Do I have to install anything to use TweetRoost?

No, TweetRoost is a web based application which lives in the ‘cloud’. When you sign up for a TweetRoost account, you give us just a little information about yourself on our secure signup form, we set your site up in an instant, email you the login instructions for your site, and you can get right on. Note: for security purposes we do not email you your password.

How does TweetRoost allow a single person or multiple people access to our Twitter account?

TweetRoost connects to your Twitter account and allows you to do just about everything you can do directly in Twitter. Like sending Tweets, Retweets, Messages, Follows, and much more. The first time you sign into TweetRoost, it asks you (and behind the scenes, Twitter) for permission to access your account. If you say yes, Twitter knows we are trusted , so we never need your Twitter password. Once you have connected to that Twitter account, either you alone, or you and others in your organization who you have added a TweetRoost account for can access that Twitter account through TweetRoost because it is a multi-user application.

How does TweetRoost allow me to manage more than one Twitter account?

Any time you want, you can add another Twitter account to your list of accounts in TweetRoost. When you do, that account will go into TweetRoost’s Twitter Account dropdown menu. From then on, you then select whichever Twitter account you want to connect to and manage. The Twitter timeline appears, along with that user’s favorites, followers, followees, etc. Any Tweets, retweets, or messages you send while in TweetRoost will come from the Twitter account you are using at that moment. Also, mentions, replies, messages, and retweets related to that Twitter account appear in TweetRoost.

“Saved forever,” what does that mean?

TweetRoost saves anything you want in its permanent and always accessible database. TweetRoost always saves Mentions of the Twitter accounts it manages automatically, as well as Messages to the Twitter account. It also saves all Tweets, Retweets, and Messages sent from TweetRoost. But there’s more: TweetRoost lets you set up Search Monitors to search for mentions of you, your brand, your organization, specific keywords,  or just about anything you want (it’s easy), and automatically saves those too. You can Save any Tweet or Retweet you see in any timeline by just clicking on the TweetRoost ‘save’ link. Saved TweetRoost Items can be assigned, emailed, tagged, closed and commented on. If they are pending (because they were not sent yet), you can change the sending dates. You can also report or search on Saved Items.

Can I do everything in TweetRoost that I could do in Twitter?

Just about everything. And since you are doing it in a product that saves everything you do, you have a permanent record of your activities (and the activity stream is itself saved and accessible). And you can do even more in TweetRoost: Want to upload a file and include a link to it in your Tweet? No problem, use TweetRoost’s file upload functionality to send a file to our server and receive a shortened URL to include in your Tweet so that anyone can access it. Want to schedule Tweets? No problem, schedule them for whenever you want.

How do Search Monitors work?

Search monitors are Twitter Saved searches – created on TweetRoost or on Twitter – which you’ve designated for TweetRoost to run in the background. (How often they run depends on several factors). Once they run, the results of the Search Monitor are Saved – that’s the important part – so that you’ve got a permanent record of the Tweets which match. Let’s say you are ‘National Freebizator Company’ – just make a Saved Search on ‘Freebizator’ (or perhaps one on #freebizator), and TweetRoost will ‘import’ all Tweets which have that word in them.

How do I create a Search Monitor?

TweetRoost uses Twitter Saved Searches as the basis of its Search Monitor engine, so first you’ll need to have some Twitter Saved Searches. To create one from within TweetRoost, just Search for a term or phrase in the TweetRoost Search box.  Notice that in the search results for ‘freebizator’, for instance, you’ll be given a link at the top which says “Make a Twitter Saved Search of freebizator” — if you click that, you’ll have a Twitter (and TweetRoost) Saved Search. Ok, half way there! Next, click on “Saved Searches” in the right side of the screen. From that screen, you can simply turn Search Monitors on or off. Turn the freebizator Saved Search on. TweetRoost will now look for tweets which contain that phrase, all in the background. When they appear in the Twitter Stream, TweetRoost will import them into the TweetRoost Saved Items database for you to manage!

To manage Saved Searches for Search Monitor, the TweetRoost Administrator can go into Manage Search Monitors in the Admin panel and turn them on and off, auto-assign them to users, etc.

