Twitter Tools

This morning I am meeting with a school that I am helping with a social media campaign.  They want to use Twitter and Facebook as a way to reach the community, create bonds between classrooms and give parents a peak into the school day.  I started with a Paper Tweetup, you can read more about that here.  Today I am meeting with the school communication manager.  She runs the school Twitter account.  This account is used to share school news and to retweet (RT) things that the classrooms are tweeting about.

Here are the tools I am sharing:

• Group Tweet– This turns a standard Twitter account into a group communication hub where members can post updates to everyone in the group using direct messages.  When the group receives a direct message from a group member, Group tweet converts it to a tweet everyone in the group can see.  This is a great way for classrooms within a school to communicate and share.  It is also a nice way to organize classrooms from other districts, teacher teams, or parents.
• http://paper.li Turns Twitter and Facebook into a daily newspaper.  The Newspaper can pull from a Twitter account, a hash tag (#), or from a list.
• Twibs– This helps you find local businesses on Twitter.  This is a helpful way for schools to connect with the local business community.
• Twuffer– is a service that lets you schedule future tweets.  This is great when you are using Twitter to promote school events, remind students of assignments or to send out messages during the summer or holiday months.
• Social Oomph– Another service that lets you schedule tweets.  You can  also create auto direct messages, auto follow and track keywords.
• Tweet Beep– This service is like a Google Alert, get Twitter alerts when people mention you (or a keyword).
• Mr Tweet– This is a way to begin networking on Twitter by finding others who share similar interests.
• Tweet Stats– This is a service that lets you graph your tweets, it is useful at-a-glance information to check out your Twitter use.
• Just Tweet It– is a service to help you find people on Twitter.

I hope that is helpful!  What Twitter tools can you not live without?