Anyone who knows me, knows that I *love* Twitter. I also love the many tools that are out there to manage Twitter accounts. My favorite by far is HootSuite. Now, no one from HootSuite knows I’m writing this post, and by no means have I been paid to write this post. OK, now that I’ve gotten the FCC formality out of the way… here are *my* top 10 reasons for using HootSuite for managing time on Twitter.

1. Simplicity – HootSuite is incredibly easy to set-up and start using right away. The interface is intuitive and simple to use.
2. Shorten URLs – HootSuite includes a shorten URL feature that will automatically “shrink” the URL using Ow.ly and add the shrunken URL to your tweet. Very cool!
3. Create Groups- Ever find yourself searching through your Twitter feed trying to find tweets from a specific person? I sure have. Well, with HootSuite you can organize Twitter users you follow into groups. I have groups set up by category – business, entertainment, friends, news, specific search terms, etc. This feature is *super* helpful if you’re like me and use Twitter for marketing.
4. Schedule Tweets -The “Send Later” feature of HootSuite allows you to schedule your tweets for future dates and times. I especially like this feature for time management. Say, for example, I find a few articles I want to share with my followers, but I don’t want to inundate them with a ton of  tweets, I’ll schedule my tweets to send every 15 – 20 minutes.
5. Share Files and Images – Share files and photos with your followers very easily by uploading them directly to your tweet from HootSuite.
6. Multiple Users & Multiple Profiles - HootSuite allows one account to manage multiple Twitter profiles. You can also add multiple Twitter editors as well. This feature is extremely helpful for corporate Twitter accounts where you have multiple employees and a corporate Twitter profile.
7. RSS Feeds - Add your RSS feeds to HootSuite account in seconds. This feature allows your feeds to post to your Twitter account automatically. No more copying and pasting blog headlines and links to Twitter!
8. Ping.fm Integration – Update all of your social media network profiles through HootSuite. Paste your Ping.fm API key into your HS account and that’s it. All of your social networking accounts are updated all at once!
9. Add HootSuite to Your Website- The Columns-to-Go feature allows an easy way to add your tweets to your website. Just click on the Columns-to-Go button and follow the instructions on the video tuturial.
10. Statistics – This is my *favorite* feature! See which tweets get the most clicks. View by date and location. Being able to see which tweets are most popular will give you an idea of what to tweet about in the future.

Using Twitter effectively for businesses can be time consuming. Twitter clients like HootSuite make managing that time much easier and effective. Give it a try and tell me what you think.