Why I Hate CoTweet

Last week, I tweeted that I was trying out TweetDeck. One of my followers replied and suggested I take a look at CoTweet. I did. Here’s why I hate CoTweet.

The first feature that CoTweet has that has made my life miserable is that it allows me to put all my feeds (that is, my several accounts) into a single, easy to use, attractively clean interface. There are no extra steps or log-ins to slow me down. This effectively eliminated any excuses I had in not posting to all my feeds.

I confess that until I started using CoTweet, I didn’t pay that much attention to my feeds. I might read one or two tweets from the folks I was following but that was it. Now, with CoTweet, the interface is so nice that I actually read and want to keep up with my feeds. Clearly this is a terrible feature as it causes me to develop a deeper interest in Twitter.

CoTweet makes it super easy to respond to tweets with direct messages or replies. It even keeps up with with tweets I’ve responded to by using an inline comment just below the tweet. This ease has made me more vigilant for interesting tweets to respond to–another terrible feature increasing my interest in Twitter.

Because I’m actually reading my feeds, I’ve also more aware of spam and irritation with folks who post dozens of tweets over the course of sixty seconds. CoTweet makes managing all my feeds a breeze: I simply click on the name of the account I’m following and a lovely dialog box comes up that allows me to review all my interactions with that individual/organization. I can even tell if they’re mutually following me or not, whether we’ve had direct interactions including how many times they have mentioned me. CoTweet even allows me to make private notes about them. I’m now more likely to stop following people whose tweets don’t add value, again making me more likely to pay attention to who I enjoy following most. This is a yet another terrible feature that is increasing my interest in the people I keep following.

When I find something I’d like to post, CoTweet makes it unusually easy to do so. I can post to any or all of my feeds at once. Not only that, but there is a handy feature to reduce URL size built right in. If I’m on a roll and find lots of interesting things to tweet about, CoTweet allows me to schedule tweets for later so I don't overwhelm my followers. There is no excuse for not tweeting something cool. This is a terrible feature which is increasing my interest in Twitter.

In addition to allowing users to create short inline links, CoTweet also tracks click-through stats so I know exactly how many people clicked on a particular link. If I want to explore the stats (my own or anyone else's) in greater depth, I can click through to bit.ly and get even more details. This is yet another rotten feature of CoTweet that’s making me more interested in Twitter.

Finally, CoTweet has taken Twitter to another level by allowing companies to use Twitter as an effective communication tool. Several people can be assigned to a particulr feed and with someone “on duty” a tweet can be assigned to anyone else in the organization for follow up. This followup feature reminds me that I have no one to assign tweets to besides myself, increasing my desire to grow my business.

I think it’s clear that CoTweet is really on to something. It’s obviously some sort of conspiracy plot that will cause people to use Twitter effectively and make tweeting as common as email. Did I mention that (for now) it’s free? It’s a terrible tool full of easy to use features, packaged in an attractive clean interface that will certainly increase your interest effectiveness using social media.

Did I mention that CoTweet has made me more interested in Twitter? Avoid it like the plague.