Social Media Monitoring: Free Tools to Manage Your Online Presence

We’ve posted on the importance of listening as well as some of the ways you can use social media for engaging with your customers, including Twitter, blogs, and Linkedin.  But it can be a real challenge to monitor what is being said about your business or industry online.  There are plenty of social media monitoring tools and services you can purchase, but these may be out of reach for many small to mid-sized businesses.  The good news is that there are several free and helpful tools you can use to begin to monitor and measure your online presence:

Google Alerts are easy and critical monitoring tools.  Set up alerts for keywords and topics you want to monitor, and Google will email you updates with the latest relevant Google results.

TweetBeep is a similar service to Google Alerts, but with a Twitter focus.  TweetBeep will send you updates of Twitter conversations on selected topics and keywords.

Social Mention is a real-time search engine that includes a wide range of social media sites.  In addition to search results, Social Mention also provides some basic metrics for reputation management, and you can set up email updates.

Keotag is a simple and awesome tool for searching tags across seventeen platforms, including the major search engines, Digg, Reddit, and more.

TweetLevel is a nifty and simple tool that measures your Twitter influence, popularity, engagement, and trust.

HowSociable provides a useful snapshot of your brand visibility.

Twitter Search is a basic tool for checking out real-time Twitter conversations. If you’re already using a Twitter client or application (highly recommended!) like TweetDeck, Seesmic, or HootSuite, make sure to set up searches that will automatically refresh and keep you updated on conversations.

Are there free tools that you would recommend?

Tammy Oler is a freelance wordslinger, strategist, and member of the Design Rangers Auxiliary in Brooklyn, NY.  Follow her on Twitter here.

Linkedin has become a powerful tool for professionals looking to network and find career opportunities as well as companies looking for talent. Linkedin also provides some unique tools that can be particularly effective for small business marketing. Here are some tips for making the most of Linkedin:

Get Your Company In

Create a profile for your company, and make sure to include relevant keywords in your descriptions. Linkedin can be a great source of SEO links, and your profile will start to appear in Google and other search engine results.

Get Your Team In

Make sure that your principals and team members have Linkedin profiles. They can easily create unique URLs (http://www.linkedin.com/in/name) so their profiles will be easier to find. Individual profiles should also include relevant keywords as well as good photos.  Linkedin is a great way to put a face on your team – and your company!

Get In the Conversation

A unique feature of Linkedin is the ability to ask Questions and provide Answers to other members. Providing smart, helpful answers can position you or a team member as an expert, and increase your network of connections. You can also ask thoughtful questions as a way to start conversations. With Linkedin, you can also join or start groups! You can join relevant industry or local groups, or start and facilitate groups of your own. Group discussions can lead to increased connections, industry insights, referrals, and even prospects!

Get In with the Media

Most people get connected with professional colleagues, service providers, clients, friends, and associates. But don’t miss the chance to connect with journalists, bloggers, and other media professionals. If you meet or are introduced to a media contact, invite him or her to connect on Linkedin! Staying connected helps keep you top-of-mind and may lead to PR opportunities.

Keep Your Contacts in the Loop

Use Network Updates to keep your contacts informed about your professional news, and select the News Module to share the latest news about your company. A word of caution: Linkedin is not a micro-blogging site like Twitter and it’s not nearly as personal as Facebook. Encourage your team to be strategic and limit their number of status updates.  If you are a prolific tweeter, it’s not a good idea to connect your Linkedin updates to your Twitter profile. Don’t overwhelm your professional contacts!

We’re looking forward to seeing you Linkedin!

Design Rangers would like to thank Tammy for another awesome guest post! We are proud to call her partner and friend. Tammy Oler is a freelance wordslinger, strategist, and member of the Design Rangers Auxiliary in Brooklyn, NY. Connect with Tammy on Linkedin. Connect with the Design Rangers, Chris and Jenny, on Linkedin.

I really enjoy writing the blog and doing the link round-up. Does it put food on the table? In most cases, no. So of course I do the work that pays first. My favorite quote, that I believe I made up, is “Life gets in the way of my life.”

