There are thousands of applications you can use for your twitter account. After many hours of searching, and inputting my passwords and account name, I have come up with 25 applications that you can use for business purposes. Technology used in the right way can be a massive boost to your business revenues as well as time freed up for bigger revenue generating activities. Social media (twitter) has given many of us an even playing field to make big waves and amazing contacts. But what do a lot of people say? "Oh, I'm not very good with that kind of stuff", "I'm not really a techie kind of person", "I just don't get it, I don't understand twitter". If you have not visited my hub page on Twitter Tips For Business, I recommend you do so. That way, you're up to speed with using some of these applications. I have done much of the dirty work with due diligence on applications. Use some wisdom, and simply bookmark a few links I recommend.

For business purposes I believe that there are 6 core categories that we should take a look at:

1. Finding like minded people that would be considered a "niche" follower.
2. The ability to share files, video, pictures and images with others.
3. Management of your twitter account. Scheduling twitter posts most effectively. Remember-no spam ever.
4. Gathering Stats from your followers and who you're following.
5. Connecting your twitter account with your blog, and other social media sites seamlessly.
6. Track your progress with stats, graphs, ratios. Know where you stand, so you can work on targeted areas that need some attention.

Here are 5 applications that are easy to use, and effective. I recommend that you use these sparingly as I do with all applications:

Tweetlater Gives a digest of keywords that you can setup with them easily. They will arrive in your email either daily, weekly, or monthly. If for example you were a Realtor, your keyword may be "real estate" or "Short Sales". You will get a list of people that have topics associated with those keywords.

Tweetdeck A very clean platform to view all activity all at once. A feature rich desktop application that can be integrated with Facebook.

Twellow Search and find people based on professions and location. Someone has to be registered in twellow in order to be listed however.

Hashtags What is happening right now on twitter.

In addition to using the people search in twitter, these should help you find those people you can connect with right away.

The saying a picture can tell a thousand words is so true when making a point. Same holds true for video. Video communication is what I believe to be the next hottest trend. Get there before your competition does! Imagine sending personalized thank you video's to your colleagues.

I really enjoy these applications. They take any guess work out of what most find intimidating.

Tweettube The easiest way to share your stuff on twitter. Videos, files, URL, pictures, and much more. Tweettube is one of the tops on my list.

Twitpic Share your photos in twitpic. Very popular site for basic pics to share with others.

Twixter Right from your mobile phone, upload pictures and files.

Twiddeo Streaming tweets with video. Great place to view both tweets and videos.

Snaptweet Send flickr photos easily to twitter.

Having a scheduled time to post a tweet is a very efficient way of communicating. There is a very fine line with this application however. In my Twitter Tips For Business, I explain the importance of building relationships, and not being a social media robot. My recommendation is to sprinkle these automatic tweets throughout the day. The abuse of social media in this sense can get ridiculous, and spammy, not to mention twitter will suspend your account. Always give more than you can on twitter in the form of questions, comments, and quality information. With that being said, use these great tools with wisdom.

Tweetlater My favorite because there is so much more all here on one reliable site. Post tweets when you're not available, shortened URL, digest of keywords, and the ability to send posts to numerous twitter and other social media sites.

Twittertise Schedule and advertise your tweets and twitter account.

Twit Response Auto responders with Twitter.

By some estimation, Twitter will reach 12 million people by the end of the year. Many reliable sources such as Mashable show 1,383% growth onTwitter from March 09. With such a large population, you need to manage the people in your sphere of influence.

TwitterKarma A very clear snapshot of who's following who gives you the ability to bulk follow and bulk unfollow without spending hours doing so on Twitter.

Qwitter Gives you updates on who unfollowed you and to what tweets you posted that triggered the unfollow. This gives you a good base to what works and what doesn't. So if your last 5 tweets on "why you don't like twitter" sparked a massive exodus, you may want to change up your approach.

Twitterless Pretty similar to Qwitter, but if Qwitter is not performing well, this is just as good and has proved reliable.

Twitterdigest A digest of specific people you may like. If you're following thousands of people, and there are a handful of people you always read up on, then digest their tweets at this site.

Twalala Allows you to specify who you want to follow for now, and who you want to quiet for the time being.

NestUnclutterer This will clean out your following to either block those that are inactive, or follow for the wrong reasons. It helps clean out the irritating get rich quick followers or off color tweeps that shouldn't be a part of your group anyway.

Twitoria How many friends are you really following? Twitoria finds your friends that haven't tweeted in a long time so you can give them the boot!

Tweetcloud One of the most important factors when deciding whether you want to follow a Twitter user is what sort of content they tweet about. If someone tweets mostly about topics you don’t care about, they might not be the best person for you to follow. Tweetcloud creates a tag cloud of a person’s tweets to give you a bird’s eye view of the type of things they tweet about, so you can make an informed decision based on real content.

Here is a couple sites you can use to integrate twitter with other social media sites.

Ping.FM Take your business on social media to the next level of communication. Send your posts from Ping to your twitter page, facebook, linkdin, and many others that are popular.

Twitter Buttons For Wordpress Integrate twitter buttons with Wordpress (shortened URL's).

TwitterButtons Pick and choose twitter buttons to be placed on your blogs. Many different types of great looking buttons for you.

What are your goals? Would you rather have 30,000 followers with little impact, or 2,000 with great impact? Is it possible to have 30,000 or more followers that are loyal? Yes, most definitely that is possible. These tools will give you an honest and accurate snapshot of your presence on twitter. Graphs, stats, ratios, and recommendations will really make a difference. However, just like joining the gym, if you never step on the treadmill, nothing is going to happen. If you track your progress monthly or bi-weekly, your overall success will be much bigger than someone who aimlessly tweets all day long.

Twittergrader Get your twitter ranking by location, profession, country. Track top producers per category. You will also find out the influence grade of your followers.

TweetStats  A graph displaying your daily and monthly tweets.

TwinFluence Shows the influence you make with your tweets, many levels down.