I originally wrote this post for my company Overdrive Interactive’s blog. Overdrive Interactive is a full-service online marketing agency based in Boston that specializes in online media, social media, and search engine marketing campaigns and services.

If you’re new to Twitter (yes, many people still are new), getting followers can seem like rocket science. Twitter has evolved since a year ago, when everyone followed everyone back. Now social media is a glamorous affair, with celebrities, companies, and CEO’s joining the party. Now there are tens of millions of people on Twitter, and they’re more picky about who they follow back.

The biggest influence in the decision is interests and how much you have in common. When you follow someone, they’ll get an email notification from which they can click on your profile to see if they should follow you back. The decision is often made within seconds, so it’s important that your interests jump off the page.

1. Have a bio

You have 160 characters to write a bit about yourself that goes on the right column of your Twitter page. Don’t neglect the bio! It will also appear on various Twitter directories, and you’re more likely to be overlooked if the bio isn’t present.

If you’re a company, describe what your product/service is all about, and perhaps include who is the Twitter rep at the company. And if you’re an individual, describe your profession (if relevant) and some other personal interests. Here are some good examples of Twitter bios:

Dunkin Donuts: Dunkin’ Dave here, tweeting on the behalf of the DD mothership. I’m an American and I’m certifiably running on Dunkin’.

Ford: Feel the difference. Account run by @ScottMonty (^SM), @gwenj (^GP), digital communications, @MSchirmerFord, global vehicles comms (^MHS)

Harry Gold: Founder & CEO of Overdrive Interactive (@ovrdrv). Frequent lecturer on online marketing, and leader of search & social campaigns for many Fortune 500 companies.

2. Have an engaging background image

When people come to your page, the background is the first thing they’ll take in. This is a good opportunity to share more about yourself without a character limit restriction. Here are some good elements to have in a background:

• A picture of yourself or your product (after all, the user icons are so tiny)
• Important URLs, including your website, blog, Facebook page, etc.
• Other methods of contacting you, including an email address
• If you’re a company with Twitter reps, list th em (including short bios, photos, and perhaps a legend used within tweets to indicate who’s tweeting)

Here are a couple good examples of Twitter backgrounds:

Southwest Airlines:

Southwest Airline's Twitter Page

Verizon:

Verizon's Twitter Page

3. Talk about more than just yourself

It’s ok to talk about yourself on Twitter, but not in every tweet. Most people don’t want to follow purely self-promoting individuals or companies. For example, if you work in marketing, don’t only post about your own company’s accomplishments. Post articles other industry-related articles, perhaps about other campaigns that you admire. If you’re a car company, don’t only post about your products or campaigns; post articles about how to get the best gas mileage, tips for upkeep, etc.

4. Reply often

Other people on Twitter want to know that if they follow you back, they’ll actually be able to interact with you. They want to know that they’ll be able to ask you a question and not feel like they’re just talking to empty space. So have a variety of retweets and @ replies mixed in with the rest of your tweets.

You’d be surprised how many individuals and companies alike overlook these steps, but these basic elements will help others decide whether or not to follow you. What do you think are the most important factors people look at when deciding whether or not to follow you? Let me know in the comments!

The ability to link Facebook statuses and tweets is great for lazy people, Tweetdeck fans, and social media aficionados boasting “Look at me, see what I can do!”  Ok, that’s a bit harsh. Yes, logging into various social networks to speak your mind may be a bit inconvenient. But it doesn’t mean that the best solution is to say the same exact thing everywhere.

Here are some reasons to consider unmerging your status updates and tweets:

1. The Annoyance Factor

The communication styles of Twitter and Facebook are completely different. Twitter includes elements like hashtags (#), replies (@), and retweets (RT@), and Facebook statuses have normal sentence structures. Facebook statuses are usually in the third person, whereas Tweets are usually in the first person. So merging your Tweets and Facebook statuses means that Twitter lingo will show up on Facebook, and third person sentences will show up on Twitter. Since #, @, and RT@ are irrelevant on Facebook, nobody wants to see it there. Especially when you’re replying to someone else, because then your status won’t even make sense. And you just look silly talking in the third person on Twitter. Very annoying.

