and adds their own name and maybe a brief comment (one-two words), there’s not a lot of space left! So keep your tweets short, with only one link and maybe a hashtag, and your chances of being retweeted will go up dramatically! For more ideas about being retweeted, see the excellent article “Ten Ways to Be Retweetable.”

Does Retweeting Frustrate You?

Have you been retweeting others in the hopes of being retweeted? Have you found any tips that work? Please leave a comment below! Thanks!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Retweet, Retweeting, Twitter

Facebook: 5 Levels of Annoyance

April 16, 2013 By Carol Stephen 6 Comments

Everyone has that one annoying Facebook friend who overposts, whines, complains, brags way too much, or needs constant reassurance. Not only that, but they stalk you and post the ugliest photos! You’ve been thinking about unfriending them, except that you’ve been friends since grade school, and your family is friends with their family, so you’re hesitating before pulling the plug. Or–you’ve unfriended everyone already and now you’re really lonely and scared. And sad. If you’re in this tricky situation, there are a few things you can do instead of unfriending your annoying friend. Or, if you’re not sure how to be social on social media, that’s another story.

Note: My lovely friend, Roxanne, agreed to let me use her image for this blogpost. She is about as far from annoying as anyone could ever be.

Annoyance Level Blue (Low)

From your News Feed, on the left navigation bar, click Friends, then search for your friend. Or search on the top toolbar, “People, Places and Things.” Once you get to your friend’s page, hover over the “friends” button to get the drop-down menu. At the top of the drop-down menu, unclick “notifications.” Now you won’t be notified every time your friend posts about brushing her teeth, her Cinnabon-induced poetry, or why everyone should nominate her for best dog walker (you can vote every single day!). If you’re still receiving too many notifications on your phone, then you might want to check the settings for your mobile Facebook app.

Annoyance Level Green (Guarded)

Unclick “Show in News Feed.” You’ll still be connected, but you won’t see what your friend is doing every minute of every day (you can go over to their page if you suddenly get curious! Or not.). This level is for the friend who’s always posting stuff that reads, “93% of my friends won’t share this. Are you one of the 7%?” This is also good for that person who posts pictures of themselves naked and drunk on a day they should be working (and you’re also friends with their boss!). And then they write “I’m still too high to go to work!”

Annoyance Level Yellow (Elevated)

Create a list and put them on it. You can see two of my lists in the graphic–Close Friends and Acquaintances. You can create one for your city, your family, etc. If your friend who’s driving you crazy is on your close friends list, move them to another list. One thing that’s helped me is to put everyone I don’t know very well on the Acquaintances list first. People can’t see which list they’re on, so don’t worry about hurting anyone’s feelings! And on that Acquaintances list, you can block people from seeing your photos. Level Yellow is for people who invite you to their dog’s birthday party in Cincinnati (it only costs $15 to attend!) and yet you live in San Francisco. And their dog seems to have a birthday every other week.

Annoyance Level Orange (High)

Block your annoying friend from seeing what your friends post on your timeline. Now, this is a little more aggressive. When you log into Facebook, in the top right corner you should see a little gear icon. Click on the little gear, then scroll down to Privacy Settings >>Timeline and Tagging Settings (on the left navigation bar). Here you can edit which list of people can see what your friends post on your timeline. You can also prevent them from seeing other things, such as photos you’ve been tagged in. And if you’d like to review tags before they’re posted to your timeline, you can do that here, too.

Annoyance Level Red (Severe)

This level is for the person who does everything above, stalks you, or posts videos of stuff you hate on your wall without asking. Or they post a picture of your butt or of you sleeping. They then taunt you and make unfunny jokes about your having a big butt or being in a coma and then tagging you. This person is no longer your friend. And no one would blame you if you unfriended them. There. Don’t you feel better now?

Have You Been Unfriended Lately?

