#cam23, Extra Thing 2: Twitter Extras

I've been meaning to set up something like HootSuite for ages and ages.  Lots of people say that the columns format makes it much easier to manage Twitter and make it work for you.  Recently I've laso learnt that you can use it to manage multiple Twitter accounts - I tweet on behalf of @camlibtm, @cpd23 and @CamLibGroup on occasion, and it would make things a lot simpler if I didn't have to sign out and in again all the time.

So I've signed up. What do I think after ten minutes' use?

1. It looks different. Wierdly, this really phases me.  I'm used to my own Twitter design, and I'm not a great fan of the three available HootSuite themes.
2. It's not possible for me to tweet via there for cpd23, because another member of the team has already added that account to their HootSuite account, and would have to have a paid account and add me as a 'team member' to make it possible.  Rats!
3. It's rather slow on my antiquated old PC, but then most things are.

'sparrer' by Jenny Downing on Flickr

Verdict?  I can see why people love it, but I'm not certain whether it's for me or not.  I guess I could sign into that for my tweets, and into Twitter itself for the other account I want to use, and that would save so much logging out-and-in when I want to tweet things from both accounts.  But the format doesn't revolutionise my world - I've found other ways of managing Twitter (which may or may not involve having lots of Firefox tabs open).

Of the other things mentioned in this Extra Thing, I'm pleased to say that I already use bit.ly (increasingly redundant as Twitter now automatically shortens links, but still handy for looking at stats.  Add a plus sign ('+') to the end of a link, and see how many people have clicked, and when. If you sign up for an account you can also access all the links you've previously shortened and get browser widgets, etc.), twitterfeed autotweets my blog posts, and I've consulted Twapperkeeper and Archivist too in the past.