It's hard to keep up with all the tools available to help maximise Twitter and other social media platforms.
But, over the last few months I've been testing some of the new ones I've stumbled across, getting a feel for the ones that have the potential to be the most useful.
Here are the ones I'll probably use more over the next 12 months and perhaps you might give 'em a whirl too...
Note: Most of these tools are free to use or have adopted the 'freemium' model.
11 Twitter & Social Media Tools To Try In 2011
1. Twoolr - complete Twitter statistics
If you are familiar with TweetStats.com you'll think that this is quite similar, but Twoolr provides some additional metrics and insights that TweetStats doesn't.
Twoolr will tell you how your account is being used, when you are most active, what you are tweeting about and which links you are sharing most frequently.
Best bit
The network tab tells you who you are communicating with the most and in what context i.e. @ replies, RT's and #FF's
Invites
I have ten invites to Twoolr in BETA available if you'd like to give it a go.
2. MentionMap - conversation visualisation tool
I think PR people will really like this one.
MentionMap provides a 'live' analysis of what a particular person is talking about on Twitter and who they are talking to.
When you take a look at a blogger or journalist's MentionMap you can get a really clear idea of what they have been tweeting about of late.
Best bit
It's physical output allows you to get a feel for that person at a glance as opposed to trawling through a bunch of bland raw data.
3. The Archivist - tweet library and analysis
The Archivist does what is says, but also provides some really useful insights and data visualisations around the Twitter activity for a specific subject / search term.
Hashtag analysis is really handy with this tool, especially if you want to keep a running tab on how many mentions it is getting over a period of time.
You can also download all the data in an excel file and use as you wish.
Best bit
The data dashboard is really handy, giving you information like the most used associated words and weekly frequency mapping.
4. Qwerly - people search for the social web
This was launched recently and has been billed as the best people searching tool yet if you want to get a feel of someone's social media presence.
It is also handy as a reference guide for your own contacts, listing the contact details you have for everyone you are following and the networks they are using.
Best bit
The most popular users is pretty cool, showing who has been searched for the most.
5. Hash Tracking - hashtag tracking and analytics
What I immediately liked about this tool is the quantifiable value it represents.
While most Twitter tools profiled here are free (or adopt a freemium model), this one is priced in a way that makes it an easy sell internally if you did need to obtain deeper results.
You can try Hash Tracking out now but you'll have to wait a bit until the paid options go live.
Best bit
I assume the best bit will be the reporting, especially as it can feature 100,000 tweets associated with the hashtag in question.
6. TLists - Twitter List search engine
This allows you to search public twitter lists by keyword / topic, bringing up the most relevant results.
The associated stats TLists provide are great, giving you an idea for how frequent each list pushes tweets outs and what sub-topics they mention.
Best bit
It is really simple to use.
7. TouchGraph - visualise the connections between related websites
This will give you a picture of the sites connected to you, your brand and your website giving you a visual representation of what a google search for that term might look like.
This is useful if you want to get a picture of where else you are being mentioned outside your 'owned' web properties.
Best bit
The Facebook specific search option does the same job for you and your friends and who has the most photos toegther which is pretty nifty.
8. FeedLooks - Google reader on steroids
It is always hard to imagine anyone out-googling google, and while I don't think this will get anywhere near achieving this, FeedLooks functionality will probably be borrowed by google at some point.
The interface is clean, items are sorted into 'old' and 'new' as opposed to 'read' and 'unread' and Twitter feeds can be integrated into the dashboard too.
Best bit
A rating next to each post gives an indication of its popularity / hotness, helping you browse and identify content more efficiently.
9. Address Book One - bringing all your contacts together
The amount of ways you can communicate with your contacts only gets bigger and bigger, and consequently more difficult to manage.
This tool is worth a look if you want to centrally manage all of your contacts across all the platforms they are involved in.
It will import address books from Facebook, LinkedIn etc and arrange them on a snazzy dashboard.
Best bit
I've only just started using this one, but the search option seems especially useful if you need to track down someone's contact detail
10. StatPlanet - the infographic creator's best friend
Want to create maps and graphs? Then this is well worth a look.
The best explanation of how this works is via the demo video and these example here also help tell the story more.
Best bit
The interactive graphs breathe life into what would normally be quite static slides.
11. Citrify - web-based photo editing
This is a great tool for bloggers who need to adjust images for posts.
It is also incredibly simple to use and comes without the hefty price associated with Photoshop.
Best bit
The wrinkle removal feature is a god send!
Have you spotted any other tools that you think might be handy in 2011?
If so, I'd love to hear from you.
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