If you’ve been posting pictures of junior’s latest toilet masterpiece, or mocking your friends’ political beliefs, or finding yourself having to delete large numbers of posts that you don’t remember writing in the middle of the night (hic!), maybe your numbers are going down. If the above doesn’t describe anyone you know, maybe you’re the annoying one, and you have to learn how to be a friend. But that would be the subject of another blogpost!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: annoyance, Facebook, friends, hiding

Twitter: Three Business-Friendly Tools

April 9, 2013 By Carol Stephen 5 Comments

Have you ever wondered who your competitors are friends with? Would you like to see whether they’re listed anywhere? How about where in the world an account’s followers are from? All of the following tools have specific uses for businesses, listed after the descriptions.

Tweet Tunnel

Tweet Tunnel shows you some unusual views into your friends’ lives on Twitter. For example, who are your friends talking to the most? Above is an example of who I was talking to at the beginning of April, 2013. I like the visual, “at-a-glance” aspect of this view, with the user in the center and the eight people they are talking to the most surrounding them.

With Tweet Tunnel, you can also go back into your friends’ tweetstream 3200 tweets; it’s faster than scrolling through someone’s tweetstream using the Twitter client. You can see who you or your friends followed when you or they first joined Twitter. When I looked back at who I first followed, I noticed that quite a few accounts aren’t even active on Twitter any more. What happened to them?!

Business Use: A business could use Tweet Tunnel to see who their competitors talk to the most.

Retweet Rank

RetweetRank shows you your recent retweets and who has been retweeting you, along with where you’re ranked as a percentile. You can also see whose tweets are getting the most retweets (similar to trending topics). This is a good way of seeing what people are talking about on Twitter at a glance. From this dashboard (above), you can also check how many people have listed an account. And if an account is not listed, that’s a good sign that the account bought fake followers. If you sign in using Twitter, you can see even more. However, to get the best times to tweet or rank history, among other features, you have to get a paid account.

Business Use: A good use of Retweet Rank for business would be to see how effective your competitors are at getting retweets, and if there’s room for improvement in your own social media strategy through the adoption or avoidance of your competitors’ practices. There are many ways to make your tweets more retweetable, which will help your retweet rank in the long run. You might also want to check when your competitors tweet to see if you could adjust your own schedule to be more successful.

Tweepsmap

Tweepsmap shows you where in the world your followers are, with markers showing the percentages of who is where. The local view is particularly interesting. The zoom is just like a Google map–using the scroll bar on the left side.

Business Use: A good use of Tweepsmap for business would be to ensure that the account is following enough local businesses. Those in the service industry (plumbers, electricians) could benefit. For example, if I was really dependent upon local business, I might decide to focus on following more locals, since I’m in the South Bay and have more local followers in San Francisco.

What Tools Do You Like?

Do you have any favorite tools that help you with your business on Twitter? I’d love to hear about them! Please share in the space below.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Business, Friendly, Tools, Twitter

Twitter Lists for the Power User

April 2, 2013 By Carol Stephen 10 Comments

Twitter Lists Help You Organize People

You might have seen other people using lists on Twitter, or dabbled in creating lists once upon a time, when you first joined Twitter. Maybe you have been added to others’ lists and are curious about why people create them. If so, this post is for you!

Why Twitter Lists?

Lists are an effective tool for organizing people you want to keep close at hand, those you don’t want to miss, or those you want to keep in your address book. Lists are also a way to gauge an account’s effectiveness. If you’re trying to decide whether to follow an account, check to see if that account is on anyone’s list. If not, that account may have bought fake followers.

Improve Your Followers to Following Ratio

You don’t have to follow the people you list. So you could put all the major news organizations on a list instead of following them all. And if you know someone will never follow you back (for example, @DalaiLama follows NOBODY), you can put him or her on a list. If you add those folks to a list, it will improve your followers:following ratio and also help you cut down on the noise while raising the quality of the tweets you see.

The Nuts and Bolts

Twitter allows you to have 20 lists of 500 users each. That might sound like a lot, but once you start using lists, you might see that as a limit. Advanced Twitter users spend a lot of time maintaining lists, you’ll discover. So before you create your own, I recommend you go shopping and look at how people in your industry set up their lists. For example, take a look at Robert Scoble’s (@Scoble) fabulous lists. Could you use similar naming conventions? Or could you subscribe to one or more of his lists rather than reinventing the wheel?

