The history of X/Twitter shows that the service started in 2006. In less than six years, it exceeded 100 million users, who post 900 million “tweets” daily. Tweets are short messages from members to their Twitter followers, 140 characters or less. Tweets may also be links to websites, photos, videos, audio recordings, live events, and other things of interest.

Internetlivestats says that in 2016, ten years after Twitter started, there were now over 500 million tweets per day. Statistics Brain notes that there are over 645 million Twitter accounts for registered users, and about 289 million are active regularly.

With over 300 million active daily users, X/Twitter remains an invaluable platform for brands looking to engage audiences. But maximising your impact requires using the right tools.

X/Twitter tools allow you to save time, manage multiple accounts, create engaging graphics, monitor mentions, analyse performance and more. Recent surveys show marketers using three or more tools see 85% higher Twitter engagement.

This guide covers the top 10 essential X/Twitter tools for marketers based on features, reliability, ease of use and value. Integrating the right tools into your workflow will elevate your Twitter strategy to the next level.

ALSO SEE: Free Twitter Analytics

The Significance of X / Twitter Tools and Strategies

X/Twitter tools and strategies are pivotal in maximising your impact on the platform. These tools provide the automation and insights you need to manage your X/Twitter presence effectively. At the same time, well-crafted strategies ensure that your content aligns with your goals and resonates with your target audience.

Top X / Twitter Tools for Marketers

The foundation of any successful X/Twitter strategy starts with robust management tools. These platforms handle the day-to-day operations that keep your X/Twitter presence active and engaging while you focus on growing your business.

1. Hootsuite

Hootsuite is the leading social media management platform, offering comprehensive X/Twitter automation, scheduling, and team collaboration features. For UK businesses managing multiple accounts or teams, Hootsuite provides:

• Multi-account management across Twitter and other platforms
• Advanced scheduling with optimal posting time recommendations
• Team collaboration features with approval workflows
• Detailed analytics, including engagement metrics and audience insights
• Content curation tools to discover trending topics

Best for: Marketing agencies, larger businesses, and teams requiring collaborative social media management

2. TweetDeck

TweetDeck remains one of the most potent free X/Twitter tools available, offering professional-grade organisation and management capabilities:

• Real-time monitoring of multiple X/Twitter streams
• Advanced filtering by keywords, hashtags, and locations
• Scheduled posting with queue management
• Team account management for collaborative posting
• Custom column organisation for efficient workflow management

Best for: Small to medium businesses, social media managers, and anyone needing robust X/Twitter management without subscription costs

3. Canva

Canva’s extensive template library and design tools make it indispensable for creating engaging X/Twitter visuals:

• Twitter-optimised templates for various content types
• Brand kit integration for consistent visual identity
• Video editing capabilities for X/Twitter video content
• Collaborative design features for team projects
• Extensive asset library including photos, graphics, and fonts

Best for: Small businesses, content creators, and teams without dedicated design resources

4. BuzzSumo

BuzzSumo helps UK businesses discover trending content and identify successful content formats:

• Content discovery based on engagement metrics
• Trend analysis for industry-specific topics
• Influencer identification and outreach opportunities
• Competitor content analysis to identify gaps
• Alert system for brand mentions and keywords

Best for: Content marketers, PR professionals, and businesses focused on thought leadership

5. Buffer

Buffer excels at intelligent scheduling and content optimisation, making it particularly valuable for UK businesses targeting specific time zones:

• AI-powered optimal timing suggestions based on audience activity
• Content calendar with drag-and-drop scheduling
• Engagement tracking with detailed response metrics
• Team collaboration with content approval workflows
• Link tracking and performance analytics

Best for: Content creators, small businesses, and marketers focused on engagement optimisation

6. X/Twitter Media Studio

X/Twitter’s own Media Studio provides professional video management capabilities:

• Video library organisation and management
• Thumbnail customisation for optimal engagement
• Video analytics including view duration and engagement
• Bulk upload capabilities for content libraries
• Tweet scheduling with video attachments

Pricing: Free

Best for: Businesses with significant video content, media companies, and content creators