2. The Privacy Factor

Everyone uses Facebook and Twitter differently, but commonly Facebook is like a reunion of friends and Twitter is like a podium in front of an audience with a short attention span. You can use Facebook’s super-customizable privacy settings and limit who reads your status updates. However, Twitter is completely public, so even people not following you can read your Tweets. You could restrict your profile completely, but then you won’t get many followers. So do you really want to be Tweeting everything you say on Facebook? Not only are people on Twitter not really interested in what you’re doing Friday night, but that’s a bit scary, right? People don’t have to be following you to pay attention to you; you’re just a URL away from who-knows-who.

3. The Who-Cares Factor

Like many people who use both Facebook and Twitter, I use Facebook for my friends and Twitter for everyone else, but mainly for my career field (marketing and social media).

One of my typical Facebook statuses might be: “Just had the most awesome weekend ever, but so sad it’s Monday!” My Facebook status will get several likes and a few “Me too” or “What did you do this weekend?” comments. My Twitter followers WILL NOT CARE.

One of my  typical Tweet might read:  “Top 10 Ways For Brands to Use Social Media – bit.ly/yaddayadda.” My Tweet might get a few retweets and a reply, “You might like this article too: bit.ly/blahblah.” My Facebook friends WILL NOT CARE (unless they’re one of my coworkers).

4. The Word Limit Factor

On Twitter, you only get 140 characters to speak your mind. On Facebook, you get 420 characters for status updates. So why would you limit yourself to a mere 140 characters on Facebook when you don’t have to?

5. The Frequency Factor

The communication styles on Twitter and Facebook are much different. On Twitter, you want to meet new people and make yourself known, so you might update your status more frequently with links, useful knowledge you might have, and other interesting tidbits of information. On Facebook, things are more relaxed because all of your friends have friended you back; it’s not like you’re trying to impress people into following you. Because of this, people tend to tweet much more often than they update their Facebook status. So while it’s acceptable to have five tweets in a row, it’s almost obnoxious when someone on Facebook updates their status five times in a row.

It’s ok to merge tweets and status updates on an individual basis. For example, if there’s a funny link you want to share, or something everyone could enjoy, then by all means, merge away. Otherwise, keep them separated.

Do you merge your Tweets and Facebook statuses? What other reasons are there for not merging them. On the flip side, what do you think are the benefits of merging them?

Social icons are important for both encouraging users to share your content and promoting your presence on social networks. So here is a large selection of social icons in different colors to fit the color scheme or your website or blog:

They are available in 20×20, 40×40, and 60×60. Right click and save each icon individually, or click on an icon to download the entire icon pack (.zip file). If you have any color or size requests, leave a comment and I will add them as soon as I can.

If you use one of these images, donations or links back to this site are much appreciated!

40×40 Social Icons

20×20 Social Icons

60×60 Social Icons

Obtaining a high page rank isn’t something that happens overnight. It takes time, effort, and patience. You may have read advice that tells you to comment on other relevant blogs, build relationships with dofollow bloggers, participate in forums, and guest blog. And while that’s all good advice (great advice, actually), some of us don’t have as much time as others. And these things are very time consuming.

So here are some simple SEO tips you can use without having to leave your own blog. And remember: even though it’s good to put yourself out there and be an active participant in the blogosphere at large, your blog’s content (quality, quantity, and relevancy) truly is the main factor when it comes to getting traffic to your blog.

1. Content is King

I can’t emphasize this enough. The quality and richness of your content make more of an impact on page rank than any of the tips to follow (though they do help move things along). Strive to have unique and frequently updated content on your blog, and it will drive up your ranking.

2. Link Out

Link out to at least one external site in every blog post. Establishing site relevance is a huge factor in your page rank, so link to pages and sites that are relevant to yours.

3. Links Should Have Meaning

Update your anchor text (the text acting as a link) to have better keyword value. Both internal and external links should have meaning, and stay away from using “here,” “click here,” “this,” etc. as links.

• Incorrect:  If you’re looking for Twitter badges for your site, click here.
• Correct: Here are some Twitter badges for your site.

4. Optimize Your Permalinks

Include the post category and post name in your URLs. Use keywords in your URLs, keep them short and sweet, eliminating words like “and” or “the.”

• Incorrect: http://UStandOut.com/?p=123
• Correct: http://ustandout.com/twitter/beginners-guide-twitter

5. Create a Sitemap

Having a sitemap will make it easier for search engines to crawl and index your blog. Read more about creating Google Sitemaps, and if you have a Wordpress blog, install the plugin Google XML Sitemap Generator.

6. Use Header Tags

Use header tags <h></h> instead of bolding your headlines/subheadlines. Since header tags aren’t the prettiest in terms of formatting, use CSS to override the default look. For example: H1 { color: red; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px }.

