When it comes to simple Twitter management, there is a whole host of tools and services you can use. However, before you start to glorify the abundance of the web, you should consider that there are just two prominent tools, CoTweet and HootSuite, specifically designed to help you manage the customer service element of your business. This is not to say that they do not fill the space well, because both are quite effective as Twitter Power-tools, in their own ways.

With more and more companies arming themselves with a quiver full of potent arrows named Twitter, you must be eager to fire your shots before others can. Both CoTweet and HootSuite can help you do this. Nevertheless, before you can decide which of the two tools can serve you best, maybe you should know about the things that both of them offer you.

Whether you use CoTweet or HootSuite, you can:

• Manage as many accounts as you want. Remember that in Twitter-space, the rule is ‘the more the merrier’! You do not have to manage all the accounts yourself and instead provide access to some of the accounts to suitable people in your organization.
• Use both tools to retain password access to all your accounts, because the other users chosen by you simply have to use their CoTweet or Hootsuite logins to use their assigned accounts and interact with customers on behalf of your business.
• Use multiple editors and search for keywords quickly and efficiently.
• Get notified as soon as you receive a message on any of your accounts.
• Program both CoTweet and Hootsuite to send out posts at a designated time later in the day or week. This can be really helpful if you are looking to run a blitzkrieg marketing campaign.

You may also be happy to know that both these tools are free (for now that is).

Okay, but, before you start thinking that these two tools are clones of each other, here’s a brief look at both right now.

If you use CoTweet, you can look forward to:

• A sleek user-interface, boosted by detailed texture. The homepage is nothing much to write about but the spacious layout more than makes up for it!
• Referring to your archived Tweets as and when necessary. You can also create lists and save searches that are easily accessible at any point of time.
• Assign someone in your organization to be the ‘On Duty’ tweeter. This ensures that your business is alive and well on Twitter, throughout working hours. In addition, the Twitter-bugs in your company do not need to waste time in checking their Twitter accounts throughout the day!
• Adding a personal touch to your Twitter posts. If you feel that the posts should be credited to the person making them on behalf of your organization, you can use CoTags. These are short signatures (usually initials) which can be set up to appear automatically along with every post. In hindsight, if you make it a must for every tweeter in your organization to use CoTags, they might be a lot more responsible with the content of their posts!

But there are some downsides to CoTweet too.

• CoTweet does not support Facebook, which may be a vital element of your social media efforts. Social media is not just about Twitter, and the sooner the makers do something to incorporate Facebook usage, the better.
• Finding specific tweets can be tough, particularly when you are in a hurry.
• If you are looking for something within the searches you have saved, you may find it hard to obtain results for specific operators such as ‘near’ or ‘within’ a place. For such geographically specific searches, you have to refer to search.twitter.com repeatedly.

Now that you know a fair bit about the pros and cons of Cotweet, let us take closer look at HootSuite as well! Here are some of Hootsuite’s key features that deserve two thumbs ups and no less:

• If you like multifunctional tools, you will love HootSuite. It allows you to manage Facebook, Ping.fm, and LinkedIn in addition to Twitter. To top it off, you can plug in WordPress blogs and any RSS feed of your choice into HootSuite streams. There is hardly an easier way to promote your blogs through Twitter and Facebook!
• To complete the social media bouquet, HootSuite gives you an iPhone application to post, search and even check user stats.
• Talking about user stats, HootSuite provides you the deepest and most intricate data you may ever need! Use the URL shortener ow.ly to get to know stuff such as who are the most influential re-tweeters of your links.
• You can customize the entire process of profile management by adding and removing columns from the different tabs representing the profiles you are managing. If you want, you can also add more columns for content such as Twitter lists, searches and keywords.
• The HootLet is a mini-bookmark system unique to HootSuite. Marking your favorite sites for tweeting can be really easy thanks to this feature.
• You can start or stop following people on twitter via HootSuite whenever you wish. With the click of a button, you can report spammers to Twitter HQ for appropriate action.

Even though the above mentioned features of Hootsuite sound great, you should keep in mind some of its downsides as well:

• The iPhone app works for Twitter only. For the rest you have to log in to the website. Moreover, the app costs you an extra $2, which makes it a paid service feature.
• More than one person in your organization can access HootSuite, but there are no such features as the ‘tweet assignment’ and ‘on duty’ ones in as is the case of CoTweet.
• Specific searches do not seem to work here either.

In conclusion, while both are great tools meant to empower you while engaging in social media customer service, CoTweet is perhaps the better choice if you run a business with some employees to assist you in your social media efforts.

On the other hand, if you want to keep your social media cards close to your chest, HootSuite may serve you best with its better layout and simple interface. If you want to choose one, what you need to do is to take a look at your organization’s needs and the facilities at your disposal for social media customer service and making the right choice suddenly won’t seem so hard after all!

I had an opportunity meet with Braden Young, Marketing Coordinator for Bucks First Federal Credit Union (BFFCU) @SXSW and we got talking about BFFCU about their innovative, community-based social media program designed to encourage the youth of Bucks County to take ownership of their financial lives by providing an interactive, social outlet for financial education and products. Project: Flipside, “The Alternative to Doing Nothing”, is a way to show 16-25 yr olds the flipside of money and finances by putting it into their terms launched in March 2009.

Braden talks about lessons learned, measured success on the campaign and their plans for 2010-2011. Very interesting video so check it out!!

Earlier this year, BusinessWeek magazine ranked USAA among the top two on its list of “Customer Service Champs,” and now Forrester released a compelling case study today about USAA: “USAA Uses Social Media To Drive Sales, Product, And Service Strategies,” noting that USAA is a way ahead than any other company in the financial services industry.