Private Versus Public Lists

Private lists are those that only you can see. Public lists are for everyone. One benefit of having a public list is that you can offer it as a service to your followers. For example, @oLyfe has a list: ad-agencies, which is a compilation of the Forbes Top 100 Ad Agencies (yes, there are 200 names on there–don’t ask me why). You could occasionally send a tweet letting your followers know that the list is available. When you update the list, you could even let your followers know that, too.

Three Types of Lists

To see lists, go to a Twitter profile page, click on “lists,” (see above) and you’ll see the lists you create, lists you’re subscribed to, and lists you’re on.

Subscribe to Interesting Lists

While you’re shopping for lists, you will see some interesting ones. Subscribe to them by simply clicking on the “subscribe” button.

Examples of Lists

You might have a list called “Besties,” with the people you want to follow and retweet every day. You could also have a private list called “Enemies,” with your competitors on it. If you’re researching something embarrassing, you could create a private list for that. Or, if you share a hobby, such as watching cat videos, you could create a list called “Crazy Cat Ladies.”

Reading Tweets from a List

If you have a scheduler, such as HootSuite or Tweetdeck, in your arsenal of Twitter Tools, you can create a column for any list. So, for example, say you have subscribed to @Scoble’s list, Most Influential in Tech. You can create a column (see above) and follow the leaders in technology every morning through Twitter! Just scroll until you see a story you want to read. And if you’re looking for content to retweet, how about a list called “Retweetables” of your favorite sources (those that your audience would find valuable)?

How Do You Use Lists?

You’ve probably seen some imaginative lists out there! Let me know how you use lists, or ways you’ve seen others use them that you like, or dislike. Please leave a comment, below.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Lists, Power, Private, Public, Twitter, User

Startup Body: 6 Ways to Lose it

March 21, 2013 By Carol Stephen 4 Comments

Recently, I heard someone use the term “startup body” for the first time, and since then I’ve been hearing it all over the place. Do you know how, when you buy a new car in that peculiar shade of blue that no one else has, suddenly you see “your car” everywhere? It’s like that. Yes, I’m in Silicon Valley, and yes, every other person here is in a startup. The other thing that’s true is that so many of us keep our heads down all day long and never get up and go outside. We have a decidedly workaholic culture here. So how do you lose your “startup body”?

Last year, I was asking myself that very same question. How do I dig myself out of this workaholic hole? I’d seemingly found a way to Stay Sane while Working from Home, but had also put on 15 pounds, practically overnight! Here’s what helped me. Now, this is a really simple plan. It wasn’t easy, but it was simple. I’m a big believer in simple.

Read Thinner This Year.

Actually, I became a beta tester for the book. The authors, Chris Crowley and Jen Sacheck, were looking for people to read and test their first draft. So I read it three times, each time making notes, and changing my diet and exercise. Many of the changes I made were a direct result of reading the book. Note: I am not an affiliate, and receive nothing from recommending the book (except maybe good karma!).

Exercise 6 Days a Week.

Yes, you read that right. For me, six days a week was the tipping point. Now, I don’t go all out every day. But I do four days of hard intervals every week. Mondays are my hardest aerobic workouts. Tuesdays I lift heavy weights at Alive! Fitness and do Pilates. Wednesdays are intervals again. Thursdays are for yoga or Pilates. Fridays, I do intervals and weights. Saturdays, I cycle or hike. And Sundays is usually for resting, or maybe a walk on the beach. And stretching every day, after working out.

Eat More Vegetables.

For me, that means I eat around 9 different vegetables for breakfast, along with scrambled eggs and whole wheat toast. As recommended by Crowley and Sacheck, I cut out most “white things” such as white bread and replaced them with whole wheat. If I don’t get started in the morning with vegetables, it just ain’t gonna happen the rest of the day. Lunch is a sandwich and/or a salad with some protein. Dinner is something like broiled salmon with green beans and a chunk of good bread. Snacks are usually fruit.

Pretend It’s Your Job.