7. Use Title Tags

Title tags (<title></title>) determine what that page will be called in the search results. Be sure to use rich keywords in your title tags. For those of us who use Wordpress or another blogging tool, this will be automatic, so be sure you’re using those keywords in your blog titles.

8. Use Description Tags

The description tag (<meta name=”description” content=”Description tag here.”>) determines the text that goes below your page’s title in the search results. These should be no longer than 160 characters in order to show up completely and correctly on Google.

9. Use Alt Tags on Images

Every image on your site should have an alt tag, especially if the image is relevant to the content of the page. And don’t simply give it the tag “screenshot” or “image.” Make the tag keyword rich. For example: “The Tweetdeck Application for Twitter.”

10. Don’t Try to Fool Google

You’d think this was a no-brainer, but I see it all the time. Do not try to fool Google. Do not stuff keywords in invisible text, do not purchase links, do not partake in “link swapping,” and do not take any of advice from those blogs encouraging you to cheat the system. Your site will be flagged, and your page rank will be lowered. Bloggers that actually do have good content often hurt their page ranking because they’ve attempted these tricks. Just don’t do it.

What SEO tips can you add to the list?

Disqus is a commenting system and moderation tool for your site or blog. It’s pretty amazing; I use it here at U Stand Out. It’s super easy to use and is packed with neat features including social network integration, powerful moderation/spam filter tools, and connection to an entire discussion community. Disqus V3 is being launched today, and now offers a management system for the commenters themselves.

Disqus already had advantages to both commenters and publishers, but especially publishers. With features like integrated Facebook Connect and the ability to sign in with other social networking accounts, including Twitter, publishers don’t have to worry about configuring comment registration themselves. In case you haven’t tried it, installing Facebook Connect yourself and actually getting it to work can be a major headache.

So what’s so cool about V3?

Disqus Profile

Not to worry; the Disqus Profile is not another profile you have to manage (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc ^infinity). It’s a management tool for commenters to control all their comments, subscriptions, and profiles, all in one place.

You can browse your comment history, and view, edit, or delete comments without having the visit the specific site or blog. You can also add your various social profiles (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) to your Disqus profile and syndicate your comments through Disqus to all or some of those networks.

The advantage of catering to users in addition to publishers isn’t only that it makes the system more efficient (which is definitely true), but that it will encourage users to be more active commenters. This is good news for bloggers out there who have Disqus installed, and is also a good reason to use Disqus on your own blog if you’re not already.

Disqus Comments

Disqus Comments was amazing even before V3. In case you have not used Disqus before, here are some of my favorite features to begin with:

• Comment format: threaded comments and replies
• SEO Friendly: comments indexable by search engines (which as an SEO nerd makes me very happy)
• Social Login Capabilities: allows users to sign in with other social network logins (Facebook Connect, sign in with Twitter, Open ID, etc)
• Moderation: powerful moderation and spam filtering tools
• Auto-sync: easy to import existing comments and backup comments
• Subscription: easy-to-use subscription and RSS options help you keep your readership numbers
• Discussion community: Connection with a large discussion community, which leads to increased exposure and readership. I get lots of traffic through Disqus

Here are some new features V3 has to offer:

• Moderation interface: has been redesigned to an inbox-style that makes moderation super easy
• Filtering options: You can now filter by comment, thread, or search term
• Word filter: enter words that will trigger moderation if mentioned in comments
• Whitelist or blacklist: ban or always allow email addresses or usernames to comment
• Customization: includes nicer styling options for your comments section

The one problem I have with Disqus is the inability to change your username. Now that V3 allows you to have your own Disqus vanity URL (mine is http://disqus/dianaf86), I care more about changing my screen name created last year to my more universal dianafreedman screen name. Upon asking the people at Disqus if I could switch (I already made sure to snatch up dianafreedman), they informed me it wasn’t possible. Hmph.

What do you think of the latest version of Disqus? How do you manage comments on your site? Do you think you’ll use Disqus to manage your own comments?

Twitter is a microblogging platform that lets you broadcast short messages to your “followers” (the equivalent of a friend or connection). If you don’t already have an account, I recommend you get one, at least to see what all the fuss is about. It’s all over the media, has become part of major companies’ interactive marketing campaigns, your coworkers are talking about it, and even celebrities are using Twitter.

