Tools of the Twitter famous

I enjoy Twitter, but I'm looking to improve a few things. The worst flaw I've found is that when people write me directly using my username or a direct message, I don't see it for days. I don't click the individual links to show me those messages. So through sheer bad design, I miss the parts of the Twitter conversation that are most important to me.

Another flaw is keeping track of followers. If someone is hitting me with a lot of sandwich tweets or a wall of twenty automated tweets in a row, I want to weed them out. If they're following me back, though, I'll think twice about unfollowing, as it might insult them and I'd probably lose a follower out of it. Unfortunately, there's no integrated way to see if people follow you back.

And then there's design. I like the simplicity of the Twitter interface, but I'd like to at least try something besides a single, static, tiled image.

Perhaps the many, many Twitter tools available could solve my problems. I decided to look first at tools used by Twitterers I like with more than a thousand follows.

This is unscientific, of course. Lance Armstrong, Rainn Wilson, and Martha Stewart could tweet using stone tablets and they'd get thousands of followers. But tools used by busy people probably at least provide efficiency.

In the end, none of the tools I tried solved the three main problems I set out to correct. But one tool, TweetDeck, at least shows replies and direct messages on a single page by default.

Here is a list of tools used by twitterers I follow who have more than 1000 followers.

TwitterBerry
The most popular Tweeter I follow is Lance Armstrong, with 860,957 followers. As of this writing, he had recently used both TwitterBerry and Tweetie. TwitterBerry, as suggested by the name, is a tool for BlackBerry mobile devices. If you have a BlackBerry, TwitterBerry is good enough for Lance Armstrong, so you should probably check it out. I don't have a BlackBerry and don't want one, so I won't review TwitterBerry. Other tweeters who use TwitterBerry: GarinKilpatrick (18,097 followers), SistersTalk (5,276 followers), and PGHolyfield (1,048 followers).

Tweetie
Tweetie is like TwitterBerry, but for iPhones. Popular users of Tweetie include Lance Armstrong (860,957 followers), Rainn Wilson (665,607 followers), Trent Reznor (515,302 followers), Stephen Fry (500,730 followers), ElijahManor (25,048 followers), GeekyGirlDawn (2,274 followers), Verso (2065 followers), TheSuicideKing(1,480 followers), and EvilSpinmeister (1,400 followers).

As with the BlackBerry, I don't have an iPhone and don't want one, so I didn't check this out, but if you have an iPhone, this app seems to very popular with quality tweeters.

Mobile web
Martha Stewart (620,374 followers) is the third most popular twitterer I follow. She posts frequently using "mobile web", which just increases my fondness for her that much more. She's, what, late sixties? and instead of thinking she needs a separate tool to "do this Twitter whatsit" like most intentionally-obtuse older celebrities, she just fires up IE or Opera on her phone and does it. Bravo! Wildly popular feline twitterer Sockington (506,681 followers) also uses the mobile web interface.

TweetDeck
In addition to Tweetie, Trent Reznor uses TweetDeck. TweetDeck is a tool for any major platform (that is, Windows, Mac, or Linux). Other popular users of TweetDeck are The_GMan (68,246 followers), StyleTime (20,683 followers), DataDirt (10,277 followers), Mur Lafferty (3,290 followers), SawHtoo (3,086 followers), SWhitley (2,292 followers),

The three-column design in TweetDeck solved my number one problem right away. Within five minutes of finishing my install, I got an @reply from an IRL friend I wouldn't have wanted to miss.

You can also create groups, so you see your most important followers (i.e., your real friends) first.

I need to change my profile pic, though. I used a full-size giant creepy photo of my face, to embarrassing effect in TweetDeck. It's amazing I've ever gotten a followback from a TweetDeck user.

TweetDeck Summary
Clicks required to see replies and direct messages: Zero
Easily see if someone you're following follows you back? No
Works on PC? Yes
Works on Linux? Yes
Send to Twitter, Facebook, or both? Yes
Easily add people to groups? Yes
Easily add RSS feeds? No
Have to install Adobe Air? Yes
Easily manage multiple accounts (not necessarily a good thing)?

Web
In addition to using the mobile web, Sockington is my most popular Twitter follow who frequently uses the plain old web to update. Good to know I haven't been hobbling myself by loading up twitter.com in Firefox to tweet. Other folks who hit the web to tweet: GeraldWeber, BreakingNewz (28,689 followers), Garin Kilpatrick (18,097 followers), Paste Magazine (18,039 followers), Timothy Adam (17,489 followers), Dana Willhoit (17,051 followers), and Steph Agrestra (11,294 followers), DataDirt (10,277 followers), Cloaker (10,205 followers), Alexandre Gervais (8348 followers), SistersTalk (5,276 followers), Jesse Thorn (5,270 followers), PlayTwivia (4,647 followers), Bitch Magazine (4,575 followers), GraphicRiver (3,518 followers), John Roderick (3,446 followers), ApeLad (3,221 followers), SawHtoo (3086 followers), TweetDr (2,610 followers), Go_GetIt (2,470 followers>, TechMemeFH (2,087 followers), BikePortland (1,597 followers), WomanistMusings (1,469 followers), Dave Hill (1,243 followers), WebChick (1,102 followers).

Web Summary
Clicks required to see replies and direct messages: Two
Easily see if someone you're following follows you back? No
Works on PC? Yes
Works on Linux? Yes
Send to Twitter, Facebook, or both? Yes, with work
Easily add people to groups? No
Easily add RSS feeds? No
Have to install Adobe Air? No
Easily manage multiple accounts (not necessarily a good thing)? Yes

Seesmic Desktop
The next most popular Twitterer I follow is Ustream (453,327 followers). Ustream uses Seesmic Desktop, which works on Mac and PC, but apparently not Linux, and looks similar to TweetDeck.

