CoTweet – What it is and Why You Need It

Posted on 07. Mar, 2010 by Matthew Toren in Internet

You have a Twitter account, right? Of course you do. And you’ve read a lot of blog posts and articles on our site and everywhere else about optimizing your Twitter efforts for business. But you might still be struggling to efficiently, effectively connect with your customers and prospects using Twitter. Well, fret no more. If you haven’t heard about CoTweet, you’re in for a treat. If you’ve been looking for the best way to manage multiple Twitter accounts or want to maximize your marketing through Twitter, CoTweet just might be the app for you.

What it does

As they describe themselves, “CoTweet is a platform that helps companies reach and engage customers using Twitter.” The tools it gives you to accomplish that are like nothing else out there. Sure, there are tons of tools available for Twitter, but few are truly focused on the needs of business users, and none offer everything CoTweet does all in one place. CoTweet is specifically designed for businesses using Twitter. Not only does it let you manage multiple accounts and assign multiple users, but much like Google Alerts, it also lets you track trends as well as tracking when people are tweeting about you, your business, and/or your industry. If that weren’t enough, the application also allows you to schedule tweets, track clicks for posted URLs, and even assign on-call duty to different users so DM and other alerts go to specific people at different times.

How it works

The core of CoTweet is a lot like an email client. You have your folders, like Inbox, Sent, and Scheduled, on the left, your messages in the center pain, and some administrative functions on the right side. There is also a search box on the left, and you can set up saved searches for terms you want to track on a regular basis. Once you set up your accounts, your feeds begin flowing in, and it allows you to see your feed, your @replies, hash tag tracking, etc. at a glance. With a couple of clicks, you can compose and schedule tweets, check click stats, and respond to DMs or @replies. The interface is very polished and fairly intuitive, and users have reported few bugs and glitches. Overall, it’s incredibly easy to get used to and begin using, which, considering its considerable functionality is pretty impressive.

To signup for CoTweet, you enter your basic information, put in your Twitter account details, and you’re up and running in no time. The cost is zero at the moment, while they are in beta phase, but that will change soon enough. Still, the company promises “We’ll give you plenty of notice before we start charging for the service, and the cost will be reasonable.” Their announcement yesterday that they have been acquired by ExactTarget, a leader in email marketing, might or might not change that, but they insist the vision remains the same.

Who’s using it

Some of the largest, most prominent companies around are using CoTweet to manage their Twitter activities. These include:

• Coca Cola
• Ford
• Southwest Airlines
• McDonald’s
• Dell
• Starbucks
• Pepsi
• Microsoft
• And, yes, Twitter

Is it right for you?

Obviously the above is a list of huge companies, and it’s true that much of the platform is designed for corporate users who might have multiple editors posting and responding to tweets on multiple Twitter accounts. That doesn’t mean small businesses can’t benefit from the application though. Even if you never used the multiple-users feature, there is still plenty of value there. If nothing else, it’s nice to have all the functionality in one place. While it’s free, give it a try. You might just find it will be worth whatever they decide to charge after the beta.

Popularity: 2% [?]

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