Are You Paying Attention to What is Being Said Online About Your Brand or Business?

Social Media and Social  Networking tools have changed the way people share and obtain information.  Social Media and Social Networking tools have opened the door to content publication for anyone to be a publisher and share information with others.

These tools can be wonderful in spreading the word about your company and the products and services that you provide, however they can also be used to spread information that can be damaging to your brand or business.

Part of effectively using Social Media and Networking is to monitor what is being said about your brand and business and to keep a pulse on your market or niche.

Adding a monitoring component into your Social Media and Social Networking efforts will help ensure that you never miss a compliment or a complainant written about your brand or business.  If you know what is being said then you can be proactive in handling any complaints or potential bad press as well as highlighting any compliments that are being written about you.

The following are several FREE tools that you can use to monitor what is being said about your brand or business online:

Twitter Search – http://search.twitter.com/

Use Twitter Search to search for “Tweets” related to your company or those needing your products or services

Google Alerts – http://www.google.com/alerts

Google Alerts allows you to set up an alert that will let you know each time there is a new entry on the web with information related to your company, product or service or a topic you are interested in

Technorati – http://technorati.com/

Technorati is a great place to check out what is being covered in the blogosphere

Trendpedia – http://www.trendpedia.com/

This tools allows you to search for names and topics and compare how they rate with other topics or names

Social Mention – http://socialmention.com/

This tool is similar to Google Alerts, but focuses on social media

Twendz (Beta) http://twendz.waggeneredstrom.com/

This tool allows you to monitor twitter conversations in real time on the topic or key words of your choice

Effectively using Social Media and Social Networking tools to monitor mentions of your brand or business will help you stay ahead of the curve and be able to effectively deal with any bad press as well as highlight any positive press that you may receive.

Stefanie Blackburn is an Internet Consultant with SourceOne Technologies. SourceOne Technologies currently offers assistance to business owners in establishing a complete online presence.  SourceOne Technologies is your Online Marketing Consultant.

Social Media and Social Networking leads to offline conections

We are working with several of our clients on incorportating Social Media into thier overall Internet Marketing plan due to the many benefits that it produces.

One benefit though that is often overlooked is the opportunity Social Media provides for you to network with others.  In several cases by using Social Media or Social Networking tools you are now able to connect with others that are great potential power partners, business partners or even customers, just because you started using Socail Media and sharing more information about yourself and what you do.

Often people over look this beneift of using Social Media and Social Networking but you shouldn’t.  The larger your network is, especially in a troubled economy the larger your base of contacts and potential customers are.

Users on Twitter, one of the most popular Socail Media tools right now have organized what are called Tweet-ups where you can go and in person meet the people you network with on Twitter.  This is an excellent example of how online Socail Media or Social Networking as extended to offline.

Here is a great article that goes into more depth on this topic, how networking is one of the benefits of using Social Media and Social Networking.

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Twitter is a tool your Business should be using

Is your business on Twitter yet?

If not you should probably put it in the plans to be completed.  Twitter is now main stream and is being used by many businesses to drive traffic and increase sales.  Twitter is viral and when businesses use it they are able to touch a lot of prospects quickly.  If you are posting interesting and helpful information on Twitter it will be shared by others and give you exposure to others.

The article below is from FYIndOut and it helps expand on the topic of businesses using Twitter.

Savvy Businesses Making the Most of Twitter

Companies are beginning to realize the importance of using Twitter to monitor their brand, create relationships and turn leads to sales. According to a recent survey by MarketingProfs, “more than eight in 10 Twitter users, most of whom represent small businesses, expect their company’s use of the popular micro blogging tool to increase in the next six months.”

In addition, 66% of the respondents consider Twitter either “somewhat important” or “extremely important” to their company’s business/marketing operations, compared with 29% who consider it “not very important.”

At FYIndOut, we’re always focused on helping businesses find and promote what they’re looking for and one of our main focuses is around using the power of social media to work for business.  Twitter is fast becoming one of the top platforms that companies not only participate in, but also get real value by doing so.  Unlike most other social media sites, Twitter has the ability and breadth to be a fun and efficient way to connect consumers in our personal lives as well as help businesses and employees in our professional lives.

We have definitely seen a positive difference in using Twitter for our company.  Through Twitter, we’ve been able to connect and learn from industry trendsetters, other entrepreneurs, investors, and key media people that cover our industry.  Not having any luck reaching out to people via email or their “Contact Us” form?   Try Twitter.  You’d be amazed at how fast you’re able to connect with others.

If you are just starting to use Twitter and have any questions about our experience or think that we might be able to help, please reach out to myself (@scottjmanley) or our Community Manager, Brett Kopf (@brettkopf) and we’ll do our best.

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• Twitter to Move into Business Mainstream (marketingvox.com)
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