If, like me, you are tasked with managing more than one Twitter account you may feel a little overwhelmed. Scratch that… you may be having a meltdown! Twitter is fast paced and with tweets lasting a mere 20 seconds on average before joining the millions of others, you need to be busy.
So how do I handle multiple Twitter accounts? Well, as the manager of 12 I am going to give you my personal views on 5 popular Twitter management platforms and then you can decide which is right for you.
1. Hootsuite
Hootsuite is one of the most popular account management tools and it’s especially great because you can also add Facebook, G+, Instagram, YouTube, Linkedin and WordPress. This makes it social media GOLD! For Twitter, Hootsuite allows you to create unlimited feeds specific to topic or keyword. Most importantly, you can schedule Tweets so that when you are on vacation you remain consistent in your marketing efforts.
Hootsuite offers free and paid plans starting from $10 per month but if you are managing multiple accounts then you need the pro account. On this you can have up to 50 social platforms at the same time… heaven help you! I love Hootsuite’s easy to use platform and their social campaign tracking tools. Hootsuite pricing however, is not so straight forward and you may find yourself racking up a lot of add ons such as additional admins, enhanced technical support, additional team members and enhanced analytics.
2. Tweetdeck
Ok, it’s old school but I love love love Tweetdeck! Exclusively for Twitter, this powerful dashboard allows you to display multiple timelines, schedule tweets, interact as each account and add images/videos. With a very simply control panel, it is easy for users to add columns for favourites, lists, mentions, messages, collections, followers or search terms. You can also favourite, retweet, reply and do all the stuff that makes Twitter awesome! Unlike some multi account programs, the streams update in almost real time so you don’t actually need to log into your Twitter account for the experience.
Of course as with any multi account management tool you need to get used to watching which account you are tweeting from. It wouldn’t be good to be tweeting about skincare products from your banking account!
My favourite thing about Tweetdeck? As an official Twitter product it is not only updated and maintained correctly but it’s also FREE!
3. Buffer
Buffer is a pretty awesome tool which I use predominantly for Twitter scheduling on their “Awesome Plan” which is $10 per month. This allows me to connect 10 social media accounts where I simply compose updates and add them to the Buffer queue on the chosen date, time and platform.
Buffer allows you to attach a photo, video or animated GIF to any of your posts and also auto shortens links for you… awesome! Buffer is predominantly a scheduling tool however and will not allow you to manage and interact on your Twitter accounts the way that Tweetdeck and Hootsuite do. The business plan costs between $50- $250 per month allowing you up to 150 connected social accounts and 25 team members
4. Tweepi
Tweepi is cool for managing accounts and growing them as you can follow and unfollow in batches but it does not allow you to manage multiple accounts as I initially thought. Tweepi allows you to engage with followers based on specific criteria such as location, bio or keywords. You can also follow those who are connected with influencers which can grow your numbers. You do need to exercise caution here though because this type of activity can trigger penalties on your Twitter accounts even leaving you banned as a spammer. Obviously this is a nightmare for social media managers!
Stay true to your personalized interactions and don’t get over excited with your ability to do things on a massive scale… sometimes less is more. One cool feature is the “Force Unfollow” which filters out undesirables based on their avatar, keywords or tweets and forces them to unfollow you. Once Tweepi allows multiple accounts I will give it a proper test drive but until then it won’t fit my needs.
5. Commun.it
Marketed as the “Magical Social Media Marketing” experience, Commun.it is a great tool for managing relationships on Twitter. The easy to handle dashboard gives users one click options to engage, follow, unfollow followers and influencers. It also allows you to schedule posts for your chosen date and time and add multiple profiles.
Commun.it allows you to engage with top influencers, engagers or new followers with just a few clicks. The dashboard provides a one-click option to follow, unfollow or engage with your followers. Commun.it has an advantage over Tweetdeck in it’s analytics section where you can get up to 3 days of analytics including downloadable reports and advanced filtering.
This is also a free tool making it a “MUST HAVE” for social media managers on a tight budget!
The Verdict
So which is your favourite tool to manage multiple Twitter accounts? If you don’t yet have one then take some time to check out the above platforms and to shop around. In my opinion Tweetdeck and Commun.it provide the best services for my needs at zero cost but of course this is just me. Tweet me your favourite @Charli_Says