What about people in my group who are required to have their Tweets  approved by a manager before they are sent to Twitter? Or people who I want to be allowed to read Tweets, but not send them?

TweetRoost has a roles system for its users. A TweetRoost user can be a Publisher – they can send anything to Twitter and manage Twitter functions, like making favorites and following users; or an editor – they can create Tweet or Message text, but they cannot send to Twitter (it must be approved by a Publisher), but they can manage Twitter functions within TweetRoost; or a Contributor – they can create Tweets and Messages, but not send them without Publisher approval, and they cannot manage Twitter functions within TweetRoost; or a Guest, who can just view Tweets and not publish Tweets.

How many TweetRoost users do I get?

When you sign up for a TweetRoost account, you get 3 TweetRoost users. If you only have one person who’ll manage the Twitter account from TweetRoost, no problem, just don’t use the other 2. If you are an organization who wants the multi-user capabilities, use the other 2 – set them up on the Admin pages, it just takes a minute – and you can then try it. After 45 days, everyone gets to keep one free user. Prices  for the Pro version are on the website.

What can I do in TweetRoost that I cannot do directly in Twitter?

Since Tweets, Retweets, and Messages are saved in TweetRoost in a database, you can assign them to people to work on – or work on them yourself. You can ‘Close’ them when they are no longer of interest: They are kept in our database, but part of a Closed list which is still accessible. You can Tag Saved Items, so you can categorize and search for Saved Tweets which match the Tag value. You can email copies of a Tweet. You can Comment on a Saved Item. You can comment on any Twitter user in the internal-only Notes field. You can also ‘Mute’ a noisy user who you’d like to follow, but whose Tweets take up too much bandwidth for your timeline. You can do a LOT in TweetRoost that you can’t do in Twitter.

How do Comments work?

You or anyone on your team can Comment on a Saved Item. These comments are internal, they never leave your organization. Comments are a great way for you to talk amongst your team about the contents of a Tweet, Retweet, or Message which was saved. Also, you will be automatically notified with an email if anyone else comments on an item that you had previously commented on.

How does Scheduling work

When you create a Tweet, Retweet, Reply or Message, you can optionally tell TweetRoost to send it in the future. You pick the date and time. If you are a user who is not allowed to send directly (a Contributor, for instance), the Publisher who approves it can pick the date and time, or ‘now’. In addition, you can create drafts to work on; these are only accessible by you, and you can decide when you want to send them — now or later.

Does TweetRoost provide RSS feeds of TweetRoost data, so that I can read it elsewhere?

Yes, TweetRoost has about a dozen RSS feeds, including feeds for Saved Items (per Twitter Account), all Activities, Scheduled Tweets and Messages.

Can TweetRoost read RSS feeds and help me create Tweets from those RSS items?

Yes, TweetRoost can read any RSS feed, create new approvable and schedulable Tweets, and let you edit the text, approve sending the Tweet to Twitter and allow you to schedule it or send it immediately.

How can I see the back-and-forth between myself and another Twitter user in TweetRoost?

TweetRoost will thread Tweets on the Item details screen. This means that you can see all Tweets back and forth which are linked/threaded together. And these threads are clickable links so you can see the details of any Tweet in the thread.

Does TweetRoost integrate with any other tools?

Yes, TweetRoost allows you to dynamically create Salesforce Leads or Cases, Zendesk or Basecamp Tickets, and then follow those Leads, Cases or Tickets in those products from the TweetRoost Saved Item details screen. TweetRoost also gives you the Klout scores of Twitter Accounts you look at in TweetRoost.

What about Reports, is TweetRoost a reporting tool too?

No, TweetRoost is not a reporting tool. But it will tell you and graph for you how many Tweets, retweets, mentions, and messages each Twitter Account is getting  by unit of time (both sending and receiving); and it will give you reports, if you are using it in an Organization (multiuser) setting, who is assigned to which Item, in a way which is useful on a heavily used Twitter Account. TweetRoost also gives you a graphical image of follower and followee counts over time.