A couple of months ago, Google announced that posts on Facebook and Twitter now contribute to search engine ranking positions. This means that is now more important than ever for websites to reach out over the social media sites in their online marketing efforts. Fortunately, there are several tools online that will help companies discover how far they reach and will even report back on what the competition is up to.
Addictomatic – this nifty tool can be used in various ways. Check how your site is performing by typing in the name of your site or your product. Alternatively, you can check the competition by doing this for them. Results will be from blogs, social networks and also from the top search engines. You can gauge penetration levels and what is being displayed to your customers.
Social Mention – the degree of positive or negative mention can be gauged by this speedy tool. For example, who is mentioning you and in what context. Check out the competition whilst you are there too. Remember that the competition can be your best friend with internet marketing. Watch their advertising and promotion work to find out what works with your market and what doesn’t. If you see something used continually, you are onto a winner.
How Sociable? – upgrade to the expert Pro version to compare your site against your competitors. Alternatively, you can just discover how visible your site or business is across the social airwaves.
Hootsuite – this has to be up there as one of the most popular social networking tools. You can schedule your status updates and tweets for several accounts. All mentions and responses will be displayed and it even has a URL shortener to boot.
TwitterFeed – automatic posting on Twitter and other sites that use the Laconia micro-blogging style software can gain you free back links and exposure. Try sites such as identi.ca and hello.tx for improved SEO ranking.
Using these tools will really save you so much time and will give you access to information that would not otherwise be available. It’s almost like having your own full time employee on the case. You can seek out opportunities, keep an eye on what the competition is doing and you can check out the reputation and coverage of your business.