tcramarossa

Business’ are finding it increasingly important to incorporate the opinions of the social media community into their daily operations. The ability to truly track trends and competition, and effectively analyze them has finally come to fruition through a variety of social media management tools. Brands, and individuals alike, can find use in these tools by monitoring what’s being said about them on everything from blogs to videos. Monitoring has become a key figment in any business’ operations, as the ideas and opinions that are being discussed in the social media space are a true reflection of the feelings a customer, client or peer has toward a user.

Google Alerts: IT’S FREE!

This free tool provides automatic updates to users when there are new results for their desired search terms, topics or names on any Google platform, ranging from news to blogs to video. Google Alerts provides the user with the ability to choose from options on the frequency that alerts are delivered as well as the fashion for which they are notified. This is a very good option for individuals to consider, especially since it comes as a free service, as it ranges from the formal structures of a business to the informal following of the Kim Kardashian types.

In my own personal experiences with Google Alerts, I went for more of the informal route just to try things out. Advisements and instructions as to the depths of specific information were provided, with the more specific the search terms generating the more relevant results. I currently am receiving updates on the Toronto Maple Leafs, since for some strange reason they are relevant at this time of year.

Sprout Social:

Pricing:

Standard Plan: $39/mo with FREE 30 day trial

Delux Plan: $59 / Month

Premium Plan: $99 / Month

Sprout Social, another social media manager, is a tool that connects a users social media platforms in one place, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare, Gowalla and Google Analytics. It monitors discussion on the web, allows for a connection with customers and tracks the effectiveness of social initiatives. In analyzing these initiatives, it creates easy to read charts and graphs that are advertised to impress clients. Sprout Social utilizes an enhanced customer service to set itself apart from the other tools.

Purchasers of the number of Sprout Social options can expect to get a highly qualified tool in the way of CRM. The single stream features of the Sprout Social inbox has been designed to ensure responses to any customer conversations and inquiries. Features have also been in place to transmit scheduled content from any of its major media platforms. In order to track its CRM efficiency, the tool provides an engagement feature, the response rate metric, which attempts to measure the real-time impact of the user’s responses, in order to develop insights as to how the brand measures up against competitors of similar circumstances.

Mention

Available as a free plan, a Pro Plan for $20/mo, and a Team Plan for 100/mo. Mention provides its clients with a number of similar features as its competition, but also utilizes a no noise feature which allows its clients the privilege of filtering out the spam and homonyms which may cause mentions of you or your company. Along with its analysis tools, users are able to use Mention on all types of devices, including mobile. Mention is also able to make the user aware of the most important mentions on the basis of influence, authority and previous interactions. In my research of the social media management tools available, Mention’s paid plans are very cost-effective in comparison to its competition and are far more comprehensive, and therefore more effective in management of a large company’s social presence.

Social Mention

This free, real-time social media management tool is exactly that; social media only. Although, it is a very thorough tool in that aspect. Social Mention monitors over 100+ social media properties, giving users a full landscape of what exactly is being said over the wide-ranging social media stratosphere. Like the above tools, it provides analysis tools and daily alerts. Of particular note, Social Mention measures a metric which they call “sentiment”. Sentiment is a calculation which gives the user an indication of how their company, or them individually, is being discussed by comparing the positive mentions in comparison to neutral and negative mentions. As a free tool, this can be very useful for both individual and company alike, as it involves such a wide variety of social media forums.

Viralheat 

Pricing:

Personal: Free trial for 30 days available

Pro: $9.99/ month

Premium: $99.9/ month

Free trial for 30 days available

Viralheat begin its operations in 2009 and was just a viral video analytical tool. However as social media expanded viral heat became equipped with platform monitoring capabilities and today is serving 12,000 clients in 72 countries.

Viralheat offers its services in 9 main domains to help its clients better monitor, track and optimize their social web presence. The main features of Viralheat are: Monitoring social platforms such as twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Pinterest, Websites and Blogs. It tracks mentions by keywords and phrases specific brand FB pages, boards on Pinterest and trending topics related to brands, listening and taping into real-time conversations about a brand.

