There are plenty of people who spend hours of their time on Twitter and Facebook on a daily basis. Add to that hundreds of useful tools that are available for these networks, and you may end up spending all your days on these sites. There are plenty of Twitter tools that can help you get the most out of this social network. Some can help you increase your followers while some others can keep track of your favorite topic. You are never going to be out of options.

If you are struggling to feed your Twitter addiction, here are 5 tools that could help:

Twalkin: a very cool service that lets you connect and start talking with your Twitter friends. If you want to have a private chat with your friends or announce something to a selection of your followers, Twalkin is must try.

Tweeterview: a great tool to interview people on Twitter with and watch other people’s interviews. Helps keep things organized while you interview other people.

Klout: an all powerful tool that dissects your profile and lets you know whether you are making a difference on Twitter. It can show you what areas you need to work on to take your Twitter to the next level.

jotabl: gives you an easy way to add a Twitter shout-box to your website. Just add it to your website and have your visitors connect with you and tweet right from your site.

Tweetwally: Tweetwally gives you an easy way to create a Twitter wall based on a hash-tag, user-name, or keywords. Sign in, and you can even share your wall with others.

There are plenty more tools around for Twitter. Not every tool is going to be useful for your situation, but the above tools do you give you the chance to connect more effectively with your visitors and boost your presence on Twitter.

If you have been following this blog, you have probably realized that I am not a big fan of automating Twitter tasks. There are plenty of tools on the market that you can use to completely outsource your Twitter work. But what’s the fun in that? It’s similar to traveling miles to get yourself to a party and then decide to sit outside or in the corner without interacting with other people. Of course, Twitter tools do have a place for active Twitter users. Unfortunately, there are only 24 hours in each day, which means somethings should and need to be outsourced if you are to get the most out of Twitter.

I got familiar with Market Me Tweet on Twitter. There was a discussion about branding one’s tweets on Twitter, and that’s when Market Me Tweet comes in. It’s a Twitter management tool that allows you to brand each and every tweet of yours. But this tool is more than just about branding your tweets. You can use it to manage multiple accounts and monitor your replies, direct messages, and  other people’s time-lines using this software.

Of course, just like any other Twitter tool, Market Me Tweet has a controversial feature as well. The Reply campaign with all its templates and automation capability is something you want to look at with caution. You certainly don’t want to spam Twitter. Besides, I am not sure how template messages can help you build real relationships. It may work in the short-term, but that is not the right approach for the long-term.

There are a lot of things to like about this package. It’s nice to have an option to find new followers and manage existing followers with the smart algorithm feature included in this software. The fact that you can use this account to manage unlimited accounts is a plus as well. The software is pretty affordable as well. So it may be worth checking out if you are planning to move to a premium brand management tool for Twitter. Just don’t spam Twitter, but you already knew that.

There are plenty of Twitter automation tools around. These days you can automate anything from sending messages, planning direct messages, and more with your Twitter account. Just because you can do it, doesn’t mean you should do it. There is such a thing as Black-Hat and White-Hat tweeting. Have you wondered why you get unsolicited messages on Twitter when you talk about topics such as VOIP or Web hosting? There are a lot of people who make a living out of selling these services to others, and Twitter is their next playground. Some have gone even beyond that and send you harmful links wrapped within an innocent @reply. So there are a lot of things that you shouldn’t automate or do no Twitter. But small businesses can certainly benefit from outsourcing some of their Twitter tasks. You don’t want to everything by yourself and lose sight of what really matters.

If you are looking to manage multiple accounts, vet followers, or find suitable people to follow, the following 4 Twitter automation tools come in handy:

Tweet Adder: one of the most powerful and controversial Twitter automation tools on the market. Let’s you do all kinds of research on Twitter and even find friends to follow fast. The controversial feature (auto-follow) is best left to black-hats. But there are a lot of positive things you can get done with Twitter including but not limited to deep research, account management, and friend management.