But I’ve talked to so many people who haven’t joined or gave up on Twitter because they didn’t know where to start. The interface is almost too simple, and it’s not always obvious what to do next. So here is a newbie’s guide on how to use Twitter.

1. Create a Twitter account

Go to http://twitter.com and click “Get Started—Join!” Enter your full name and create a user name. I suggest using your full name (firstlast) if it’s not already taken. There’s a time and place to be anonymous, and Twitter isn’t really it; one of the major opportunities of Twitter is the networking aspect. Still, if you want to create a fake identity, go for it. Then fill out the remaining required fields.

2. Skip the next two prompts

After signing up, you’ll be taken to an import contacts screen, followed by a suggested user prompt. I recommend writing at least a couple tweets and uploading an avatar before following anyone. People will be more likely to follow you back if they know at least something about you besides your username. You can come back to these screens later.

3. What are you doing?

I don’t think anyone has joined Twitter without staring at that text box wondering what the heck to say to audience of nobody in 140 characters or less. Maybe you’ll start out with the obligatory “Figuring out this Twitter thing.” You can get some ideas for what to tweet about in my article What You Should Tweet About, so I won’t get too in depth about it here. Start out by posting a link to an interesting article, commenting on some current event, and asking a question (perhaps a question you have about your industry).

Leave your most recent tweet as an open-ended question right before you start networking. Once you follow people, they’ll look at your profile to see if they want to follow you back. For however many seconds that takes, you will have their attention, so this is a great opportunity to get a good number of replies.

4. Customize your Twitter page

The next thing you’ll want to do is customize your Twitter page.

• More Info URL – submit the URL of your website or blog.
• One line bio – since you only have 160 characters here, this isn’t a good place to be too descriptive. Instead, fill most of the space with keywords to describe what you’re interested. This will make it easier for like-minded people to find you.
• Location – enter your location (pretty self-explanatory).
• Picture – Upload a photo that will be used as your avatar. I recommend this being a picture of you. People on Twitter want to be following other real people, so using a real photo will show that you’re a real person, that you’re not just a bot or scam account.
• Design – Twitter has some basic backgrounds to choose from, but I think your backgrounds should represent more of who you are since your bio can only be 160 characters long. Many people) also include links to other social network profiles and contact information. You can find some customizable backgrounds here, and more are coming soon!

5. Set up mobile Tweeting

To set up the mobile features, go to “settings” and then “devices.” Enter your cell phone number and then follow the instructions to validate the phone. Then you can send an SMS message to 40404 any time you want to tweet and you’re not at a computer.

You can also turn on notifications when anyone sends you a reply or direct message, but this can get extremely annoying if follow a lot of people. It’s better to turn this feature off and check Twitter whenever on your mobile web, if you have it.

6. Follow people you know in real life

The first thing you should do is to connect with people you already know. On Twitter, this is called “following” someone. Not everyone you follow will follow you back (unless you’re just super awesome like that). If they know you in real life, they’ll probably follow you back, so let’s start there.

In the top navigation, click on “Find People,” then “find on other networks.” Enter your main email address and password to see which of your contacts are on Twitter. Of those, you’ll be able to select which you want to follow.

If you know that some of your friends are on Twitter but they’re not in your address book, you can click “Find on Twitter” and type in their names or usernames.

7.  Follow people with similar interests

Next, find people with similar interests who you don’t necessarily know in real life, nor will probably never meet. These can be people who work in the same industry as you, share the same hobbies, like the same television shows, also run marathons, share your love of knitting; you get the idea.

There are several ways to find these people. You can do a Twitter search for topics of interest to see who’s been tweeting about them, and then follow them. Then there’s Twellow, a twitter directory where you can type in a keyword or phrase and see the most influential tweeple in that category. There’s also Twellowhood, where you can find people in your neighborhood or city who are also on Twitter.

Everyone’s Twitter experience is different because everyone has different interests, and follows people accordingly. If you follow people for the sake of building your numbers, the conversations won’t be as engaging, the article links won’t be as interesting, and what you learn from your Tweeple won’t be as relevant to your interests. Also remember, you don’t have to follow everyone who follows you.

8. Interact with your Tweeple

You can talk about anything on Twitter, but remember not to just talk AT your followers. Interact with them. Then they’ll be more likely to reciprocate.

Replying: Begin your tweet with @username to reply to that user or say something specifically to them. You can have more than one @username in a tweet if you want to say something to multiple people, but keep in mind your 140 character limit.

