Brightkit Hands-On: One Month In

Update 9 Mar 2009: Brightkit is now HootSuite and has continued to add and improve features.

I reported on Brightkit's functionality in mid-December. I've now been using Brightkit about a month and I'm still impressed with its labeling, navigation, and information presentation. Brightkit's UI progressively reveals operations, data, and forms so they are readily available but don't overwhelm. Its designers and developers roll out UI tweaks rapidly in response to user feedback. (Some early Brightkit idiosyncracies seem to have been resolved already.) I hope to see a more compact, information-rich interface at some point, but the service's utility outweighs the remaining (minor) irritants.

Brightkit's dashboard provides immediate access to stats for recently-sent tweets and tells you if there are any pending outbound messages, new @replies, or direct messages. You can create new tweets for any of the profiles directly from the dashboard, where you can also manage Twitter profiles and editors.

The tweet form conveniently embeds link shortening. Clicking “Shrink It” shortens the link and updates the character counter. “Edit” reveals the original link.

Graphs in the sent messages list present link stats. You can sort by tweet date, create date, or author. Date range shortcuts filter for today, week, month, and year. The custom filter defaults to the endpoints of the time period you've chosen, an example of the thought put into UI details.

The list also displays tweet error alerts. Clicking them reveals the Edit Tweet form so you can reschedule – another example of Brightkit's thoughtful UI approach.

It's easy to switch profiles with any of three dashboard options. The “jump to profile” selector bypasses the dashboard. Labeled tabs and icons make each profile's content and Twitter actions readily available. “Sent” and “pending” icons provide category cues for each message - helpful when tabs scroll out of the viewport.

The feed search's “Show Examples” reveals clear translations of the simple syntax and let you run each example to preview results.

Brightkit's large type and spacious layout make it easy to learn but soon got in my way. Showing and hiding stats per tweet and jumpy scrolling make monitoring click trends a little awkward. With just three profiles and a couple dozen sent messages I'd already like to see a no-training-wheels version. Overall, though, Brightkit's UI brings its power easily to hand. For me, its utility and convenience remain compelling.

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Hands-on with Brightkit

Update 9 Mar 2009: Brightkit is now HootSuite and has continued to add and improve features.

Brightkit bills itself as “the ultimate Twitter toolbox” that “lets you manage your entire Twitter experience.” I've been using Brightkit for about a week and I like the way it combines services. So far I'm still using other clients for reading, but Brightkit has already become my main authoring and management client. Here are some features I've been enjoying.

Add accounts
Brightkit's dashboard makes it easy to work with my three Twitter profiles. I can switch easily among profiles to monitor tweets and follow, reply, re-tweet, send direct messages. Each keeps its own history of pending and sent tweets, @replies, direct messages, and saved searches. Brightkit says they're working on tools to track and manage friends and followers, capabilities it needs to become a complete Twitter presence and reach management application.

Schedule tweets
I tend to generate tweet-worthy observations in batches, but I want to maintain a steady Twitter presence when people I care about are watching. With Brightkit I can schedule tweets at five-minute intervals starting at now +15 minutes. I can delete, edit, or change the send time of the pending message. Brightkit will (optionally) e-mail me when my tweet is sent.

On the downside you can only post your tweet to one account at a time. My profiles have very different goals so so far this hasn't been an issue for me, but it's easy to imagine situations that would benefit from this.

Monitor reach with link shrinking and tracking
Brightkit integrates Tweetburner-like shrinking and tracking capabilities into the message editor where it automatically adds the link and updates the character counter. Stats report daily click counts with more stats on the way.

Add editors
You can share authoring responsibilities for a profile without giving people access to all the profiles or to Brightkit administrative functions – useful if you have a social media presence team.

Search and save keywords
Monitor presence and buzz with saved searches for each Twitter profile. Go beyond keywords to find messages containing hashtags or links, sent before or after a certain date, or to, from, or about a Twitter profile. I'd like to be able to monitor streams side-by-side as in Tweetdeck or Monitter, but if I want to check periodically or cycle through topics the current feature works fine.

All of this comes wrapped in a open, Web 2.0-ish user interface, which I'll review in a later post.

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