I manage two Twitter accounts: My own, and InformationWeek's. Until now, that was a bit of a clumsy process, involving logging in and out multiple times a day, checking search terms multiple times a day, and using two or three separate Web-based tools to perform necessary tasks with varying degrees of efficiency. Then I discovered HootSuite.HootSuite is designed to let multiple people share responsibilities for managing multiple Twitter accounts. Using HootSuite, you designate one person to be the administrator of the accounts, and that person can give other people the authority to edit and make changes to individual accounts. You can tweet from individual accounts, or send the same tweet from multiple accounts simultaneously. You can read tweets from people you follow, and respond to them from within HootSuite. You can manage followers -- adding and un-following them. You can run searches, save them, and respond to tweets you find with those searches.

HootSuite lets you do all those things from multiple accounts, without requiring you to log into each account separately. Switching back and forth between accounts used to drive me crazy. And sometimes I'd post something meant for my personal account on the @InformationWeek account, and boy would my face be red.

HootSuite has several capabilities I've yet to explore: You can shorten links using HootSuite, and then use the service to track clickthroughs on links you post. You can point an RSS feed at HootSuite and the service will post items from that feed to your Twitter account. And I haven't tried giving other people the ability to edit our accounts.

An alternative to HootSuite is CoTweet. I haven't given that a hands-on try, but it's got some interesting capabilities, most notably that it tracks who inside your organization is posting from or maintaining an individual account at any given time, so you can avoid having two people working on the same account at the same time and stepping on each other's feet. CoTweet is in private beta.

My colleague Matt Donnelly turned me on to HootSuite a few days ago, and since then I've been loving it so much that I've been posting random and spontaneous tweets of adoration.

I still use TweetDeck as my primary Twitter interface, along with Tweetie on the iPhone, but HootSuite is becoming part of my essential Twitter toolkit.

What are your favorite Twitter tools for business?

InformationWeek has published an in-depth report on the business uses of social networks. Download the report here (registration required).

Follow InformationWeek on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn:

Twitter: @InformationWeek @MitchWagner

Facebook: InformationWeek Mitch Wagner

LinkedIn: InformationWeek Mitch Wagner