It provides social media management of all social media platforms on one unified dashboard; it also provides brands and companies to manage conversation and workflow with in a company. It also allows for social publishing which enables businesses and brands to schedule their posts, publish rich media and archive publishing history. By its social media analysis feature Viralheat tracks the true essence of ROI using 600 media points to measure social web activity, optimize a brand’s strategy and helps better understand trends and insights. Viralheat provides companies and brands the opportunity to build relationships with existing and potential customers by engaging them in social conversations using its social engagement tool.

Viralheat sentiment analysis tool allows businesses/ companies and brands to assess the sentiments of their mentions in the social media space. If a brand mentions have a negative sentiment then the brand can correct the cause of those negative sentiments. Similarly by using Viralheat it is very easy to find out about a company’s and brand’s influencers as well as about individuals who are detracting. It enables a brand or company to direct their message to these influences to make them brand ambassadors and keep a positive word of mouse to increase ROI.

Sales force marketing cloud / Radian6:

Pricing:

Agency pricing, 30-day commitment:

$950/month: 1 million mentions, 500 users

            Brands, 1-year commitments

$600/month: 1 topic profile, 10,000 mentions

$1,800/month: 4 topic profiles, 100,000 mentions

$4,100/month: 10 topic profiles, 250,000 mentions

$10,000/month: 20 topic profiles, 2.5 million mentions

  Sales force marketing cloud is specifically designed software that enables better marketing solutions and functions. Similar to other monitoring tools it also has the ability to publish content with pre-planned schedules using a dashboard. Sales force marketing cloud is very unique as it analyzes data from over 400 million social sources and generates authentic insights for clients. Professional services are also offered to better understand insights and analytical tools. It helps to generate leads for clients to better manage

Trackur

Pricing: Begins with a 10 Day FREE trial to allow the customer to familiarize with the depths of the products. After expiration, users must upgrade to:

Basic - $27/mo, Plus - $97/mo, Premium $197/mo or Ultimate $447/mo

Again, the basis of Trackur is to monitor the reputation and presence of a company or brand within the social media space, and provide analysis of trends and mentions. The Tracker Insights provides the user with knowledge and content regarding the format the brand is being discussed in, and whether it is positive or negative. They also offer to narrow the scope with Sentiment and Influence analysis tools that are intent on gauging exactly who is taking part in conversations about the brand. The guarentee that Trackur claims to have you up and running in less than a minute is an important one. When clients approach this type of tool, chances are that they are looking for some sort of immediate information about a particular situation. Trackur does a good job in a market with many similar tools of exemplifying the use of gaining direct and almost instant feedback.

Sysomos

Pricing:

Unavailable online

Sysomos consists of two product offerings: Media Analysis Platform and Heartbeat, which both analyzes the conversations regarding your brand, industry or product. Whereas Heartbeat offers a real-time analysis of conversations that are happening on the search criteria, MAP offers a database with information that has been archived, analyzed and provide insight into the who, what, where, when and why. Who the influencers are? What they were discussing? Where are they located? When it occurred, and the reasons why? This provides valuable information for brands to learn from either their own history or from others and sees what was most effective. Heartbeat, on the other hand, allows the brand to actively engage audiences by providing one single platform to publish conveniently. Measurements can be seen in real-time.

The Best Tool For Business Monitoring

The best of these tools, for a business, would certainly depend on a number of different factors. Firstly, the business objective would have to be defined, secondly, what is the size of the company and competition within the market, and thirdly, what are the resources at hand. Many of the options offered what seemed like largely the same features, with idiosyncrasies that made each their own. For larger companies who need to take swift response to conversations in the social landscape, and ones that are very conscious of the virtual word of mouth of their products or services, I would suggest the use of Sysomos. For smaller companies with less mentions, and those who really just need to monitor the social conversation, I believe ViralHeat would be sufficient. Companies with extensive resources for social media, including time and monetary funds, I would suggest incorporating the benefits of a few different options from above. The power of social media is growing with each passing day, and the conversations are constant. A brand, whether personal or commercial, simply cannot afford to ignore them. 

For all you recent graduates out there, struggling to find a job anywhere not named Home Depot or Tim Hortons, I feel your pain. You’ve been taking any interview you can get, your grades are terrific and Monster.ca is your new home page. For some reason you are unable to get a second interview no matter how much you think you impressed in the interview. I’ll let you in on a little secret that they didn’t teach you in your resume and cover letter building workshop; the Facebook picture you uploaded of yourself chugging a beer or that tweet you posted about partying all night, they are some of the first things a prospective employer will see before and after you do the interview. A recent study suggests that 90% of hiring process’ incorporate a screening of your social media profiles. Bottom Line? YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA REPUTATION MATTERS. It can be the difference between getting that career you’ve always wanted started, or another year in Mom and Dad’s basement.

