Rachel Levy: Social Media & Marketing

Note: This is a version of a post I made on the Wall Street Journal online blog on  August 4, 2009.

I can’t continue to write for the Wall Street Journal “Laid Off and Looking” blog anymore, because I have a new job! I will be the Director of Marketing and Social Media at Second Time Around, a consignment clothing retailer with 19 stores in 8 eastern states (MA, NH, RI, ME, CT, VT, DC, NY). Second Time Around’s owner, Jeff Casler, recently got venture capital funding from Generation Equity Investors, so is slated for more growth in the coming years.

I got this new position through a combination of Twitter, an online job website, and good old fashioned networking. Back when I first lost my job a year ago, I posted my resume on a site called Jewish Jobs. Lisa Colton, the founder of Darim Online, was looking for someone with my background for some consulting work and found me on the website. She also recognized my name because she had been following me on Twitter for a couple of months and liked the things I had to say. So over the next few months, we kept in touch and talked about how we could work together. Then on June 17th, I got an email from Brian Colton (Lisa’s brother-in-law), a partner at Generation Equity, saying they were looking to fill a marketing position at their latest venture, and Lisa had given him my name. One month later, on July 16th, STA offered me the job!

A year ago, I don’t think I would have gotten this job. I wasn’t well versed in social media, but I have been focusing on that for the year I have been out of work. Social media is such an important part of marketing these days, and I was behind the eight ball before this year. I also think that being involved in social media has put me “out there” so much more, that potential employers like Lisa or Jeff could see what I’ve been up to much more easily. One look at my Twitter account, my website, or the posts I’ve been doing for this blog, bring instant credibility to me. You can see the way I write, the way I think and where my interests lie. I know this had an impact on me getting the job I did, and think it’s vital to a successful job search, even for people not interested in marketing.

Note: This is a version of a post I made on the Wall Street Journal online blog on  August 4, 2009.

I was delayed in writing this post for the WSJ blog, because I was hoping to be able to write about a job offer I was expecting to have. It didn’t come. It still may, so I haven’t lost all hope, but it sounds like the company may be unsure whether or not to hire for the position. Sound familiar? I have been hearing this more and more lately with the poor economy. Either the company advertises for a job, and then decides they aren’t hiring any more, or they restructure the job in the middle of hiring because they are trying to accomplish more with less, or they just decide to put the position on hold.
So not only do we (laid off folks) have to deal with the stress of being out of work, and an unknown financial future, we are also impacted by the uncertainty that companies are feeling themselves. This makes it tough, and honestly a bit emotionally trying at times.
The way I have combated this is to try to not get too excited about a job until it becomes a reality. I talk about potential jobs with my friends and family, but try to not go into too much detail. The more we talk, the more excited I get, and the more they ask questions. “Did you get the job?” “When will you hear back?” “Did you hear from them yet?” “What are the next steps?” “Did you follow up with them lately?” It’s supportive, but for me, more and more talk brings more and more excitement, and consequently more and more disappointment when it doesn’t work out. So, no more detailed discussions for me!
The other way I have combated this becoming too emotionally trying is to continue plugging away, even though I have a good feeling a potential job will work out. Don’t stop. You need to keep going until you accept the job, or even the day you start your job. In this economy, anything can happen, and stopping not only wastes time if it doesn’t work out, but emotionally it makes you more invested in the opportunity you are waiting on. Keep many balls in the air, and don’t be “monogamous” until you get the offer, because you know the company certainly is not.

Readers, how do you prevent yourselves from getting too emotionally invested in a potential job opportunity?

Note: This is a version of a post I made on the Wall Street Journal online blog on June 17, 2009.

A few months, I was asked a question by a potential employer that I couldn’t answer “What do you think of what we are doing in social media?” I couldn’t answer it not because I didn’t know what he meant, but rather, that I hadn’t actually looked it up. Although social media is the area of marketing I am most interested in, I was still stuck in my old ways of researching a company… by looking at their website.

Doing thorough research of a company is one of the most important steps in preparing for an interview. Not that they will necessarily ask you the direct question that I got asked, but because it gives you the opportunity to bring up what you have researched, or just have a better understanding of how the company operates. Realizing this, put me into action to change the way I now research companies.

Here’s what I do now.

• I search for the company’s fan page on Facebook. I look what they have posted, and what their fans are posting about them. I do the same for YouTube.
• I find their corporate account on Twitter, and again, see what they are tweeting about. I also search on an application called Twellow, to find employees of the company, and see what they are writing about.
• I find their company profile on LinkedIn, and look up the profiles of some of the people I might be working with or key executives, and definitely the people I will be interviewing with. I find at least one item about a person that I have in common with them, so I can bring it up in the interview somehow.
• I do quick searches for the company and key people on Hoovers and Zoominfo. Other good websites include: Vault, Glassdoor, Lexis Nexis, Bloomberg and Yahoo Finance. Of course, there’s a good old search engine on the company’s name, or coupled with key words such as “good” or “bad.” Through looking at these sites, I also try to understand who the company’s major competitors are.
• Of course, I still look at the company’s website, and at a minimum, read the About Us section, the press section, and overall what the company has been doing. If they have a blog, I read the first few posts.