Direct Messages: Send someone a private message using the direct messaging feature. Begin your tweet with d username to send someone a direct message. You can only send direct messages to people who are following you back.

Retweeting: You can also retweet someone’s tweet, meaning you can repost a message already posted by another Twitter user. This will look like “RT @username whatever the message is.” People usually retweet interesting links, breaking news, and announcements. Sometimes people even ask for their message to be retweeted (“please RT!”).

9. Organize your Tweets

Use the hashtag feature (#) to organize your tweets. Most of the time, hashtags just help categorize your tweets so others can easily find it. For example, I tend to tweet about #Lost on Wednesday nights, and I like to read other people’s #Lost comments during commercial breaks. And on Friday’s, you’ll probably notice the tradition of #followfriday, where people recommend other tweeple to follow.

You can also participate in a conversation about a specific topic with hashtags. Sometimes this will be an actual conversation, such as when you’re at a conference, concert, or any public event. You can add commentary by including #topic in each tweet, and then view other people’s comments at Twitter Search.

10. Learn the Twitter lingo

Here are the most common terms used on Twitter that you’ll eventually come to be familiar with. Some of them have been sprinkles throughout this article. You can see a complete list at the Twictionary: The Dictionary for Twitter.

• DM = direct message
• ReTweet or RT = to repost a message already posted by another Tweeter
• Twaffic = traffic you get from Twitter
• Twat = a Twitter spammer
• Tweeple = people on Twitter, Twitter users… basically anyone who uses Twitter
• Tweeter = one who Tweets, or one who uses Twitter
• Tweet = a message on Twitter
• Tweeting = the act of writing a message on Twitter
• Tweetup = an in-person meetup of Twitter members
• Twestival = a coordinated Twitter event in cities around the world, and the money raised at these events go to charity

Here are some more helpful Twitter articles:

• Top Twelve Reasons to Twitter
• What Should You Tweet About?
• Top Twelve Twitter Tools
• Free Twitter Badges For Your Website or Blog

What is one tip you would give to a new Twitter user?

About a week ago, I was browsing through a salon and hair product shop at a nearby outlet mall, when a very familiar design caught my eye. The Twitter bird was part of the design of Paul Mitchell’s Tea Tree products.

My first thought was “wow, Paul Mitchell stole Twitter’s logo,” so I quickly took some shots with my cell phone.

And here is Twitter’s design:

It’s also available in a free wordpress theme called “Blue Bird” by Randa Clay.

Upon further research, I discovered that the blue bird originated from a stock image that Twitter used and probably didn’t buy the exclusive rights to. In fact, the blog twistermc mentions that the iStockPhoto user helloyiying created both the bird and the fail whale. Both images are no longer available, so I assume that someone now has the exclusive rights.

Did the Paul Mitchell company intentionally “steal” the logo after Twitter exploded? Probably not, though I have no idea who bought the image first. But it definitely got my attention in a room full of shampoos, and I’m sure others have noticed, too.

So the question is: does this matter? Who owns the rights now? The Twitter bird has become a big part of the Twitter brand. Enough people associate Twitter with the image and even display the bird on their own websites to publicize their Twitter pages (including the badges I created). Should companies like Twitter make sure that prominent images to their brand are not used as logos/designs for other brands?

What do you think?

Want to encourage your visitors to follow you on Twitter? Here is a large selection of badges to choose from, with a variety of colors, styles, and sizes. Just save the image of your choice, add it to your website or blog, and link it to your Twitter profile. If you have any suggestions, or requests for color or a different badge size, please comment below and I will add them as soon as I can. Also let me know if you would be interested in seeing these badges as a Wordpress plugin.

If you use one of these images, donations or links back to this site are much appreciated!

In the next section, the images on the left are transparent PNG files, and on the right are JPG graphics on a white background.

Please do not link directly to these images. Instead, download the one you’d like to use and upload it to your own site. You may not take these images and host them on your own site for download by your own visitors. Thank you!

Signing up for a new Twitter account is a sort of funny experience. After being asked to import contacts from Gmail and follow a bunch of people from a randomly generated list, you’re presented with nothing but a 140-character text box. Ok… so I’m supposed to say… what exactly?

You’d think writing 140 characters wouldn’t be so hard. On one hand, you’re thinking about Twitter as a micro-blog, so you must need to fit some serious insightfulness into a sentence or two. Or, you’re wondering if you should write updates about your daily life, and thinking “but do people really care if I’m watching TV? Making a sandwich? Doing laundry?”

