(FREE) SOCIAL MONITORING TOOLS

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As Radian6's social monitoring package starts (according to their website) at $600/month* to cover only 1 topic profile (see http://bit.ly/nLXHFK) and as much as $10,000/month for a ‘Pro’ account (to hear a mouse fart) – you really need to ask yourself whether your brand actually requires that level of engagement.   

Unless you’re a brand with a significant need to 'frame' and direct discussions - someone like Nestle or Monsanto for example (recently voted “2011’s Most Evil Corporation of the Year”) - you'll be happy to know that there are any number of Social Monitoring Tools that will meet your needs.  Note:  Be mindful to choose at least one overarching tool that monitors multiple types of social media.  Here is the beginning of what we hope will be a growing list of (free) monitoring resources, so if you stumble across a new free social monitoring tools (that aren’t trials or limited time offers) please forward to info@goodbuzz.ca.  

Social Mention – As the title implies, SM tracks and measures what is being said about a specific topic in real time across more than 100 social media services. While Social Mention may appear to allow the setting up of alerts, the functionality hasn't been available for nearly a year.  Still a solid real-time social search algorithm that measures sentiment (positive, neutral, negative) as well.  

MonitorThis – Allows you to search for brand mentions in 25 different search engines, however doesn’t appear to support alerts.

WhosTalkin.com - The search and sorting algorithms combine data taken from over 60 of the internet's most popular social media gateways (however also doesn’t appear to support alerts.)  Also, check out IceRocket and Alltop

Facebook Search as a Facebook specific monitoring tool. Openbook may also be useful in turning up mentions of your brand in Facebook status updates. 

Addict-o-matic lets you instantly create a custom page with the latest buzz on a given topic. The browser-based tool offers a one-stop customized site for seeing results across multiple social media channels.

Guzzle reads hundreds of feeds on social media sites every second to help you keep abreast of stuff you care about.

Buzzoo is a buzz aggregator drawing from multiple sources.

BuzzFeed sports a robust buzz-detection algorithm.

Twendz piggybacks off Twitter Search to offer user sentiment in real time.

Social Seek will tell you who’s making the most noise about your brand.

Mon.itor.us is a free website, server and traffic monitoring service.

Keotag lets you search multiple search engines, create social bookmark links around a topic or see who has used your brand as a tag.

Comment Sniper lets be the first to comment on relevant blog posts about your brand or sector. You set up blogs you want to monitor, and Comment Sniper sends you a desktop notification or text message to your mobile device whenever a new post goes up.

coComment is a Web service and Firefox plug-in that helps you keep track of blog comment threads. Whenever there is an update, such as a new follow-up comment, coComment notifies you instantly. It’s a handy service that saves you the trouble of checking back on blogs that don’t offer a comment notification feature.

Commentful is another Web service that helps you keep track of blog comments.

Omgili (Oh my God I love it) forum search engine lets you find communities, message boards and discussion threads about any topic.

co.mments helps you keep track of conversations.

Boardtracker, Big Boards, and Yuku Find crawl forums, blog posts, images and microblogs. They'll also let you know when a new forum starts specifically to discuss your brand or organization.  

WatchThatPage - Keeps a watchful eye when updates take place to an important Web page — say, your Wikipedia page or key pages on your competitors’ sites. Instruct WatchThatPage to keep tabs on any Web page, and you’ll receive an alert any time a change is made to the page.

Google Alerts - One of the easiest and most popular of free monitoring services, Google Alerts are notifications of (customizable) new results on up to 1000 search terms.  As the name implies, alerts can be set up. 

When you marry this with Google Trends (which compares how frequently searches have been made on up to five topics over time) you can unearth a great deal of insight. Social media monitoring begins with a dashboard.