Spending the time doing this extensive research has really helped me better understand the mindset of the people and the company I’m interviewing with. Yesterday, I was asked in the interview what I thought of a company’s website, and I could give a very thorough analysis.

What do you think?  What are your preferred methods of researching a company prior to an interview?

Note: This is a version of a post I made on the Wall Street Journal online blog on June 2, 2009.

When my position as the Director of Marketing at the JCC was eliminated in July, it was a complete surprise to me. It was just as the economy started going south, but I didn’t foresee it affecting me so close to home so quickly. Looking back, I wish I had been more prepared rather than being stuck like a deer in the headlights. Here’s what I would have done if I had been prepared.

Get involved with networking groups

Like many people, I used to only network when I was actively looking for a job, but that’s the opposite of what networking really should be. I recently heard a great definition of networking — building relationships before you need them – and I think this is a great way to look at it. So, if I had been more prepared, I would have joined local networking groups across a wide variety of people and industries, as well as industry specific groups. You never know who knows who, so your next job could come from the most unlikely person.

Connect through online social networking

Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are key ways to network in this day and age. It took me some time when I first got laid off to connect with people I wasn’t already connected with on these sites. And for LinkedIn, I could have asked my former bosses/coworkers for recommendations and answering questions in groups to bolster my profile. Already having these steps done would have helped me hit the ground running.

I didn’t start my blog until after I got laid off, but now provides potential employers a window into how I think, what I’m interested in and what I’m up to. Having that up and running before the layoff, would have given me the benefit of having good content, a readership and comments.

The basics

The next few ideas are probably the most obvious ones, but were still important for me to get started on! I needed to update my resume, particularly with quantitative numbers from my job. I should have registered on the major job search sites, and started receiving emails or RSS feeds for relevant jobs. And finally, I could have gotten back in touch with recruiters. It never hurts to have them keeping you top of mind early on in the process.

Do you have any other ideas for how to be prepared for a layoff?

Note: This is a version of a post I made on the Wall Street Journal online blog on May 12, 2009.

Twitter seems to be all the rage these days, especially since it made headlines with the Ashton Kutcher vs. CNN battle, and more so when Oprah joined. But, there are a lot of misconceptions out there about Twitter, the two most common I hear are that it’s a young population using Twitter, and that people are sharing just the “mundane details of their lives.” Neither of those is true. In fact, 76% of Twitter users are over 35. And, while Twitter can be about the mundane details of people’s lives, for the most part, it’s about people connecting with others who have similar interests. For example, since I’m interested in Marketing and Social Media, I follow people who are also interested in the same, and we share information on topics relevant to us. I have learned so much from interacting with people on Twitter since joining in September.

To understand how Twitter is helpful with networking, I like to think about how I do networking without Twitter. Normally, someone I know introduces me to someone they think I should talk to. I then email or call that person and set up a time to get together for coffee. We meet, and talk about their work, what I’m looking for, any opportunities they know of, other people they think I should talk to and any advice they have for me. I get home and send them a thank you note, and usually connect with them on LinkedIn. And, that’s it. We go our separate ways. They go back into their life, and may remember me, but within a couple of months, I have most likely slipped into the depths of their memory.

Enter Twitter. The process can be the same, but after we go our separate ways, we continue to interact on Twitter. They get to see the value I’m bringing; instead of making an impression on them in an hour long coffee meeting, I am making an impression in the coffee meeting, and on a regular basis after that. I am staying much more top of mind. I have had many situations with people I have had coffee with, where they spontaneously write me a couple months later, saying that they are still keeping me in mind for any opportunities they come across. That doesn’t happen as much with non-Twitter networking.

The other benefit is being able to find new people who I wouldn’t have met otherwise. Oftentimes, I’ll see someone interesting on Twitter and ask them to get together. Or, if I have a specific company in mind that I want to talk to, I look the company up on an application called Twellow, find out who works there who I am following (the term for being connected with someone on Twitter), and I ask them to meet with me. In both these cases, it’s like a “cold call”, but there is a lot of information about me at their fingertips to make me less “random” to them. They can read my bio, click thru to my website, see what I am doing on Twitter, and the value I provide.

And then there’s the more casual networking. Twitter is basically a big networking meeting going on 24/7, that you come and go into. I have had so many people just contact me and say that they have seen me on Twitter, and they know of an opportunity they think would be perfect for me. There are also a variety of “Tweetups” (events run by people on Twitter) that are basically networking meetings. That, again, provides a whole new group of people to network with that I might not have otherwise met.

Here is one specific success stories about networking on Twitter. I registered for an event at Harvard Business School to listen to a panel about the future of Marketing. Coincidentally, the day after I registered, one of the panelists (Diane Hessan from Communispace) started following me on Twitter. I sent her a private message saying that I was looking forward to hearing her and meeting her at the panel. She wrote back and said she was impressed with my background and she would see me at the panel. When I met her in person, our introduction was much more meaningful, as she already knew who I was, and I could stand out from the other people she was meeting. Fast forward three months later, and she just referred two potential consulting clients to me.

In addition to this, I have been referred to countless potential new clients and potential jobs. Twitter is definitely a great way to network.

