Tweet Like a Pro - How to Use Twitter Tools

Twitter has tons of Twitter tools, which aim at helping you tweet like a pro. Not all these tools will be useful to you, but you can choose the ones that you might like to use. To find exciting things on Twitter, visit http://twitter.pbwiki.com/

Tweetburner: You can use this tool not only to shrink your links, but also to check your link stats.

Foamee: This is a great place for beer.

Finding a User’s Conversation Threads: Use the url http://search.twitter.com/search?q=twittername. When the page loads, you will be requested to provide the twittername of the user whose conversation threads you would like to track.

FeedBlitz: This tool permits you to cross-post articles into Twitter straight from a blog. Type the feed url into the subscribe box and choose Twitter as your subscription option.

TwitterGram: Use this tool to associate your Twitter account with your Flickr account. All you have to do is assign a tag to all your Flickr pictures that you would like to post on Twitter as well.

Twitter "TrackThis": This option enables you to track your FedEx, UPS, DHL, and USPS shipments.

Twittercal: Want to add events to your Google calendar from Twitter? Go to Twittercal and add gCal as your virtual Twitter friend. To add events, you only have to send the event as a direct message to gCal, and it will be added automatically to your Google calendar.

Report Spam: If you have caught a spammer using your tweets and pictures, you can report him/her by sending a message to Twitter's spam watch team.

Get Gmail Notification: You can also use Twitter to get gmail notification. Create a new account at Twitter and set the update status as "Protected." This ensures that the updated don't get public. All you have to do now is to subscribe to your RSS Feed at Gmail using FeedBlitz.

Twitter Alarm: Twitter can alert you at a particular time. Follow Twitter user "timer" and send this user a direct message stating the time at which you would like to be alerted. You will get a ping at that particular time.

TweetBeep: Want to know whenever you are mentioned on Cyberspace? This could really boost your ego, make you feel good, and motivate you. Visit tweetbeep and create alerts for your set of keywords and web addresses. An alert will be dispatched to your inbox whenever someone tweets about your blog post or brand name.

StrawPoll: You can use Twitter to conduct polls by visiting StrawPoll. Your followers can participate by just responding to you.

TweetStats: Would you like to have the complete statistics for your account? Use TweetStats to get the number of tweets your account gets per hour or per month, in addition to the number of responses you get and information about the commonly used interface.

TwitterFriends: To know more about TwitterFriends, check out Darren's review of the same: "TwitterFriends - A Useful Twitter Metrics Tool." Input your twittername and get impressive statistics regarding your followers. In fact, TwitterFriends is the most comprehensive of all Twitter tools.

TwitterGrader: Want to find out how Twitter will rank your account? Use TwitterGrader to find out where you figure in a rank of 0 – 100. This gives you an idea of your influence on Twitter space. Twitter ranks its users on the basis of the number of followers, the following, and the number of tweets. This Twitter tool will also help you find out if you are a Twitter elite member in your country.

ReTweetRank: Get a rank for your account as per the number of tweeters who retweet you.

NearbyTweets: Want to find the people who are tweeting close to you? This tool will help uncover some great potential followers.

Twitoria: Old Twitter users usally face the problem of long following lists, as a result of which they get plenty of spam messages. Twitoria will identify outdated, unwanted, and unused accounts for you. This tool will help you unfollow Twitter users who haven’t tweeted for ages.

Qwitter: Want an alert whenever someone unfollows you? Input your twittername and email address on Qwitter and get an alert whenever such as thing happens. Qwitter, however, has a bad reputation. Users have complained that Qwitter doesn’t alert you immediately. It remains quiet for weeks and months and then suddenly sends 30 alerts for followers who unfollowed you long back.

FriendOrFollow: This tool helps Twitter users find out who is following them and who isn't.

Tweetwasters: Want to know how much time  you spend tweeting? This tool will let you know this in exchange for your twittername.

TweetWheel: Use TweetWheel to find out which of your followers are on good terms with each other and are planning a date or a party. This will help you avoid awkward moments.

TwitThis: Do you remember spotting social bookmarking buttons such as Digg and del.i.ciou.s beneath people blog posts? The idea is to encourage people to bookmark the articles if they like them. TwitThis is something similar. Request your readers to tweet the link of your blog post along with a brief summary of it to their followers.

Fail Whale: This sign can annoy you initially, but you have to learn to take it in your stride. It simply means that Twitter is occupied elsewhere and cannot deal with your requirements right now. You can just try again later.