Updated 2/1/2025
What tools are best for X (Twitter) management? The short answer is X Twitter. Most people don’t like when I say that, though.
Of course, it depends on what you want to achieve and how much money you want to waste — er — spend. With most social media platforms, the native app is the best way to manage it. Their algorithm prefers it. And, if you want to read my long post on X (Twitter) Management, it’s on this site.
How Many Apps Do You Want?
I don’t want to go back and forth doing this and that and the other. Do you? If you automate, then you are at risk for set-it-and-forget-it. This could be bad. I’ve seen it go bad. The same goes for auto cross posting from platform to platform.
If you’re not checking the notifications on a platform, why even be on it? It’s like having a monologue at a party. Pretty soon, people will leave your presence. No one likes that one guy who won’t shut up about himself.
What is Your Budget?
Many agencies prefer to use a tool that is a dashboard for all of their social media profiles and engagement. These software platforms come with features that will cost you a pretty penny.
I have peers who swear by Sprout Social. That’s going to set you back between $100 and $250 a month. If it provides what your social media agency needs then go for it. If it’s just for your small business, it’d be better to hire someone.
I used to use Buffer to schedule tweets for clients. I started using it for myself again when Hootsuite went from $75(ish) to $250.
In the past, I used Timely which changed to Minideck and both of which have been sundowned. Buffer will set you back $0 – $100 a month. That’s a fairly affordable option. The thing with Buffer is, that it needs to be filled. So, tweets still have to be curated. It’s not really helping you manage much. You can’t reply. You can’t look at lists.
Agoura Pulse will cost you a pretty penny — up to $400 a month. It allows you to assign tweets to a team member to respond to, have tweets approved, and allows you to reply. Sure, Dove uses it. But they sell more soap than you do, right?
My X Management Tools
1. X.com
When people ask what I tool I use to manage X, they’re often surprised that I say X.com. (Also, I am having a hard time getting used to saying “X” instead of “Twitter.”) This is where you create lists, set up your profile, follow and search for people. (I miss their analytics. When are they going to bring it back?) The mobile app has some of those abilities but not all.
I use X.com to participate in Twitter chats, too. Carol Stephen hosts a Twitter chat every Tuesday called #DigiBlogChat and her toolbelt is listed in her article.
I only get emails when someone sends me a DM and only for my account. Push notifications on social platforms are dangerous for your productivity. Use time blocking instead.
2. X Mobile App
Download the X (Twitter) mobile app so you can post on the go — or just not at your desk. Social media management isn’t a 9-5 job. I check my notifications from about 7:00 AM until 10:00 PM.
As an aside, I strongly recommend against allowing push notifications. Fit X management into your life, don’t let it interrupt yours.
3. X (Twitter) Lists
The most under-utilized feature of X (Twitter) is lists. If you want to focus your attention on certain segments that you follow, Lists is priority number one. Make the top 3 lists (customers, vendors, leaders) columns on Hootsuite (if you pay for it) and you’re 85% there.
Before Hootsuite became $250/month, Twitter plus Hootsuite were my two tools if I were stranded on a deserted island with high-speed WiFi and Diet Coke. If I get to a point where I manage that many X accounts again, I’ll go back to Hootsuite in a heartbeat. AI put a huge dent into my business. But that’s another topic.
4. X (Twitter) Analytics
Twitter’s analytics ware so awesome back in the day — they used to have demographic data. But that’s the thing with privacy. It’s good for users, bad for marketers. They were unavailable from October 2023 but it looks like they’re back now as “Account Analytics.” See screenshots below from 2/1/25. (This is a good reason to update older posts.)
You have to turn them on and I’m going to guess it’s because I’m paying for my account. I pair this with a Google Sheet to track the five main metrics of tweets, impressions, profile visits, mentions and followers.
I used to like the tweets to profile visit ratio as the best metric ( above .20.). The profile visits is important because it means that a user saw your tweet, clicked on your username/handle, and then looked at your profile.
5. Hootsuite Pro ($$$)
When I was rocking and rolling managing 10+ Twitter accounts, Hootsuite was my “X management tool” of choice. I put that in quotes because there is no one tool that does everything I need or want. If there was one tool that actually helps you manage, it’s Hootsuite. I pay for Pro because I manage more than 3 accounts.
Hootsuite Pro will set you back $249 a month. It is worth every penny if you have that many accounts. Every. Red. Cent.
Some people like TweetDeck but I haven’t liked them since Twitter purchased them. One of the bonuses about Hootsuite is that the mobile app has the same organization as the web app. This is key to making use of lists as well as hashtag or domain searches.