Use Your Security Settings

Once upon a time, I learned the hard way about using the security settings offered on social media sites. My particular downfall came via Facebook, where a professor of mine was able to effectively go onto my profile and view less-than-flattering photo’s of myself; offering up a distorted and negative first impression. Luckily he simply notified me, after a few harmless puns, of the implications that may have had if it was seen by someone in a position to make financial investment in me. Needless to say, I put on a couple of privacy and security settings, and you should too.

Social Reputation Doesn’t Have To Be Your Downfall

If your lifestyle is not exactly squeaky clean, it’s not the end of all job opportunities as you know it. In fact, video game testers can make a great living now a days… I’m only kidding, calm down. Monitor your profiles carefully, and exclude things that are going to put off a vibe that doesn’t mesh with your career starting mentality. Setting up a social media management tool may be your first call to action, and there are a number of free alternatives to provide you with alerts every time you are mentioned on any one of the many social networks that your peers are using. Google Alerts is an effective, and commonly used tool to help understand how you are being discussed and perceived in the social media spaces. Sign up for it, its free.

Use Your Social Reputation To Stand Out From Your Competition

Again, the birth of social media as a tool in the hiring process does not have to mean your demise as a young professional. The fact that many recent graduates cease to understand the influence of the social reputation gives you the first leg up against your competition. Now bring both legs above them, and use your profiles to show something that will actually impress the hiring manager who’s “Google-ing” you. You can delete your underwhelming photos in an hour, and you can change your name in an instant, but building a personal brand image that can get you hired? That takes time.

Building A First Impression

Sure, it takes a while to grow up on your social media networks, but its absolutely possible. Some platforms are better than others; Twitter, Pinterest and LinkedIn can really spark the interest of the hiring manager. Interacting with relevant people in your aspiring industry, and contributing to trending topics with hashtags is very effective way to get involved on Twitter. Pinterest, on the other hand, is the place where your passions can shine through to the viewer of your profile. By pinning things of interest to those in your industry, a user can create a following and perhaps catch the eye of someone of relevancy to their cause. LinkedIn, in most industries, is the king of the professional social network. This is a place where a user can come to show-off the attributes, experience, connections and professional influence a person has. It is absolutely critical to future success to maintain, and constantly update each of these areas. LinkedIn is undoubtedly one of the first sites a hiring manager is going to take to when screening an applicant. The “Skills and Expertise” section of your LinkedIn page is where the hiring manager will go to see if the applicant can walk the walk. You’ve said in the interview that you are a research extraordinaire, but in who’s eyes? Gaining endorsements from your social media community provides a sense of reassurance to the hiring manager that you were not just blowing smoke up their you-know-where.

Bottom Line – Your Social Media Reputation Matters…More Than You Think

Hiring Manager: So you are the partying type. Is that something we are going to have to worry about if we bring you aboard?

No matter what you say, the first impression is out the window, and you’re probably headed back to Mom and Dad’s basement. Get your profiles in order, remove unflattering content, get yourself a monitoring tool such as Google Alerts and build your presence to become one to be proud of. What seems like an innocent picture can be taken any number of ways by any number of people. It’s not worth it.

#MKM815

Sources:

Overell, Michael. “How LinkedIn Is Eating The Recruitment Industry” Ere.net. Oct. 24 2012.

Swallow, Erica. “How Recruiters Use Social Networks to Screen Candidates [Infographic].” Mashable. Oct. 23 2011.

We all want to know. How much power do I have over my peers? How much weight do I hold in the world? How influential am I?

First, we must question, how we rate such a thing? Has social media and the internet cast such a spell over our society that we are able to quantify the answers to our original three questions by what we do in front of some sort of screen? Not yet, but it soon will.

