Resources

Free online tools to help you find, monitor, analyze and engage your audience online:

Google Alerts (google.com/alerts)
Keyword-based monitoring service that automatically notifies you when new content from websites, blogs, video sharing sites and discussion groups matches search terms you select.

Socialmention (socialmention.com)
Track keyword mentions on more than 100 social media properties.

TweetBeep (tweetbeep.com)
Keyword monitoring (ala “Google Alerts”) for Twitter posts.

Twellow (twellow.com)
Find people on Twitter based on keywords in their twitter bio.

Topsy (topsy.com)
Perform real-time topical search across major social media platforms.

Listorious (listorious.com)
Find individuals on twitter by topic, region, profession and other data culled from twitter lists.

WhosTalkin (whostalkin.com)
Search conversations on popular social media sites by keyword.

Klout (klout.com)
Measure and generate a numeric score to rank someone’s influence for specific topics across a range of social media platforms.

BackTweets (backtweets.com)
Finds tweets that include a specific URL so you can gauge how your links are being shared on Twitter.

bit.ly (bit.ly)
Search-friendly URL shortner with built-in analytics.

HowSociable (howsociable.com)
Generate a “visibility score” for your brand accross a range of social media sites.

Alltop (alltop.com)
Akin to a newsstand for blogs – lists blogs (and recent headlines) to help you determine which blogs are most prominent for a specific topic.

Boardreader (boardreader.com)
Search engine results for online forums and message boards.

Twitter Advanced Search (search.twitter.com/advanced)

KnowEm (knowem.com)
Check for the use of your brand/username and register it on more than 400 major social media websites.

Muckrack (muckrack.com)
Find journalists on Twitter (sorted by outlet and beat)

Tweetdeck (tweetdeck.com) and HootSuite (hootsuite.com)
Monitor and post content on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other major social media sites via a dashboard-style application you download on your computer. Tweetdeck

BoardTracker (boardtracker.com)
Searches online forums and discussion boards for specific keywords.

IceRocket (icerocket.com)
Real-time keyword search tool for blogs and a range of social media platforms.

BlogPulse (blogpulse.com)
Search engine and analytics for blogs.

Google AdPlanner (google.com/adplanner)
Analytic data about any website (unique visitors/page views, user demograhics/interests, relevant sites, etc.)

General Website Analytics:

Google Analytics (google.com/anayltics)
Installs on your website to provide analytical data regarding traffic and marketing effectiveness. Tracks visitors from referring sites including search engines, display advertising, pay-per-click networks, email marketing and digital collateral such as links within PDF documents.

Alexa (alexa.com), Compete (compete.com) and Quantcast (quantcast.com)