The online media landscape is in a constant state of change, and with the growing list of opportunities to use digital media as a marketing channel, the tools are evolving quickly. Below is my New Media Toolkit – a list of online apps, services and vendors that I’ve found to be of great value. It is by no means comprehensive, and it will likely be outdated in a matter of months. But if you need help today, these are great places to start!
Search Engine Marketing Tools
- Google Estimator allows you to forecast ad inventory, cost per click and projected media spend for a given set of keywords and geographic market. While this is better than nothing, the results may vary significantly from reality for a variety of reasons. Use with caution.
- Google Ad Preview allows you to see how search results appear in different parts of the World
- Search Status Toolbar from Quirk: one plug-in allows you to see keyword density, no-follow links, page rank, inbound links and other great tools (referred to me by Catfish Comstock)
- Google Trends and Google Insights are valuable tools for seeing trends in keyword searches. This is one of the best ways to measure changes in demand due to cyclical or seasonal factors.
Social Networking Sites
- Facebook: join me and 300 million of my extended friends. Just don’t freak out when your mother sends you a friend request (love you mom!)
- LinkedIn – if you are in business and you are not on LinkedIn, you are missing the boat. Seriously.
- Twitter - before you say no, take a test drive. It’s a great way to promote your content and you may even have fun doing it.
- Slideshare – best described as “You Tube for Powerpoint” slideshare is the #1 place to post your presentations and demonstrate thought leadership. It also happens to have some powerful Google juice; several of my presentations have top rankings (e.g. “Social Media Business Case“). To see how it works check out my Social Media Strategy preso.
Social Bookmarking and News Sites
- While there are many social bookmarking sites, I prefer Digg.com, Delicious, and Propeller. Stumbleupon is also worth exploring. I tried using Newsvine but they suspended me for linking to my own blog (now that’s an interesting policy…).
- In terms of online marketing news, I like the eMarketer, Online Media Daily (MediaPost) and IAB SmartBrief newsletters
- There are many social media news sites, but if you have time for only one, subscribe to Mashable for the latest in social media news and other cool things of interest.
Social Media Tools
No media toolkit would be complete without recommending some tools to help you manage social media activities. Here are a few for your Tweeting and Posting pleasure:
- URL Shortening: http://bit.ly allows you to truncate links and track click-throughs
- Post Aggregators: http://Ping.fm allows you to aggregate posts across multiple social media sites. Also truncates URLs and tracks click-thrus. I also like Twitter Selective Status app on Facebook as it allows you to selectively update your Facebook status with your tweets by adding #fb at the end of it.
- Social Media Bookmark aggregator: Onlywire is a decent plug-in that allows you to share once and post across most social bookmarking sites. If you have a blog you can use it for free (just add some code to your blog). Or you have to pay $2.99 per month.
- Blog Monitoring: several vendors offer solid toolsets. The more robust and comprehensive, the more expensive including SM2 and Addictomatic (both are free) as well as the not-so-free tools BuzzMetrics and Radian6.
Twitter Tools
- Search.Twitter.com is Twitter’s native search engine; use it to find out how much you or your competitors are being discussed on Twitter.
- For charts showing how many users are following you (or your competitors) check out TwitterCounter.
- If you are trying to keep your ratio of Following to Followers in check, use FriendorFollow to find out which of those you are following are not returning the favor.
- If you are seeking to find influencers on Twitter (users with lots o’ followers), TweepSearch is a great place to start.
- Twitter management tools: there are numerous management tools. I’ve used Twitterrific and TweetDeck, but now use Hootsuite due to its scheduling capabilities and cool stats feature. While TweetLater appears to be more robust, the interface is complex and it hurts my eyes. For large companies with distributed tweeting, check out CoTweet
- MrTweet connects you with others on Twitter based on interests and industries
- Twitpic allows you to upload pics with your tweets (and we all like pictures!)
- Everythingtwitter is well… I guess the names says it all
Call Tracking Tools
Your web site should use dedicated numbers that allow you to track the source of inbound calls. Two vendors we’ve used are Voice Star and Mongoose Metrics. Both allow you to track the source and duration of inbound calls at a relatively low price.
Again, this is not intended to be the all-encompassing New Media Toolkit, and I’m sure there are many great tools that were overlooked. That said, I hope these are helpful in becoming a more prolific online marketer. Please feel free to COMMENT, SHARE with others and SUBSCRIBE to our blog. We look forward to your feedback!
Steve Latham (follow me on Twitter)
Marketers Increasing Spend On Email, Social And Search (via @
As marketing dollars have become more scarce, the importance of measuring ROI and building a business case to support investment has become paramount. For those seeking to better understand this subject, here’s a “simple” methodology for quantifying value. In this case, we’ll look at ROS (return on spend = expected revenue divided by cost of online media) and ROI (expected net present value divided by total investment) from online campaigns. If you find it to be of value, or if you have additional questions, please comment below.
@hurriednotes: Google is screwing the pooch on tweet rank 
Success begins with a plan. Yet when it comes to social media, many marketers dive in without a thorough understanding of objectives, platforms, tactics, requirements, responsibilities and metrics for measuring performance.