TwitterFeed: one of the best tools out there if you want to automate feeding your blog to Twitter. You can not only define how often your want your feeds to be posted, you can also define tags for your posts. Your clicks are tracked as well which is a big plus. It’s a free tool.

Humming Bird: comes with everything you need to manage multiple accounts, add friends, and find targeted followers. The service is quite smart and makes following and unfollowing people less of a pain. Basically, it helps you find and friend people who you have not unfollowed before and set yourself up as an authority twitter figure.

Social Oomph: a very handy service that enables you to manage your twitter accounts and connect them to your blogs easily. You can also use it to find people to follow, set up direct messages, unfollow people when they unfollow you, and much more.

If you are planning to abuse the above services, let’s hope you get suspended soon. But if you are truly interested in saving time and effort and build a real Twitter presence, the above tools come in handy. They don’t do everything for you, but they do save time.

The iPhone may be a killer smartphone, but I personally use it to manage my Twitter and Facebook accounts when I am traveling or where I don’t have access to the Internet. There is no question that iPhone is one of the most social media friendly smartphones on the market. At the same time, not everyone can afford paying thousands of dollars for a 2 year AT&T contract. And unlocked iPhone can cost you a good amount of money as well. That’s where TwitterPeek comes in. It’s a device designed for those who can’t get enough of Twitter, but don’t want to pay for a hefty wireless/data plan from AT&T.

TwitterPeek is not a device that will ever go mainstream. It’s a niche device made for Twitter junkies. If you happen to pick up the model with a life-time of service, you can use your gadget on the road (as long as you are in the coverage area)  to tweet, respond to your followers, and track their activities as well.

There is a lot to like about TwitterPeek. While it’s not as stylish as let’s say the iPhone, it is compact and very easy to carry around. The device comes with decent navigation capabilities. If you have owned a Blackberry in the past, you are not going to have any trouble using TwitterPeek. The fact that you never have to pay for going over the limit with your messages is a big plus. You also don’t have to wait for your device to download tweets for you. You get a live snapshot of what’s happening on Twitter with TwitterPeek.

The battery life is long enough to let you go on the road for a few days without having to charge your device. And you got to love the vibration feature as well. As a proud owner of Peek, I can tell you that nothing is more fun than getting reminders that you just got a new message. Not the only device that comes with that feature but still fun.

Will TwitterPeek be a hit like the iPhone? I doubt it. It’s a nice device for Twitter junkies who need a dedicated device. It’s certainly a fun gift to give to the young members of your family. At the same time, if you can afford an iPhone or the Droid, you may want to keep your $200.

Your take: would you give TwitterPeek a chance?

Unless you have been using Internet Explorer for the past few years, you probably know that there is more to your browser than meets the eye. Almost all modern browsers come with additional enhancements that enable you to get more done on the Internet without too much hassle. If you happen to be using Firefox to surf the Internet, it’s even better.  There are plenty of add-ons to choose from, and some truly can save you time and effort with your social media efforts.

If you are hoping to use Firefox to tweet more effectively, here are 7 Twitter Add-ons for Firefox that you should try:

EchoFon: makes it easy to keep up with your friends posts and updates on Twitter. You can also use it to post your own tweets.

Yoono: lets you access all your social networks and instant messaging on your sidebar. Great way to stay in touch if you happen to be active on multiple social networks.

Twinbin: adds Twitter to your sidebar and lets you keep in touch with your friends and followers on Twitter. You can reply, favorite, and more without having to open up Twitter.

Power Twitter: makes reading tweets on your browser a more dynamic experience.  It puts your Twitter web interface on steroids.

Friendbar: shows a real time stream of your Facebook and Twitter updates and photos. Makes keeping up with the social media much easier.

TwitterBar: still one of the best Twitter Firefox add-ons. Let’s say you like surfing the Internet all day for stories and content. With Twitter bar, you can easily tweet these without having to open up your Twitter page.

Clipmarks: Clipmarks doesn’t need any introduction but with Clipmarks for Firefox, you can share articles and blogs with your Twitter followers and Facebook fans easily from your browser.

What’s your favorite Twitter add-on for Firefox?