Your content strategy needs an update.
How do I know? Because we all could use a bit of help making our content a bit more relevant, more targeted and more effective.
When would you ever hear someone exclaim, “I need to have fewer readers!”
Never, that is when. More traffic means more interest, which leads to more brand stability, profit and reach.
Social media is pretty much the number one go-to tool when it comes to direct reader engagement. You don’t have to rely on marketing lists, more abstract keyword research or overly complex insights that aren’t always easily applied to your plans.
To start taking advantage of social media for your content, you need to start with brand mentions. If you know what people are saying about you, you can respond with the best possible reply, track interest, solve problems and target your audience better.
If done right, brand monitoring can bring a lot of quite tangible benefits:
- Natural links and hence referral traffic
- More content ideas and hence new content assets
- Happier clients and hence brand loyalty (and more positive reviews)
- Competitive advantage, and more..
Here are eight tools to help you do just that.
- Internal Search Engines – This is always the first stop. Some people believe that with the tracking tools available, the internal search functions on each platform are useless. But not every mention is going to be a direct ‘@’ or hashtag. Which means it can slip under the radar or get lost in a wash of similar keywords in a tool that doesn’t have the human brain element to help better search. Taking some time at least once a week to do a manual search is a good way of making sure you are catching all of the mentions of your brand, or similar keywords that could refer to your brand. It is also good for monitoring industry specific phrases or competitors. Twitter is probably the best platform for this, but you can do it on all social networks. For sites like Tumblr and Reddit, it is pretty much a must because a lot of tools either don’t include them, or just don’t track their algorithm very well.
- Mention – Available for enterprise or agency sized businesses, Mention is a good value. It balances a ready set of features that provide valuable and thorough insights with a lower price tag of just $29 per month to start. For their middle range plan you can also monitor influencers with its own dashboard tab and get sentiment reports. Check out their resources for even more, such as free tutorials, case studies and a marketing library.
- Buzzsumo – Buzzsumo has become one of those seriously famous tools that everyone knows they should be using. I like it because it has a social component that helps track shares, mentions and more, while being a more empassing keyword research tool for both SEO and content. You can kill a lot of birds with one stone here, which makes it one of the better monitoring platforms on the market right now.
- Boardreader – I can’t recommend this one enough. We tend to think of social media as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. But we forget one major area where not only is social interaction still happening, but very commonly. Boardreader follows message boards and forums and looks for brand mentions there. You do a search and it scours websites, including Reddit, for those keywords. It is a very simple tool and doesn’t have features to enhance your search, but it is worth having around.
- Tweetreach – Tweetreach gives you a free search so you can see what it can do. I would highly recommend giving it a try. You put in a hashtag, mention or keyword and after authenticating your Twitter information, it gives you a whole lot of info back. You can track one topic on their cheapest plan, or get additional searches on their other plans. Everything is aimed at reach and audience, so it is perfect for trying to grow brand awareness, especially through content.
- Buzzlogix – Calling itself a smart assistant for the social web, Buzzlogix is a real time listening dashboard for all of your social profiles. The idea is that you get information in real time and it makes it easier to respond and use data through actionable insights. Everything is pretty evenly keeled between different aims, so the approach is more rounded than with other tools. You can get a free account and try it out, then pro accounts start at $19.95 per month. Even their most advanced plan is only $99 per month, which is a lot less than competitors.
- Tweetdeck – Twitter’s official social analytics board, I have mixed feelings about Tweetdeck. On one hand, it is a pretty cool platform that is directly linked to Twitter so it can all be done in one place. On the other, it just doesn’t have the appeal of the many social analytics and tracking tools that are made only for that purpose. I would say give it a shot if you are interested, but maybe have another tool on hand.
- Tailwind – Finding insights on Instagram and Pinterest is still way harder than it should be. Tailwind is the first to have been created for the task. Track mentions and keywords, look at trending topics and more.
Of course, there are many more monitoring tools to check out but no one article can list all of them, so add yours!
Do you have a tool to add to the list? Let us know in the comments.