All twitterers are different, so there’s no definite guide or formula to follow. But you should keep in mind what other people on Twitter want to read about. You want to provide them with valuable content and somehow engage them in conversation. Here are some ideas to help you start tweeting:

Share links

Most tweets I see contain links. If you see something interesting online, whether it’s a funny article, industry news, or advice your followers might find useful, share the link. Also share links to your own new blog posts. Use a link shortening service like SnipURL so you have room for some brief commentary.

Break news

The news of terrorist attacks in Mumbai broke on Twitter before CNN. That’s how fast things happen on Twitter. Although it’s unlikely (usually fortunately so) that you’d be on the scene to deliver the story on Twitter first, if you read breaking news on CNN (TV or website), tweet about it. If you see some new gossip about a celebrity of interest, tweet about it. You get the idea. You follows will learn to pay attention to you as a source of new information.

Tweet about events

I use “events” broadly… this could range from going to a conference, to watching a sports event, to watching a popular TV show. Use hashtags to categorize your posts and make it easy for others to find. For example, I’ve most recently tweeted about #superbowlads and #LOST. You can do a twitter search to see what # people are already using, or make up your own. Once people with similar interests follow you, they’ll be interested in your opinion.

Be opinionated

Sharing your opinion is the best way to spark conversation because everyone else has their own opinion, and most people are more than willing to share it. Obviously, this could be anything under the sun, but you can look up what topics are hot on Twitter for ideas. For example, I could say, “I think Google Latitude is a tool for stalkers, I’d never sign up. What’s the benefit, anyway?” As long as I have a lot of followers who are interested in web tools, I’ll probably get a response.

Ask questions

Engage your followers directly by asking them questions. It could be to ask for an opinion, a recommendation, a fact you can’t find by basic Google search, or in reply to one of your follower’s tweets. It’s been shown that prefacing your question with “help” and “please” could get your more retweets and responses.

Be funny

People like to laugh. If you’re the witty or sarcastic type, let your sense of humor show in your tweets.

Be a critic

If you just read a book, watched a movie, ate at a famous restaurant, went on vacation etc., let your followers know what you thought. Don’t drone on and on in multiple tweets. But cultural references plus your opinion is the perfect way to write a valuable tweet.

Retweet

If one of your followers tweets something valuable, feel free to retweet it. If you’re new to the Twitter game, a retweet looks like this: “RT @username whatever the quote or link is.” Desktop clients like Tweetdeck make it easy to retweet with the click of a button. Calling out the follower by @username will get their attention, so this is also a good way to get influential tweeple to follow you back. Also, the more you help others, the more likely they will be to retweet for you.

Send a Direct Message

Not all of your tweets need to be public, so if you have a question or want to say hello to a particular follower, send them a direct message. You can have a longer conversation this way without having to fill up the rest of your followers’ twitter streams. It’s also a good idea to thank people for following you with a direct message.

There’s no limit to the types of conversations that go on in the Twittersphere, but these are some ideas to get you started. Tweet a variety of these, not just retweets, or just links. And remember, there is no one secret formula. Just relax and be you, and tweet away! And you can follow me at @dianafreedman, if you’d like.

What do you use Twitter for? How do you communicate with your followers?

Twitter is a social media phenomenon that can seem rather underwhelming the first time you log in. You’re presented with a 140-character limit text box and a way to find friends via your email address books. That’s about it. But Twitter is a powerful tool you can use to network and become highly visible in your niche.

I use Twitter every day (@dianafreedman), and here are the twelve Twitter tools I consider the most useful:

1. Tweet Deck – a desktop client

Tweet Deck is one of several Adobe Air desktop applications. Unlike the other desktop apps, it splits your Twitter feed into columns, so you can get a broader overview of your tweets. This is especially helpful if you follow a lot of people. You can have columns to separate @ replies, direct messages, topic, and friend groups. Friend groups are my favorite feature, so you can group people by industry, common interests, and you’re real-life friends. You can easily tweet, reteweet, reply, send a direct message, and follow people within the application.

2. Twitter Search + Hashtags – a hot topic tracker

I’m already cheating; these are two separate applications, but are very powerful when used in conjunction with one another. Twitter Search, formerly Summize, lets you see what people are saying about a topic of your choice. Type in a TV show, book, website, or even your own company or name, to see the latest buzz on your topic.

