It's time to evaluate

Are you aware that there are currently at least 54 social media tools that can help you measure your online presence? Yes, you have read that correctly - 54. And those are just the free ones. I'm shaking my head only because I've heard so many conflicting things about online measuring tools. Whether it's better to spend the big bucks for a more "accurate" reading of your web presence, or if you are better off with using the free tools that are available at the click of a button. I think these conflicts/questions/issues can be answered with one word: money.

Money dictates everything we do, whether it's personal or in business - period. Social media is not free. If you don't have the cash, you can't use the expensive, or for that matter ANY monetary valued monitoring services - end of discussion. That's not to say that anyone on a strict budget (or no budget) can't benefit, because there are some excellent monitoring services available for free.

Before the topic is discussed in a little more detail, this is just a brief, but humourous, digression on social media by parody masters the onion:



Had to laugh at that, but back to the topic at hand.

Measuring the overall success of any type of social media strategy can often be complicated and confusing. There are, however, a number of tools that can make it a little easier to navigate the social web waters. Below are three tools (all free!) that can help you determine how your messages are being discussed on the social media world.

1.Google Analytics

Google has developed a comprehensive analytics service that helps track user activity on your website in real-time. Within a matter of minutes, you can have Google Analytics set up to give you actual numbers of the daily visits to your site, the demographics of your users, how they got to your site, how long they stay, and which of your pieces of content are most—and least—popular.

2.Klout

The Klout Score measures influence, which Klout defines as “your ability to drive action on social networks,” and, increasingly, in the real world. Specifically, it measures the influence of your network across your social media platforms. Once you’re signed-up, Klout will let you see a map of your social media activity over the past 90 days, enabling you to cross-reference the exact moments your score increased (under their algorithm, at least) with the content you posted or ways you engaged at that time.

3.My Top Tweet by TwitSprout

This tool provides an easy way to figure out which of your tweets got the most retweets. With My Top Tweet, this measurememt tool can rank your top 10 most-shared tweets and the number of times they were retweeted. Not only is this helpful for your own brand, but it gives you an idea on how your brand competes with competitors.

Once you can see the analytics behind your social media outreach, you’ll have a much better idea of what’s working and what’s not.