What do you think?  How have you used Twitter for your job search?

Note: This is a version of a post I made on the Wall Street Journal online blog on April 28, 2009.

One of the biggest changes for me since I lost my job is being at home a lot instead of at an office filled with people. I’ve gone from chit chatting in the hall and having lunch and laughs with coworkers, to being home alone, sometimes all day. In addition to the financial stresses that come with being unemployed, I think this is why a lot of unemployed people get depressed. But for me, I don’t think it has really impacted me in a negative way.

For one, I am a social person by nature so I typically have plans at night to go out somewhere. I have really tried not to cut back on how often I go out just because I am unemployed, because I feel like I need this social interaction. I have, however, changed the way I go out, as I’m much more conscious about spending money than I used to be.

I also try to get out to networking meetings or networking events, which not only helps in my job search, but helps with the social interaction aspect and realizing that I’m not the only one going through this. And, as silly as it may sound, I feel like my dog has made my days much less lonely. Obviously I have to take her out a few times a day, so that helps get me physically out of the house. But, having her around also makes my house feel less quiet (plus, I talk to her sometimes!).

The other challenge of being home is that it’s harder to stay focused on the task at hand. Not only is it easy to keep crazy hours (I tend to go to bed late, and get up late), but it’s also easy to get distracted, and work on a lot of non job-search related tasks during the day.

To help people with this issue, a Boston based company, BzzAgent, came up with an innovative idea, and approached me to be one of the people in their program. Basically, given that they found themselves with a lot of extra office space, they started loaning extra space in their office to laid off workers and entrepreneurs. The idea is that rather than being alone at home, these people can come in and feel the camaraderie of an office. It’s a great idea to not only keep the office lively, but to also help out the job seekers. (I didn’t take them up on their offer, as I am getting used to being at home and working in my pijamas sometimes!).

Overall, I think getting out of the house at least once a day and being social outside of my job search have been important factors to keeping me from letting unemployment get the best of me.

Photo credit: Late night

How do you cope when spending more time at home during your search?

Note: This is a version of a post I made on the Wall Street Journal online blog on April 8, 2009.

I have been doing some consulting work while looking for a job. Doing this has several benefits. The most obvious one is that it helps with my mortgage payments and other expenses during this recession. Unfortunately, the economy is continuing to decline and is not expected to recover for another few months (WSJ, 4/2/09). The second benefit is that it keeps me current in marketing and social media, as I talked about in my latest WSJ post. It also helps fill a gap in my resume. So, rather than showing that I have been out of full-time work since July, I show that I have been doing some consulting. And, finally, it allows me to fill a need for companies, who are oftentimes understaffed after layoffs. And, of course, these connections could ultimately find me my next job!

One of the things I like about consulting is that it is flexible, so I can usually do the work when and where I want… even at 3am if I so choose! I can intersperse it with looking for a job to break up the monotony of my day. But, the flexibility is also it’s downside. The job search is my priority; it’s hard to balance that with trying to follow up on leads and do work that can make me some money in the short-term.

One of the other challenges I face is making consulting financially worthwhile. While you are collecting weekly unemployment benefits, you can’t also receive payment for work in that week. So, taking on a consulting project must be financially worthwhile in order to give up my unemployment check. This is especially tough to reconcile when you also factor in that the hours I’d be consulting are hours spent away from my job search. I was also lucky in that I did a lot of consulting work when I was still under my severance agreement and not collecting unemployment. Or, when I have worked very hard on a consulting project for a couple of weeks, and taken a few weeks off from collecting unemployment. This allows me to stretch my eligibility for benefits, in a recession where no crystal ball can assure you of when you can obtain a full time job.

At this point, I have many more leads than closed business, but I think I’m on the brink of getting a few more clients. I have been finding leads in a variety of ways: networking, Twitter, Facebook, my website, LinkedIn, CraigsList and even a few full time positions turned consulting. Networking is a broad and vital area for me, and includes attending networking events, talking about what I’m working on with people I know, and occasionally sending out mass emails to people in my address book. I have learned that I never can anticipate where a lead might come from. One of the clients that I’m closest to closing, came from someone I hadn’t talked to in a couple of years, who moved to Chicago, and thought of me for a friend’s business when she received my email. Twitter has also been a great source of leads as, inherently on Twitter, people are getting to know me, the information I provide, what I’m thinking about, and the way I think. I have had a few people approach me for marketing and social media consulting, just by seeing me on Twitter.

I have also done a few projects pro bono. While doing pro bono work obviously doesn’t bring in money, it does help keep me current and fill a gap in my resume, as I mentioned earlier. Recently, I taught a class at TDC on “Social Media for non-profits.” Writing this blog is also unpaid, but helps keep me active, and thinking. I am also the founder of a project called BostonTweetUp, where we promote Boston area Twitter events by using weekly videos, a calendar and a Twitter account. So far we are not making any money doing this, but it raises my visibility in the community, shows my social media skills, and is something new to talk about in an interview.

So, overall, taking on consulting work while I’ve been out of work has been great to keep me current, make new connections, have something to talk about in an interview, and hopefully make some money while doing it!