A good choice to begin your monitoring is Google Reader: Subscribe to the RSS feeds of top blogs in your sector, competitors’ sites, news sites, Twitter searches and more, all in one place. You can even subscribe to searches on sites like Flickr and YouTube, so you’ll get an update on any new image or video that matches your brand or cause.  Finally, Google Realtime Search, lets you search the social Web (chiefly Twitter) and create email alerts for search terms. Also don’t forget Google Advanced Blog Search

As we mentioned, here is the beginning of what we hope will be a growing list of (free) monitoring resources, so if you stumble across a new free social monitoring tools (that aren’t trials or limited time offers) please forward to info@goodbuzz.ca.   

✔ COCA-COLA 2020 - FROM CREATIVE TO CONTENT

Coca-Cola here defines their strategic road map moving forwards.  This a response to the widespread recognition in the industry that "the legacy models are all broken" and "the traditional solutions are all becoming less and less effective."

What's Coke’s ‘Content 2020’ goal?  Double their current sales by creating ideas so contagious they cannot be controlled. The types of content that will be developed?  Serial Storytelling, Multi-faceted Storytelling, Spreadable Storytelling, Immersion and discovery Storytelling, and Engagement Storytelling. (A clearer explanation of these content types is available in the videos).

(Part 1)

How will they achieve this?  Coca-Cola intends on developing a conversation model that extends brand stories.  The brand stories are intended to create ‘liquid’ and ‘linked’ ideas that provoke conversations (which the brand can act and react upon). The company also has identified that they intend on integrating technologists into the core creative teams and further developing direct relationships with Technology companies.  

(Part 2)

What's clear is that people and organizations are reordering their priorities and causing global change across a range of interconnected spaces from honesty and fair employment to communal, social and environmental responsibility. 

Coca-Cola has always been at the forefront of innovation and storytelling. In these video’s Jonathan Mildenhall, VP, Global Advertising Strategy and Creative Excellence explains how Coke will leverage the opportunities in the new media landscape and transform one-way storytelling into dynamic storytelling (hoping to add real value and significance to peoples lives.)  

One (of many) elements we also believe 100% is the need to optimize efforts such that "every contact point with a customer should tell an emotional story".  Kudos to Coca-Cola for establishing a new participatory global brand framework and giving its constituents a voice.   We’re confident this positioning will serve you well.

♔ Using Social Media To Drive Your Brands Top-line

Clearly the social media space has inherent potential risks, and seemingly endless potential rewards. Equally clear is that achieving success is not as simple as most people originally assumed. Brands must provide audiences today with compelling reasons to interact with their company and each other.  What many social media strategists miss however is the need to link their efforts to their client’s actual business objectives.

Now don’t get us wrong, we love new trends and technology, however what is ultimately required to ensure return on investment is a shift in perspective.  Aligning marketing activities with your brands core business objectives may mean forgoing a flashy cross-channel marketing initiative and focusing on initiatives that increase customer demand, sales, prospects, conversions and market share - - so step away from the Pinterest for a second. ;)

There is a fundamental difference between planning how a brand talks to customers (traditional brand planning) and how a brand earns the right to participate with customers (social brand planning). When we develop and deliver an overarching social strategy and implementation roadmap, our goal is to fulfill the company’s overall brand, marketing, and business strategies.

It may be easier to simply look at the role your brand plays.  Instead of thinking of it as a communications tool only, recast it as a management tool, as well; instead of thinking of yourself as the CMO, act like the CBO with responsibility for the brand’s implementation across the organization.  Instead of looking only at marketing metrics as the measure of success, consider employee engagement and culture strength.  Instead of thinking of brand as a psychological heuristic, reconsider it as a tangible asset whose growth in value can be financially measured, and can add strength to the balance sheet.

What do we know?  Having designed and deployed well over 100 Facebook experiences, pages, applications, tabs, connect integrations, and games - Goodbuzz has a rich portfolio of experience creating social applications and experiences across all major social media platforms. Our programs amplify, extend, and enhance the core conversations your company is having with your customer base, achieving engagement with unprecedented reach and scale.  Beyond Facebook, we have significant experience with mobile applications, socially connected microsites and websites, and inherently social “real world” events.