Here’s the executive summary:

Financial services firm USAA created its first formal social media strategy in 2008. In 2009, it further refined and represented the strategy as four pillars of focus: listening, engaging, strengthening relationships, and innovation.

As a tactic of listening and engaging, USAA engaged Bazaarvoice to offer ratings and reviews to its members on USAA.com. Nearly a year later, the results are astounding. Thousands of members have provided reviews, and USAA has used those reviews to drive product improvements, improve Web site conversion, and increase interactive marketing effectiveness.

• Situation: USAA Pondered The Role Of Social Media To Its Business
• Best Practice: USAA Brings Social Media Tactics To eBusiness
• Ratings And Reviews Provide The “Authentic Voice” Of USAA Members
• USAA Has Achieved Tangible Results From The Use Of Social Media On Its Web Site

Some recommendations from the study: -

• Start with a well-thought-out strategy. Key to USAA’s success in social media is a well-articulated and -communicated social strategy — one that meshes well with USAA’s mission. To emulate USAA, eBusiness managers should do the same. We recommend using Forrester’s POST methodology, a systematic approach to developing a social strategy that examines your customers and objectives before setting a strategy and technology course. 
• Have a champion, but involve all aspects of the business. Success in almost anything involves a balance of strategy and implementation. For USAA, the rollout of social media is no different. The social team led the charge, but along the way, it involved other key areas of the business, including folks in risk, compliance, and legal. This upfront engagement ensured smoother sailing once things got rolling around the project.
• Get executive buy-in early. USAA is a financial provider that prides itself on transparency throughout the organization, but that didn’t mean the social team had it easy when selling the ratings and reviews service. Key to its success was getting executive buy-in early. The important elements of buy-in were a well-thought-out review moderation plan and usability testing results that showed the value of the features to the member experience.
• Start small, show results, and then expand. USAA took a very methodical approach to rolling out the ratings and reviews service. It started initially with just the insurance business. Once results started coming in, additional lines of business immediately saw the benefit, and USAA expanded the offering to include them. One key element that underlined rollout success was clear and solid metrics that went beyond just interest and usage. The team was able to tie the feature directly to sales.

Now that the power of social media has been in the limelight, many individuals are willing to accept it as the ultimate panacea of our times. But is this truly the case? Can social media really do wonders for your business as people claim?

As with everything else in life, social media too comes bundled up with both, positives and negatives. We all know the positives but do we know enough negatives to be careful in what we do?

So the first thing you should to do before introducing any drastic changes to how your company or business operates is to learn all about possible consequences that you may face. You should never attempt new things without knowing the full width and breadth of it.  So go on and learn all about social media as your first step.

Information on social media could be easily gathered from the internet. If you are a books-person, you may head to the local stores in search of contemporary social media guides. A dummies book may also help if you are a total beginner at the subject.

The most common fact about social media success lies in your organizing skills. The strategies you employ to reach the end result will need to vary depending on whether you own a small business or a large organization.

Brainstorming is an essential component in formulating such strategies and seeking the expertise of a professional may also be of help (doesn’t mean that we need to give everything in consultant’s hands). However, you should never underestimate the commonsense suggestions of social media fanatics for they will know pros and cons, like the back of their hand.

While you subtract the essence of how to use social media to your advantage, it is also advisable to be open to suggestions on what others think. The latter can be objectively achieved by running a few polls and conducting a survey to find out if your target market is active on which social media platforms so that you can align your strategy accordingly.

You will also need to realize that as much thrilling it may be to see your business gaining popularity in no time, the opposite reaction too will consume little time to be effective. So if you were to get in to the bad books of consumers, the word will spread around through social media almost instantly and from there on, you will have nothing but a downfall to look forward to. Be ready to handle negative comments and get your team thick skinned to take the negatives with the positives.

Having a good plan, organizations support, stakeholder’s buy-ins and processes to accept social media as a new channel of communication are essential for success.

True that we have never seen online scams than what we see around today, but the fact of the matter is, more and more people are aware of such scams in today’s world than ever before. So this is why you need not become conned as a ‘liar’ in the eyes of your customers. And that means; you got to say what you mean and mean what you say!

Long gone are the days where customers played a passive role in the consumer relationship. As of today, they have rise above being victimized to marketing gimmicks. In fact, as of today, consumers have rise in to power so much so that they demand their preferences to be met via the services/products they like. If you fail to meet the demands, you walk away empty handed with perhaps, permanent damage to your image.

This brings us to think about the importance of corporate transparency. The vital question to ask at this point would be “how much transparency, should be allowed to the general public?”. While it is of your best interest to be as open as you could in the corporate arena, especially in the consumer market, it is even more important that you have genuine intensions to do what you do.

Remember that you can never underestimate the immense pressure placed on you as a product/service provider. You can never get away from it nor hide from it. The only option available for you is to face the facts and the challenges that are thrown your way or make up your mind and move in to a different arena, completely.

People are becoming more and more proactive and expressive too. So you cannot expect someone to keep quiet about a possible mishap your products and services have pulled through. In today’s competitive world, a single blog post or a single forum comment about the negative aspects of your company is enough to set off the fire.

The web has become the most powerful tool of all times; so, act positively, on those who do everything, the right way. But if you were to make a mistake, then reach out to all your followers or fans and tell them you made a mistake. All companies are run by humans and we all tend to make mistakes and people will forgive if you come out admit that mistake; there is no shame in showing that a company is not just brick and mortar but has a human touch to it.

Finally, remember that it’s not mistake but our reaction to our mistakes that can keep us apart from competitors. Being honest is no longer desired but is required in the social world.