Over the last few months we’ve been conducting an in-depth review of the leading social media monitoring tools in conjunction with our sister company, FreshMinds Research. We’ve compared how Alterian , Brandwatch , Biz360 , Neilsen Buzzmetrics , Radian6 ,  Scoutlabs and Sysomos performed when monitoring conversations about global coffee brand Starbucks. We compared over 19,000 online conversations and have written about the following topics: The basics of social media monitoring. The location of social media conversations. MORE >>

Following on from the success of our social media monitoring tools review earlier this year, we’ve been testing  nine of the leading social media monitoring tools in order to assess how effective they are at identifying influencers. We’ve tested Attensity 360 , Brandwatch , Radian6 , Alterian , Scoutlabs , Sysomos , Synthesio , PeerIndex and Social Radar using the subject  of  “organic baby food” as the test topic for our report. Download our social media influencers report 2010 to find out. MORE >>

More and more businesses are getting into social media – an umbrella term that covers various activities that help bring about social interaction on the internet. Facebook and Twitter are some of the main outlets for social media, but there are numerous types of social media like blogs, wikis, forums, chat rooms, etc. Since so many people are gathering to share ideas, and concepts through social media, it is important for businesses to monitor how their brand is being handled through the various social media channels. MORE >>

'Use these platforms to manage, measure, and analyze your social media marketing initiatives. Over the last decade, social media monitoring has become a primary form of business intelligence, used to identify, predict, and respond to consumer behavior. Listening to what your customers, competitors, critics, and supporters are saying about you is key to getting great results from your social media campaigns. BlitzMetrics ($) | Social media dashboards for your brand that monitor content across Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Tumblr, and more. MORE >>

Social media monitoring tools are increasing essential for companies of all sizes as the explosion of social media content renders manual monitoring efforts hopeless. With almost 200 social monitoring tools (and new entrants still coming to market), available at a range of price levels from free to if-you-have-to-ask-you-can’t-afford-it, how does an organization select the right social monitoring tool for its needs? News can travel extremely fast through social media. Monitoring beyond social media. Range of coverage. MORE >>