What do you think?  Do you have any ideas to find consulting work?

Note: This is a version of a post I made on the Wall Street Journal online blog on 3/18/09.

With so many people out of work these days, I have noticed that it’s very easy to get caught up in the job search process, and forget to stay current in your industry. Staying current is not only important to be on par with your future employer, but given your flexible schedule, you may be in an even better position than they are to be more in-the-know.

I am a marketing professional with a background in consumer products, non-profit and social media.  I have been out of work for 7 months, but I have taken this time to learn and stay updated in these areas.  Here’s what I have been doing:

ATTENDING seminars, conferences and speaker events

There are so many local seminars, conferences, networking events and speaker events that are specific to particular industries.  For marketing, I attend American Marketing Association (AMA) events, networking events with speakers, or other social media conferences.  The cost of these events can often be high, but I have frequently asked for a discount given that I am out of work.  A few conferences have been open to this in the past.

Examples: AMA Boston, Inbound Marketing Summit and Social Media Jungle.

PARTICIPATING IN social networking

• Twitter – Follow people in your industry and you will find more links to articles and information than you can ask for.
• LinkedIn – Join groups, ask questions and answer questions.
• Blogs – Write, read and comment on blogs – it’s fast and an easy way to learn
• Other social networking sites and communities – Seek out other relevant sites based on your industry.  For example: Govloop (for government), Firefighter Nation, Finance 3.0

READING books, industry newsletters, magazines and blog posts

With the internet continuing to explode, finding websites with good, relevant information is easy.  I subscribe to over 30 industry blogs and have read a few social media books since I have been out of work.  In addition, Slideshare is a website that allows individuals to post presentations, so searching the site can provide you with a lot of relevant content to learn from.

Examples: Chris Brogan blog, Mashable, Groundswell and World Wide Rave

WATCHING online webinars

Ultimately, companies create webinars to get potential customers familiar with who they are and establish themselves as experts.  Lucky for us, they are usually incredibly informative and can easily fit into a busy schedule, as they are typically only an hour long.

Examples: AMA, Hubspot, The Kbuzz

VOLUNTEERING and TEACHING

Next week, I am teaching a class at TDC, a consulting company that runs training seminars.  Unfortunately, I am not getting paid for this, but it provides me an opportunity to put something new on my resume, and learn something while preparing for the class.  Another idea is if you are affiliated with a local non-profit, why not offer your services to the organization at no charge?  This will keep you current, while still being involved with an organization that is meaningful to you.

Overall, there are a plethora of ways to stay current while you’re out of work.  Doing so, could make the difference between getting a job or getting another “ding letter.”

What do you think of the ideas I have?  How do you ensure you stay current while you’re out of work?

There are so many Twitter applications, I can’t keep track! So, I decided to start this list as a comprehensive place to list all the Twitter programs. I plan to keep this updated as I find out about new programs. If you have any to add, please leave a comment below, and I’ll add them. Or, if you feel I have described the applications incorrectly, please let me know as well! (ones in bold italics in the chart have been added since the last update)

Use Regularly	Use Occasionally	Not Currently Using*
SmubSocialtoo Topify TweepSearch Tweetdeck Tweetie [m] Tweetstack[m] Twellow TwitPic Twitter Search	Klout Nearby Tweets retweetrank Retweet Radar Secretweet Tagalus TinyChat TopFollowFriday TweetBeep TweetChat TweetConvo Tweetsmarter Tweetstats Tweetworks Twitscoop Twitseeker Twitter Buttons Twitter Grader Twitter Karma Twittez Twtpoll Twtvite UnTweeps We Follow What the Hashtag?	Birdhouse BubbleTweet Custom Tweets DM Deleter ExecTweets Freetwitterdesigner Friendfeed Friendorfollow Greasemonkey Grouptweet Lessfriends Mailana Monitter MyCleenr Mr. Tweet My First Follow My Tweeple Newsgetter Peoplebrowsr Qwitter ReTweetability Retweetist Rate My Talk Seesmic Desktop Splitweet Tipjoy Tweepular TweetGrid	Tweetmanager Tweetmapper Tweet O’Clock Tweetree Tweetsum Tweet Later TweetValue Tweetvisor Twibes Twickie Twidget Twilert Twimailer Twinfluence Twintro Twitalyzer Twithority Twithear Twitoria TWItoSHIRT Twitpay TwitStamp	Twitrans Twittercounter Twitterfeed TwitterFox TwitterFriends TwitterHawk Twitterholic Twitterific [also m] Twittersafe TwitterSheep TwitterSnooze Twitter Local Twitter Toolbar TwittLink Twollo Twtcard WebAnalyticsDemystified Who Should I Follow

*Note – See below for a list of even more programs and non-iPhone mobile applications. Any mobile applications are denoted with [m].

140it – Shrink your tweets directly from Twitter, using this browser button.

Birdhouse [m] – Capture your ideas, save them for later and publish them when you’re ready. Quickly jot down your ideas, just like in Notes. Count down to 140 characters, just like in Twitter. Save as many as you want, revisit them later. Capture your ideas offline, even in Airplane mode. Rate drafts with stars and sort by best or by newest. Manage and publish from multiple Twitter accounts. Unpublish the bad ones just as easily. Back everything up through email. $3.99 on iPhone store.

