Everyone will tell you that the first step to getting started in social media is listening. What is being said? Where is it being said? Who is saying it?
It's an important step to take but where do you start? There are so many tools out there and it can be confusing for a newbie to know where to begin. There are many lists available that contain hundreds of recommendations of sites that will measure and track every social platform, which can be over whelming when you are starting out. Here's a small selection of sites that can offer an initial snap shot of discussion points around your brand.
1)Google Alerts a classic in the vast array of monitoring tools. You can choose which keywords you want to track and how you wish to receive the alerts.
2)Social Mention this listening tool searches all social platforms and gives you a insight into what's being said about your brand. A social media monitoring essential.
3)Twitter Search the advanced option of this tool is useful for more in-depth searching. You can enter queries to search by person, hash tag or even location.
4)Google Blog Search a good place to start if you are looking at what's being said in the blogosphere, it also offers you trending blog topics and recent blog posts.
5)Board Tracker this is a handy tool for forum searches as you can see what conversations are taking place and where they're happening.
Have you tried any of these? Do you have other favourites to add?