For this week’s Guest Post Friday here at Musings, we welcome back Gwynne Monahan. Gwynne is best known by her Twitter handle @econwriter5. She has written several articles on open source applications for lawyers and legal professionals, and has presented on open source as well as issues surrounding social media. She is currently Community Manager for Clio and is spearheading Small Firm Innovation.
Last year, I wrote about some social media applications you can use to help manage your social media presence. Chris asked for an update, and other than my switching to HootSuite on my Mac and Plume on my Android device, I’ve been stumped on what to write.
And then I remembered this tweet:
Twitter, at times, seems to have a case of hashtag diarrhea. Anyone and everyone starts using a tag or two. Twitter MeMes. Twitter chats. Even nouns, like #random, get tagged. Simply put: hashtags get overused.
Overuse leads to fatigue. Twitter fatigue. There’s plenty of noise on Twitter as it is. Mix in a few hashtags for Twitter Chats, conferences and world events, and it gets overwhelming. Even for a seasoned Twitter veteran like myself, it can be overwhelming. So what is one to do?
Why, use hashtag management tools, of course!
Some worth trying out:
- Hootsuite: If you’re a user already, create a new tab and call it something like #tags. Then create streams for the tags you want to follow. I did this to help keep track of conference tags, like #abatechshow, #abaannual11 and to follow chats I participate in regularly, like #privchat and #legalchat
- TweetDeck: This used to be my preferred third party Twitter client, until it got acquired by Twitter and continually crashed. If it works for you, then great. You can set up streams to follow tags, and its advantage of HootSuite, assuming it doesn’t crash, is the visual notifications. If you’re engaged in a tweet chat or just want to keep an eye on a particular tag, the visual notifications are helpful. You know right away when there are new tweets.
- TweetChat: I know a few people who manage Twitter Chats using TweetChat, and a few others who follow chats this way. Pretty useful tool.
- TweetGrid: There’s often an argument between using TweetChat or using TweetGrid, and it really comes down to personal preference. TweetGrid allows you to search and monitor more than just hashtags.
One thing that occurs to me is that using a different application all together, or having a completely separate tab in HootSuite for hashtags, has helped me with Twitter fatigue. I can check in from time to time instead of immediately all the time, and still add my two cents. The conversation keeps going, but in a more manageable fashion.
Gwynne and I welcome your comments below. Also, please subscribe to keep up with this and other Guest Post Friday Musings.
