hootsuite

Being able to monitor what is said about your brand on the internet has become a very important part of doing business these days. Social Media has the power to make or break brand names, and web visibility should be monitored.

Hand in hand with finding out who is talking about you and why, there is the possibility of actively engaging in the conversation. Advertising on the internet have become advertising on social media platforms as well, and keeping track of all those, especially if you have more than one brand, has become very time consuming. However, some web programs are designed to help you monitor and be active on social media platforms from one central location.

CoTweet

CoTweet is a social media engagement, management and reporting site, which aims to help companies of all sizes track and analyze what is being said about them on the two most popular social media sites: Facebook and Twitter.

Built with an emphasis on the needs of businesses, their Standard edition and Enterprise edition, help customer support and marketers manage the daily social media conversations from one place, solve customer service issues, manage marketing campaigns and maximize brand visibility. It enables businesses to engage in proactive marketing and other customer service activities.

In March 2010, CoTweet was purchased by ExactTarget, a global provider of on demand e mail marketing solutions, and CoTweet now includes monitoring of multiple channels including e mails and mobile phones.

It is ideal for multiple account management and multiple users. An application which allows you to invite other people to manage the account with you, and delegate assignments also exists.

Users of CoTweet include Starbucks, Microsoft, Sprint, Coca-Cola and even Tweeter itself.

HootSuite

HootSuite allows users to organize the use of social media tools, launch marketing campaigns and distribute messages across multiple channels in a targeted fashion.

It scans the activity on Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare, WordPress and other social media platforms and is accessible via web on desktop applications or mobile platforms.

But HootSuite is more than just a monitoring tool; it is an account management software as well. Users have the ability to optimize delivery by choosing the best time and date to reach their target audience, fine tune the response team by assigning responsibility to a team member and monitoring responses and progress. It enables the user to effectively join in the conversation, in real time.

Users can update their profile from one place, track click-troughs, deploy timed updates etc. and its mobile version is available on iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Windows Mobile as well. You will never be out of touch with your customers.

Launched in 2008 by Invoke Media, it is growing in popularity and is used by government (The White House), Martha Stewart Media and Zappos for example.

TweetDeck

Tweetdeck is a real-time browser that can help connect a user to Google Buzz, Twitter, Myspace, Facebook, Foursquare and other social networking sites. This helps users to keep in touch with what is happening now, all across the board. Users can customize their TweetDeck experience by creating columns or groups as well as saving searches so that users can stay up-to-date as effortlessly as possible.

Responding to what Twitter users or Facebook fans are saying about you and your product or service is easy and real-time management no longer requires incredible multi-tasking skills to accomplish. Sharing your photos, videos and links across the board also becomes a whole lot more simplistic.

With support for desktop computers as well as Google Chrome and Android means this is one extremely versatile tool. It will also soon support iPhone and iPad.

TweetAdder

TwitterAdder is available on Linux, Windows and Mac OSX. Its Automated Tweet Search feature searches out specific keywords previously tweeted which helps a Twitter user to find those fellow Tweeters who are interested in, or marketing, in the same niche. This takes the guesswork and the time sink out of building a legion of Twitter followers who already have an interest in the product or service you market. Profile data and location searches get you one step closer to mass marketing locally if your business is based largely in your own community.

TweetAdder also supports multiple Twitter account management and a wide variety of support options for Follow and Unfollow configurations. Automated Tweeting and direct messaging wraps up this all-in-one tool. With a healthy dose of current and historical trend research, you really can’t ask for much more in one single program that can manage your Twitter account from day to day, all by itself.

Video Resource: This was the best video I could find that covered an array of tools. If you like it please share your thoughts with @ErinBlaskie or email Erin at erin@bsetc.ca or erin.blaskie@gmail.com, I personally was very impressed with her coverage of such a variety of tools, perhaps we can get her to do short tutorials for each one individually in the future.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ifuq4XZssU&hd=1]

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