There are great social media targeting tools worth knowing about. Why? They identify people on social networks who need your product or service right now.
Social targeting tools are growing at a rapid rate. All are widely available as “open source” platforms and work with a simple search query. Some have upgrade features if you find them valuable. To find the targeting tools right for you and your business, it’s best to do a little experimenting.
You might even find the process fun, especially when you discover people who have a genuine need your product meets. Whichever you choose, it’s important you think like your customers using words in search queries they would use or you think they would use.
Social media targeting tools have significant impact on business. How? Here are 8 social media targeting tools and how they’ve helped businesses we work on.
BLOGS AND BLOGGER RELATIONS: If your business is developing a blog, you also want to identify the bloggers with whom to build relationship. How do you decide?
- ALEXA identifies audience rank, geography and demographics of readers
- COMPETE lets you measure traffic on multiple websites in one chart through graphs that show readership over time and whether it’s increasing or decreasing
- TECHNORATI identifies top blogs on a particular subject and the “authority” of those blogs
- ALLTOP also identifies top blogs with particular relevance with great categorization of the topics
FACEBOOK: It used to be companies spent big money to acquire “mail lists.” But the reliability was always in question. Do the people still live at that address? How long since they were last contacted? Has their behavior changed?
With tools available for Facebook, these questions and costs go by the wayside because people and their post are listed in real time. Some I’ve found particularly useful are:
- OPENBOOK shows posts of people on Facebook in real time. Please know, although the logotype and colors look like Facebook, this site was built by independent developers
- BOOSHAKA ranks your fans through an algorithm that determines their advocacy. It also can do the same for competitors. If you want to reward current customers for their loyalty so they spread the word and help you with the lifting, Booshaka is a great tool. Should you want to encourage switching from fans of your competitors, you could do that too. Booshaka is completing a major revamping around advocacy and not all Facebook pages have been analyzed. Booshaka is already and going to be one powerful marketing tool.
What do you say when you connect? Be genuine in your conversation. Be helpful and guide with a suggestion. If you want to know what motivates people to “Like” your brand, here are some suggestions.
TWITTER: Social targeting tools here not only examine posts but profiles so you find people who share similar interests and values. They have strong geo-targeting capabilities. They let you know where they are, the size of followings and how active they are on Twitter. Ones that have been particularly helpful are:
- TWEEPZ enables you to find people with shared interests and values that match your brand and the geography where you do business
- TWITTER SEARCH show posts by recency for any subject you search or probe
Why should you listen for what people are saying on Twitter? Because 40% of the time they are learning or providing opinions about products and 20% of time they are buying products.
Do you think social media targeting tool are worth knowing about? If you would like to see how these tools could work for your business, click here to start a conversation of your own.
