Found out about a nice plugin for Microsoft Outlook that gives you an integrated Twitter client while helping you manage your Twitter followers. From TechHit, it’s called TwInbox. Thanks to Olinda Services for the pointer to this useful tool. Any tool that helps me eliminate the need to click and open a new window to get more information gets my attention.

Easy to install, this client enables you to stream your Twitter feed into a folder so you can manage them a bit easier. You can also have a separate folder for each follower.

What I like about this tool:

• The toolbar makes it easy to send a Tweet to someone without having to leave the Outlook interface. It doens’t replace the Seesmic Desktop client, but it has its usefulness.
• You can easily determine which followers are important for you to pay attention to. I got 58 Tweets in 4 hours from one person. None of the them really were of interest to me, so I unfollowed them. Too noisy for me. However, someone else sent 30 Tweets in the same timeframe, but all of them were pointing me to social media news.
• You can focus in on someone who you want to watch without having to search or scan your feed.
• The Tweets include the person’s profile information. If someone is bombarding you with Tweets, you can also see what they are interested in and determine whether you want to continue to follow them.
• The Tweets also include the picture if they have uploaded one to TwitPic.

Like the LinkedIn Outlook Toolbar, this handy little tool can help you manage your Twitter followers and keep your ratio of information to noise in check.

What tool is your favorite for helping you manage your social media activity? Share your favorites.

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TwInbox: A Twitter Tool for Outlook is an original post from Debra Murphy, Small Business Marketing Coach: Masterful Marketing - Marketing in the New Media World. If you enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Debra on Twitter, Facebook or Google+.