We have been fortunate enough to deliver social solutions, drive social brand engagement, and deliver meaningful social insights for the world’s largest companies and most valuable brands.  What can we do for you?  Contact Goodbuzz today to get started.

♔ Social Media Case Studies (GB_V.71)

Ford promoted their new Fiesta vehicle on Instagram with a seven week contest that highlighted the car's new, high-tech features -  Simply Zesty

Hotels.com has created a new Facebook application that encourages collaborative online bookings with friends from all over the world -  Facebook

Mitsubishi "Live Drive" - The World's First Online Test Drive. 180 worked with B-Reel and robotics expert Dr. James Brighton to create the system of onboard video cameras, user interface, GPS mapping and the servo-motors necessary to translate the user's computer controls to an on-track driving experience – Video

'BrailleTouch' App Helps Visually Impaired Users.  Kudos to Georgia Tech – Video

For the release of their new Twisted Metal game, PlayStation created a live social installation that allowed fans to digitally fire a machine gun at a set full of explosives through Facebook and Twitter - Goodbuzz

Samsung is launching the U.S. Olympic Genome Project -- a multiplatform social media campaign that will let Facebook users discover and share how they are connected to athletes competing on the U.S. team -  MediaPost

How the U.S. Army is differentiating between social media platforms and finding success on Pinterest -  The Atlantic Wire

One day U.K. rocker Tim Burgess (frontman of the Charlatans) jokingly tweeted that he would love to have his own cereal called "Totes Amazeballs," which apparently happens to be slang for "Totally Amazing." Kellogg's got word and now the cereal is actually in limited production – Article

The Increasing Value of Augmented Reality (AR) for brands – Article

Burberry knows that if the brand is to remain relevant it needs to leverage emerging technology and culture (and not simply rest on what may have worked years ago.) After the success of last season's 'Tweetwalk' in which key looks were shared via Twitter, this year the fashion brand shared animated GIFs of pre-show activities with Twitter followers before the show (which took place yesterday) – More

Plan UK, a charity that helps young girls in developing countries, is running an interactive outdoor campaign that contains content only women can view. The bus shelter ad uses facial recognition software with an HD camera to determine whether a man or woman is standing in front of the screen (claims the technology is 90% accurate), and shows different content accordingly. Men are denied the choice to view the full 40-second ad in order to highlight the fact that women and girls across the world are denied choices and opportunities on a daily basis due to poverty and discrimination.  (See picture below)

Hostess is helping fans celebrate a personal win by creating personalized "Snackisode" videos on Facebook for them to share with friends -  Trend Hunter

The Ultimate Guide To Pinterest - Everything you wanted to know about Pinterest including how the idea came about, What’s the big deal?, Stats, facts and demographics, and getting started – SlideShare

Infographic: Did you ever wonder what Facebook might look like in 2025? – Overview

Brands Face Stream Fatigue as Consumers Look Beyond Gimmicks in Social Networks – Brian Solis

How to Remove Your Google Search History (Before Google's New Privacy Policy Takes Effect) -  Goodbuzz   

Here’s the Society of Digital Agencies (SoDA) 2012 Report (formerly the Digital Marketing Outlook) – Report

Pharma brands Boehringer Ingelheim, Pfizer, and Bristol-Meyers Squibb are experimenting with social games and YouTube videos as a way to benefit patients while still adhering to the FDA's social media guidelines -  ClickZ

Mattel's Barbie brand has launched BarbieWow.com -- an online fashion destination where fans can share their experiences styling and trying on the doll's digital wardrobe. The site also encourages fans to post their own inspired fashion designs to Polyvore and Pinterest - The New York Times

NOTE:  FOR MORE ARTICLES AND POSTS FROM THE LAST WEEK PLEASE VISIT US ON TWITTER @GOODBUZZ.  IF YOU HAVE INFO, ARTICLES, CASE STUDIES, OR OTHER EXAMPLES OF (TTL) PARTICIPATORY MARKETING BLISS - PLEASE FEEL FREE TO EITHER POST VIA FACEBOOK OR SEND VIA E-MAIL AND WE’LL TAKE CARE OF IT FOR YOU. ;) PLEASE IDENTIFY IF YOU FIND A DEAD LINK (AS THEY WERE ALL LIVE AT THE TIME OF THIS POSTING)

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How to Remove Your Google Search History (Before Google's New Privacy Policy Takes Effect)

On March 1st, Google will implement its new, unified privacy policy, which will affect data that Google has collected on you prior to March 1st, 2012 (as well as data it collects on you in the future.) Our thanks to the EFF for sharing this.

