As I indicated in my Discussion Board Introduction of January 16, with regard to my future employment goals, at this point I’m not sure if I’ll be looking for a job with a business as a social media manager or applying myself full-time to my small business, The Resumé Tailor.
However, I do have a game plan to which I will apply the “5 Ws” (Who What Where When and the Why process) as appropriate to each situation: if working for a restaurant, in a sales and service type business or for myself, then gaining new customers, retaining current customers, customer engagement, increasing sales and building upon the reputation of the business are the goals.
If working in non-profit, the priority would be getting the information out there to the public, and I’m certain fundraising would play a large role in the social media campaign.
In all cases, an RSS feed is vital and the most popular ones seem to be Feedly and Inoreader.
The two best social media trend monitoring tools
The article “Are You Listening – 19 Best Social Media Monitoring Tools” on Buffer.com (https://buffer.com/library/social-media-monitoring-tools/), an international company offering publishing, analytics, and engagement to “help small (and medium) business owners grow their brands on social media and beyond”, listed the 19 best social media monitoring tools and there is also a spreadsheet containing all relevant “need to knows” such as cost, platforms supported, and main monitoring features. https://bit.ly/3AdQobN
Of the 19, I would choose:
• Sendible: is part of a social media management tool and includes brand and keyword monitoring. Supports Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, blogs, review sites (eg. Yelp) and more.
• Hubspot: is part of a marketing automation tool and includes Twitter monitoring and integration with CRM for monitoring leads and customers. Supports Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Xing, YouTube, blogging platforms with RSS feeds and Pinterest.
I would also consider:
Mention – “Media monitoring made simple”. Mention monitors mentions of your brand across the web on such sites as Yelp, Booking.com, TripAdvisor and Amazon, and if you connect your social media profiles to Mention, you can reply directly to “mentions” within Mention. You can also add a Buffer account and schedule your social media posts. Mention supports Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, blogs, forums, and more.
Trackur – “Simple, fast, and affordable social media monitoring”. This is a monitoring and analytics tool that can help you find mentions of your brand or your keywords on social media, blogs, forums, and more, and then analyze the trends, sentiment, and influence level. Trackur supports Twitter, Facebook, blogs, forums, and more.
Union Metrics – “Social intelligence. Designed for marketing teams”. Union Metrics provides the social intelligence that can help you improve your social media strategy. You can track and analyze social media posts, monitor your competitors and trends, conduct research and more. Platforms supported are Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Tumblr.
None of the above are free but are the most affordable of the 19 mentioned.
The two best sources of news and updates for me:
My two choices are LinkedIn and Twitter. On LinkedIn I have begun following pages that are of interest and benefit: The Search Engine Journal, Statistics Canada, the Canadian Marketing Association, HubSpot and Hootsuite and I am exploring other social media monitoring and marketing sites on LinkedIn as well as on Twitter, anything I can glean that is valuable to my future business endeavours on social media.
All of this is subject to change as there seem to be hundreds of resources out there and one can choose a new tool at any time. Do you agree?
Algonquin College Social Media Certificate Program 
The 19 Best Social Media Monitoring tools is a great list! Thanks for sharing! I think that there are so many resources that are ever-changing, just like the social media landscape.
You’re welcome! I have come across so many of these kinds of helpful lists but you’re right, they change constantly.
Hi Sandra!
So true that each industry, and then each organization, needs its own social media objectives. I’m not sure that all senior management really understand that! I find that even though I am aware of social media through these courses, there is still a lot that is flying by me in terms of new platforms and trends.
Once I get a grasp on one (podcasts! make sure you have a podcast!!), then something else has come along (TikTok! make sure you create dance videos!!).
So, if it is hard for me to keep up, I suppose it is understandable why senior management, who are dealing with a myriad of other issues, have a hard time paying much detailed attention to social media.
I have read that it is the social media manager’s job to educate senior management on its importance and need to invest time and energy … that is all great in theory. I wonder how often that actually plays out in real life?
All the best on your decision-making for your future!
Deb
Thank you for your comments and best wishes, Deb. You as well. I think the social media manager should be trusted to do the job without having to explain every aspect of the social media landscape…not enough time in the day!
sm
Hi Sandra!
I really enjoyed your recommendation for SM tracking tools. One in particular that I was happy to learn about was Trackur. I hadn’t heart about it before. I’m really picking with tracking tools and generally judge it by it’s “user interface”. In this busy world many of us don’t have time to try to figure out how to use new platforms so I appreciate one that does the job and makes it obvious on how to do just that.
Thank you for your post!
Jen
Hi Jen. Hope you’re getting the most out of “Family Day” today!
I love getting feedback…thank you! Honestly, my head spins every time I go online at all the new platforms and tools…I bookmark them or add them to my reading list as I come across them but haven’t had a chance to look into them as yet. But hey…I’m not complaining…love the internet!
Sandra.