6. Google Sheets for X
I use Google Sheets for two reasons: 1) basic reporting; and 2) content curation for my Basic and Pro X (Twitter) plans. Also, sometimes a platform can lose data. Don’t just rely on them. Have a backup. People who care about metrics can read spreadsheets.
7. Who.Unfollowed.Me
Who.Unfollowed.Me is now Fedica. Until X removes the requirement to have a 1:1 following:follower ratio to grow your account beyond 2,000, 5,000, 9,000, 14,000, and 19,000 followers, I have to unfollow accounts who don’t follow back. This is why I like who.unfollowed.me. If you have people listed, you can still pay attention to them in your Hootsuite columns.
It’s pretty rude to build your brand on the back of followers and then dump them so that your vanity shows you have 20,000 followers and you follow 47. If that’s the message you want to send your followers, just buy a bunch of spam people. It’s social media. Don’t be a jerk.
This is a good place to plug my book: Keys to Being Social. It focuses on the behavior that makes you successful online.
The platforms change and evolve but the behavior doesn’t.
It’s $10. You’ll thank me later.
8. Revive Old Post Pro ($$$)
Revive Old Post is a WordPress plugin that is free and has a paid version. Because X decided to charge more for software to use their API, this became more expensive ($200/yr as of 2/1/25) the same way Hootsuite did.
I only used this for my own business. This is something that is nice-to-have. I don’t currently have the client work to support it. As soon as I do, I’m buying it again. My favorite part is the post-variations. Also, you can use it to post to your Google Business Profile. That was really handy.
I recommend it for clients who want to ensure their blog posts are being cycled on X. I don’t recommend using it for other platforms as the culture on those platforms does not support repetition.
My settings are somewhere between 7.5 and 37.5 hours. I like odd numbers so that it’s not tweeting at the exact same time — every time. You’ll get in the data rut that your best time to tweet is at 4:00 PM on Thursday. It’s because you only tweet at 4:00 PM on Thursday.
9. Google Analytics for X
You should always look at your website’s Google Analytics to see how much traffic is coming from X and what the time on site is. When I start a new client, my promise is 10% lift in overall website traffic each quarter.
As a social media manager, I rarely have access to a client’s GA. If you do, try to get time (what used to be called) on-site at 2 minutes or more. It means people are reading.
In GA4, it would be in Pages and Screens: Average Engagement Time Per User. I’ll include a screenshot of my analytics. I didn’t work my business very much in 2024 as I had to take a full-time position at TJ Maxx to supplement my income. But it shows you where to look. (2025 is going to be my year!)
Also, I wouldn’t worry about the bounce rate too much. If you answered the question for the reader, there is no reason for them to stay.
Remember that t.co is still the link shortener for X. So if you see that as a referral source, it’s coming from X (Twitter). I say this because I once had a client who didn’t know that and thought no one was clicking on links from X.
So much about your audience can be learned from Google analytics; I wrote about that.
10. Bitly Chrome Extension
I am a huge fan of bit.ly and shortened links in general in tweets. This makes it much easier for people to retweet with the copy / paste method and looks much better.
The combination of bitly.com and the Chrome Extension is a must for X management.
11. The Reply Button
I talk about the reply button a lot. So many people (I blame COVID) simply respond to comments they get on their own posts. Which is the baseline of polite behavior.
But to do real outreach and growth, you should comment on other people’s posts. Do it on X, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Reddit, etc. This opens you up to another audience. You can have complete, productive, inspiring conversations with other people on a thread you don’t own. It’s just like walking up to a group of people at a networking event. You didn’t start the conversation, but that doesn’t mean you won’t get something out of it.
Now Defunct Twitter Card Validator (Used to be Tool #4)
Twitter’s Card Validator is sadly defunct. I really loved how it ensured a post pulled up the right image when using a link to your website. In fact, (Meta) Facebook’s Sharing Debugger doesn’t seem to work to refresh Open Graph images either.
X Management Tools Wrapped Up
X management isn’t for the faint of heart. You need to have tools that actually help you achieve your goals. It’s important to be a practitioner; stay on X as much as possible. This allows you to see any UI/UX and feature changes that a platform implements. That affects your tactics.
For example, Twitter added scheduling just to the dot com site back in the day. That’s pretty amazing. You can also use GIFs when you’re on Twitter native.
Try not to rely on too many tools outside of the native platform. You’ll become so distant that you are at risk of being out of touch and tone deaf.
