A few weeks ago, I wrote about two new social media measurement tools from Marketwire Sysomos that I recently tested out. While my initial thoughts and experience have been positive, it made me reflect on some of the other industry tools and resources available to help organizations measure social media’s impact and effectiveness.
With social media reaching ubiquitous status for both business-to-consumer and business-to-business organizations, it’s becoming extremely important for marketing and PR professions to become proficient in measuring the value of social media activities. This information and insight can often serve as a guide to help companies define and refine their social media strategies and help them effectively leverage social media.
A recent Bloomberg BusinessWeek article outlined the top five social media marketing mistakes organizations need to be aware of. The number one mistake? Not monitoring social media activities. Writer Mike Proulx says, “Companies that do not first “listen” and observe how their evangelists and detractors talk about their brand risk jumping into a cyclone of unanticipated activity. Constant monitoring is a must.”
I thought I would share some of the industry’s best-known tools for measuring and monitoring social media.
- BuzzLogic – BuzzLogic targets marketing and advertising managers and offers a “conversational media platform” that helps pinpoint where online conversations are taking place and where users are most engaged around topics to help organizations build more powerful and influential relationships and track competing products.
Radian6
- Radian6 – One of the more well-known solutions, Radian6 offers social media monitoring and detailed analytics reporting to help organizations track brand performance on various social media channels including Twitter, Facebook and blogs. The company also offers functionality around social media CRM, web analytics integration and workflow management.
- Social Mention – A simple web-based tool that finds brand mentions on a variety of platforms including blogs, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube in real time, Social Mention culls them together into a single stream of information for easy dissemination. Social Mention also offers a sentiment rating so that companies can get a sense of its brand perception among users.
Sysomos MAP
- Sysomos – Recently acquired by Marketwire, the company offers two tools, MAP (Media Analytics Program) and Heartbeat, that focus on the core concepts of social media – listen, measure, understand and engage. Sysomos provides real-time business intelligence data to help organizations reach their communications, branding and business objectives as well as manage brands and reputations vis-a-vis social media.
- Trendrr – Trendrr takes real time social media monitoring capabilities and puts the data into perspective with numbers. Specifically geared towards branding, marketing and business managers, Trendrr tracks and graphs activity and trends across a variety of digital platforms including social networks, blogs, Amazon, Craigslist, Twitter, Google News, torrents and video sites.
While it’s clear there are many tools and resources available today to help monitor, analyze and measure the impact of social media, I anticipate these tools will only become more comprehensive. As a PR professional, I find it an integral part of my job to help clients understand the value of measuring social media, the criteria in which it should be evaluated and the tools and resources available to help accomplish this.
Do you have a favorite social media monitoring/analytics tool? We want to hear about your experience with it. Leave us a comment.