Which tools should we use to evaluate Social Media & Websites?

List of the different tools available:

Self-Service Systems
Manual analytical tools usually work on a search, measure, filter and report basis. The best will also allow you to engage with any conversations occurring. The downfall of these systems is that they can be complex to understand. However they are cheaper than the automated alternatives (read down for these). I have listed three manual tools below:

Brandwatch
Launched August 2007 this social media monitoring tool works by crawling web content to match any queries you have entered into the system (this might be brands, competitors, news stories, etc). Crawlers will search the internet for relevant content, filter to ensure any content found is relevant (thus avoiding spam, adverts and duplications) and then analysis to recognise sentiment (ie, the one of a message). More information concerning this process can be found on the Brandwatch “How it Works” page.

Radian6
‘Mashable named Radian6′s Co-founder Chris Ramsey one of five masterminds redefining social media’ – it is easy to see why, this is one of the most indepth tools around. Millions of conversations are happening about your brand now. Similarly to Brandwatch, Radian6 will crawl the internet watching for your phrases adding both audience and location data. Engagement to any messages found can be quickly posted through their dashboard. They offer a free trail so definitely check this tool out.

Sysomos
The usual mantra of ‘Listen, Measure, Understand and Engage’ is repeated with Sysomos which will crawl all “major social media sources”. This application allows the use of Boolean syntax to greatly vary searches and will allow you to identify the authority of different influencers. The USP of Sysmos is its text analytics service which will allow you to go into conversations into a greater depth to understand the context of online results.

Learning Systems

Adaptive Semantics
CEO of Adaptive Semantics, Jeff Revesz, is not only a mathematical genius but has an interest in linguistics. Both of these combined has results in a social media analytics tool which is designed to take user-generated content (UGC) to recognise a community’s trolls and experts and to act appropriately. From the outset it looks like this tool is targeted towards bloggers – in essence automating a process which may have been a full-time job of an employee on a busy job.

Crimson Hexagon
Founded in 2007 this analytics program allows an organisation to find statistical patterns in linguistics to express the sentiment of different topics whilst also taking into consideration change over time. A far more advanced system than the self-service alternatives. Real-time results, quantitative feedback and ROI measurements have been described as ‘a true social intelligence’ by Crimson Hexagon.

Glide Intelligence
They offer a variety of services but I will be focusing on their Media Monitoring and Evaluation solution. Their service includes a multi-media measurement approach (print, online, broadcast and social media channels). Their website doesn’t go into detail regarding the approach other than saying addressing ‘the distinctly different challenges associated with monitoring and evaluating social media comments’. Judging from this I would put their social analytics system on par with the self-service solution, although please correct me if I am wrong.

Website Stats
It is in my personal belief that all social media campaigns must have a point of origin, a website which hosts the main content or sales (there are a few exceptions to this rule). Therefore it will be necessary to measure the statistics your social media efforts are making to your website.

Google Analytics
Google Analytics is the tool I use to measure traffic arriving on this very blog. It offers an in-depth view which covers almost every possibility of measurement including traffic, traffic sources, visitors, content evaluation and goals. This tool is completely free and is easy to setup. You even have social plug-in options.

Anything else here would be in superior…

Have anything else to add?
I am still in the process of exploring different methods to measure social media ROI. Whilst I believe the above analytics tools are some of the most popular there are literally countless alternatives.

Which social media tools do you use for measurement?

Michael is a Consultant for Keene Communications where he devises and manages digital public relations campaigns. Keene Communications has been providing public affairs, public relations and representation services for over 25 years. Michael is a certified member (MCIPR) of the Chartered Institution of Public Relations (CIPR).