There are so many Twitter tools that will send direct messages, auto-follow, find fake followers, find people that are not following you and much more. Some are free, some are as low as $5.00 a month, but what ones offer the best features?

I have been playing around again with Twitter tools and found a few that have updated their services, changed their features and even changed what used to be free features that they are now charging for.

So I thought it was time to do a "Twitter Tools Update" and go over a few changes and what Twitter Tools I am suggesting and why. Hope this helps your overall twitter experience!

When it Comes to Twitter Tools…

When it come to the tools I use for twitter, there are a few that I use and four reasons why I use them (listed below).

You will find when comparing these tools that some have duplicate settings, some have unique features, some are free and some free features are an upgrade with another. Challenge is, in one way or another, each tool offers at least 1 thing the other doesn't. That is why I use all four.

When I added it up, I spend less than $15.00 a month on Twitter tools..do you think I could hire anyone for $15.00 a day to do what these tools can do? Not even close… and these are things that really should be done.

I should also note that I have seen dozens, if not hundreds of Twitter Tools that are "here today and gone tomorrow". The biggest reason is because they do not follow Twitter rules. The ones listed below have been around a long time and I feel they will be here long into the future, but first…

Why Use Twitter Tools?

Using the right Twitter tools can automate some of the time-consuming, mundane tasks that we need to do to keep our Twitter accounts running smoothly and effectively.

Auto-Follow: Though you may not want to follow everyone, setting up an auto-follow program with your Twitter account(s) can be a huge time saver. This way when people follow you, the system auto-follows them back. You can always go back and un-follow some people if you choose to and that is a lot more time-saving than manually following people back.

Un-Follow: You want to keep you account balanced. For example, if you are following 2,000 people, but you are not within the Twitter percentage of following vs. followers, (I could be wrong, but I think at  2,000 following you need to be within 80% of followers)or you will never get over 2,000 following.

Those percentages between following and followers change the more you have, but for this reason alone, it is a good idea to occasionally "Flush" those who are not following you back.

Follow Interests: One of the things you can do with the right twitter tool is follow a specific group of even geographical location. This can help you target a more specific niche or local area.

Automatic Direct Messages: You may hear some "Social Media Experts" suggest you do not send out direct messages to people that follow you (or even use tools like I have listed below. I understand their reasoning for saying it.), but I can't ignore stats. More Direct Message Tweets will be read and OPENED (clicked) than a normal tweet… (can't remember my source on that one, but it was reliable) and it is for this reason alone, I started sending out a "thank you for following me" DM tweet with a link to my website.

I suggest you should not make this message too salesy though, try to keep it to a friendly hello. The best one is the one that does not look like a sales pitch, affiliate link or even looks like it is an automated message.

List of Valuable Twitter Tools

There are a not as many tools available for Twitter today as there was in the past. What tools you eventually call your favorites is totally up to you. The ones I have chosen are a result of trying them all (most of them). There are some great tools out there that may be more powerful and offer more "stuff" (fluff).

What I have found by trying most of them is some are cool at first, but then the time you spend figuring them out, using them and keeping up with them, you spend more time on them than doing the original task.

As a result, here are my most used and recommended Twitter Tools;

Tweepi.com: Tweepi is a free service that has optional upgrades, but the free version is pretty darn powerful (I use the free version). You can use the free Tweepi Twitter Tool to do several things, but the two I use Tweepi the most for are:

• Flushing my unfollowers
• Follow others followers based on interest

Tweepi used to let you see peoples Klout scores on their free plan, but they recently upgraded that feature to one of their premium plans.

HootSuite Pro: Though there are several similar, HootSuite is my preferred tool that I recommend to keep track of it all. I use the upgraded pro version for only $9.99 a month. Try it out for 30 days free.

HootSuite Pro has so many features that I am not going to even bother to list them all here, but the thing I believe you will find most useful is the Twitter dashboard that allows you to view your Twitter interactions like with no other system. Your direct message, tweets, re-tweets, who mentioned you and so much more are all easily visible and manageable.

The other 2 big features of HootSuite pro are the RSS feeds you can add and the "auto-schedule" by pre-loading a  spreadsheet.

Whether you use use the free versions or upgrade, whatever service you decide on using to help automate some of your twitter obligations, use automation sparingly and only where it will give you the most benefits.

Remember this; "Use Social Media Automation with Social Media Moderation".. If you over automate your social media, you can over automate yourself completely out of Social Media... and even worse, it could make you look like a spammer and no-one likes that.