Without further a due, the Weekly Ranger Round-up…

1. From our wordslinging friend Tammy Oler a fun Photoshop project. Who doesn’t love Space Invaders?
2. In the “What’s your favorite color?” blog post I talked about Pantone and a cool Pantone inspired peppermill. Well, I also came across this little card holder. Santa, please take note. Thanks.
3. We follow @swissmiss on Twitter. She posted a tweet a few weeks ago that a friend of hers, Jessica Hische, was posting a Daily Drop Cap. This is the kind of stuff that makes us feel warm and fuzzy inside. Even on a gray and cold Fall day. A free daily drop cap – what more could a designer ask for?
4. I read about these guys in GD USA. Two recent graduates of Texas A&M who are designing their way across the country. They are the Drifting Creatives. Ah, to be young and free…. and sleeping on futons and living off of ramen. Oh, that’s right. I remember now.
5. Six Revisions is one of Chris’ favorite go-to web/design sites. He came across this post in late September. Yes, we love the challenge of designing a great logo with a subtle symbol or message. And the viewer always remembers the day they saw it. If you have seen the arrow in the FedEx logo, you know what I’m talking about.
6. Lastly, another post from design*sponge and the We Can Do It! Biz Ladies. A great article on time & calendar management. Who couldn’t use a little help in that arena?
7. BONUS! And this truly valuable information just posted by the biz ladies today. The nuts and bolts of getting your biz online. You Can Do It!

Enjoy and Happy Trails! See you… sometime. Soon.

Every now and then our 6 year old son will ask me, “What’s your favorite color?”

It’s a question I really can’t answer. It would be like saying I love one of my children more than the other. Some days I may like one son a bit more than the other depending on the events/tantrums/trials of the day but deep inside I love them both dearly.

Except Peach – I will never, ever like Peach. I don’t know what it is but it makes me kind of nauseous when I see it. Some kind of childhood trauma I suppose. By some cosmic coincidence, they painted the house right behind us peach *sigh*.  I used to really dislike Purple and any variance of Purple but lately I am coming around and can see it’s worth. I don’t foresee that happening with Peach – we will never be BFF’s.

Working with color is one of my favorite parts of being a graphic designer. Colors and how they look and feel together is so much of what we do. Color can add excitement when appropriate. Color can help the viewer feel more trusting of the company or product. Color can evoke emotions hidden deep within all of us (see peach commentary above). Color can make something feel warm or cool, carefree or corporate – the possibilities are endless.

And while our creative instincts ultimately guide us to color bliss, there are a variety of useful tools that help us find just the right hues. Interested in expanding your palette? Check out a few of our favorite resources:

Kuler

One indispensable tool we like to use when exploring color options is Adobe’s Kuler. Think social networking for color. The Kuler web-app allows you to search for color palettes submitted by users based on a word or feeling. Register for a free account and you can create your own color combinations, bookmark favorites, or download a palette as an Adobe Swatch Exchange file. Registration is free and the searches produce many, many great color combinations.

Pictaculous

One of the best ways to find a color palette is to work with what nature has already provided. Upload any image (photos of organic objects work especially well), and upload it Mail Chimp’s Pictaculous. This nifty tool will pull key colors from your image and create swatches for them. It also integrates with Kuler and COLOURlovers to suggest similar combinations. You can even submit images with your iPhone and get palettes emailed to you. By the way, if you’re looking for a great, easy-to-use manager for your email campaigns, MailChimp is the way to go.

Pantone

Of course, before the web we had the PMS (Pantone Matching System) book, which is still our bible. These books, used by printers nationwide, fan out like a paint-sample chart, showcasing an entire rainbow of luscious color options. Specify one of the spot colors and you can have it matched at any commercial printer on the planet. Need to reproduce the color in CMYK or RGB for the screen? There are books for that too.

The pages of our PMS books are worn and tattered as they get used on almost every design project. Even Pantone has moved beyond the printed page though, with its own Twitter page, an app for the iPhone and a pepper mill!

Color brings power and subtlety it brings to design. So, what’s your favorite color? (I promise not to judge if you say Peach!)