You know how dedicated you are to your startup? Apply some of that same crazy dedication to losing your startup body. If you like gadgets, get the latest downloadable heart rate monitor with all the bells and whistles. Measure your Key Performance Indicators if it helps you. Get an exercise buddy. Or create a Meetup if that gets you to the gym. Most people in startups don’t slack in the motivation department, but knowing what kind of exerciser you are certainly helps. If you’re social and in social media like me, then going to the gym or working out with someone else is the only way to go. And if you’re competitive, you could train for a marathon or century ride.

Don’t Look at the Scale.

You know where I’m going with this one. Muscle weighs more than fat, so use your jeans as your first indicator and don’t get too obsessive-compulsive with looking at the scale every 5 minutes. Once a week is fine.

Reward Yourself.

When you reach that goal (and you will), consider a reward–one that isn’t food. Only you know what will motivate you. But a reward is crucial. One thing people in startups don’t do is sit around and gloat for long. But basking in the glow of your recent victory could be a very good thing.

What About You?

If you’ve had to lose your “startup body,” how did you do it? No, really. Staying at your ideal weight is a constant struggle. Leave me a comment below! I’d love to hear what helped you!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Body, Lose, Startup, Weight

3 Favorite Tools to Manage Twitter

January 25, 2013 By Carol Stephen 4 Comments

If you’ve been tweeting for awhile, you are already familiar with some of the more common tools out there. Many people use the Twitter app on their smartphone, or manage their accounts with Tweetdeck or Hootsuite. What other tools are available to help you manage Twitter and keep your sanity? Here are a few of my favorites.

Twitcleaner

Twitcleaner is an an app by @sidawson that categorizes your Twitter followers into groups, such as Dodgy, Absent, and Flooding, and gives you a free report so that you can unfollow people who might not be in sync with you and your way of using Twitter. Now, you might be thinking to yourself “How bad could my Twitter followers really be? There couldn’t be that many garbage-y accounts in there, could there? Could there?” And I’d have to tell you that I was astonished the first time I ran Twitcleaner! So much noise. So much dodginess. Yes, and I was following spammy accounts, too.

Once you’ve gotten over your initial fear of using a new tool, you will love Twitcleaner. Why? Well, first of all, there are the funny categories. Then you will love how quickly this app cleans up the “background noise,” allowing you to get more out of the Twitter experience and “hear” the people you want to be in touch with. What’s more, your report is absolutely free (yes, I said free twice). So if you feel compelled to donate a little I think $5–the price of a cup of coffee around here–for this tool is a bargain, myself. And if you need another reason, well, Si Dawson is a very cool guy, and responds quickly if you have a question or comment (and no, I’m not an affiliate).

Note: Due to a string of issues with Twitter’s API, Si Dawson has decided to retire TwitCleaner. As of this writing (March 24, 2013), I know of no other tool with the same level of sophistication as TwitCleaner. If you do hear of one, I’d be happy to know about it.

Friend or Follow

This free and easy-to-use tool tells you who isn’t following you back on Twitter and lets you unfollow them. Simply sign in through Twitter and then click on the icons of those who don’t follow you back. Note: there is an hourly Twitter limit. I have found that I can unfollow about 150 accounts at one time. If you have more than that, you’ll need to come back and clean out the rest later. Cleaning out your accounts, if you have a few hundred or thousand followers is a good thing to do every few weeks.

TwopCharts

TwopCharts analyzes the success of your tweets and trends in your marketplace, as well as shows you where you rank. For example, TwopCharts shows me that I’m ranked at #1557 in the San Francisco area as of January 25, 2013, and that I’ve been on Twitter longer than 92.46% of all users. Isn’t that cool? Another statistic I love is the Lists stat. You can use the Lists stat if you want to check on other users (to decide which accounts might have bought followers, for example). There is also a “who mentions you” statistic where you can see the icons of those who mention you. And you might want to consider giving those who mention you the most a shoutout on Friday during #FridayFollow.

Have a Favorite Tool?

Leave me a comment, below. I’m always fascinated by the tools that people use to help manage their Twitter accounts. And thank you for reading!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Favorite, Tools, Twitter