TweetLater Reviewed

Have you ever wondered how the top Twitter users send you those automatic messages when you start to follow them and how they auto follow you? Are they up all night clicking follow and drafting messages back? No, they are using in many cased a free online service called TweetLater.

I have been testing this new application and consider it a must have for any Twitter “power user”. It is free to use, but you can upgrade to the Professional version and get more features, but the free version is certainly handy and does a few very cool things.

  • Allows you to set up an auto responder sent automatically to anyone who follows you.
  • Allows you to follow (or not) them automatically when they follow you.
  • Allows you to unfollow them automatically when they unfollow you.
  • Allows you to schedule tweets for future publishing.
  • Allows you to enter tweets and will meter out their publishing automatically – like a drip campaign.

I have been using TweetLater mainly for the auto responder feature and find it a great tool for building and connecting with others. If you want to consider the Professional version, it will cost $29.97 a month. In the Professional version you will be able to:

  • Manage multiple Twitter accounts.
  • Allow account access to an assistant
  • Schedule @ replies and direct messages to when the recipient is online.
  • Schedule reoccurring tweets and supply alternative text for rotation.
  • Choose to mute specific uses without unfollowing them.
  • Use TweetCockpit as your Twitter power user interface.

For my personal needs the free version is a good fit. People who may be interested in the Professional version may be product managers and advertising agency account managers.

If you are not using Twitter, you may wonder what is all the buzz about, why invest my precious time? With the research that I have done this past month, what I have found is that some people are actually selling their Twitter traffic services. Let’s say you have 20,000 followers, you tweet about a product and include a link. Even if 10% of your followers went to visit the link, that’s a whooping 2,000 new visitors exposed to your product or service. There have been some interesting stories lately on the Web of entrepreneurs making thousands of dollars a month driving traffic to paying web clients in this manner.

What does this all mean for the everyday business owner? Well first, I’m not going into business selling traffic, but what that does tell me is that if you have a new service, a new product, something you want to promote. You can do it easily, for free, to others in your wider social network thereby exposing your products, services, and content to a massive audience all by yourself. All it takes is some time to build your Twitter following base while interacting with others. It’s actually a win-win situation have fun, build followers, build website or blogsite traffic. TweetLater is just one of the tools to use in your arsenal to get and build your following in your first step towards marketing yourself and services online for free.

Best Practice for Posting Twitter to Facebook

I’ve been doing some testing on the best practices for feeding your Twitter posts to your Facebook status, and I have some new recommendations for you.

First, I post much more frequently on Twitter than anywhere else. Twitter followers are used to this and conversations there are a stream of consciousness back and forth. The Facebook and LinkedIn worlds are different. You can easily lose followers by feeding your Twitter status directly to Facebook and be confused by friends as spamming them with status updates. It is just too much information for Facebook, but the interaction is what grows your network on Twitter.

This is what I do, first I stopped feeding my Twitter status through Facebook with the Twitter application I had installed before. Now I use two applications and select when I update Facebook and LinkedIn. I use TweetDeck and choose to send my status to Facebook about once or twice a day tops. Then I use Ping.fm to send a status update one more time to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and FriendFeed. By turning off the Facebook Twitter application, now only when I want to my status moves to Facebook using TweetDeck – a much more user friendly plan to not alienate Facebook users with the volume of posts that an active Twitter user will typically generate.

Ping.fm is an excellent tool if you want to feed your status to LinkedIn, FriendFeed, Facebook and Twitter all at the same time. I am finding that typically I will have both TweetDeck open and Ping.fm open throughout the day. Now if Ping.fm will just allow me to schedule posts.  You can create posting groups, but I have not figured out if Ping.fm will schedule posts yet.

Google Wave Is It The Next Big Thing?

You can sign up for early access to Google Wave here.  What is Google Wave? Well to me, it looks like Twitter-Google.com-AOL IM-Flkr-Facebook all rolled into one interface. You can read what Google says about it and see screen shots on the Google website for the application.

To me it looks like the next generation of social networking and team collaboration using many of the same applications that we use separately right now. I am thinking that Google should call it Gitter or maybe GFace, or how about Instant G. But no-o-o-o, they have named it Google Wave.

Well I will be riding the crest of the “Wave” when it is released and will keep you posted about this revolutionary new web application that will be out later this year.

The application is being created in part by the same team that has been responsible for Google Maps. With Google Friend Connect, Google is really looking to break into the social networking phenomena and now with Google Chrome in place Google Wave may just be the application that will be positioned to be the tidal wave that will crash the competition in the social networking field.

June e-Newsletter Published

I’ve just posted my e-newsletter for June. You can grab it here.

Topics for June are:

TweetLater – A Twitter Auto Responder Reviewed

HootSuite Reviewed

Our New Twitter Executive Program

If you like the content, you may want to consider subscribing to our monthly e-newsletter.  You’ll get more in-depth content than on our blog and we typically review applications, introduce our newest white papers, and announce services and tips there before we even post any information on our website.

We always email the newsletter on the first of the month and that’s it, no spamming, no marketing, no catches. If you’re into Twitter or just toying with social networking, you’ll want to check out this newsletter to get more applications that will help make your life easier.

TweetLater the Auto Responder for Twitter

I have long wondered just how some people that I follow remember to send me a welcome message. Are they hanging out by their computer pasting in a message to every follower?

Whatever they are doing, I want to do it too! I think it is cool to have a welcome message. So I searched for applications and found a good free one called TweetLater.  I set up a free account, did an auto responder for my own followers and liked the program so much I have even become an affiliate. Hey if you click my link above and sign up for a premium account, TweetLater will buy me lunch at McDonalds.

But you don’t have to pay to use many of the features including the auto responder feature. I have set up an instant message sent to new followers and have even enabled to follow them all automatically. When a new follower unfollows me, I automatically unfollow them. All without any action on my part.

Wow, is all I can say, what a great tool! TweetLater also allows even the free account to scheduled tweets, automatically will space tweets out throughout the day, and even records the results of all of its actions.

So if you want to move your Twitter account to the next level like the top Twitter uses, get your free account at TweetLater. If you follow me @mccordweb, you’ll be able to see the auto responder in action.

See you on Twitter!

How to Make Your Own Background for Twitter

Take a look at my new Twitter background, pretty cool? Want one too? Here’s how you make your own.

  1. In Photoshop set your canvas to 1920 by 1000 set your resolution to 72 dpi.
  2. Pull over guides from the ruler for vertical guides and place them at 25 pixels from the left, then 185 then 200.
  3. Pull down guides from the ruler for horizontal guides and place them at 65, 565, and 705 pixels.
  4. Color your background and add interest with color or brushes as desired.
  5. Add text in the spot that you have created with the guides that looks like a side bar.
  6. Make sure your image is under 80 KB.
  7. Load your new background to Twitter. For me, it took clicking browse and save several times for my image to appear.
  8. Style your font and sidebar by moving Twitter’s color sliders around until you like the effect.

Have fun and make sure to follow me @mccordweb, I’ll make sure to follow you back. See you on Twitter.