Are you spending too much time on Twitter? Or getting overwhelmed by tasks that the official Twitter can’t do? Then it is high time you consider top Twitter apps & software that power users and professionals had been using.
Social networking success can be achieved easily for personal or work, however it should not happen at the expense of quality time to be spend with family or friends. Start using any of these Twitter tools/clients available in desktops, mobile devices and web-based versions. Get max productivity from the time you allocated daily to social media, and be like a boss!
1. Tweetdeck
TweetDeck, now owned by Twitter, is one of the pioneers for desktop software and is popular among users. As it is running on Adobe AIR, the application maintains the same interface and design for on Windows, Mac, Linux. Using TweetDeck, you can setup and customize columns depending on your habits, and how you want to get the most out of Twitter. You can have columns such as Mentions, Trending, tweets from those you follow, Direct Messages, or your Twitter Lists/Groups. Within each column, you have the options to filter the tweets according to text, name, source and time; or simply show what is the most popular. This is feature is a huge time saver, and lets you focus on what is more relevant.
Other cool features include:
Ability to schedule updates. To do that, you will need to register a TweetDeck account which is free.
Add locations, photos, videos easily with 1-2 clicks.
Manage multiple social media accounts such as Facebook, FourSquare, LinkedIn, MySpace and Buzz (not applicable anymore).
Being a registered TweetDeck user unlock extra features to sync data, such as accounts, saved searches, etc.
Setup Global Filter to remove updates from the timeline. Filters available: “Containing Words”, “From People”, “From Sources”
Choice of URL shorten service: bit.ly, is.gd, tinyurl, twurl, others.
Image sharing/uploading services: yfrog, Lockerz, Twitpic, Posterous, Mobypicture
It is free!
Socialize on the move: TweetDeck is available on mobile devices running on iOS and Android too.
2. Hootsuite
Hootsuite is a web-based Twitter client and one of the most powerful tool that you can lay your hands on. In fact, for normal Twitter users, this may be an overkill. It is available in paid and free version. The free isn’t too bad as it supports up to five social network profiles, basic message scheduling, quick reports (no. of retweets, clicks, etc), and 2 RSS/Atom Feeds to push your updates.
On the other hand, paying for a PRO version unlock many features:
Create a Custom Analytics Report. Very useful for social media agencies who are required to present marketing campaign results to customers.
Create and use teams to collaborate together on various social networks.
Add RSS feeds to push your updates to various social media networks
Adding Tabs to further manage your Columns
Bulk Schedule your messages/tweets.
In terms of Twitter management and display, Hootsuite and TweetDeck are similar. Both use a columnar approach to orderly display tweets according to Mentions, Direct Messages, Trending, etc. The web application can intergrated with your social accounts like Facebook, LinkedIn, FourSquare, Ping.fm, WordPress, MySpace and mixi; and you can update all the accounts/services simultaneously.
Hootsuite also features an app directory that customers can install/add to their Hootsuite dashboard to create a customized experience. Apps include: MailChimp, identi.ca, Get Satisfaction, Constact Contact, YouTube, tumblr, flickr, trendspottr, digg, InboxQ.
As with most Twitter clients/software, HootSuite is available on iOS, Android and Blackberry too. The HootSuite Pro version is at $9.99/month and I won’t recommend that you pick it up, unless your requirements have exceeded what free twitter software can provide you. For those who want a 30-day trial, you just need to sign-up a free account first, and after you login, you should see the advertisement/link to start the trial.
3. Echofon
Echofon automatically keeps unread tweets in sync between your computer, your iPhone and your iPad. The clean looking application is available on iPhone/iPad, Firefox, Mac and Windows. The window size of the application can be adjusted accordingly to your preference. I guess Windows/Yahoo! Messengers loyal fans will love the design.
If you are caught in a situation where you prefer not see any tweets from someone because it is irrelevant, but don’t want to unfollow because he/she is following you, then you will find the feature to Mute users very useful.
At the top of the window, you can easily click and access basic functions to view your Mentions, Direct Messages, Tweets from your Lists, Trending Topics, and your Saved Searches. Other noticeable features include:
Inline Photo Preview
iPhone/iPad Sync – Always pick up where you left off.
Echofon apps can notify you of mentions and messages. Duplicate alerts are avoided and you can set a sleep period.
4. Twhirl
Twhirl interface and design is very minimalist. It is a software desktop client, based on the Adobe AIR platform. It runs on both Windows (2000/XP/Vista/Win7) and Mac OSX. Using twhirl, you can connect to multiple twitter accounts. Also, you can cross-post your updates to other social media sites like Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn. When not in use, you can minimize application window, and open it up only there are notifications for new messages. Images are hosted on yfrog by default. However, I’m not a fan of it. The interface and control settings reminds me of Windows Messenger.
Definitely not suitable for users with a huge following, tweets a lot, or wants more functions. Probably ideal for beginners or individuals who only use Twitter to communicate with smaller group(s).
5. Twitterific
Twitterific, a winner of MacWorld’s award for best Twitter client in 2010, is available for Mac, iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. There are both paid and free versions available. The free version comes with ads and only supports a single account. Upgrading it gives you the ability to add in multiple Twitter accounts and removes the ads. You only need to purchase the upgrade one time to own it on your mobile devices. The app syncs between your devices e.g. between iPhone and iPad.
The design of the app/client is one of the best, making it very easy to use with it’s user friendly interface. Twitterific gives users the ability to create and save customized searches, so that you can quickly keep track of your interests. Another powerful feature is the feature to filter your timeline to display your mentions, direct messages and favorites.
The latest version, Twitterrific 3, supports full landscape mode (for iPhone), official re-tweets, viewing of twitter lists, OAuth authentication, a wide range of media upload services (including custom services) and 3rd party push notifications like Boxcar. Various Twitter image services are supported.
