Top free social media tools Report 2013

Written and compiled by Mike Wronski, Fuseware and Cherylann Smith, Global Mouse

TOP FREE SOcial MEdia TOOlS Report 2013

IntroductionThe Top Free Social Media Tools Report explores the most used social media management, monitoring and analytics tools by top agencies, brands, strategists and social media influencers, in the social media and online industry in South Africa. Some of the tools will help you with planning, posting, listening, or all three.

As online usage grows and communities become more important to brands, knowing that Social media management and monitoring plays a vital role in strategy and managing brand reputation, Social conversations have become more important and being able to filter through the noise can be a challenge. For brands, understanding the impact of social media and managing conversations in real time is getting harder.

Monitoring and listening to the online conversations and buzz is key not just for creating content, but also for managing the community. Having the right tools allows the community manager to monitor and engage in relevant conversations and join existing conversations.

We have unpacked a number of free tools available in the market, by having conversations with leaders in the industry. The following tools are just some of those available for free and are highly essential to getting day-to-day community management right. - Cherylann Smith

TOP FREE SOCiAl MEdiA TOOlS REPORT 201301Page


Contributors Mike Stopforth CEO of Cerebra @mikestopforth

david alvesSocial media account manager at Social@Ogilvy@Green_Guerrilla

aki anastasiou Columnist, talk show host & radio presenter at 702@akianastasiou

Fred Roed CEO at World Wide Creative @Fred_Roed

Jodene Shaer Social media publicist & owner of lifeology@jodenecoza

Mike Sharman CEO at Retroviral@mikesharman

Michal Wronski Managing director at Fuseware@mikewronski

Gemma Wilke Community manager at Native @Native

Zahira Kharsany Head of content & community at Cerebra@zk

Sheena Gates Group social media manager at Tsogo Sun@SheBeeGee

cherylann Smith Head of digital at Global Mouse@mylifescape

angus Robinson Mobile, content & community director at Native@angusrobinson

Garth Rhoda Sales director at Habari Media@garthrhoda

Melissa Griesel Content strategist and community management @dJMelitia

Page 4: Showcase of Social media tools tools discussed

[Dino: A one pager that will showcase the logo and name of each tool]


Social media tools

click icons to navigate


Bit.ly allows you to track your most successful content. it shows the number of people who have clicked on one of your likes. i like that you can customise these shortened likes to make them specific to your brand. It also documents which platform the click is coming from as well as which country your content is well received in.

“I use bitly to shorten and track links.” - Fred Roed

Garth Rhoda, uses Brandometer to index on influencers

“A tool i use to monitor who is within my personal network or that of a client. it helps me analyse the following and sort both Twitter and Facebook communities into dozens of orders, including least active, most followed, etc.” - Jodene Shaer

“SA Influencers can be easily tracked down based on their industry and network, its a great reference tool for quickly targeting high profile online South Africans” Mike Wronski

Bit.ly’s free and automated click-through tracking really helps for decoding broader click trends across social media” Mike Wronski


Obviously no social media manager would be able to do their job without the free analytics tool Facebook supplies for Pages. i use insights to calculate engagement and consumption of brand conversation, which all goes into an overall AVE i’ve put together internally at Tsogo Sun.Sheena Gates

“On mobile I use the Facebook Pages app - it allows for more flexibility.” aki anastasiou

Facebook insights allow you to track your page’s process from one month to the next. it is the most thorough way to report on your Facebook pages and gives you all the stats you need as well as graphs. Gemma Wilke

“This is the simplest tool for me to use and it gives me all of the details I need to compile an effective report for a client ” Jodene Shaer

Facebook insights is also used by Fred Roed, Mike Sharman and Mike Wronski as part of their tool set for community management.

You cannot improve what you cannot measure and keeping track of your campaigns performance and monitoring results, creating reports and analysis is important. Facebook insights is key but you will require a good understanding of which metrics you should be focusing your efforts on based on your overall objectives.Cherylann Smith


Since the loss of Google Reader, i have been experimenting with Feedly. Great RSS reader, if you’re still into using RSS feeds. i for one still do. Also it pulls in your current Reader lists, so moving over was easy. Zahira Kharsany also used by Fred Roed

“Helps me analyse a client ’s account so I know when to clean out the following.”Jodene Shaer

Mike Sharman

information aggregation displayed in a beautiful magazine layout allows me to consume breaking news, tech, social and sport stories while waiting for meetings. Flipboard makes news sexy. i’m addicted to knowing stuff before anyone else and this aids me in this conquest


Feedspot is a new RSS reader application that curates content based on current and Google Reader selections.

“Very cool if you’re looking to remain relevant.” - david alves

“i use Klout to check for people whom i am meeting, on key leverage points for them” Garth Rhoda

“Not the be all and end all of measuring influence, but Klout scores do give a good idea of how globally influential one is on social media” Mike Wronski

When planning your content calendar, it’s important that it’s easy to share with the team and even with your clients. Google docs facilitates easy and efficient sharing of documents and spreadsheets making it a personal favourite when it comes to storing links, creating content and ideation. - Cherylann SmithSherrin davie and Fred Roed also use Google docs for effective planning.

