7 Social Media Monitoring Tips To Help Your Business Spy Like a Pro
With scandals like the NSA’s mass surveillance program, akaPRISM, privacy has become an ongoing conversation in the media. Even though we can’t (and shouldn’t) access questionably ethical tools like PRISM, there is an incredible depth of information that can be attained through social media monitoring that can bring you closer to your target market.
I must admit, social media monitoring is usually a pretty boring topic but there are a few tricks that are so exceptional, I rarely ever talk about them…because I want to keep them for myself!
7 Ways To Use Social Media Monitoring Like A Pro
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Why Should You Care About Social Media Monitoring?
Social media monitoring done right can help your business:
- Improve customer service
- Get unbiased intel about how people really feel about you and your business
- Address negativity that would otherwise damage your brand
- Know when people are saying great things about your business
- Research competitors
- Stay on top of industry trends
1. Find Exactly Who Is Sharing Content From Your Website
Simply type your website domain into Twitter search to get an immediate list of people that are sharing your content. Don’t worry about shortened links from services like Bit.ly, Twitter search can actually look through the link to see the true domain.
For example, here’s what happens when you type topdogsocialmedia.com into Twitter search.
This also works for Pinterest…
And Google+…
2. Search For People Sharing Press or Content That Mentions You
We were featured in Social Media Examiner’s list of the Top 10 Best Social Media Blogs of 2014 and used the URL of that post to search inside Twitter. There were literally thousands of people that shared the article so we began interacting, following and listing them so we can engage with them over time.
3. Search For People Sharing Your Guest Blog Posts on Twitter
Thank as many people as you can that share your guest blog posts on Twitter. This is the best way to leverage your guest blogging efforts on bigger websites so that people actually follow you afterwards and potentially become fans of your blog.
TIP: When people share your content online, whether it’s a guest blog or something from your website, be sure to:
- Thank them
- Follow them (optional but recommended)
- Put them in a Twitter list
4. Use FollowerWonk To Understand Your Followers
If you analyze your Twitter profile with FollowerWonk, you’ll be able to see a breakdown of the most common words in your followers’ biographies. This provides amazing insight into whether or not your efforts are on target.
Here is an example of the most popular words found in the bios of Matt Cutts’ followers. Matt runs the web spam team at Google and the entire SEO industry hangs on his every word when he updates his blog or YouTube account.
5. Create A Twitter List of Competitors & Industry Leaders
You need to separate Twitter lists to keep track of competitors and any thought leaders and influencers in your industry. This will help you keep your finger on the pulse of your industry.
6. Get The Bigger Picture With SocialMention
This is probably the most basic social media monitoring tip on the list but the great thing about SocialMention is it provides you with an aggregated result of what people are saying about you across the social web. It even pulls data from Facebook that is otherwise very difficult to access – making it a very tough tool to ignore!
7. Find Super Targeted Followers With TweetBe.at
TweetBe.at is one of those tools you don’t want other people to know about because it’s that good. This is especially helpful for local businesses as you can scan targeted Twitter profiles’ followers and automatically pick out followers from a specific geographic area. This is a mega time saver!
In the example below I targeted people following the Vancouver Chamber of Commerce Twitter account that live in Vancouver. This might not seem like a big deal but this is the only tool I have ever seen that will let you do this AND put them into a list for you.
If you aren’t already convinced that TweetBe.at is the coolest tool you’ve never heard of, you can get even more targeted with your search. Here is an example where I target followers of the Vancouver Chamber of Commerce that live in Vancouver with the word “Owner” in their bio.
NOTE: I should mention that although TweetBe.at is awesome, the tool can only search a batch of 20 Twitter users at a time so really specific inquiries like the one above will produce far less results than more general searches.
7 Social Media Monitoring & Intelligence Gathering Tools
What Is Your Favorite Social Media Monitoring Trick?
Do you have any secret social media monitoring tips or tricks up your sleeve? Let us know in the comments below.
