In our first two posts on social media tools, we looked at Klout, and its competitors. We also discussed the merits of a score as a quantifiable means of demonstrating influence. With questions being raised over the necessity of ranking people and accusations being levelled over the extent to which people manipulate such systems to increase their scores, a rising number of people are avoiding such numerical scoring tools altogether.

However, the level of interest in the impact of our online interactions remains high. People and brands want to know more than just their level of influence. They want to have varied but detailed information on things such as what people are talking about, who’s talking about them and how much they’re being talked about. To cater for this, a number of services are providing alternate systems for delivering this information. This week we’ll be looking at a selection of analytical tools that look at activity on social media to give individuals and brands an idea of how far influence extends, without apportioning a rank or score.

Social Mention

“Social Mention is a social media search and analysis platform that aggregates user generated content from across the universe into a single stream of information.”

With a simple selling point and simple interface, Social mention is a useful tool for finding out what people are saying about you or your brand. It’s a monitoring tool which provides real-time social media search and analysis. You simply type in a term/username/hashtag to the searchbox, and sit back as it informs you that it’s “searching content across from across the universe”. Social mention tells you how many mentions you’ve had and how frequently, identifies top users engaging with your content and pinpoints the various sources of your social media engagement. It also measures the strength (how much discussion there is), the sentiment (ratio of positive and negative interactions), passion (how much people will repeatedly discuss) and reach (the total scope of your influence). 

 Topsy

“Gain competitive insight. Analyze competitors’ campaigns and web traffic. Make better decisions. Analyze billions of conversations in realtime. Detect and follow breaking news. Drill into any new event, get instant results.”

Topsy is a content based data tool, focusing mainly on Twitter, being one of the Twitter’s certified partners (Google+ is used to a lesser extent). Topsy’s database claims to have every tweet ever sent, said to be approximately 425 billion pieces of content. Their free service is a real time social media search engine which uses an algorithm to highlight the most engaging content and users.  It serves to demonstrate influence by logging how frequently your content is retweeted and followed by influential people . The service focuses on the calibre of users and the content they share, rather than a defining score. The free analytic service also provides access to specific terms and hashtags across the full database.  With their free version and a more advanced pro edition, this social media analytical tool is accessible and beneficial for both interested individuals and brands.

Sprout Social

“Powerful social media software. A management and engagement platform for your social business.”

Focusing specifically on the business market, Sprout Social is a platform offering social media management and engagement. Launched in 2010, they manage over 6 million social media interactions daily, for global brands including McDonalds, Pepsi, Nokia and UPS.  Their service spans across the major social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. They also provide an analytical service which allows their brands and users to see the extent of engagement with content, in addition to providing recommendations for improving reach. Whilst they do offer a 30-day subscription, this product is a subscription service providing standard, deluxe and premium offerings. This tool is perfect for high level influencers, looking to extend their scope and reach out to an increased market.

 Crowd Booster

“Our goal is to help you do the hard work of building a connection with your fans by giving you insightful and actionable information about your social media presence.”

 Crowdbooster is a California based start-up, offering a social media marketing platform aimed at businesses. The service possesses a range of high profile clients including Ben & Jerry’s, The Los Angeles Times and Stussy.  As well as being a content manager to schedule updates and content, Crowdbooster offers analytics to show the level of impact and reach of your posts. In addition they highlight which influential users to engage with and provide audience insights to help you to understand the interests of your community and how to expand it. With its easily manageable interface, handy features, multiple account options and range across social media networks , it’s easy to understand why Crowdbooster has become a cornerstone for many corporate social strategies.

Booshaka

“Booshaka gives you insight into the who, what, when, where and how of your community engagement. Our insights and analytics help you understand your engaged fans and followers so you can develop the best social marketing strategy.”

With the saturation of tools that focus on Twitter, Booshaka bucks the trend by looking at the biggest fans of a particular Facebook page. It provides a unique source of information as a specifically Facebook-orientated service, making it a very useful tool for marketers. Whilst it does have a ranking system, this is done to give an insight into how much people are engaging with your content, not merely as a demonstration of your online reputation. This service allows you to know who your top influencers are, rather than how much of an influence you are yourself. Whilst a number of platforms show influential users, Booshaka makes this its main focus in order to supply a broad range of information to let you know details of your online community engagement and how your output can be improved. And as a free service, it’s one that’s accessible to anyone.

The difficulty with such a high quantity of tools offering social media metrics is that whilst a product may spark interest, the level of competition makes creating a sustainable product extremely difficult. Often, and in a relatively short space of time, a service goes from generating a good amount of buzz, to being nearly-forgotten. The key factor is the level of investment, as once financial backing arrives the level of service that a tool can provide increases. With start ups like PostRank and Social Grapple having been snapped up and absorbed by Google, we can see evidence that social media tools are attracting more and more attention. And whether you’re in favour of numerical scoring or general analytical tools, all signs point to social media influence (and the tools that measure it) playing an increasingly prominent role in our online activity.