BubbleTweet – Create a short video that pops up as a “bubble” over your Twitter profile page. Here’s an example. Cool service, but the bubble only shows up if you use the BubbleTweet URL given to you. So, anyone who just goes through Twitter.com won’t see your bubble.

Custom Tweets – For $75, you can select one of their Twitter backgrounds, and they will customize it for you.

Doesfollow – A simple program that does one thing… tells you if one user is following another user. It gives you a “yup” or a “nope” answer. I use it if for some reason I’m curious about if someone is following me (don’t use too often).

DM Deleter – This application will delete all the DM’s in your account. Apparently this saves Twitter money, because you help them conserve server space.

ExecTweets – Helps you find and follow the top business executives on Twitter.

Filttr – A program that allows you to adjust the tweets you see. You can increase or decrease certain people, and increase or decrease what you see from certain keywords. Great idea! They should integrate this into Tweetdeck! But, I can definitely use this as-is.

Freetwitterdesigner – Allows you to create a customized Twitter background with text, shapes and images.

FriendDeck – Described as “Tweetdeck for Friendfeed“. Seems amazing for those who use Friendfeed.

Friendfeed – “Helps you discover and discuss interesting stuff that your friends and family find on the web.” Basically, it allows you to see what your friends are sharing (and share yours with them) on various websites across the internet, including web pages, videos, photos, and music. It’s used for sharing, idea generation, conversation, marketing, etc. It’s used for much more than just Twitter. Seems great, but it’s just too much information for me right now. I will probably be an addict at some point soon.

Friendorfollow – Shows you who you are following that’s not following you back? Who’s following you that you’re not following back. I don’t use this… too much information for me. Gives you 3 tabs:

• Followers – those you are following who are not following you
• Fans – those who are following you but you’re not following them back
• Friends – Mutual follow

Greasemonkey – See bio text, following & follower count, and most recent Tweet for all friends and followers on the Twitter follow or friends list. Seems great! But, I use Topify to decide who to follow.

Grouptweet – Allows you to create a group to tweet with privately (i.e. bostontweeters). I haven’t found a need for this yet, but see that it could be useful for a work situation.

Hootsuite (formerly Brightkit) – HootSuite allows you to manage multiple Twitter profiles and pre-schedule tweets. Their newest feature allows you to link Hootsuite account with Google Adsense, so you can send links with banner ads. Here’s an example of what it looks like (see top banner). This is the only feature I’m using for now, although I am undecided as to how I feel about sending links with ads. (Thoughts? Let me know below!)

Klout – Klout allows you to track the impact of your opinions, links and recommendations across your social graph. They collect data about the content you create, how people interact with that content and the size and composition of your network. Then they analyze the data to find indicators of influence and then provide you with innovative tools to interact with and interpret the data. Very cool application!

Lessfriends – Seems to be similar to Friendorfollow, but I can never get it to load… takes too long (waited 10 minutes last time).

Mailana – Cool application that tells you who on Twitter you talk to the mist often, and gives you a visual representation of what your social network looks like.

Monitter – Similar to Tweetdeck, it’s a twitter monitor, it lets you “monitter” the twitter world for a set of keywords and watch what people are saying.

My First Follow – This application will tell you who you first followed on Twitter. I’m not sure what this shows you, but people do seem to use it!

MyCleenr – MyCleenr is a unique way to sort your friends by their last tweets. It allows you to get rid off all the inactive and useless accounts that you are following!

Mr. Tweet – Does 3 things:

1. Suggest good people and followers you are missing out on
2. Recommend you to enthusiastic users relevant to you
3. Regularly update useful stats of your Twitter usage

I prefer to find people to follow myself, so I don’t use this program.

My Tweeple – Shows you who you’re following who is not following you back, and vise versa. It’s similar to Friendorfollow, but the display is more cumbersome.

Nearby Tweets – A geography–centric social tool for networking and a business tool for building customer relationships and monitoring real–time buzz. Creates a geographic layer on top of Twitter.

Newsgetter – Allows you to search for certain terms, and save your searches to return to later.

Peoplebrowsr – Similar to Tweetdeck, but web based. I love Tweetdeck too much to consider anything else!

Qwitter – Emails you when someone stops following you. I use Socialtoo for this purpose.

retweetrank – Retweet rank is a representative of the number of times a user have been retweeted by others recently. The application tells you our Retweet rank, and percentile. I like this service a lot, as I think that how much a person retweets, is a strong indicator of the value they are bringing to Twitter.

Retweet Radar – Finds trends in the mountains of information ‘retweet’ed on Twitter. Shows you top retweeted people and links. Cool program.

Rate My Talk – Rate My Talk (@talkr on Twitter) is a service that allows conference attendees to provide immediate feedback on a conference via Twitter or through our web site. This data is collected and provided on the site in order to provide accurate feedback on valuable (or not) presentations. Seems like a great service… I’ll definitely check it out if I’m ever a speaker!

