Social media marketer Lori Dicker runs the gamut of social media tools in thepost, “Social media tools that marketers shouldn’t miss,” giving a solid overview of both free and subscription tools that marketers need to seriously consider to get a handle on the social media landscape. Sites like Social Mention and Addic-O-Matic give a quick, clear overview of the buzzword or topic of your choice from a variety of social media, search, and news websites. For a more detailed picture, Compete offers a smorgasbord of analytics to reveal page views, demographics, and rankings. Google, too, provides some basic free analytics and trend data. Combing through Facebook pages and Twitter updates can be cumbersome, so Inside Facebook and Twitalyzer come to the rescue. Lastly, don’t underestimate the power of a video marketing campaign: use TubeMogul to distribute videos to multiple sites and view aggregated, cross-site analytics.

Social media is the key for marketers in 2010, and several new tools, usually free with subscription-based premium capabilities, have sprung up to help. Alterian SM2, a “social media monitoring and analysis solution,” is designed to help companies manage their brand, and reputation, online. An alternative is Radian6, a full-on platform to monitor all forms of social communication including comments, microblogging, and video sharing. But if this all seems overwhelming, consider going with a company like KARMA Media Labs to strategize and create your online social media presence. A couple odd-ball, though strangely hip tools are Sendible, which integrates text messaging and e-mail, and Foursquare: a mobile-based app that lets users “check in” at destinations and receive awards for multiple visits (privacy issues aside, an invaluable tool to track customer behavior). Wrap-up: Don’t just use social media for business – track, analyze, and follow it.

Sam Hartman, Feb. 26, 2010

Note: Post not sponsored.