6. Janetter
Janetter is certainly one of the best Twitter applications that I have came across on the Internet. Designed and created by Japanese software developers, Janetter offers 27 standard themes for you to choose from. Not happy with the standard ones? You can customize one. Fonts, wallpaper and display format all are customizable.
The features that Janetter offers can match some to-be-paid-for Twitter apps:
Supports multiple accounts .
You can set pop-up notifications for events such as Messages, Mentions, Replies, when your tweet has been retweeted or favorited, or even when someone started following you. If you are crazy about Twitter and always keep clicking on refresh to check Mentions or Retweets, then it is time to setup a sound notification whenever the pop-up appears.
Mute Users, Words, Applications from the timeline (with options to excludes Mentions and Messages). The muting can be temporary or permanently.
A variety of Image Upload and URL Shorten service for you to choose from
Integrate with Instapaper or Pocket (previously known as Read it Later)
Tweets with images are displayed with a thumbnail in your timeline
Display as columns. You can add the standard ones such as Mentions, Direct Messages, Lists (several) and General Timeline
Tweets are saved locally, so retrieving them is faster.
Translating of tweets simply by clicking CTRL and selecting/highlighting the tweet.
Keyboard shortcuts such as using J and K to scroll up and down your tweets, etc.
An interesting feature is you have the option of display time-lines in a different way. Instead of the newest tweet on top, you can have it at the bottom. The only downside is it doesn’t display Trending Topics or saved searches.
7. Sobees
Sobees is available on the iPad, Desktop, and web browsers versions. The Twitter application offers one of the best Facebook integration to your profile, home, inbox and friends. As with most apps, you can connect multiple Twitter accounts and shorten URLs with your preferred service.
Features that stand out:
Anti-spam feature – you can add words or sentences/phrases that will be automatically ban tweets that fit those filters.
You can connect your Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts; then update your status to all 3 of them from Sobees.
Manage your Twitter List. Add or Delete easily.
If you are looking for a Free software to manage your Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn account, Sobees may be your answer. Probably the killer feature for Sobees is the ability to view our social media feeds the way we want. We can choose from a 16 standard layouts to display our Facebook feeds, LinkedIn updates, Twitter timeline, mentions, direct messages, etc. Reading the status updates is akin to reading a magazine. For those who do not like columns, you can have Tabs to display each social media profile instead. To do that, go to Options->General->Switch to column/tab view.
8. MetroTwit
The design instantly reminds us of Windows phone OS. MetroTwit is made by Australia software developers and is available in free or paid versions. Upgrading to the paid version (MetroTwit Plus) costs AUD $14.95 and allows you to manage multiple accounts and disable advertisements. This is a one-time license free that you can use to install on as many computers as you want.
What’s good?
Notifications and sounds alerts can be setup to show you new tweets.
Block unwanted tweets from appearing in your stream. Supports keywords, @usernames, #hashtags, and applications.
Filters can be set as global or for specific Twitter account.
You can check out current trends, Trends based on locations you set, or view them weekly/daily.
View pictures and videos without leaving the applications
Integrates with TwitLonger. Go beyond 140 chars when you really need to.
What’s not?
However, it is disappointing that MetroTwit doesn’t offer any apps for iOS or Androids. For Windows phone users, you can download rowi. Syncing between multiple computers is not available yet, but the developers promises that it will be ready soon.
9. Seesmic
Seesmic is one of the popular choices among social media users. You can use it anywhere conveniently as a web-based application or as a desktop app. You can connect your Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts into Seesmic and manage all your updates within the app. Seesmic Desktop is compatible with both Windows and Mac OS. With over 90 third party integrations like Klout, Zendesk, Salesforce Chatter, LinkedIn, Yammer, and Stocktwits, this is really a versatile and powerful app. What is amazing is that both the desktop and web-based versions of Seesmic are free.
There’s even an App Store-style Marketplace where you can find add-ons such as Flickr, Google Reader, tumblr, Topsy, etc. Seven categories for you to choose from: Social Networking, Entertainment, Utilities, News, Shopping, Business and Finance.
While it provides easy and quick management of 3 social media networks, it doesn’t provide a comprehensive Twitter features. However it is more than adequate for the normal user. The standard Twitter stuff such as Mentions, Direct Messages, Tweets you wrote, Favorites and Activities can be displayed. Display is in columns and you can add as many as you like, although it will take up more memory.
What it does not have:
No Filter feature
Twitter trends seems broken at the time of writing
Seesmic apps are available for Windows Phone, iPhone, and Android mobile devices. The features are not that comprehensive but is more than sufficient while on the move.
10. Destroy Twitter
Destroy Twitter, an Adobe AIR app, packs a ton of features and yet is unbelievable light on the resources. You won’t be disappointed with the comprehensive customization options (fonts, skin, etc), plus efficiency features such as username autocompletion and notifications. While it may not be a 3-in-1 management app for Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, it is this reason that the UI (user-interface) is very focus and uncluttered. User profiles and images can be conveniently opened in the application or in your browser.
It boasts features seen in most powerful applications such as Filtering irrelevant or immaterial tweets. The range of Filters available is impressive. Filter via keywords, hashtags or applications. None of your business to know where your friends are? Remove those tweets with a Filter on Foursquare. Too much tweets on a particular event, #hashtag or trend, filter it away too! The filters can be set differently for each column.
However with all that said …. with the ambitious name it is using, I would have expected the Twitter desktop client to support multiple accounts, list managements, adding in locations for tweets, support for trends and saved searches. It is above average compared to most twitter apps/clients out there, but it not the weapon of choice for a power user.
Source: Top 10 Twitter Apps & Software to Socialize like a Boss