ReTweetability – The ReTweetability Index measures and ranks Twitter users based on the infectious power of their tweets. This number accounts for number of followers and Tweets overall, so it is a true indicator of infectiousness. Users with a high ReTweetability Index have a greater percentage of their content spread by a greater percentage of their followers, implying that when they do tweet, it’s worth reading. I really like this application, as I do believe that a person’s “retweetability” is a strong indicator of their perceived Twitter value.

ReTweetist – Tracks posts that are retweeted to see what the most valued topics are.

Secretweet – SecretTweet was created to allow Twitter users to share secrets anonymously. Basically, you go to their website, and tweet your secret and they tweet it out to their 10,000 followers. People can even comment on it. Some of the tweets are hysterical/scary!

Shorttext – Shorttext allows you very quickly to write a longer tweet or note, and create a URL for it. When I have more to say than 140 characters (especially if I’m copying an email I’ve received or something similar), you paste it in Shorttext, and it instantly gives you a URL for the copy. It’s not just a program for Twitter, but is very useful as a companion application for Twitter.

Seesmic Desktop – Desktop application similar to Tweetdeck, but with multiple account management. I find the application very confusing to use.

Smub – Shortens urls on a handheld and tweets them automatically. (also can be used for Facebook, Delicious, etc.)

Splitweet – Similar to Tweetdeck, but it allows you to manage multiple accounts. I do need multiple account support, but I am too in love with Tweetdeck, so am waiting for them to come out with this functionality (coming soon).

Socialtoo – This program allows you to do multiple things:

• Received an email telling you who followed you and who unfollowed you the day before, and what you tweeted before that happened
• Autofollow people
• Opt out of auto DM’s (they used to offer an auto-DM service, but no longer do)
• Conduct surveys

The only part of the program I use is the first one… Socialtoo emails me every day with who followed me and unfollowed me yesterday. I usually scan quickly to see if there were tweets that are particularly popular or unpopular, so I can notice a trend. I also look to see who unfollowed me, so I know that they are no longer following.

Tagalus – Allows you to find out the “definition” of a particular hashtag.

Tinychat – Create your own chatroom and invite people through one simple link. Not just for Twitter use, but it is a useful tool for Twitter users. It’s pretty basic (no sound alerts, etc), but it does the trick.

Tipjoy – Allows you to pay or receive money from people on Twitter. It’s great to use for collecting money for a cause. You can install a widget on your website to collect the donations.

TopFollowFriday – Shows you who is endorsing who and who is being endorsed on #followfriday. The results don’t look accurate to me.

Topify – This is one of my favorite applications! What this application does, is makes your email work much better for you with Twitter. When you receive an email about a new follower, instead of being without any information about the followee, it will include their bio and basic stats. And, directly from the email you can follow the person! It also allows you to reply to a DM directly from email.

Tweepsearch – Similar to Twellow, this program searches bios for a particular keyword. But, it can also search the bios of your followers only, which can be very useful.

Tweepular – Provides insight into who is following you, who is not, and a deep dive into your fellow tweeps. You can see someone’s location, last tweet, bio, follower count and popularity, to help figure out if you want to follow them or not.

Tweetbeep – Keep track of conversations that mention you, your products, your company, anything, with hourly updates. You can even keep track of who’s tweeting your website or blog, even if they use a shortened URL (like tinyurl.com). Great for online reputation management, catching all your @replies, finding job/networking opportunities, keeping up on your favorite hobby, and more!

Tweetburner – The program was down when I went to review it, but it looks like it’s a URL shortening and tracking program. It tracks how many clicks your tweet gets, and allows you to analyze which headlines work best, and at what time of day your tweets get the most clicks.

Tweetchat – This program aggregates all tweets for a certain hashtag into a chat room. The benefit of using this vs. Twitter Search for hashtags, is that when you write your tweet, you don’t have to add the hashtag, as it is added automatically — a HUGE timesaver and is so much easier. Also, you can tweet directly from Tweetchat, so there is no need to flip back to twitter to enter a tweet. I used this recently when on a webinar, and it was amazing!

TweetConvo – TweetConvo is a great application to view twitter conversations. Rather than going through of a tweet’s @replies to get a grasp of the conversation you just enter the tweet’s URL, and it shows you the conversation for that tweet.

Tweetdeck – I can’t say enough about this program. Basically, Tweetdeck shows your Twitter feed in columns of information based on your preferences, rather than one long stream. For example, I use the following columns: All tweets, bostonmarketer, direct messages, friends, thought leaders, companies, twitter stuff, and jobs. This allows me to keep a better eye on things that interest me. You can also see your Facebook friends’ updates right in the application. You can click to see anyone’s profile, and from there add them to a particular column. It has a URL shortener build in, which is invaluable. I find this useful for my job search as I keep columns of job search twitter id’s.

TweetGrid – Create a Twitter Search Dashboard. Looks similar to Tweetdeck, but you can also tweet from multiple accounts. I liked most everything about this program, except that the avatars are very small, so I found it difficult to use.

Tweetie [m] – iPhone application that handles multiple accounts, search, retweet, DM. Great application! Very user friendly and clear.

