What tools do you use to handle your Twitter activity? This is one of the questions I get asked a lot…

And while I think tools should take the backseat in social media, they are still important in helping you be more productive, engage better, measure and just make your life easier. Besides, let’s be honest, tools are cool.

That’s why I thought of making a little list of 10 of the free tools I use on a daily basis, not just to share with you what I use but for you to participate and make this a useful discussion. So, add your tools in the comments section of this post to share with everybody and maybe learn from others too.

Here they are:

Twitter Client

1. CoTweet

CoTweet has become my Twitter client of preference for the following reasons:

• It’s web-based, I don’t need to be running applications on my desktop.
• You can use Bit.ly for short url’s.
• It has a simple interface with access to everything you need.
• You gotta love how conversations are displayed on the right sidebar.
• And the team collaboration to work under the same account.

2. Threadsy

I know, Threadsy is not known to be a Twitter client, but

• The consolidation of inbound communications makes it easy to work with only one platform open on your browser.
• It’s very easy to quickly respond to @replies.

Mobile

3. HootSuite

HootSuite took a while to go mobile but I think it was worth the wait. I specially love the user-friendly and design driven interface. Give it a try, it offers both free and paid versions.

Search

4. Twazzup

The reason I prefer Twazzup over Twitter Search (which I still use sometimes) for search is the dashboard feel that classifies information into sections. I find the Top Links and Community sections very useful.

Track Reactions And Mentions

5. UberVu

One of my favorite tools, UberVu has been mentioned in this blog before. It is a great application that

• Track reactions for your blog posts even if you didn’t get credit as a source on a tweet.
• Makes it very easy to identify influencers in the way it displays 1st and 2nd level Retweets.
• The reactions provided by the Disqus commenting system are powered by UberVu.
• Let’s you subscribe to a specific blog post and get email alerts.
• Provides you with very useful charts to visualize the life of a post and the distribution in some of the networks.

6. SocialMention

SocialMention is a popular tool to track mentions, not just on Twitter.

• Use it to track mentions of your brand.
• It also includes a quick analysis of the strength, sentiment and other relevant information.
• You can filter the search by social platforms (blogs, microblogs, bookmarks, etc.).

Track Clicks And Retweets

7. Bit.ly

Bit.ly is the only short url I use, some of the reasons:

• You can track links on a short url you have created or that others have created on an aggregate link.
• It counts shares on Facebook.
• Makes it very easy to track performance on a specific link listing the conversations and displaying charts.
• The Bit.ly sidebar is just off the hook, one of the easiest ways to share content without leaving the site.

8. Topsy

The reason I use Topsy to track Retweets is that

• The results are usually different than Tweetmeme, which is already displaying the count on the post.
• It is easier to track them.

Listening

9. Monitter

If you are monitoring your industry, brand or relevant keywords, Monitter is the free tool you need to integrate in your toolbox. Monitor multiple terms at the same time.

Follower/Following Management

10. Tweepi

Tweepi is another tool I have mentioned before in this blog (read: “How To Manage Your Twitter Following And Followers“):

• The spreadsheet feel in how your following/followers is displayed is very useful.
• Great organization of the data and sorting options.
• Making better decisions on who to follow or unfollow.

Your Turn Now…

Share the tools you use as part of your daily Twitter routine in the comments section and compare with others.

Happy Tweeting!

Having a blog is only step one if you are trying to provide any kind of content. Just a couple of weeks ago I wrote the post 5 Social Tools To Help You Spread Your Awesomeness Outside Your Site in which I talked about coming out to spread your content and generate some traffic back to your site. This week we’ll go over some tools to implement inside.

The objectives of implementing these tools are:

• Build a better user experience.
• Promote user interaction, after all, a blog is a conversation platform.
• Make it easy for your visitor to share and promote your content.
• Make you look like a real pro.

So here is the list of tools, they are all fairly easy to install:

1. Facebook and Twitter Sharing Buttons

While you want to provide the possibility to share to a wide variety of networks, it has been proven that displaying individual buttons for the two most popular sites increases the chances of getting your content shared. Also, if you have been active on Facebook and Twitter and other sites, you have already experienced that most of your traffic is coming from these two sites.

Facebook provides its own code to install directly into your content and while Twitter doesn’t provide its own, you can use Tweetmeme, which is the one you have probably seen already in the majority of sites.

2. Sharing To The Rest Of The Web

Of course Facebook and Twitter are not the only sites and your visitor very well can move in other circles, make it easy for them to share your content to any network. Applications such as ShareThis or AddThis make very easy to implement, usually through a plugin that you can install from your dashboard and a little configuration.

Look for a service that can give a little more, in this case, both services provide analytics.

3. “Follow Me” Links

Another very common practice and a great way to stay connected to your tribe when they are not on your site. If a new visitor likes your content, he/she would most likely love to network with you in other places. Make it very visible on your site and include only the main ones, if you have profiles in 15 different networks it can get a little confusing.

4. Commenting Systems

Commenting systems are a great way to take the conversation to the next level. Services like Disqus or IntenseDebate are now very popular and their installation is as easy as creating a profile and adding a plugin on your blog dashboard. The main feature is that they take the conversation out of your blog into common places making it easier for your visitor to keep the interaction flowing instead of being just a single comment that they can otherwise forget.

Another great tool in this field is Echo, integrating activity from different social networks.

5. Facebook Widgets

Leverage form the most popular network in the planet. Facebook now allows you to display different widgets inside your blog. These widgets include commenting boxes, fan page badges, live streams, fan boxes and, in case you didn’t know, you can now connect your Facebook status to update your Twitter.

6. Promote Inside Navigation

One of the things bloggers usually watch is their “Bounce Rate”, visitors that come in, read one article and surf away from your site. A great way of engaging the reader into navigating your blog a little more before he/she leaves is by promoting related articles. LinkWithin is a plugin that inserts links with images to other content inside your blog at the bottom of each post.

Your visitor mostly likely go for a couple of more clicks if he/she enjoyed your article and is presented with similar stories.

7. Crowdsourcing

If you use your blog to promote a product or a service, social media allows you to give your customers a voice. Crowdsourcing is a fairly new concept that allows a community to become part of the development process by sharing their ideas, feedback and even voting for the best ideas on how to make your services better.

If you are concerned about having a complaint made public think about this, social media is about honesty and transparency, and there is nothing better that solving a problem in front of everybody…

UserVoice lets you create a forum where your customer can express that feedback and easily integrate it into your site.

8. Polls

Another way to provide different kind of content and engage your reader to participate. PollDaddy is a free and very user-friendly service you can use to configure any kind of poll and generates the code to just grab and dump right into your content. The truth is that people love expressing themselves and finding out what others think about the same topic.

Create a post that features a poll or display one to your blog’s sidebar.

9. Social Toolbars

You have probably seen them at the bottom of a blog, they not only add sharing capabilities to networking sites but can also integrate external tools such as your Facebook Fan Page or a Twitter feed come live in your site. Great examples of these bars are Gigya and Wibiya, both free and made available through simple plugins you can install directly from your blog’s dashboard.

Another popular toolbar is Meebo, which integrates instant messaging right on your site. Just be careful and make sure these services are not making your site too slow to annoy your readers.

10. Use Of Other Media

User other forms of media when possible, video for example has proven to be an excellent way to engage the user. Other ways are to use clever photography or even add podcasting to your site. Blogging platforms have made it very easy to add these types of files to your content and you can probably add some rich content with just a couple of clicks.

Don’t limit yourself to text, give your visitor a more visual experience.

Final Thought

Content will always be king, focus first on providing value through it. Having the latest technology will not compensate for not having it.