In doing research for the new edition of How to Make Money with Social Media (which is now on the shelves of your local bookstore, as well as on Amazon), we took a deep dive into a number of social media analytics solutions. These are the tools you’d use to measure the quantitative metrics around your social media programs (e.g., interactions, users, impressions, demographics, page visits, bounce rate, etc.) as well as the qualitative metrics (e.g., the feelings expressed about your brand via social media).

What follows is an excerpt from the book, which is available now at fine booksellers across the nation. If you like what you read below, be sure to take a look at some additional excerpts on the Amazon and Barnes & Noble web pages.

Ready? Here goes.

The first and easiest way to get a quantitative measurement of your social media program is to track data using some popular and readilyavailable tools. These tools provide in-depth information that let you track data such as number of visits, page views, pages per visit, bounce rate, reach, and average time on site.

Google Analytics — What’s not to like about Google Analytics? By dropping a line of code into your website, you can track how people get to your site, how they navigate through your site, and how long they stay on your site. Google Analytics is getting more and more cumbersome, which can get in the way of using it sometimes, but overall it’s really a brilliant tool that everyone with a website should be using.

KISSmetrics —These guys try to be what Google Analytics is not. In other words, they take data and try to help you make sense out of it instead of just dumping it into your lap. Each piece of data is tied to a real person so that you can get a sense of where they are in your sales funnel. KISSmetrics was founded by Neil Patel who runs a well-respected blog called QuickSprout (not to be confused with SproutSocial, discussed next).

SproutSocial —With SproutSocial, you can publish posts to your social media channels while at the same time monitoring how people are responding to those posts. They have an easyto-
use dashboard that provides just the right amount of data and information so as not to be overwhelming. If you’re looking for a rock solid, all-in-one dashboard, you can’t go wrong with SproutSocial.

Webfluenz — This is a social media management platform that allows you to monitor, analyze, engage, and generally run your entire social media campaign from one place. You can check visitor demographics, geographic coverage, and a whole slew of other items. Webfluenz is especially well suited for companies that have a large, global presence.

Social Mention — This simple web-based application lets you search popular channels such as blogs and microblogs to find brand mentions and analyzes the sentiment toward your brand. You can also set up alerts so that you will be told any time someone mentions your brand.

BrandsEye — A slightly different type of social media listening tool, BrandsEye helps you manage your online reputation by finding all of your brand mentions, the reputation of their source, and the sentiment. It even flags mentions that may require your immediate attention.

Oracle Social —This software goes beyond monitoring what is being said about your brand online, and analyzes specific posts and snippets of posts to get the true sentiment surrounding your brand. Additionally, it identifies who the influencers are for your brand. Oracle Social is best suited for large, enterprise-sized clients.

Spiral16 — If you’re a visual person, Spiral16 may be just what you’re looking for. It’s a web-based platform that helps you listen, measure, and visualize your brand’s online presence. You can measure the impact your traditional campaigns have on your social media campaigns and understand why consumers are behaving the way they are. It’s a data-centric platform that uses graphics to quickly and efficiently help you spot trends and react to them in real time.

Google Alerts — If you’re not already using Google Alerts, put down the book and go to Google.com/alerts to set it up. It takes about two minutes to type in several keywords and then get daily e-mails letting you know what was said about those keywords and where. For example, you’ll want to set up your Google Alerts to tell you when someone has mentioned your brand or your competitors’ brands online. You can even set it up to alert you to topical mentions such as “marketing tips” or How to Make Money with Social Media.

Socialbakers — This analytics platform is perfect if you’re looking for in-depth data that allows you to measure, compare, and contrast your campaigns against your competitors. They have reams of data available for free on their website and specialize in global analytics. Twenty percent of the Global Fortune 500 use Socialbakers.

We’re getting a lot of great feedback on the book. As mentioned, if you like what you read above, be sure to take a look at some additional excerpts on the Amazon and Barnes & Noble web pages. See you again soon!
Jamie Turner is the CEO of the 60 Second Marketer and 60 Second Communications, a marketing communications agency that works with national and international brands. He is the co-author of “How to Make Money with Social Media” and “Go Mobile” and is a popular marketing speaker at events, trade shows and corporations around the globe.