There’s an App For That

Ever heard of HootSuite? How about TweetDeck? Well if you haven’t, you’ve come to the right place. They are applications you can get right on your computer or phone that allow you to “bridge external social networks and internal communication.” To put it more simply, it makes Twitter –or any other social networking site– easier to use.

I decided to try out six of these websites. Here are my reviews…

TweetDeck

Advantages

• Although this isn’t important to some, the layout and design of TweetDeck is very sleek and professional.
• I enjoyed the “TweetDeck Recommends” tab. A lot of the accounts they recommended for me were people I had similar interests with.
• Adding a URL in TweetDeck is great because it automatically shortens it for you. One less thing I have to worry about!
• You can link Facebook, LinkedIn, and other websites to your page.
• Very user-friendly

Disadvantages

• TweetDeck is a download, unlike other sites such as HootSuite. Not a big deal for me, but some people may not want it to be constantly on your computer. I’ve only been using TweetDeck for a few days now, but I also assume there will be updates that may need to be downloaded for the program in the future.
• TweetDeck seems to be liked more by casual “tweeters” but HootSuite is preferred more for businesses. If you are looking for a site that helps manage a large Twitter following, HootSuite may be a better option.

HOOTSUITE

Advantages:

• As does TweetDeck, it splits up Twitter into different categories, such as homefeed, mentions, direct messages, pending tweets, and sent tweets.
• The setup is MUCH better than the regular Twitter setup. It allows me to see everything going on in the Twitter world without having toclick a thousand times to get to the place I want.
• The layout looks nice and is pretty simple to get the hang of.
• With HootSuite, you can manage multiple Twitter accounts, which is nice if you are a business with numerous accounts.

Disadvantages:

• The website was very slow when it loaded my Twitter stream. I had to reload it multiple times before the Twitter tab would even open.
• After I used TweetDeck, I found myself not wanting to come back to HootSuite. They seem to do almost the same thing, but I had a simpler time getting TweetDeck to do what I wanted it to do.
• There are many different options, which may become confusing for people not using Twitter for business.

Seesmic

• I tried using Seesmic but I encountered too many problems to make the application worthwhile. Not only was I forced to download two different programs to make it work, but afterwards, it still did not install.

Social Oomph

Advantages

• If your a business and like to schedule tweets, Social Oomph has a great way to do that.
• There is a tab right on Social Oomph that allows you to shorten links.

Disadvantages

• The design of the website is not well done. It does not look professional and it is not very user-friendly.
• You have to activate your account after you set one up. It just adds one more step to a website that is supposed to make things “simpler.”

Tweet Grid

Advantages

• Great website if you want to follow trending topics on Twitter or if you want to search for a specific subject.
• You can have up to nine hashtags on your grid, which helps if you are a business looking for anything said about your company on Twitter.

Disadvantages

• I was not a fan of the layout. It was very hectic and I wasn’t sure where to look.
• Personally, I would probably not get very much use out of this site because I rarely need to know about a specific topic. I don’t think it is very handy for anyone casually using Twitter.

Monitter

Advantages

• This website is similar to Tweet Grid and helps navigate through a massive conversation about a specific product, person, business, or anything “trending.”
• There is also a way to find out what is being said about something at a specific geographic location.
• You don’t need an account, which is convenient and hassle free.
• The layout was better looking than Tweet Grid.

Disadvantages

• The same goes with my disadvantages about Tweet Grid. I just don’t find myself using a website anytime in the near future.

So out of all of these, which application was my favorite? That would be…TWEetdeck!

The reason being is because it fit all of my needs. However, if I was a business in search of a website that would help me manage what was being said about my company and help sort Twitter out, I would go with HootSuite/TweetDeck and Monitter. As for my least favorite, I would have to go with Social Oomph. I kept feeling like it was trying to spam me rather than help me.

All and all, these websites were extremely useful and helped me navigate through the big sea of social media. I would highly recommend checking these sites out if you want to make life a bit simpler.