Other Popular Posts: Five Analytic Tools Twitter Blurs the Line B2B Twitter Case Study Email The Scoopdog Team
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(Read time = ~2 minutes) Twitter is (has become) the newest, shiny outbound toy. Marketing wants a piece… so does the PR team… and Marcom, AR/IR… and don’t forget all those content experts. One of the most important requirements to grow a meaningful B2B Twitter follower list, is cadence… having a consistent/regular content flow. Frequency is one key to drivingfollowers, but it’s a frustrating aspect for many companies starting up a Twitter strategy. One solution: multiple users tweeting from a single account where the collective blends into an orchestrated voice around a central focus.
All well and good, but how to retain some reasonable management of the process? Here’s a look at five tools aimed at solving this practical business issue, as well as two “brute strength” approaches. Hoping others will weigh-in with solutions I’ve not yet undiscovered.
Six Alternatives for Business Teams to Twitter Collaboration
Co-Tweet: In public beta. Their promotional tagline: “How business does Twitter”. Great promise, but the practical delivery still lacks some essentials. Tweet copy, once scheduled, cannot be edited (gotta delete then re-enter if you want to change anything); no real collaboration possible (ie can’t edit copy between users); Good future scheduling; easy set-up with both admin and user designations. Friendly but still lacking features.
Hootsuite: Trying to be “one size fits all”: analytics package + multi-user management package. Tweet scheduling feature (a “pending” column) w/editing. Co-tweeting from a single account: yes via the “add editors” function; groups/sorting. Stats BUT ONLY if you use Hootsuite’s own embedded URL shortener. Personally, I like analytic options from other tools better. Not (for me) as intuitive as Co-Tweet but a larger feature set.
Twitter Account w/Shared Password. Low tech solution and probably still, one of the most practical. Set up a Gmail (or other) email address so no need to burden your regular business email account. Set up a generic Twitter account and then just share sign-on/password to the designated group of users. Add-on apps can be found for scheduling, etc. Not exactly eloquent and requires some trust and manual management processes, but it works.
Twitter Groups: Twitter does not provide any group feature, but third-party solutions have filled this void. For purposes here, a group could be created (almost like a blog site) and then tweets could originate from the group setting via a single Twitter account. Content, editing, etc. occurs w/in the group setting, virtual to Twitter itself. The other obvious application would be to use the group function as a means for audience community segmentation (but that’s another blog post/discussion all together). Some group tools include: TweetWorks, TwitTangle and Twingr. One other interesting approach: use twhirl and its Friendfeed support for “rooms” then a Twitter feed out from FriendFeed.
Tweetfunnel: (Real-tiime update 9/9: Tweetfunnel folx just advised that they’ve added support for BudURL and saved searches) Public beta version free for the testing. “The Twitter Tool for Team Tweeting” (catchy). Uses a “publisher/contributor” model for editorial control. Features: approve and post, scheduling, editing, assignments, tracking of bit.ly URLs, feedback forums; What’s not currently integrated: RSS feeds, shortened URLs other than bit.ly, brand mentions/keyword watch. Useful FAQ and a blog for conversation.
EasyTweet: Paid service so I haven’t spent the $$ to test/try. From their homepage, promises: tracking, SMS alerts, scheduling, RSS tracking, multiple account management. From the site blog, you can get to a promo video/tour. The blog also provides some deeper insights into features/functionality. No free trial that I saw.
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Personally, I think the tools aren’t yet fully prime-time ready for enterprise use. Beta means beta but this is one solution that’s critical to enable B2B adoption. Maybe I’ve missed the one tool that’s the magic bullet – if so, please clue me in and share. Add this to the “business must have” list, along w/practical/meaningful metrics, valuation models (what’s a Facebook friend worth), and an account layering strategy.
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09/08/2009 at 10:26 am
Very interesting article. I’ve been looking for a clearinghouse-type of listing that contains these enterprise/Twitter applications – thanks!
For sure, Twitter management is going to become more crucial — if it is not already crucial — for companies that want to use this site. This is especially true as more and more companies jump on the bandwagon.
FYI – we also run an enterprise-strength Twitter-related site. It’s going in beta soon: http://www.ontargettweet.com . It lets companies make sure tweets coming from their employees are “on target” with their main message(s), do not violate corporate/industry policies (or the law), etc.
(Full disclosure: I am connected with the OnTargetTweet site.)
09/08/2009 at 11:52 am
Thanx for the comments and referral. I’ll check it out; AND thanx for the blog link.
09/08/2009 at 10:36 am
[…] Here’s a great article I found on enterprise tools for Twitter. There’s five total, with varied success rates (according to the author). […]
09/08/2009 at 11:32 am
You forgot about http://www.splitweet.com.
Great for not only managing multiple twitter accounts, but tracking conversations about your brand.
09/08/2009 at 11:54 am
Excellent; I’ll check them out. THhnx.
09/09/2009 at 5:12 pm
Thank you so much for including TweetFunnel in this round up! I did want to let you know that we’ve just added support for BudURLs and saved searches (for keyword watching) in our newest version: http://pitch.pe/24926
Thanks again!
Nathalee Ghafouri
TweetFunnel
09/09/2009 at 5:28 pm
thanx for the update and link. I’ve updated the TweetFunnel reference paragraph. Woooo hoooo, real-time information sharing – now that’s social media working to the consumers’ benefit…
09/09/2009 at 8:27 pm
Thanks! The powers of the social web in action–it’s a magical thing! 🙂
Best,
Nathalee
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