“Google analytics helps to track the user journey, thus giving insights to a more focused brand and social media strategy.” - Melissa Griesel


“Technically not a “free” tool, but a freemium tool (i use the free version), Hootsuite is my go to solution for browser based social graph content and community management. Unfortunately i found their iOS apps less sexy, so landed up paying for my choices there.”

Mike Stopforth

HootSuite is a social media management system for businesses and organizations to collaboratively execute campaigns across multiple social networks from one secure, web-based dashboard. launch marketing campaigns, identify and grow audiences, and distribute targeted messages using HootSuite’s unique social media dashboard.

Zahira Kharsany

“Highly valuable. Cerebra currently used the paid for version, but on a personal level, the freemium rocks. i can schedule updates, have a plugin to share from various websites, track lists and conversations. A really great tool as well that incorporates various social platforms. “

aki anastasiou

“My social tools are TweetDeck and Hootsuite. The issue that I have is that there is so many different social media portals that at times I struggle to update all simultaneously.So for example not many incorporate with Google+ and I using Google+ quite a bit more now than say I did a year ago.”

“This is my go-to solution for managing multiple social media accounts with ease and simplicity. It also seems to pick up mentions of my name that Twitter’s connect tab doesn’t show” Mike Wronksi

Also used by Sherin davie

“Personally each brand is different so their Facebook and Twitter needs vary too. While its great to get insights from Facebook and schedule content with Hootsuite, there are more programs available now that can help you drill down into the insights relevant to your brand and target market.” Melissa Griesel


i use this on the day of events to track the 24 hours of a hashtag at an event. it is the only tool that gives me reach. Jodene Shaer

“A tool I use consistently in order to ensure all accounts I deal with are free of inactive or fake users” Jodene Shaer

Dave Alves

A live-tweet wall tool for events and conferences.


“i also use Netvibes to keep tabs of all my feeds and get analytics on my social networks.i love Netvibes because it gives me everything on one page and i can customise it.”

Aki Anastasiou

An infographic and presentation tool for non-designers. Nice for the basic stuff, but if you want to the full capability to custom make designs, you’ll have to pay for it. The basic presentation stuff is pretty cool if you’re wanting simply that, basic.

Dave Alves

NodeXl is a powerful and easy-to-use interactive network visualisation and analysis tool that leverages the widely available MS Excel application as the platform for representing generic graph data, performing advanced network analysis and visual exploration of networks“I’ve found NodeXl extremely useful for quickly visualizing small networks of social media influencers and seeing how they are connected - Mike Wronski


Cool little app that allows you to read later. Currently use this a lot, as sometimes, you need to just make time to read some of the great resources out there. its a bookmark facility that can be attached to various social accounts, allowing how to read later. Also can email links to yourself. Zahira Kharsany

RapidMiner is unquestionably the world-leading open-source system for data mining. it is available as a stand-alone application for data analysis and as a data mining engine for the integration into own products. Thousands of applications of RapidMiner in more than 40 countries give their users a competitive edge.

Allows you to track the number of retweets your tweet has received. This is a great way to learn which of your content the community is enjoying and sharing the most. Clients also love to hear about the sharability of their brand and content.

i have used RapidMiner to analyze large volumes of data very quickly in a highly visual and streamlined manner Mike Wronski

Gemma Wilke

“Great analytics tool for Twitter. Freemium version is restricted to 2 accounts and some tools are unavailable but the basics are still great. Time to tweet, who my followers are and who i should be targeting.”

Zahira Kharsany


“Although not endorsed by Facebook, Socialbakers is a great tool in terms of best practice info, stats on country or brand industry usage across the social networks. They incorporate stats and trends for Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, G+” Sheena Gates

“Check on categories that are growing before i present info”Garth Rhoda

Social mention is a search engine for real time search on news, blogs, images and video. Sherrin Davie has found this tool useful.

“Tagboard tracks hashtags across all major platforms (Twitter, instagram, Vine, G+) so you can see where the tags are being used. You can create your own tagboard, giving you an aggregated look at all activity, which you can then share along the line. Sadly, the tool doesn’t allow you actually extract material in terms of .xls or .xml docs, but from a display perspective, it’s a very cool tool.”


Jodene Shaer

is a great tool to use for live event coverage reporting. it tracks your tweets that have been retweeted and where links have been shared.

Angus Robinson explains that community management in isolation is like flying a plane without a flight plan. “Reporting and analysis helps you establish and maintain highly engaged communities that can start influencing the brand’s message.”


