ThingsAmongMany

After compiling The Ultimate List of Twitter Tools, it struck me that the list is a little overwhelming. So here are my choices - generally speaking, one from each category - of the Twitter tools that are the best of the bunch.

If you’re into it, please feel free to tweet/retweet the list and gimme a follow/shout @AmongMany. I’ve also cross-posted on BrandsAmongMany.

Ad Networks

I have personally used any of the ad networks, but from going through each one, I was most drawn to Be A Magpie:

Be A Magpie - Our customers sign up and create campaigns which consist of magpie-tweets (i.e. ads). Twitterers allow us to post magpie tweets among their tweets and for them to get paid for it.

Badges & Widgets

Many of the badge and widget generators feel pretty old-skool. I think the most interesting of the bunch is Twitter Ribbon since it’s a bit of a different take on the usual badge:

Twitter Ribbon - Create a corner ribbon ad for your twitter page

Diet & Exercise

I’ve played with FoodFeed a bit, but it’s more of a toy than a true tracking system. I haven’t used TweetWhatYouEat. Honestly, if you’re looking for something in this category, check out the Lose It! iPhone app. Beyond that, TweetWhatYouEat seems to offer an actual calorie tracker…

TweetWhatYouEat - Food Diary & calorie tracker

Entertainment

This is a pretty diverse category, but my voyeuristic side has to admit, TwittyPop is one of the few on this list that I’ve bothered to visit more than once. Word around our office is that @arielwaldman deserves to be WAY higher on this list, so git votin’!

TwittyPop - Lists the hottest Tweeps

Groups

What better way to find new tweeps to follow than getting on board with the #followfriday trend? The Follow Friday Statistics site shows who’s on top of #followfriday reccomendations (ie. these tweeps are probably worth takin’ a look at!).

Follow Friday Statistics - Another #FollowFriday directory

Follower Management

There are a TON of follower management tools out there, and many are useful beyond my choice here. But Twitter Karma is one that I keep coming back to. It’s easy to use, it shows when my friends and followers last tweeted, and allows me to bulk unfollow tweeps who I’m a little tired of.

Twitter Karma - bulk management of followers and those you follow

Ranking Systems

Of all the ranking systems out there, Twitter Grader is the one that I put the most stock in. It seems to have a strong following (pardon the pun) amongst tweeps and offers a lot of functionality (recommends new tweeps, shows people geographically, etc.).

Twitter Grader - one of the better ranking systems out there; also offers people you should follow

Location-based Services

Most of the location-oriented services I’ve listed are just Twitter/map mashups. Twellowhood, however, adds location-based searching to find new tweeps to follow. A pretty cool way to see people in your area and get into local discussions.

Twellowhood - find people to follow by geography

Personal Finance

I’m not much a fan of the notion of tweeting my expenditures. I suppose you could create an extra, private account specifically for that purpose if you’re into it. But if you do want to get into the financial game via Twitter, have a look at StockTwits. A pretty robust site where there’s a ton of discussion about the market…

StockTwits - sharing stock/finance info via Twitter

Productivity & Sharing

After looking through all of these tools, the one that I’m most looking forward to checking out is TweetBurner. This URL shortening service offers a little added value by offering clickthrough tracking on the URL’s that you share via their service. Now you can keep track of exactly how many tweeps are checking out your links!

TweetBurner - clickthrough tracking for your Twitter URL’s

Posting Tools

Another powerful tool for link sharing, Twittertise also measures click-throughs of the URL’s that you share. But to build on TweetBurner’s functionality, Twittertise also allows you to schedule tweets for future posting. Try to ignore the sorta corny logo - they’re obviously shooting for an ad market, but I think this tool could prove useful for a much wider audience.

Twittertise - Allows advanced scheduling of Tweets. Also measures click-through rate of included URL’s!

Photo Tools

We all know TwitPic, so I’m not even gonna go there. Instead, check out Portwiture. While not a replacement for TwitPic, it does an interesting job of associating your latest tweet with relevant photos from Flickr. More of an entertainment/art project than a “tool” per se, but…

Portwiture - Grabs flickr photos that are relevant to your latest tweet

Search Tools

While everyone’s buzzing about the changes to the built-in search funtion, but I’m pretty psyched on Monitter lately. Search for a relevant term and Monitter will return an embeddable Twitter stream of search results that looks like this:

Monitter - an embeddable search return form (the only embeddable one I’ve noticed)

Topic Trends

There’s a pile of apps all designed to capture the latest trending topics on Twitter. Most seem on par with one another, but Twitterfall is the one that seems to be getting a lot of chatter lately…

Twitterfall - waterfall-like view of latest Twitter trends

Statistics

Twitalyzer is the most interesting of the stats packages in my eyes. Instead of just listing your frequency of tweets, etc., Twitalyzer characterizes your “Influence, Signal, Generosity, Velocity, & Clout”.

Twitalyzer - interesting stats package that’s social media oriented

I’m not gonna characterize the variety of Twitter Clients available. Everyone seems to have their own preference as to which is best, based on their OS, phone, etc. So have at it on that arguement!