The digital marketplace is like one huge game of telephone.  Content gets planted into the telephone line and then it spreads across the wires at hyper-speed.

So how in the world do you keep track of all the mentions of your brand?  And what can you do with those heaven-sent comments that boost your business and fit perfectly into your master plan of PR and social media domination?

This is where PR and social media monitoring devices come in.  There are dozens available but we’ve chosen a few that excel at amplifying the brand chatter.

1. Hootsuite – The social media management resource has a secure, web-based dashboard that allows businesses to oversee social networks, track conversations and measure results.

Campaigns can be executed across multiple networks with the benefits of identifying target audiences more specifically and distributing messages more effectively.

2. SocialPointer – A real-time social monitoring tool that enables marketers to track, monitor and respond to relevant social mentions and conversations that include your brand.

By having a quick response capability with real-time tracking, you can protect your brand image and influence consumer perception.

3. Vocus Social Monitoring and the Vocus Marketing Suite – The Vocus software is the only tool that integrates both traditional and online media monitoring so you can get a more complete picture of what people are saying about your brand.

In addition to monitoring 20 million of the top bloggers, Vocus follows all relevant blog comments, news and brand mentions on thousands of varied networks.

You can rank top influencers and determine which ones you should be talking with as well as understand the tone of their comments.

4. SocialMention – You can receive daily email alerts on mentions of your brand, products, CEO or competitors.  You can also follow developing stories.

The platform also provides a real-time widget that displays current buzz about your brand on your website or blog.  In addition SocialMention can do point-in-time searches for mentions and in-depth analysis.

5. Crowdbooster – Crowdbooster bills itself as “a social media marketing solution that fuses targeted recommendations and data-driven insights to help brands achieve online influence on Facebook and Twitter”.

You can get into social media monitoring free with Crowdbooster’s Personal plan through which you can track one account each on Facebook and Twitter (you can track additional accounts on each network for added fees).

The art of PR and social media depends upon careful listening and understanding of the chatter that has the power to influence your brand.

Need more help understanding social media monitoring?  Check out our blog post, #VocusChat Recap – Shonali Burke On Listening And Social Media.

Filed under: Public Relations, Social Media by Stacey Acevero