Until now, your Google Web History (all Google searches and sites visited) has been cordoned off from Google's other products.  This protection was especially important because search data can reveal particularly sensitive information about you, including facts about your location, interests, age, sexual orientation, religion, health concerns, and much more.

Therefore, if you want to keep Google from combining your Web History with the data they have gathered about you in all their other products, such as YouTube or Google Plus - you may want to remove all items from your Web History and stop your Web History from being recorded in the future.

Here's how you can do that:

1.) Sign into your Google account.

2.) Go to www.google.com/history

3.) Click "remove all Web History."

4.) Click "ok."

Note: Removing your Web History also pauses it.  Web History will remain off until you enable it again.  If you have several Google accounts, you will need to do this for each of them.

♔ Social Media Case Studies (GB_V.70)

Coca-Cola is hosting a "Hangout" on Google+ streamed from their Archives storage space for fans to ask questions and meet with others who love the brand -  Coca-Cola Conversations

 

The ‘If you like Latvia, Latvia likes you’ Facebook Promotion (by Leo Burnett Riga) allows users to bake actual bread. For every Facebook ‘Like’ button clicked on the Latvia page, a wooden log branded with the Like symbol will be tossed into a real Latvian bread oven – Facebook

Trendhunter's ‘Top 20 Trends in 2012’ further evidences the marriage between analog and digital, brand minimalism, Goodvertising, and Augmented Reality -  YouTube

 

A top priority for brands in 2012, ‘Content Marketing’ encompasses new techniques and methods of sharing information, creating brand awareness, new customers and building loyalty. It starts by asking the question – how can your brand evidence itself as a thought-leader? Check out this great infographic of tactics employed – Infographic

 

The U.S. Navy is engaging with their main influencers -- mothers -- through an online private social community that connects moms of children who are considering joining the service with moms of active-duty sailors -  Ad Age

Domino's is attempting to harness the power of their community with their new idea-sourcing Facebook app called the "Think Oven." Fans can participate by supporting already-mentioned projects or by submitting their innovative ideas -  Creativity

 

Content Strategy – Content is the new brand currency.  So what’s your strategy?  Content marketing is an umbrella term encompassing all marketing formats that involve the creation and sharing of content in order to engage current and potential consumer bases – Article

 

Mobile 'Gamification' + Reward platform 'Kiip' (founded by fellow-Canadian Brian Wong) extends real rewards for virtual achievements by delivering a value exchange through promotions and target users through game genre, demographics and location – Overview

 

Having 47,713,372 fans on Facebook apparently didn’t satisfy her appetite for personal validation. That’s right - singer, songwriter, pioneer in meat-based attire, general curiosity, and now social-media upstart Lady Gaga has launched a new (currently invitation-only) social-media site called www.LittleMonsters.com (which incidentally looks and functions exactly like Pinterest) - Website

 

The Modern World of Online Dating - If you watch shows like 'Californication‘ or ‘Sex and the City’ for example, characters seem to find sexual partners wherever they turn - from a bar, to a cemetery, to the DMV. That (apparently) was so 2011. Today, there's an array of digital tools and devices to help find love in places just as unlikely –Report

 

Farmers Insurance discuss their people-based (not product-based) Facebook engagement strategy -  DMNews

'Barskolan Bootcamp's' Facebook App - Presumably the more social you are, the better a candidate you'd make (for a job as a bartender.) Therefore, the 'Bootcamp' Facebook app (by Rodolfo) created a social game that gave users points for different types of social engagement - Overview

