Social media management tools have been around for over seven years. But most of them do not measure how effectively your social media actions are meeting your goals. New tools that combine both management and measurement do.
There are so many social media related tools today it becomes a challenge to know which to use. A good place to start is in comparison posts such as 16 Tools Every Social Media Manager Should Use.
Two particular tools gaining popularity in serious blogging and social media management communities for measuring social media are Cyfe and Oktopost.
Cyfe
Another tool that stands out in the social media management community is Cyfe. Instead of having to log into website analytics, YouTube analytics, and the stats on every other platform that offers them, users create dashboards in their Cyfe account. This provides the ability to see activity graphs for many networks all in one place.
Dashboards are increasingly popular for managing activities. Pulling all your dashboards into one solution makes it easier to stay on top of statistics, particularly those on sites you visit less frequently. Cyfe currently supports all of these and more:
- Google Analytics
- WordPress (if you install their plugin)
- Google AdSense
- SEOMoz
- Twitter stats
- Facebook stats
- Alexa Rankings
- ConstantContact emails opened
- ZenDesk trouble tickets
- Salesforce leads and tasks
- FeedBurner RSS feeds
Cyfe is popular because their pre-built widgets make implementation fast and simple. Their free accounts provide up to 5 widgets and multiple dashboards.
Oktopost
While Oktopost bills themselves as a B2B social media management solution, anyone interested in measuring which social media networks are generating the most sales, leads or conversions should seriously consider it.
Particularly interesting are the statistics Oktopost has gleaned from their user data. While volume is still definitely coming from Facebook, LinkedIn is where the conversions are generated.
There are signs that brands are ditching Facebook in favor of microsites, but also moving to LinkedIn. Perhaps they’re measuring conversions as well. While there are many Enterprise level tools for social media measurement, Oktopost is one of the few that also has plans that are affordable for small businesses.
Similar to marketing systems, once a visitor has subscribed or converted in any manner, all additional “touches” (interactions between that visitor and your brand) can be tracked. This allows sales to know what a visitor has seen prior to contacting them.
If you plan to manage your own social media, tools like these will become essential daily habits. For those who do not have the time or desire to do it themselves, consider using a social media management service.