Tweetmanager – Does a variety of things:

• follow and track Twitter users automatically based on certain keywords
• send a message to 1,000 users or less
• autoreply to @replies (can be used like an out of office message)
• auto-post tweets at predetermined times
• auto-tweet when you update your blog

I’m not currently using this application, but think it has some amazing features.

Tweetmapper – Tweetmapper lets you map your tweets… Tell your friends where you are and where you have travelled, places to go and things to enjoy, even the news that’s happening around you – as it’s happening!

Tweet O’Clock – Type in a Twitter username to find out when it’s best to tweet them

Tweetstalk – A program that allows you to follow someone without having them know you are following them. Maybe it’s because I’m not a stalker, but I can’t imagine why this would be useful!

Tweetstats -This program graphs your Twitter stats for you, including tweets per hour, tweets per month, tweet timeline, reply statistics and more. Interesting to look at occasionally.

Tweetsum – we show you at a glance who’s following you, give you the tools you need to decide whether you should follow them back or not, and let you quickly add or dismiss your new followers. Similary to Topify, but it doesn’t show you the bio or location, and doesn’t have DM capability. But, the drag and drop feature is nice.

Tweetree – Tweetree puts your Twitter stream in a tree so you can see the posts people are replying to in context. It also pulls in lots of external content like twitpic photos, youtube videos and more, so that you can see them right in your stream without having to click through every link your friends post.

Tweet Later – You can do numerous things with this site. First, you can use it to set up alerts to track keywords you are interested in. You can also schedule tweets at certain scheduled times. And, you can auto follow or auto DM. The only one of these features I’m interested in is the keyword tracking but I use Tweetdeck for that.

Tweetsmarter – Adds special characters (like a star or an umbrella) or a retweet link to your post.

TweetStack [m] – Best described as Tweetdeck for mobile phones. Stacks are similar to columns in TweetDeck, and can even be imported directly from TweetDeck. You can also search, and use multiple account logins.

TweetValue – Tells you the monetary value of your Twitter account. Just for fun!

Tweetvisor – A web-based Twitter interface, that enables people to better manage multiple Twitter accounts, returns real-time updates about favorite topics, news and tweets, and supports groups, threaded conversations, tagging friends and inline video replies. Similar to Peoplebrowsr

Tweetworks – Does a lot, but the 2 most basic are: Twitter groups (similar to Group Tweet) and threaded discussions, which allow you to see tweets strung together in a conversation. I am a member of one group. But, because I use Tweetdeck, I don’t use the threaded conversation feature much.

Twellow – A search program that also searches bios, names and locations. It also has a graphical interface that enables localized searching. VERY useful, if you are trying to find someone, or target particular people.

Twhirl – Desktop program similar to Tweetdeck, but it allows you to manage multiple accounts. I do need multiple account support, but I am waiting for Tweetdeck to come out with this functionality.

Twibes – Application that allows you to join groups on Twitter

Twickie – Twickie is a free service that fetches Twitter replies for you (and gives you an easy way to view AND export them).

Twidget – A widget for OS X that allows you to update your Twitter status.

Twilert – An application that emails you regular updates of tweets containing your brand, product, service or any other keyword. Great program, but (as expected!), I use Tweetdeck for this.

Twimailer – Rather than receiving the plain emails from Twitter notifying you of a new follower (include just their name), Twimailer sends you their statistics and their last few tweets. Very cool! To me, the major limitation is that you still have to click through to their profile to follow them. Topify solves that issue, which is why I use that application instead.

Twinfluence – Another Twitter grading tool that measures the combined influence of twitterers and their followers.

Twintro – “Twitter Introductions” – Helps you discover the most interesting Twitter users. You follow @twintro, and every day, Twintro retweets a different user’s tweets to you. If you like that user, follow them!

Twitalyzer – Analyzes your Twitter performance based on 5 factors: influence, signal, generosity, velocity and clout. Great program, just too much information for me.

Twithear – Lets you add your voice on twitter. Call a phone number or use your computer to record a message.

Twithority – Similar to Twitter Search, but it allows you to see the results by user “authority” (the more followers, the more “authority”).

Twitoria – Twitoria finds your friends that haven’t tweeted in a long time so you can give them the boot! Great application, but I just don’t have the time nor see the need to go through and clean out my followers (especially if they’re not tweeting).

TWItoSHIRT – Get a T-shirt made with your tweets!

TwitPic – Allows you to easily post a photo on Twitter. Just browse to the photo, and it creates a link. It’s built directly into Tweetdeck, so it’s easy to use from there!

Twitscoop – Through an automated algorithm, twitscoop crawls hundreds of tweets every minute and extracts the words which are mentionned more often than usual. The result is displayed in a Tag Cloud, using the following rule: the hotter, the bigger. This is also integrated with Tweetdeck, so is easy to check.

TwitterSheep – See a tag cloud from the ‘bios’ of your twitter flock.

TwitterSnooze – Allows you to temporarily stop seeing someone’s tweets (i.e. if they are at a conference you just need a break). The downside is that it actually unfollows and then refollows that person.

Twitrans – Translates your tweets into any language.

TwitStamp – TwitStamp allows you to use your current Twitter status anywhere – in the form of an image so you can post it on blogs, forums, websites, etc.

