Listen To The Social Media Buzz With 38 Free Tools!

Listening is important for any business.

A way to do that is through marketing research to understand what consumers care about, and get insights to what they think about you.

However, it is usually quite expensive and time consuming, and you would only be able to capture a static snapshot of consumer interests.

Luckily, there’s a solution to this problem!

That’s by listening to the social media buzz.

I’m not saying that marketing research is ineffective and can be completely replaced by this simple idea. What I’m really saying is, listening to the social media buzz can complement research and offer quick and dynamic insights to consumers’ attitudes and behavior.

Listening to social media buzz is not and should NOT be limited to mere tracking of blogs and Google searches. Other social media sites, such as those for micro-blogging, social networking and pictures and video sharing should be monitored too. Read this to get a sense of why you should do so.

In this post, I will share 38 free tools that will bring you directly to the social media buzz.

Brand and buzz monitoring

1. SocialMention – A search engine for social media information. It also offers social media alerts and a real time widget for tracking social media buzz related to you

2. Socialmeter – It scans major social websites to analyze a web page’s social popularity. Very easy to use

3. HowSociable? – A brand visibility measurement tool based on 22 different metrics

4. Addict-o-matic – Create a custom page with the latest buzz about your brand or products