Automate Twitter – Follow / Unfollow for Free

TweetAttacks SocialOomph HootSuite

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.

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16 replies
  1. elaine
    elaine says:

    Hi Brian, Did you find me this way? 🙂 I am just a short time busy with twitter, which i will use for my own purposes but also for clients. It’s the same for blogging, it is relatively new to me … 🙂

  2. admin
    admin says:

    Hi Elaine, yes I did find you using this method. Most probably found you using the “web design” keywords. The tools should save you a bit of time if you are trying to build up a bit of a following around your web design. You will still have to do a bit of manual vetting with these tools sometimes.

    /Brian

  3. Al
    Al says:

    Anyone know a good way to automatically tweet at regular infrequent intervals?

    Al.

  4. Nathan
    Nathan says:

    Hi Al

    A piece of software called sprout social lets you do that. It’s all round excellent, but there is a cost, Worth checking out, you get a free trial.

    Nathan

  5. Joe Howard
    Joe Howard says:

    There is a drawback to using these types of services in my opinion. If you follow me and I see that your followers to following ratio is almost exact then I can assume you’re only following me to bump up your numbers.

    While some think that great numbers are a measure of success, I think that the quality of followers and those who you get to meet, interact and communicate with on twitter are more important.

    For this reason, I wait at least two weeks to see if anyone unfollows me. If they do, I know they were never interested in following me, they’re only interested in how high they can get their numbers up. I’m a person, not a number. 🙂

  6. admin
    admin says:

    Joe, thanks for your comment. It’s great to have your viewpoint.

    I agree in a way that I am following to bump up my numbers… its great to get the extra traffic to my website and promote it a little.

    Now here is where I disagree: I am not ONLY following you to bump up my numbers. I have targeted you because you are into Web Design (same as myself) and we have a lot in common. I would call this post a quality interaction and communication and this was kicked off with automation. I can understand that not everyone who auto-follows you will be high caliber, but some will. Same with the tweets. If someone tweets something interesting and I’m interested, I will look at their link, respond to them even if the conversation started through automation… why not?

  7. Mete
    Mete says:

    Do you now any tools for Mac? I can’t find any… these are only for windows. =(

    • admin
      admin says:

      Hi Mete,

      I’m a Mac user also. I run Tweetattacks on VMWare Fusion as I’m afraid I am not aware of an equivalent tool for the Mac. If you hear of one, let me know

      Brian

  8. Kay Lee
    Kay Lee says:

    You might be on trend with Twitter but I’ll stick stick to Facebook. I think it is way better linking my page on Facebook. It is more popular

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