Social Media Tips: Tracking Your Buzz Online [+] Expansion Plus, Inc

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Social Media Tips: Tracking Your Buzz Online

08/14/2008

Winning with Social Media is about creating a following based on your strengths whether those are your talents as an individual, a company or brand. The basic goal of social networking is to create a raving fan base of others who know, like and trust you, and who will eventually buy from you or support your cause.

While you are out there participating in the conversations, building a community and engaging with your base in an authentic way, it’s a good idea to keep track of your own buzz in the marketplace. You want to know exactly what (if anything) is being said about you, your company, brand or cause so that you can build on the positive messages and get in front of the stories that might not be quite so positive.

Set up Alerts

Set up Google Alerts using your name, your company, brand, or cause name, as well as industry keywords. You might also set up alerts for keywords associated with who you consider your competition to be. Sign up for their RSS Feeds as well, so you can keep an eye on what’s happening in your industry.

Keep Your Ear to the Ground

Serph.com is a social media search engine that says it helps users, “track buzz in real time.” You just type in your keywords and it will return results from the web and it will show you what people are saying right now.

Are They Tweeting About it?

Twitter, the microblogging platform that allows users to share what they’re doing right now in 140 characters or less, has become a wildly popular social media site where breaking news gets discussed in real time by real people. It’s also been compared to a global ‘water cooler’ where people gather and discuss their lives and what they are up to. Search.twitter.com (aka: Summize) and twist.flaptor.com are two resources that you can use to get an idea for what the Twitterverse is tweeting about.

What’s the Blogosphere Saying?

Technorati.com’s search page will allow users to type in a keyword and find out what bloggers have to say about that topic. It produces a chart that visually displays the number of blog posts using that keyword over the past 30 days.

All of these tools should be helpful to you as you develop your Internet marketing strategy and enhance your social media presence online. Not only will you be able to keep up with what is being said about you and your interests, you’ll be able to spot new trends as they are developing and share them with your network, thereby adding value for your friends and followers.

Author Bio

Author, Tia Jones, is the Online Marketing & PR Specialist at Expansion Plus. In addition, Tia writes and contributes articles on Internet Marketing and Social Media. For more information on how businesses can use Social Media to improve their Internet Marketing Strategy visit http://www.expansionplus.com.