Seesmic's most obvious advantage looks like its ability to manage multiple accounts. That seems spammy and yucky to me, but one person's spammy and yucky is another person's livelihood, I guess.

Though it is not the default setting to show replies and DMs, there are two links to show those, and you can probably set it up to show those without clicking. I never figured out how to add a friend to a friend group.

Seesmic Summary
Clicks required to see replies and direct messages: Two
Easily see if someone you're following follows you back? No
Works on PC? Yes
Works on Linux? No?
Send to Twitter, Facebook, or both? Yes
Easily add people to groups? No
Easily add RSS feeds? No
Have to install Adobe Air? Yes
Easily manage multiple accounts (not necessarily a good thing)? Yes

Twitli
In addition to the web interface, GeraldWeber also uses Twitli, a Twitter tool for Android phones. Now, unlike BlackBerry and iPhone, I do want an Android phone, but as I'm stuck with Windows Mobile until I strike oil or find gold, I can't yet review Twitli.

Ping.fm
My next most popular Twitter follow, ChrisPirillo (61,885 followers), updates using Ping.fm. Ping.fm is an awesome tool that links one social network to another, and you should check it out whether you want to use it for Twitter or not. Someone posting to Twitter using Ping.fm may be using his Facebook status or FriendFeed or blog to post to Twitter. Ping.fm is a little dangerous, as you can end up spamming people you like with multiple links to the same thing, so if you use it, try to keep track of what's going where. And of course, if you want to keep parts of your online life separated, be very careful with Ping.fm.

Ping.fm Summary
Clicks required to see replies and direct messages? N/A
Has easy way to see if someone you're following follows you back? N/A
Works on PC? Yes
Works on Linux? Yes
Has way to send to Twitter, Facebook, or both? Yes
Easy to add people to groups? N/A
Easily add RSS feeds? Yes
Have to install Adobe Air? No
Easily manage multiple accounts (not necessarily a good thing)? N/A

Twitter Tools
After ChrisPirillo, the next most popular twitterer in this "study" is SitePoint (32,918 follows). SitePoint uses Twitter Tools, a WordPress plugin to tweet. This may be very useful for folks with WordPress blogs, but it's somewhat specific to those users. BikePortland (1,597 followers) also uses Twitter Tools.

bit.ly
In addition to TweetDeck, Styletime posts using bit.ly's bookmarklet. You put the bookmarklet in your browser toolbar, then click when you find an interesting link you'd like to share on Twitter.

Nambu
In addition to the web, PasteMagazine (18,039 followers) uses Nambu, a desktop Twitter application for Macs. Meh. Rasmus (2345 followers) also uses Nambu.

Twitterfeed
PasteMagazine also uses twitterfeed, which, like Ping.fm, will pipe the RSS feed of your choice to Twitter. Twitterfeed looks more versatile than Ping.fm, in that it seems to take any RSS feed, not just pre-approved ones as on Ping.fm. Such services can be used well with care, but it can also lead to the second most annoying Twitter behavior (after spam follows) -- posting an entire page of tweets at the same time. Like PasteMagazine, Alexandre Gervais (8,322 followers), SistersTalk (5,276 followers), and BitchMagazine (4,575 followers) use twitterfeed so I never noticed until I wrote this blog post. SciSolutions (2,051 followers) uses twitterfeed badly, posting ten updates at a time.

Txt
The most popular twitterer I follow who recently used a text message to update was Cloaker (10,205 followers).

ShareThis.com
In addition to the web and twitterfeed, AlexGervais (8,322 followers) used a ShareThis button at the bottom of a blog post to post to Twitter.

Digg
AlexGervais (8,322 followers) also used the Digg toolbar to post something he saw on Digg to Twitter.

CoTweet
In addition to the web interface, GraphicRiver (3,518 followers) uses CoTweet, a business-oriented tool currently in private beta testing.

Twitterific
In addition to Tweetie, Verso (2,065 followers) uses the iPhone app Twitterific. BikePortland (1,597 followers) also uses Twitterific.

HootSuite
IHeartBrunch (1,586 followers) uses HootSuite.

HootSuite's unique feature seems to be that multiple people with different passwords can post to a single Twitter account.

HootSuite Summary
Clicks required to see replies and direct messages? Two
Has easy way to see if someone you're following follows you back? No
Works on PC? Yes
Works on Linux? Yes
Has way to send to Twitter, Facebook, or both? Yes
Easily add people to groups? No
Easily add RSS feeds? Yes
Have to install Adobe Air? No
Easily manage multiple accounts (not necessarily a good thing)? Yes

Twhirl
Sarah Conner (1,282 followers) uses Twhirl, similar to TweetDeck and Seesmic, but very compact. PGHolyfield (1,048 followers) also uses Twhirl.

Twhirl Summary
Clicks required to see replies and direct messages? Two
Has easy way to see if someone you're following follows you back? No
Works on PC? Yes
Works on Linux?
Has way to send to Twitter, Facebook, or both? No (need Ping.fm)
Easily add people to groups? No
Easily add RSS feeds? No (need Ping.fm)
Have to install Adobe Air? Yes
Easily manage multiple accounts (not necessarily a good thing)? Yes

Twitterfon
TheBuzzByBrian (1,154 followers) uses Twitterfon, an iPhone app.


I'd love to hear about your favorite Twitter tools in the comments.