DISQUS

Eric Logan · 9 months ago

Nice write-up, Corvida

Topify does something unique amongst this group. It allows you to e-mail back 140 character responses. When utilized with a Gmail filter for example from @topify then a keyword based on your business. You can then send back a canned response which provides information that is sought by brand specific or location specific followers when those key words are present in their stream of last five Tweets which are present in the Topify notification. An automated response that is not spam because it is likely to be information sought or pertinent for the new follower.

OurielOhayon · 9 months ago

Yes eric, this feature is unique and i wished it was pointed out in the post. it seems nothing, but brings a huge jump in usalbility (see 30 sec demo here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Haqf_oQKDz8).

i dropped 100 invites for people to try it http://bit.ly/topifyLG

Rachel Levy · 9 months ago

Great post. I'm currently using Topify and LOVE it. Not only does it help with the follower decisions, but I love being able to DM directly from email (faster, I have a sound alert for it, and I have a record of received AND sent DM's)

Mitchell McKenna · 9 months ago

I'd really like a service that could group all the new follower notifications into a daily, or weekly email instead of single email for each!

AlexSchleber · 9 months ago

This is important stuff, as the number of steps for diligent following are cumbersome, even if you abbreviate the sequence you describe by simply going to one's /followers page. Since Twitter is so far only showing people's bios on mouse-over on that page, rather than at least that plus following/follower numbers, it is increasingly difficult to guess the spammers up front without clicking through first (they are getting smarter on their bio texts).

I will test out some of the services you mention, but really email without 1-click follow/block from within the email client is still extra steps. Twitter should make decent solutions natively available, especially when they could reduce their server loads (showing the following/follower #s to weed out spammers should be cheaper than loading a full profile page, #s plus bio plus 5 tweets could even be on-click inline AJAXed to avoid potentially unnecessarily loading it 20 times per page).

Also, frankly there should be a 1-click option for blocks as well (as you really don't want spammers in your follower list, especially since some have been using the "top of follower heap" approach to follow/unfollow multiple times for exposure), the current 2-step process can be cumbersome especially when Twitter has slowed down. This should be inline AJAXed as well.

Follow me on Twitter, I follow back:
Twitter.com/AlexSchleber

Arik Fraimovich · 9 months ago

Alex - One thing that isn't emphasized in this post, is that with Topify we do simplify the two steps process - you can follow back and reply to DMs right from your inbox (no need to go to the Twitter site for that).

And to Corvida - our design changed a lot since the beginning - you should try again ;-)

Louis Gray · 9 months ago

Post by Corvida: http://www.friendfeed.com/corvida

Twitdom · 9 months ago

Nice list, and indeed, a great set of tools to use to enhance the notifications.

There are a few other tools that do the same thing. We have it listed at
http://twitdom.com/tag/email/

ouriel · 9 months ago

thanks louis for the post i dropped another 100 invitations on in the comments here http://bit.ly/topifyLG

OurielOhayon · 9 months ago

Thanks for the mention, as some readers point out we are the only service that actually allows you to follow back a user in one click by just replying to the email. If you already follow someone you can also send and answer direct messages right from your inbox.

And for those who want to try it here are 100 invites http://bit.ly/topifyLG

zoooni · 9 months ago

iam currently using twimailer and it works fine for me

luca filigheddu · 9 months ago

wrote about Twimailer and Topify a couple of days ago. I like Topify better.

http://www.lucafiligheddu.com/2009/03/get-the-m...

Ade · 9 months ago

go topify

Karl G. Siewert · 9 months ago

The information that's lacking in this article is how the services function for mobile users. Many Twitterers tweet almost exclusively from smartphones and other mobile devices. How do the three compare for ease-of-use via mobile browsers? Do the emails display well on a BlackBerry? Can you choose to get notifications by SMS or MMS?

Arik Fraimovich · 9 months ago

You can try for yourself and see. :)
I use Topify (obviously, as I'm the cofounder) I can see the emails fine on my Nokia with Gmail app (although no formatting or pictures) and can reply to DMs + follow back by only replying.

FlashTweet · 9 months ago

You can also use www.flashtweet.com to manage your followers.

Bill Sodeman · 9 months ago

Don't forget about www.socialtoo.com - they have an email follower reporting service.

Ian Bicking · 8 months ago

My problem with these is that often when someone follows me they are just starting to use Twitter. They don't have any (interesting) content, so I can't tell if they are interesting, or if they are going to stick with the service. I almost want a two-weeks-later system where I can see what the user has done with Twitter, and consider following them then.

TomaszStasiuk · 7 months ago

Great article. Just what I was looking for to reduce the mult-click steps I was previously using to respond to new followers.

perivision · 4 months ago

There is another part of twittFilter (friendFilter) that is useful. You can tune how the scoring system works. This is all new and alpha, but hey, I do this mostly as a hobby and because I want these tools also. I have been thinking about 'add follower' and 'block' within the email itself and have code mostly written, but have not got around to releasing it yet. I guess if enough people ask for it, I'll bump it up on the todo list.