Let’s face it, in business what counts is the bottom, and what matters most is the quality of your contacts rather than quantity. I must admit, I am impressed with the number of followers some of my fellow Twitterers have acquired. I just can’t help but wonder how many of those folks are potential clients and invaluable colleague connections, and how many are sitting in their mother’s basement in their underwear, cruisin’ on the internet?

Here are some of my favorite Tools and Twitter Applications I use to maximize the number of quality Twitterers I’m connected to :

Online Monitoring
Google Alerts
You’ll receive email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic.

Google Reader
Keep up to date and categorize blog postings and up-to the minute news pertinent to your and your clients’ interests.

Google Desktop
Provides access all your Goole apps in a one-stop-shop on your desktop.

Twitter Applications
Twitthis
When this bookmark is added to your browser toolbar, as you read through materials on-line, you can instantaneously send a message through Twitter about the page you are viewing.

The “TwitThis” button is an easy way for people to send Twitter messages about your blog post or website. When visitors to your website click on the TwitThis button or link, it takes the URL of the webpage and creates a shorter URL using TinyURL. Then visitors can send this shortened URL and a description of the web page to all of their friends on Twitter.

Tweetbeeps
Allows you to follow any Twitters within 100 miles of your location, mentioning up to 5 criteria searches. And provides you with a daily report. is like Google Alerts for Twitter! Put in a keyword or website, and get emails when others tweet it.
Great for reputation management and brand alerts!

TinyURL
Creates a short URL that will not break in email postings and never expires.

Tweetdeck
Provides the same search capabilities that People Finder in Twitter did before it was ‘disconnected’.

Twollow
Create up to 5 keywork searches that your Twitter will follow for you automatically.

Tweetscan

Allows you to search for your Twitter name to see what would come up.

Twitter Later
http://www.twitterlater.com
Automates your tweets so they publish at different days and times. You can “re-tweet” the same way…

Dossy
This is a great tool you can use once you have a couple of hundred people following you and want to “Clean-House” a bit. Dossy lets you “Un-Follow” all of those who weren’t following you.