Tools used to track brand buzz

Has your brand jumped into the social media scene? If yes, that’s great. If no, that’s semi-ok, but be aware of the conversations people are having about you. Knowing the associations and relationships your brand has online is a great start.

It’s the best feedback you’ll ever get, better than any consumer research you’ll ever buy. Whether it’s someone sharing photos on Flickr or personal thoughts on Facebook, every mention of your brand online has importance. Not only will following all this stuff keep you on the offensive, but it will have you prepared for the defensive as well (Dominos anyone?).

So finally, to the juicy stuff. Here are some tools that will help you monitor your brand’s presence online. There are many established buzz trackers and new ones coming out every few months, so this is just a small list of tools we think are quick and simple.

Alerts!

Yahoo and Google Alerts are essential, if you aren’t doing it, then go do it now. Go to www.google.com/alerts, enter your keyword, select a couple options and you’ll be notified whenever there are relevant Google results.

News Aggregators

An RSS feed is the basic aggregator. Here is a good list some of the top aggregators, http://tinyurl.com/5acck8, but there are so many it will make your head spin. YahooPipes is a great aggregator that’s highly customizable and fun to use. They’re all customizable with filter features so you can receive only the stuff you are interested in.

DoodleBuzz

This is a type of news aggregator, but perfect for Moosylvanians and other creative junkies. There is doodling involved, hence the name. Just try it for yourself.

Social Mention

SocialMention.com will instantly show you what people are saying about your brand in real-time. It’s a continuous update of your brand’s reputation. The search results are aggregated from top social media outlets – Twitter, Digg, YouTube, Google blog search, etc. – and then presented to you in a nice, neat package.

You will also get the brand’s social rank, related keywords and an outline of where the information came from. You can even get your own customized RSS feed and email alerts.

Twist

Discover what people are saying about a brand on Twitter and see a calendar of the activity, just simply search for the brand or important keywords.

eyePlorer

eyePlorer just launched in February and is still in baby beta stage. It’s an information engine that will visualize facts for a word (brand) and also the relationship between those facts. Just visit eyePlorer and type in a brand name that interests you. You’ll instantly find the most relevant associations with that brand, all nicely categorized and customizable in an eyeMap.

As of now, eyePlorer is simply pulling information from U.S. & German Wikipedia. But undoubtedly, the developers are working on pulling information from other major web outlets: google, twitter, facebook, youtube, etc, which would be great. We would be able to find out a brand’s most relevant and important associations a brand has online instantly and free.

This list could keep going on and on, so here is a list of other great tools that you should be using:

• Mighty Brand
• Keotag
• Compete
• BlogPulse
• Google Trends
• Delicious
• Serph
• StumbleUpon
• Omgili
  

First impressions count - whether in person or online. Just as people appraise your looks and behavior from head to toe on first glance, so do they appraise your brand's website. Does it pop, emote, build trust and intrigue? Does it have that certain je ne sais quoi?

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Turns out there are a lot of marketing dollars being spent talking to the wrong person. There are millions of dollars targeted to a consumer, who has been dutifully segmented by bank account, offspring, zip code and degree level. But there hasn't been nearly enough time (or money) spent on the shopper. This is a problem, especially when you consider the shopper is the one who actually buys the product. 

This was the first aha moment of many during the recent Moosylvania Shopper Marketing training, energetically presented by Hoyt & Company. Leading the field of shopper marketing, Hoyt & Co has an all-star roster of CPG brands they've consulted over the past five years and are the go-to experts for industry and national publications  such as AdAge, BrandWeek and USA Today. Probably their most noteworthy accomplishment is the fact that consultants Chris Hoyt and Nancy Swift kept a room full of iphone/blackberry junkies engaged and participating during an intensive two-day session.

Each and every Moosylvanian, along with a group of special  guests, learned the heart of shopper marketing is achieving more than just the brand's goals. Flying in the face of the old saying, "you can't please everybody," shopper marketing aims to find the sweet spot for the three stakeholders in the retail transaction: the retailer, the brand and the shopper. The right shopper marketing activation will be a concept that benefits all.

It starts with understanding the consumer, through all research avenues available (shop alongs, data, retailer insights) and includes an understanding of their need state. After identifying the mutual shopper (the brand's target consumer and the shopper loyal to retailer) and their barriers to purchase, messaging is developed that leverages all the intelligence gathered.      

Like any good training, we got a heavy dose of practical application under pressure. Bolstered by the compliments of Mr. Hoyt and Ms. Swift, Moosylvania sets out to usher in a new era and a new way of thinking for the benefit of our clients.

Yesterday we posted a link to view our work, for Bacardi's new product Dragonberry, inside of Brandweek.com. Today we move to the front page!

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Bacardi Serves Up Shot of Superfruit

Bacardi's new spirit is meant to target the general market as well as multicultural male consumers. Prints ads, created by Moosylvania, will run in Maxim, Rolling Stone, Vibe and other publications. Digital buys will support.

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Does My Brand Really Need a Facebook or Twitter Profile?

 Your customers and prospects, for the most part, have a greater share of trusted voice on sites like Digg, Meetup, LikedIn, and Facebook than you can amass through conventional media.

"Online social networking is quickly replacing the media buy," said Rodney Mason, CMO of Moosylvania. As marketers, we are now in the business of social broadcasting our brands - not only within communities like MySpace, Bebo, Friendster - but by establishing our own unique networking communities." "Engaging in social networking is not without risk," said Gus Hattrich, Moosylvania's president. "As a marketer, you are held to a higher level of skepticism and ridicule, particularly if you make a misstep by not following the myriad of unwritten rules that exist within all online communities." To provide you with a roadmap, Moosylvania has done its own extensive research and relied on its in-depth experience to compile the 9-Step Guide to Social Networking. This free white paper offers practical advice that will help you voice the embodiment of what your brand stands for in the most trustworthy way.

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Learn the nine steps to social networking in a free white paper