Ever since the Twitter’s launch there have been thousands of tools that help expand the experience. Most people tend to think of the Twitter clients (e.g. Tweetdeck), but there are also a lot of really valuable analytics tools. Using these periodically will help you to optimize your efforts. We’ve listed 7 free tools (many have paid premium options) and their best case uses below; tell us which tools you use regularly and how you use them, and we’ll add them to our list!
KLOUT Best used for: Tracking your expected reach (how many active twitter users you can expect to view each of your tweets) and identifying the Twitter users who most often engage with your content.
TWEETSTATS Best used for: Viewing your twitter posting habits and making sure you post regularly throughout the day and week.
TWITTERCOUNTER Best used for: Seeing the correlation between your Twitter activity and follower growth
TWEETLEVEL Best used for: Simple benchmarking of your engagement score versus your followers, and quick recommendations on how to improve your value
TWITCLEANER Best used for: Cleaning up the list of people you’re following by removing people who are no longer active on Twitter
TWEETREACH Best used for: Viewing lists of influencers on Twitter around a brand keyword, name, or phrase
QWITTER Best used for: Identifying attrition rate of follower base and potential posts that caused users to unfollow
Though Facebook has had a search box for many years, it’s predominately been used to help users find their friends quickly, track down existing community groups, or locate brand pages. But slowly Facebook’s search ambitions are growing, and with the recent launch of the open social graph (mostly known for those ‘like’ buttons) the social networking behemoth is moving full steam towards providing a full service search engine right inside Facebook.com. Here are two ways that Facebook is expanding on search, and why we need to make sure our clients are prepared for the looming Facebook SEO battle:
1. People-powered search results
Every site that incorporates Facebook open social graph tools (like buttons, comment boxes, etc.) is being indexed and ranked by Facebook based on how much Facebook users engage with the content. As more and more users ‘like’ websites Facebook is beginning to include the popular sites in the Facebook.com search box. This approach is different from Google, which ranks sites based on linking and content relevancy. Instead Facebook is prioritizing search results based on what the Facebook audience is saying about sites on the web. Facebook will also likely prioritize search content based on what your specific friends recommend as well. Brands can get a head start in ensuring they’re in the Facebook.com search results by implementing Facebook open social graph plug-ins in a smart way and fueling users to start ‘liking’ their content. Brands can also influence how their sites are listed in Facebook’s search engine by including special meta-data in their site code.
2. Socially powered content farm
Facebook is now automatically building what they call “community pages” for any topics that users list as interests in their profiles. These community pages enable Facebook to serve up content through their search box that “locks in” users by providing them internal site content rather than sending them out of Facebook the public web. The community pages are filled with pictures + text pulled directly from Wikipedia about the topic, as well as a stream of status updates that Facebook users have posted on their walls about the topic (any status updates from a viewer’s friends are highlighted first). Currently the “community pages” are not able to be edited by anyone, and brands cannot claim pages. However, brands should monitor the conversation that is being aggregated on community pages, and they can join in the stream by publishing content on their own pages about the subjects.
Though we’re still at the early stages of Facebook’s search product and the changes aren’t very visible yet, it’s important for us to pay attention to this on behalf of our brands. With over 500 million users, Facebook has the ability to make major waves in search very quickly. We can help prepare our clients for this by recommending smart Facebook SEO tactics- building a robust Facebook presence, leveraging the social graph plug-ins, and watching the community pages. We need to lead this forward thinking as social search hits prime-time.
Twitter’s new advertising model has been both highly anticipated and feared for years now. What would the company bring to market that would generate revenue but not disrupt the value of the communication medium? Well we now have their answer: Promoted Tweets. And while it doesn’t seem that tricky of a concept, Promoted Tweets is a well thought out ad model that, if executed as expected, will serve to increase the value of and expectations for advertising moving forward. Here’s why:
Promoted Tweets are promoted content, not promoted ads Ad tweets aren’t separate ad content, they are regular tweets that appear in an advertiser’s actual Twitter stream. That means they need to provided value to a brand’s regular followers, not just new recruits. If brands don’t respect that, they will lose the followers they’re recruiting by spamming them.
Promoted Tweets are promoted or demoted based on the value they deliver to consumers Twitter’s new “resonance” score judges Promoted Tweets based on how users interact with them. That means if PT’s are getting RT’d, favorited, clicked on, or @replied then the PT’s will stay highly visible. If users aren’t engaging, the Promoted Tweet will dissapear with the Normal tweet stream. The resonance score will force advertisers to really think about what content they pay to promote, and to provide real value, otherwise it will again be a waste of money.
Promoted Tweets are tied to intent not eyeballs Since at least Twitter’s first evolution of Promoted Tweets is tied to search, the ad content will only appear when a user is looking for related information. Between search inciting relevancy and the pressure as illustrated above on the ad content being highly valuable from to users / followers, I expect the Promoted Tweets to deliver a positive ad experience. One that, if done correctly, could change user expectations and demand for advertising content across the board.
Many marketers are very familiar with popular white label social networking provider Ning, and rightfully so. Ning has made it incredibly easy to build your own fully functioning social network in minutes for free. Since its inception Ning has been a popular recommendation to clients as a free & easy way to build a private community. However, this week Ning made the controversial announcement that it will soon be turning off their free offering. Existing accounts will eventually be required to transition to a paid offering. In preparation for this, we wanted to help lay out some options for brands. (more…)
Panelists: Deb Berman [JustMeans], Bonin Bough [PepsiCo & Pepsi Refresh Project], Virginia Miracle [Ogilvy PR], Chrysi Philalithes [(RED)]
As part of Social Media Week in New York City I attended a panel discussion on “Putting the Social in Corporate Social Responsibility”. The most significant take-away for me was that Corporate Social Responsibility needs to be more than a marketing tactic; rather consumers expect CSR to be fundamental in the culture of modern brands: (more…)
If there was any question before, last week’s Google announcement that content from your social graph would now be included in your search results is another big proof point that brands need to be thinking about social media as a major contributing factor in their search engine optimization (SEO) strategy. Over the last few months Google has increasingly handed coveted “first page result” spots to social content. It started with their real-time integration of Twitter results, and now it’s with the open beta of their social search experiment.
Why is this critical for companies to recognize and incorporate in their SEO? Because your corporate website, no matter how well it’s ranked, is being quickly overshadowed by all of the social content g your brand. Now results are filled with a slew if blog posts, tweets as they happen, and the links a person’s friend shared about the brand on Facebook.
Don’t worry, though- brands don’t have to be left in the cold. They do need to start engaging consumers in social spaces, producing content of value, and making their content sharable. That way the valuable information is getting shared and enforced by advocates and being included by Google in the spaces reserved for the user’s social graph.
I am a Senior Strategist at SS+K. I handle digital & social media strategy for a number of clients. I also keep a personal blog here. View Kevin Skobac's profile
Twitter’s new advertising model has been both highly anticipated and feared for years now. What would the company bring to market that would generate revenue but not disrupt the value of the communication medium? Well we now have their answer: 
Many marketers are very familiar with popular white label social networking provider Ning, and rightfully so. Ning has made it incredibly easy to build your own fully functioning social network in minutes for free. Since its inception Ning has been a popular recommendation to clients as a free & easy way to build a private community. However, this week Ning made the controversial announcement that it will soon be 
View Kevin Skobac's profile