One of the things we see in social media practices are emerging tools and resources that can be helpful for both practitioners and researchers alike. While there are many tools out there to accomplish certain things, professionals and researchers are always looking for ways to monitor, engage, and listen to conversations emerging online via social media. Sure, there are ways individuals can do it themselves across the various platforms like with YouTube Insights to other additional tools.
This is one of the issues Kristin and I explored in detail in our social media command center presentation at the ICRC Conference this year. We will also be collaborating with Firestorm on a webinar on this very topic in May in case you are interested in joining us. 🙂 This is a growing area of interest not only among researchers, but also practitioners as well. Kristin and I have been working on this area and we have found a lot of interest in the area across the board. These questions and discussions need to continue to happen both in practice and in academia.
However, what are some of the emerging tools for monitoring and research we should be aware of? Here are a couple you all may want to check out:
- Sprout Social: Social Media Today posted a pretty good overview of the site and what features they offer for their clients and what they are measuring/monitoring.
- Webtrends: Not only does this site focus on social media, but also mobile – which does separate themselves from the rest of the crowd in this category.
- Ubervu: This site and their service looks pretty cool – looking at their measurement and analytic features may be a worthwhile and cost effective option for businesses and other researchers involved.
- Wildfire: What this service and business offers compares to others is the opportunity to not only get access to their resources and tools, but also be part of their webinars on social media marketing and its connection with other related disciplines.
- Blitzmetrics: If you want a one-stop shop for data analysis and application, Blitzmetrics is there and can really provide you with not only resources and tools for social media, but also the training and resources to educate your team.
- Hootsuite: They have a great free dashboard and services available to professionals. Plus, you can be part of their Hootsuite University program, and this allows students to learn their services and become certified with the tool. I am using this for my social media class at the University of Louisville.
In summary, you don’t have to have a paid service to be able to monitor, engage, and listen to what your audiences are saying about your brand or topic in question. What you have to do is look at what are the emerging conversations, themes, and concerns/questions/comments are sharing. There are many tools out there that are pretty good that are free – all you have to do is explore and experiment with them to see if it fits your overall strategy plan.
Hope you all are having a great day!
Best Wishes,
Karen
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