One of the often heard concerns about the use of social media by business is “How do I know its working?”.
A very valid concern as the traditional web analytics methods can only really measure activity on your own website.
However there are now a wide variety of new tools and services available to allow companies and their marketing consultants to monitor the social media and to measure the “buzz” surrounding a brand name, product and keyphrases.
Now, the effectiveness of social media campaigns can be tracked and measured.
Some tools are free, such as -
Google Alerts – emails updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic.
Social Mention – for one-off keyword searches, it provides results from blogs, twitter (microblogs), video, comments, bookmarks, news, events etc. and includes information such as Sentiment, Top Keywords, Top users and Sources. A lot of useful information at a glance.
However the bulk of the social media monitoring tools are chargeable based on access and usage. These offer much more sophisticated data collection and analysis across a wide variety of keywords, with comprehensive dashboard and reporting facilities.
If effective use of the social media is part of your marketing plans for 2010, we can advise you on the tools available and provide a regular social media monitoring and reporting service for your business. Call us today on 01928 787026