Twitter Buttons – Create a button for your website that says “Follow Me”!

Twitter Grader – Tells you what your Twitter grade is — it’s based on the #of followers, #you follow, etc. You can also find out who the Twitter elite are in a certain area.

Twitter Karma – An application that fetches your friends and followers from Twitter when you click the “Whack!” button, then displays them for you, letting you paginate through them. By default, the list contains all your friends and followers and is sorted by last update, showing those who most recently updated first. You can sort and filter the list. Similar to Friendorfollow, but with better interface.

Twitter Local – Allows you to filter tweets by location. I’m not currently using this, but can definitely see a use for it, particularly if you travel a lot.

Twitter Safe – Backs up your followers, following and replies. I’m not using this… maybe I’m just too trusting that I will not lose everything.

Twitter Search (formerly Summize) – A mandatory for Twitter users. Type in any search term (including AND, OR, quotes) and see what’s happening on Twitter for that search. Also shows you trending topics. Clicking on “Advanced” lets you get more detailed in your search, including tweets from one person to another, date, attitude and place.

Twitter Toolbar – This short cut/quicklinks toolbar brings Twitter closer to you, so you can: visit Twitter, update your Twitter status directly, search Google, Twitter Search, Twellow, Twictionary, optimize your Twitter experience and research the world of Twitter.

Twittercounter – Give you TONS of stats about your profile, including a graph of your follower numbers, growth, rank, etc.

Twitterfeed – Automatically posts your blog RSS feed and post to Twitter for you. You can also use this with services other than Twitter.

Twitterfriends – With TwitterFriends you can …

• find out the hidden network of Twitter contacts that are really relevant for you.
• visualize the network of your relevant contacts and their contacts
• see who of your Twitter friends are online this very moment
• read some stats about your Twitter account
• take a look at the most conversational Twitterers or those who are posting the most links

Wow, there’s a lot of great information here, but I found it to be too much!

TwitterHawk – Very interesting program, but a bit controversial. This program will automatically send pre-written tweets (that you have written) to people who tweet certain keywords. For example, if you have a coffee shop, the program can send tweets to everyone who mentions coffee. Controversial because it may seem like spam.

Twitterholic – Allows you to see rankings by #followers, #friends, #updates and date joined. You can also see these stats for a particular user over time. Good program, I just don’t have a need for it.

TwitterFox – A Firefox extension that notifies you of your friends’ tweets on Twitter. This extension adds a tiny icon on the status bar which notifies you when your friends update their tweets. Also it has a small text input field to update your tweets.

Twitterific [also m] – Similar to Twhirl in that it allows you to manage multiple accounts, but it doesn’t have multiple columns of information. (MAC only)

Twittez – Twittez is a simple Twitter application that lets you get your answers from fellow Twitters, all you have to do is tweet with “does anyone know?” with your question and they try to find your answer.

Twitpay – Allows you to send and receive money from someone else on Twitter. Very cool program, I just haven’t needed it yet.

Twitseeker – Finds people on Twitter based on what they’re talking about. Cool! I searched for Marketing, and it came up with a list of 20 people who have been tweeting about Marketing. Very useful, especially for my job search.

TwittLink – They monitor almost every post on Twitter and extract all tweeted links. Using a statistical approach they figure out which subjects (based on extracted links) are most discussed on twitter. They use semantic analysis to group links that talk about the same subject. Similar to Twitscoop.

Twollo – This program finds people for you to follow based on your interests. Twollo will find them and automatically follow them for you.

Twtpoll – A very simple, easy to use program that helps you set up a poll. Type in your question and answers, and go!

Twtcard – Send a greeting card, a surprise message, or an invitation on Twitter or via email.

Twtvite – Simple event manager twitter application… like Evite for people on Twitter. The application also gives you code to embed the invitation into your website.

UnTweeps – List and unfollow Tweeps you are following who have not updated their status in 7, 30, 60 or 90 days. Useful application to clean out spam and inactive people.

WebAnalyticsDemystified – Another grading program based on influence, defined as a function of your reach, notoriety, and the likelihood that you will repeat the ideas of others and have your own ideas repeated (“retweeted”).

We Follow – A user powered Twitter directory that categorizes people into groups, such as social media, marketing, celebrity, politics, etc.

What the Hashtag? – A wiki that tracks hashtags on Twitter. Great idea, as I so often see hashtags that I don’t know what they are being used for.

Who Should I Follow – Similar to Mr. Tweet, this program recommends people you should follow based on popularity and location. What I like about this program is that you can control those 2 features, if they are more or less important to you. The one problem I see is that it recommends people I’m already following.

Even more applications - Here are even more applications that I haven’t detailed above, or looked into: BeTwittered, TweetMyBlog, Tweetwhatyoueat, Twitterfall, Twtpwr

Mobile applications not for iPhone – I use Twitter on an iPhone, but I thought I’d list a few of the applications I’ve heard of for non-iPhone mobile phones: Blackbird (and more to come… suggestions?)

Security note – I am not claiming any responsibility for the security of these programs. Please do your own due diligence to be sure you’re comfortable, especially when providing your Twitter password.

Anything to add or change? Please leave a comment below!