7. Sprout Social

Sprout Social provides enterprise-level analytics and reporting capabilities that help UK businesses measure X/Twitter performance against business objectives:

• Comprehensive reporting with customisable dashboards
• Audience demographics including location-based insights
• Competitor analysis tools for benchmarking
• Social listening capabilities for brand monitoring
• ROI tracking with conversion attribution

Pricing: Starting from £199/month per user

Best for: Larger businesses, agencies, and organisations requiring detailed performance analytics

8. X/Twitter Advanced Search

X/Twitter’s built-in advanced search functionality offers powerful filtering capabilities:

• Keyword filtering with Boolean operators
• Date range selection for historical content
• Location-based search for local engagement
• User-specific search for monitoring mentions
• Engagement filtering to find popular content

Pricing: Free

Best for: All businesses conducting social listening and research

9. RiteTag

RiteTag provides real-time hashtag suggestions and performance tracking:

• Hashtag suggestions based on current trends
• Performance scoring for hashtag effectiveness
• Competitor hashtag analysis for strategic insights
• Banned hashtag detection to avoid penalties
• Engagement prediction for hashtag combinations

Pricing: Free tier available, paid plans from £49/month

Best for: Businesses focused on hashtag marketing and discoverability

10. Keyhole

Keyhole specialises in hashtag tracking and campaign reporting, essential for UK businesses running X/Twitter campaigns:

• Hashtag performance tracking with reach and impression data
• Campaign monitoring across multiple social platforms
• Influencer identification within hashtag conversations
• Real-time analytics for live event monitoring
• Geographic tracking for location-based campaigns

Pricing: Starting from £179/month

Best for: Campaign managers, event organisers, and businesses focused on hashtag marketing

Unveiling the X/Twitter Tools Landscape

Many X/Twitter tools are available, each offering unique features and capabilities. These tools can be broadly categorised into the following areas:

• Content Creation and Scheduling: Tools like Hootsuite, Buffer, and Sprout Social allow you to schedule tweets in advance, create engaging content, and collaborate with team members.
• Audience Management and Engagement: Tools like TweetDeck, SocialBro, and Agorapulse enable you to track and analyse your followers, identify influencers, and engage in meaningful conversations.
• Analytics and Reporting: Tools like X/Twitter Analytics, Google Analytics, and Brand24 provide detailed insights into your tweet performance, audience demographics, and campaign effectiveness.

Crafting Effective X/Twitter Strategies

While Twitter tools can streamline your workflow and automate tasks, your strategies will determine the direction and impact of your X/Twitter presence. Here are some key strategies to consider:

• Define Your Goals: Establish what you aim to achieve on X/Twitter, whether it’s increasing brand awareness, generating leads, or driving traffic to your website.
• Identify Your Target Audience: Understand who you want to reach on X/Twitter, their interests, and their online behaviour.
• Develop a Consistent Brand Voice: Maintain a consistent voice and tone across your tweets, ensuring your brand personality shines through.
• Create Engaging and Shareable Content: Craft informative, entertaining, and visually appealing tweets to capture attention and encourage engagement.
• Optimise for Search and Discovery: Utilise relevant hashtags, keywords, and meta descriptions to make your tweets discoverable in search results.
• Engage with Your Audience: Actively respond to comments, mentions, and direct messages to foster relationships and build a loyal following.
• Track and Analyse Your Performance: Regularly monitor your X/Twitter analytics to identify trends, measure progress, and refine your strategies accordingly.

Integrating Tools and Strategies for Twitter Success

The key to X/Twitter’s success is seamlessly integrating practical tools with well-defined strategies. Here’s a roadmap to achieve this:

1. Identify Your Tool Needs: Assess your X/Twitter goals and audience, and select tools that align with your specific requirements.
2. Set Up and Configure Tools: Familiarise yourself with each tool’s features and functionalities and configure them to match your preferences and workflows.
3. Develop a Content Calendar: Plan your content using a scheduling tool to ensure a consistent and engaging stream of tweets.
4. Monitor and Analyse Tool Data: Review your tools’ insights regularly, identifying areas for improvement and adapting your strategies accordingly.
5. Continuously Experiment and Refine: Stay up-to-date with emerging X/Twitter trends and experiment with new tools and strategies to optimise your presence.