The 3 social media influential analyzers on the horizon are:

 Klout – Scores 1-100 (higher is stronger) based on

1.     True Reach – size of users audience

2.     Amplification – likelihood of reaction to user’s content

3.     Network Impact – based on the influence of users audience

Kred – 2 scores

1.     Out of 1000, based on Influence, or the “trust” someone has to act upon your post

2.    Out of 12, based on Outreach, or the “generosity” you have towards sharing other peoples content

Peer Index – Scores 1-100 based on

1.     Activity – how active you are

2.     Audience – your reach, or the size of your audience

3.     Authority – how engaged your audience is to your content

Before we get into the nitty-gritty, the basic function of these three social media analytical it to do just that; evaluate a users influence across all platforms of social media in order to quantify the gumption, or weight, the particular person holds in the world of the internet, also known as modern society.

So whats the difference between the three of these judgement generators? Are all three a McDonalds, or do we have a Jack Astors and The Keg in there? Well, a large chunk of each rating system is based on the same thing; a users ability to influence or inflict social action from its audience or community through replies, RT’s, Likes ect. Therefore, Amplification (Klout), Influence (Kred), and Authority (Peer Index) means they all serve burgers with buns.

They are separated, while only slightly, by their unique “special sauce” that each site uses to quantify its formula and decide what it analyzes in terms of networks.

Klout differentiates itself by taking “network impact” into account and covering all major networks. Kred on the other hand, uses a different scoring system then the rest, and utilizes an “outreach” score which rewards generosity, but is only measured on Twitter. They also give the user the ability to add real life accomplishments, or KRED moments, to this section of the score. Peer Index differentiates itself through its authority section, which categorizes users and compares them against eight “Benchmark” topics/communities. So while all three aren’t McDonalds, they are definitely all fast food. They all differentiate slightly, but they are basically selling the same thing.

LEGITIMATE TOOLS?

Now the question in everyone’s mind; do we want to eat here? Not so fast. Go in and check out the menu but don’t buy anything yet. This means I’m not exactly sold on the idea that any of these three are legitimate tools for measuring social influence. I do think it will be considered legitimate in 5-10 years, so check them out, but don’t hang your hat on these scores just yet.

These tools, and their formulas on what it actually means to influential, are ever evolving and developing; so what it means to be influential today, could mean something completely different tomorrow. Until the system is tightened, cemented and transparent, I’m not buying into it. There is no real set context in the users mind of how much 1 additional Klout rating amounts to in terms of actual influence in a social space or in the real world. We have no indication as to the correlation between social influence score and real world influential power.

My non-celebrity scores vs Aziz Ansari’s celebrity scores:

Klout: Me = 53/100 vs AA 85/100

KRED: Me = 601/1000 and 4/12 vs AA 988/1000 and 6/12

Peer Index: Me = 51/100 vs AA 74/100

What does this mean?

Who is the crowd following if we are both walking down the street, me or Aziz Anzari? Does this mean 30% more people are likely to be influenced by him, or react to his content? Obviously, the scores from the three platforms, are intended to compare one person to another, but we still don’t know what the results of these comparisons really mean. The simple fact that keeps running through my head when trying to discern these tools’ legitimacy is that influence amongst your peers is characteristic or quality that is inherently human, and simply cannot be quantified at this stage in our world’s evolution.

HOW YOU INCREASE YOUR KLOUT SCORE

My Klout score is a 53. I feel this is pretty low when considering my demographics, geographics and psychographics. As someone who looks forward to further engaging in social media, even though I have discredited the legitimacy of the social influences in the previous section, I would like to raise my score in the case that others differ from my opinion. The featured way to raising this score is, as previously stated, to gain social reaction/response from your audience. In order to do this, I must create + share content that can generate its own social word of mouth. This means posting opinions, thoughts, facts, video’s ect. which are not simply just relevant to my audience, but are engaging in such a way that my audience will feel it is relevant enough to share with their community. This sparks potential connections with a whole new community/audience, including influencers, that I would have otherwise had a difficult time gaining access to.

Is this “gaming the system”? Sure it is. It is deliberately and unnaturally engaging social communities in certain formats for the specific reason of upping your score or increasing your influence. Next question; who cares? If you don’t do it, someone, who you have no moral obligation to, definitely will. However, like I discussed in the previous section, just because you up your Klout score to 95 doesn’t mean you’re taking anyone away from Aziz Ansari’s crowd on the street.

