Automate Twitter – Follow / Unfollow for Free
As part of my recent Internet Marketing strategy to promote my Web Design, I decided to get more involved with twitter.
Unlike Facebook, I set out to use Twitter first and foremost as a business tool in conjunction with my blog, where people interested in Web Design, Internet Marketing, Search Engine Optimization etc would flock happily to my website to read my latest offerings.
I didn’t really know a lot about the whole Twitter automation thing. I stumbled upon it by manually following some people based on the “InternetMarketing” search term and I noticed that I was getting automated replies from them. I started googling about Twitter Automation and a couple of days (and several hundred followers) later, I decided that this automated route was a great way to build up a semi-targeted audience with a sizable proportion interested in what I had to say.
I am going to share with you the tools that I use to automate my twittering. The functionality I mention is what I see as the most important and interesting free parts of each of these tools. There is a lot more to these tools, especially if you upgrade to their premium package.
Tweet Attacks
Tweet Attacks is an amazing tool! It lets you do for free what Social Oomph and others charge a premium for.
You can automatically follow another user’s followers or following. Alternatively you can follow based on a search phrase.
Tweet Attacks can also be used to automatically unfollow anyone who is not following you back. Followers will only be unfollowed if they fall outside the specified number of days they have to follow you back.
The user interface consists of drop-down menus and a very powerful grid. The grid allows you to create a number of tasks where one task takes up one row on the grid. A task might be something like Follow a particular user’s followers or Follow based on the search term “SEO”. You can insert a delay interval between each task.
Social Oomph
Social Oomph (formally known as Tweet Later) lets you do some things that Tweet Attacks does not. Firstly, it has a great customer service tool that allows you to send a welcome message to those who follow you. You can use this message to provide a warm introduction or alternatively provide a link to your website or the latest article on your blog etc. In addition, you can vet new follows and schedule updates. Most of the other useful stuff is for paid subscribers only.
Hoot Suite
Hoot Suite is useful to allow you to see the clout of your followers and following. It also allows you to follow and track conversations based on search terms. Although more a manual process, rather than fully automated, it makes it very easy to find people to follow based on interest, brand or other keyword.
This post lays out my humble beginnings into the world of automated Twitter. If you can share any other tools that can be used in conjunction with or as a replacement for these tools, then please post a comment below.