World Events

World events cause a spike in tweets, with the record held for the most tweets per second caused by Japanese fans when viewing and tweeting about the animation film “Castle in the Sky,” which aired on Japanese television. The record is 143,199 tweets in a single second on 3 August 2013.

The previous record number of tweets per second was 456 on 25 June 2009, when Michael Jackson died. The increased usage of Twitter between 2009 and 2013 accounts for the dramatic difference.

Excellent Twitter activity occurs around news events that sometimes appear on X/Twitter before other media coverage.

X / Twitter Milestones

Twitter notes some of the significant milestone events were:

• The hashtag (#) first appeared on X/Twitter in 2007. Surprisingly, it was not, nor is it now, an official Twitter function. Chris Medina, a regular X/Twitter user, first proposed using a hashtag to mark a tweet with a keyword so that it becomes associated with a category. When tweets have hashtags, people can search for them and get all the related tweets.
• A plane from U.S. Airways crashed in the Hudson River, and the passengers survived. A X/Twitter user named Janis Krums was the first to tweet a photo of the crash before traditional media covered the accident.
• In January 2011, the “Arab Spring” political movement arose, and its popularity increased due to the use of X/Twitter. X/Twitter was such a powerful force supporting the Arab Spring movement that serious academic papers were written and published about this new phenomenon.

How to Use X/Twitter Tools to Increase Exposure

Suppose one cannot devise an innovative way to use X/Twitter that nobody else thought of, or be the first on the scene for a significant news event, or lead a democratic revolution. In that case, there are still ways to make your X/Twitter account gain followers and have your tweets retweeted to become a viral sensation.

X/Twitter Strategies

Understanding some basic strategies that make tweets more popular is helpful. These strategies are straightforward to implement, and the impact is significant, so it is good to use them. Some superb Twitter tools help make the process easier.

These are great tips from Buffer Social about how to reach more Twitter Followers:

• Include links in the tweets (86% more likely to be retweeted).
  
• Ask for a retweet by having the complete spelling of retweet, not “RT,” as in “Retweet please!” (23 times more likely to be retweeted).
  
• It is surprising to learn that 90% of the most influential Twitter users tweet about television shows, so they tweet about TV shows.
  
• Tweet at the time of day when there is more Twitter activity
  . Some of this is counterintuitive. If a person is in an area where commuters ride on trains and subways, tweeting during commute times is best. In general, tweeting in the afternoons is better than in the mornings. For some purposes, tweets on weekends are better than on weekdays. For those with international followers, recognise the time difference and tweet in multiple languages. There is a Twitter tool called Followerwonk that helps figure out the best time for tweets, and this tool tracks the results, making it easy to make adjustments for future tweets.
  
• Recognise that more than two-thirds of users access X/Twitter using mobile devices. When linking to anything in a tweet, be sure the link goes to mobile-friendly content or to a website(s) that displays rapidly and nicely on any device, anywhere. For example, do not offend X/Twitter users by putting a link to a 50 MB photo (without having a very good reason and warning them first). Also, do not put a link to any website that does not display correctly on all mobile devices. Buffer is an excellent publishing tool specifically designed for mobile users. (Note:  The optimal tweeting times discovered by Followerwonk are easily imported into Buffer, so these tools work together.)
  
• Tweets with hashtags are twice as popular. Use hashtags always.
  
• Older people are the newest X/Twitter users. The older adult demographic of those between 55 and 64 is the fastest-growing segment of social media users. What was a mainly teenage phenomenon is no longer restricted to that age group. Retirees, like teenagers, have plenty of free time, and they like to socialise as much as anyone else does.
  
• Shorter tweets work better. The maximum limit for a tweet is 140 characters; however, tweets of only 120 to 130 characters are more effective. Use this Character Counter that uses AI to update your character count. Say it fast, short, and intense for maximum impact.
  