BUSINESS USE

Business’ can definitely use social influence measures in their operations. Just as I can definitely use beer to fill up my gas tank in my car; it doesn’t mean its going to run. Sure, Klout, Kred and Peer Index have made it exceptionally easy for business’ to locate influencers or leading authorities on a particular topic. The company may choose to use these tools to provide an indication as to which people are highly influential, but I wouldn’t advise using these measures as a leading decision criteria as to which selection should represent their business. As noted previously, these measures can provide an off-base, or flat out wrong impression of the influential power that the person has. Using the wrong person to endorse your business can either provide zero return on investment or create a negatively altered perception of how your business is viewed; not to mention the commitments you would have made to this person as compensation. This is a great risk about using social influence measures in business decisions. For example, Paul Greenberg, the most influential voice of CRM maintains a Klout Score of 54. The Cobra that escaped from the Bronx Zoo in 2010 scores 57. Go figure. In 5 years, we may have a better indication of the correlation between the scores and actual influential power.

A better and far lower risk way business’ may choose to use these tools would not be to locate top influencers to endorse, but to better connect with medium level influencers in the specific industry. The company could choose to provide some form of incentive for these users to use the product or service and then rely on these promotions to generate literal and social word of mouth.

#MKM815 #klout

Sources:

Kain, Erik. “5 Reasons You Shouldn’t Care About Your Klout Score.”Forbes. April 26 2012.

“Kred Scoring Guide.” Kred.

Jacobsson Purewal, Sarah.  “How to Increase Your Klout Score”.  May 1, 2012.  PCWorld.

How Pinterest can be used by business to engage their customers:

Pinterest, the fastest growing social network, provides a new way for businesses to tell their brands' story and to enhance the image it conveys to its customers. Businesses are able to connect with these followers on Pinterest because of the strong visual tool it provides. It also links with a number of social networks, which allows for users to share and show off their pins and boards to friends and followers from a number of platforms.

Brands have commonly engaged their customers by displaying/pinning their products and using direct links to purchase areas on their website or wherever necessary. But it goes deeper than that. It really gives brands the ability to show off their work as a whole, and not just their products. With the ability to tell their story in the aesthetic manner which is most appropriate, they can increase their reach with Pinterest by pinning images or videos of designs, hints, tv spots, and essentially anything with the brand believes will inspire their visitors.

The staggering rate at which Pinterest is growing symbolizes the attraction that users have gained in a short amount of time, resulting in highly engaged users. Brands should be using the Pinterest platform as an opportunity to build a community of these engaged users, and potential customers; something that Whole Foods is well on their way to doing. By providing a forum for users and corporate pinners to exchange questions and link social media sites, Whole Foods has seen its Pinterest popularity grow to over 1700 pins with 112,000 followers. It is also the next google response after its website when searching "Whole Foods".

Pinterest now maintains various tools for businesses to monitor their presence on the social networking site, including access to the new Pinterest Web Analytics. A 2012  study revealed that Pinterest drives more referral traffic than LinkedIn, Google+ and YouTube combined.

#MKM815

Sources:

Tumblr is new to me. Tumblr is exciting. Is Tumblr new to you? I found out essentially what Tumblr was half an hour ago. There's something for everyone, and here’s what I think its all about.

It’s your forum for creation. Proving a platform for individuals from computer geeks to hipsters to Renaissance men with the opportunity to jump start their creative juices and throw them into overdrive. Sounds good right?

Inapplicable to me, but corporate brands also have the opportunity to woo their consumers with the sexy ooo and aah features of Tumblr. Its all fun and its decently entertaining to surf around and click on random shit.

The whole philosophy is "Create + Share + Follow", and I guess you just have to believe in the intellect of others and hope the good ones get acknowledged for the international community to enjoy. Sure, Tumblr offers sponsored packages that provide boost packs to your blogs' digital visibility, but the only real way to increase notoriety is to gain followers that dive deeper than the surface, and commend your creativity. Most will falter, but at least you won't be unoriginal.

They sold me on the idea of Tumblr as my blank canvas; allow me to morph into the modern day blogging version of Vincent Van Gogh. My thoughts are funny, my opinions are baseless and I still have my ears. You'll realize it soon.

I shall strive to be the recognized few. I shall strive to develop my personal brand. I haven't got a story to tell that's worth reading, but I could sure as hell make one up.

Sources: