Social Media Research – Just Do It!

Tamar Weinberg recently posted a blog on the 3 Golden Business Rules of Social Engagement. The 3^rd rule stood out the most for me. Especially the following point “Influencer outreach may possibly be the most powerful outreach tactic that PR practitioners or marketers are laziest about.” But how do you find the influencers? How do you know they are influencers? It all comes down to good old fashioned research.

Let’s face it – if you want to “do” Social Media right, you need to put the research hat on.  It’s not only essential in developing your strategy, but you must learn the tools and find the conversations, and become comfortable with it all.  Naturally, this can be quite a time consuming task, but it is a must when putting together a Social Media strategy.

Don’t fret!  There are easy tools that can help you and many are free of charge.

Some of my favorites include:

Twitter Search – I often use Twitter’s internal search to find people, places, and conversations. I search by using keywords or hashtags (see also: What’s a Twitter Chat). For example, while putting together a Social Media strategy for a higher education client, I plugged in the University name in addition to their schools, academic programs, and a set of keywords as previously defined in their SEO strategy. This not only helped me find people who have mentioned the University, but also people interested in academic programs they offer.

Google Blog Search – If blog commenting will become a part of your Social Media strategy, you need to know the top blogs in your space. Google Blog Search is one of many blog search sites that can help you find blogs. Others I like to use are Technorati, Blog Catalog, and Alltop.

Social Mention – Social Mention truly is a robust research and listening tool. You not only search by topic, but you can also set up alerts – which are free daily email updates of the latest relevant social media results based on topics you choose. A lot like Google Alerts.

These are just a few, of course.  If you’re willing to pony up the money, there are heavy-duty tools that’ll do more than tell you who, where, and what, they’ll also monitor sentiment and provide analysis. These tools include Radian6 and Scout Labs.

Need help with your Social Media research?  Let us know!

Kelly Dunning is a Sales Consultant for Dinkum Interactive. With 10 years experience in sales and marketing, she keeps Dinkum’s new accounts, and Rick, in tip-top shape.