  

Choosing the Right X/Twitter Tools for Your UK Business

Selecting the appropriate Twitter tools depends on several factors specific to your business needs:

For Small UK Businesses (1-10 employees)

Small businesses need maximum impact with minimal investment. This budget-friendly combination provides professional X/Twitter management without breaking the bank, perfect for startups and growing companies with limited resources but ambitious growth targets.

Recommended combination:

• TweetDeck (free management)
• Canva (visual content creation)
• Twitter Analytics (performance tracking)
• Buffer (scheduling and optimisation)

Monthly cost: £22-50 Key benefits: Cost-effective management with professional results

For Medium UK Businesses (10-50 employees)

Medium-sized businesses require more sophisticated tools to manage increased complexity and team collaboration. This combination balances advanced features with reasonable costs, which is ideal for growing companies with dedicated marketing teams.

Recommended combination:

• Hootsuite (team collaboration)
• BuzzSumo (content discovery)
• Sprout Social (advanced analytics)
• RiteTag (hashtag optimisation)

Monthly cost: £200-400 Key benefits: Comprehensive management with detailed insights

For Large UK Businesses (50+ employees)

Enterprise-level businesses need comprehensive solutions that support multiple teams, complex workflows, and detailed reporting requirements. This premium combination delivers enterprise-grade functionality with full integration capabilities.

Recommended combination:

• Hootsuite Enterprise (multi-team management)
• Sprout Social (advanced analytics)
• Keyhole (campaign tracking)
• Custom integrations with CRM systems

Monthly cost: £500-2000+ Key benefits: Enterprise-level management with full attribution tracking

Expert Insights from ProfileTree

“Most businesses make the mistake of treating X/Twitter tools as standalone solutions, but the real magic happens when you integrate them strategically. We’ve helped countless UK businesses increase their Twitter engagement by 300% simply by selecting the right combination of tools and aligning them with their broader digital marketing objectives,” says Ciaran Connolly, Director of ProfileTree.

This integrated approach means considering how X/Twitter tools support your SEO efforts, content marketing strategy, and customer journey mapping. The most successful businesses use Twitter tools to amplify their existing strengths rather than trying to build entirely new capabilities.

Conclusion

The best X/Twitter tools act as force multipliers for marketers, saving time while providing powerful analytics and management functionality. Start integrating free built-in tools like Advanced Search while leveraging affordable third parties like Hootsuite, Buffer, and Canva. With the proper X/Twitter toolbox, you set yourself up for social media success.

After ten years, X/Twitter continues to be a powerful force in social media. The explosive growth that Twitter experienced in the early years tapered off. Nevertheless, the number of Twitter users is still increasing each year. Surprisingly, many older adult users are on Twitter, which creates a new opportunity for those with products or services that might interest older adults.

Using the Twitter tools described above, we found them all to be very helpful in making the process of promoting tweets more effective and less laborious. These tools help keep X/Twitter enjoyable, handle mundane tasks, and provide valuable analytics to make it easier to succeed with social media campaigns on X/Twitter.

FAQs

Transform Your Twitter Strategy Today

Are you ready to stop wasting time on X/Twitter tools that don’t deliver results? ProfileTree has helped over 200 UK businesses turn their social media presence into a lead-generating machine.

Here’s what you get when you work with us:

✅ Free Twitter Strategy Audit – We’ll analyse your current setup and identify immediate opportunities ✅ Custom Tool Recommendations – Get a personalised toolkit based on your business goals and budget
✅ Implementation Support – Our team handles the technical setup so you can focus on growing your business.

✅ Ongoing Optimisation – Monthly strategy reviews to keep your Twitter performance improving

Don’t let another month pass with underwhelming Twitter results.

Our clients typically see a 250% increase in qualified leads within 90 days of implementing our Twitter strategy framework. From Belfast to London, we’ve helped businesses across the UK transform their social media from a time sink into their most profitable marketing channel.

Ready to get started? Book your free consultation today and discover how the right X/Twitter tools and strategy can accelerate your business growth.

📞 Call us: 028 9568 0364
📧 Email us: hello@profiletree.com
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