Information System

Hummingbird – a Tool for Twitter Professionals

Hummingbird is a tool for use with Twitter designed for professional internet marketers. The idea behind the software is simple, and so is the program, with nice results. While it is designed for internet marketing professionals it can be used by any business that needs to manage multiple accounts on Twitter.

The Problem

With Twitter you have four types of communication – one way and two way messages, replies to messages, and direct messages. If you follow someone, and they don’t follow you, then you can see what they are saying in public, yet your general message won’t appear on their screen. If they follow you back (mutual following) then you both will see what each other types. You can send a message directly to someone, such as in a reply, by putting a @ in front of their user name – everyone following you will see the message, yet twitter is smart enough to know it is intended for you. The finial way is Direct Messages, and it is like sending a micro email – with a catch, if they don’t follow you then they will not appear in your address book, and so you can’t send them a private message, even if they can send you one.

We mention the way you can tweet (micro-blog, or send a message to the world) because it effects how you can reach your target audience. It is kind of like standing in a room of deaf people – you can yell yet no-one will hear you. To get people to listen you need them following you, so they can receive your message. Like any other type of marketing you need a targeted audience, and it is easy to find with Twitter’s search button, and based on who follows who. So, how do we get people to follow us so we can sell to them, why we ask them to. We have found out who to ask by using keywords when we searched for friends, so we have a list of people to follow, and hope they follow us in return (hoping 40% to 60% will). So, would you like to click the follow button up to 2000 times when you start out, in hopes that 1000 or so people will follow you back? And don’t forget you would have to hit the next button 100 times.

The Solution

Ok, so you may not want to try clicking on 2000 people to follow, in hopes of getting about 1000 followers. Nor clicking another 2000 times (1000 clicks to unfollow the 1K people that chose not to follow you, and then another 1K times to follow 1,000 more tweeps) two or three days later, then rinse and repeat. This is where Hummingbird comes to the rescue, by helping automate the task of following and unfollowing, even while you sleep if you want. This leaves time for you to get your message out to your targeted followers. You do still have to find someone to follow, yet once you do you can set the program and forget about it for a while.

We cover the different features of the program in our article – Hummingbird – a Twitter Professional Tool. It is enough to say here that Hummingbird is able to follow and unfollow those you chose to, and help automate the process. It has the ability to help you manage multiple accounts, which can come in handy if you feel a need, or have a desire, to maintain multiple personalities on Twitter. And the developers are improving it on a regular basis.

While Hummingbird is for mainly for internet marketers it can be used by companies who maintain a number of accounts on-line. Where this may come in handy is if you have customer service, R&D, and accounting all on-line. If someone becomes abusive you can stop following them, and in effect, block them. Then one department can share that list with the other departments as well (it is just a simple file). This isn’t designed, nor priced, for individuals, it is for internet marketers, and business. For more information, and a video demonstrating it in action, visit Mesiab Labs for more information.