 

Gap is plunging into social media with Styld.by, a new digital catalog (compiled by AKQA) that sees it collaborate with six influential fashion and lifestyle blogs. The site lets bloggers from sites such as Fabsugar, Refinery29 and Lookbook.nu style key pieces from Gap's Spring 2012 collection in their own way. Every image is designed to be bookmarked, collected and shared through sites such as Pinterest and Facebook, while you can click on the 'looks' to go through to Gap's own website and buy the items – Website

 

'Shoot My Truck' - The latest 'Twisted Metal' Campaign - Who doesn’t want to shoot an ice cream truck with an M249-SAW machine gun!? The campaign (by Deutsch LA + Stink Digital) allows Gamers to register - either via Facebook or Twitter - for the chance to fire the gun for 30 seconds each over the course of two days - www.shootmytruck.com

 

Lexus Launches 'TORI 500' Swimsuit Model Campaign - The Lexus GS campaign called 'TORI 500' involves a racetrack shaped as the body of SI Model, Tori Praver, one of the models featured in the swimsuit issue. The overarching theme of the campaign is that the GS can handle all kinds of curves – Website

 

In honor of reaching one million fans on Facebook, Cadbury celebrated their community by building an enormous chocolate "like" button, sharing a video of how it was done, and choosing one lucky super fan to place the final piece of chocolate on the structure -  Digital Buzz Blog

Listen to music while you wait for the bus (courtesy of your car insurance company.) Located in Sydney, Australia, the interactive bus shelter stereo actually works, with the help of consumers' mobile phones. People use a QR code or URL where they can first ‘Like’ the NRMA Facebook page, then pick a tune to play through the shelter's speakers instantaneously as they wait - Picture Below.

Intel has been recognized as one of the top 10 most innovative companies in the world by Fast Company for their enhanced use social media to engage with fans -  Fast Company

 

Ford Fiesta's 'Fiestagram' Photo Campaign - Ford gave weekly prizes to the best photos and will feature them in real-life galleries and live digital billboards across Europe. The final prize was a new Ford Fiesta. Simple on-brand message and well executed mechanics. A pretty simple, but smart (and well integrated) social campaign (by Blue Hive) to promote the car's features – Video

 

Here’s a good report on game changers by Wolff Olins on ‘FIVE BEHAVIORS THAT ARE SHAPING THE FUTURE OF BUSINESS’ -http://gamechangers.wolffolins.com/

 

The Fujitsu 'Profile Pitch' LinkedIn Campaign pits you (and your CV) against the world (allowing you to aggregate a series of scores based off your qualifications, network and experience.) Team up with your contacts for a team challenge and see how you stack up. Nice use of the LinkedIn API and kudos for trying something different – Website

 

Kraft Foods is creating personalized Valentine's Day videos and dontating 100 boxes of Macaroni & Cheese for every tweet they receive with hashtag #VoiceofLove -  Brandchannel

DeVry University shares how they created a community of encouragement with the help of their most inspiring students and alumni -  Vimeo

 

Here’s a solid campaign piece (by McCann Erickson, Helsinki) for Finland’s HIV Foundation/AIDS Council that uses Facebook ‘Places’ nomenclature to cleverly illustrate their point. Notice the text at bottom say’s “Bill Johnson and 19 others were here” “Adrian Bruce and 26 other were here” and “Jane Williams and 34 others were here” respectively. What do you think? See below or visit Website

How to measure social media success - Too many businesses have approached social ROI backwards. Instead of doing the calculations before taking action, many businesses spend time or money to get Facebook or Twitter presence and then look at metrics after the fact. – Globe-Mail

 

Seattle's Best Coffee has launched a new Facebook contest that lets their fans create their own custom drinks for a chance to win coffee and a future spot on the menu -  PSFK

Nissan is giving their Facebook fans a voice in the building of their new sports car. The car's design will be crowd-sourced through fans' comments, likes, and wall posts -  Social Media Influence

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