Hashtags makes Twitter Search infinitely cooler. Hashtags are the #  people place in front of a word (for example: #lost) to tweet about a specific topic or event. So instead of searching for “lost,” which might retrieve results like “lost my car keys” or “I’m lost in NYC, ACK!”, typing in “#lost” will bring back results specific to the hit TV show on ABC. You can see what topics are popular on the Hashtags site, but since Twitter Search also does this it’s not too essential. Use hashtags yourself to appear in these search streams.

3. Twellow – a tweeple directory

You can find people with specific interests as you on Twellow. This is really useful when you’re trying to reach out to people in your niche. Searching is easy; just type in a keyword and find profiles that match your interests. You can also create an extended biography, which lets you extend past the 140-character limit. Do this. The more people know about you, the more likely they’ll be to follow you.

Twellowhood lets you find people geographically, so you can see if there are any Tweeple in your neighborhood.

4. Friend or Follow – a follow tracking tool

This tool makes it easy to see which of your friends aren’t following you back, which people are following you that you aren’t following, and people you are mutually following. Pretty self explanatory, and very helpful if keeping a good follow ratio matters to you.

5. Tweetlater – a tweet scheduler

Going on a long vacation and don’t want to seem like you’ve fallen off the planet? You can schedule future tweets with Tweetlater, so your tweets will appear in the your followers feed at predetermined times. You can also automatically tweet about a blog post with the RSS feature. Tweetlater also includes services like automatic following and sending direct messages when others follow you, but I use SocialToo for those features (see #10). You can also set up keyword alerts to receive email updates of what people are tweeting about a topic, which could be yourself or your company.

6. Twitt(url)y – a popular link aggregator

Twitt(url)y is like the Digg of Twitter. The homepage shows what URLs are currently being tweeted/retweeted the most, and also shows the comments referring to the URL in the Twitter stream. I definitely like knowing what topics are hot, so this is a great supplement to Twitter Search.

7. Twitter Counter – a user ranking service

This tool tracks your follow trends. It charts how many followers you’ve had since  you opened your Twitter account, and predicts how many followers you will have tomorrow, in 30 days, or whatever time frame you choose. You can choose to receive daily email updates on your Twitter stats. Twitter Counter also provides a stat counter to place on your website or blog to show off your follow count, and encourage more people to follow you.

You can also look up the stats of any Twitter user, so you can see the following rate of successful and highly visible Twitterers.

8. TwitPic – a photo sharing tool

TwitPic adds another dimension to the twittersphere by letting you easily share photos on Twitter. You can geo tag the photos and view the site’s google maps mashup. It’s fun to watch photos being added on the map in real time. TwitPic also supports mobile and email uploads.

9. Tweetake – a backup service

If you use Twitter a lot, be aware that Twitter doesn’t save old tweets after a while. That’s where Tweetake comes in. It backs up your followers, tweets, favorites, and its simple interface makes the process a no-brainer. Within a few seconds you’ll get a CSV file containing all your messages.  You can open the file with any text editor.

10. SocialToo – a survey and automatic feature tool

Want to survey your tweeple? SocialToo includes the feature to send out surveys to your Twitter stream, and with the power of retweets, you can get some great results. Like Tweetlater, This tool is complete with automatic messages to people who follow you, automatic follow backs, and automatic unfollows when someone unfollows you. You can also subscribe to receive daily statistics about followers and unfollowers, which is

11. TweetStats – a Twitter stats service

TweetStats is more interesting than useful as a tool. It graphs your Twitter stats, including tweets per day, tweet density (what time of day you tweet most), aggregated daily and hourly tweets, replies, and interface used (web vs. Tweetdeck). And since you don’t have to login to use this feature, you can look up other tweeple’s stats, too.

12. TwitThis – a URL sharing tool

TwitThis is a tool you can add to your website or blog to make it easy for people to tweet about you. When clicked, it automatically shortens the URL, lets you add a description, and tweets it to your stream. TwitThis is also available as a Wordpress plugin, and has instructions for how to add it to Blogger. You can also add TwitThis as a bookmarklet to send a message through Twitter about any page you’re viewing.

There are many more applications that are useful, like Twirl, or just plain cool, like Twittervision. Mashable has larger list of 140+ Twitter Tools that I’d recommend to any Twitter aficionado. But if you don’t have the time to go through all 140, these twelve, in my opinion, are some of the best.

What Twitter Tools do you use regularly? Which is the most useful? The most fun?