“For multiple account management no tool comes close to Tweetdeck in my opinion. i use the Chrome plug-in for this so it’s open in my browser all day.” Sheena Gates

“I find that Tweetdeck is the key thing for me is scheduling content. I find the Tweetdeck does a good job in this regard.” Aki Anastasiou“Can’t live without it based on how much we engage with the Twitter platform. it allows us to manage multiple accounts, run searches on relevant phrases for clients, delve deeper into individual profiles in this space, and keep a watchful eye on what competitor brands are involved with” Mike Sharman

“Tweetreach shows you a snapshot of your handle’s performance during the day. I like that it highlights the biggest contributors to the conversations around your brand. It also offers great visuals in the way of graphs and ratios.” Gemma Wilke

“ The beauty about Tweetdeck is being able to tweet from my phone, directly engaging with the communities while on the go and seamlessly, basic insights like the frequency of daily tweets, favorites and retweets make it a nice overview at a glance for the brand management.” Melissa Griesel


“This is a great tool to give me a quick glance at Twitter accounts in numbers. What the growth of an account is like day by day or monthly; how many retweets or mentions over a period and the best feature is that it allows for competitor analysis as well. i’ve since opted for a premium account to handle multiple Twitter profiles, but the free version is pretty good too.”

Sheena Gates

“Now has a paid for option to get more in-depth graphs and stats. it does, however, track and graph the number of new followers and the number of tweets you push live on any day. This is great for reporting on a crisis and pointing out an increase in conversations around certain content on specific days. You are also able to adjust the date range.”

Gemma Wilke

“Great free tool to track growth on Twitter accounts. Also track competitor accounts against your own.”

Zahira Kharsany


YouTube insights – with the new layout, we have access to great insights and graphs. it tracks performance, engagement, demographics. This allows us to get a better feel of who our community is and what they like to watch. it allows and gives us insights into more creative options rather than the “talking head” videos. Gemma Wilke

Video content has become more relevant, and more brands are setting up YouTube channels. Monitoring your views and engagements are just as important, than for any other social network. Knowing which videos are mostly viewed and shared will guide new content creation. Remember to monitor the comments and join the conversation your community is having. Check which devices your video’s are being viewed on, and optimise for mobile as it continues to dominate how we consume content. YouTube is a great place to build a brand, and to be social and YouTube insights should be top of mind.

Cherylann Smith


“Basically a way of creating what I like to call; “quick memes”. Another image-generation tool that enables you to create shareable, poster-style pieces of content.”dave Alves

Mike Stopforth

There are many options here (Flipbard and Pulse) but this is my favourite.

Zite is a free personalized reader for the iPad, iPhone and Android Phone that automatically learns user preferences and gets smarter with time.

WOOBOX

is a Facebook brand page

app service that provides a host of free and paid apps, ranging from instagram tabs to competition solutions. if you manage Facebook pages and want to add apps of all kinds, this is a great resource. Dave Alves

Great free resource. Allows me to

breakdown models and plot a route. Mind mapping never got this easy. Zahira

ConclusionAlthough social media adoption is prevalent and most social media conversations happen on a handful of platforms, the disparity of tools and technologies used in social campaigns is rather large. This is perhaps unsurprising, since it points to the fact that no single tool satisfies all social media use cases, and different people have different preferences based on their unique expertise and experience with specific tool sets.

This report illustrates the most popular tools used by these social media influencers and strategists, but the disparity of usage between the tools unveils an important notion: the logical expertise and the creative mind of the person using the tool is far more important than the tool itself. Another insight is that each person surveyed uses a unique combination of tools that synergize well with the specific work that they do.

Social media monitoring for the purposes of reputation management and customer service are the two most common uses of community management tools. it is also imperative to use social media monitoring tools to catch potential negative comments and reviews that may need to be escalated. This is absolutely necessary for any online community.

Social communities are made up of people and observing their engagement,and evaluating social communities allows us to examine influence, engagement and build brand equity. The value of monitoring reaches further than just listening. By analyzing social buzz and conversations on social networks, blogs, websites and within communities, observing the content that people are sharing, you will be able to answer a number of practical question, for example: What improvements can i make to my next campaign? What topics should i cover in my content marketing? Knowing the answers to these and other questions will help drive your content strategy, drive engagement and lead integrated brand experiences.- Mike Wronski & Cherylann Smith


Cherylann Smith head of digital at Global Mouse

is a digital strategist and social media enthusiast. She holds an Honours degree in Psychology with particular focus on human development and behaviour. Today her marketing interests are centered on the behavioural adaptation of consumers to digital technology and how this is changing the dynamics of brand and consumer interaction. She understands the importance of measurement as an integral part of business strategy and drives all aspects of online relationship management for her clients.

Follow me on Twitter @mylifescapeEmail me at [email protected]

Mike Wronski managing director at Fuseware

is a technologist, digital consultant and Md of Fuseware - a company specializing in social media monitoring and analysis. Holding an honours degree in engineering, Mike’s experience involves working with corporate brands on various digital projects and online measurement. Mike is highly passionate about the use of technology for driving business innovation and productivity, and sees social media as a fundamental shift in the way people and brands communicate.

Follow me on Twitter @mikewronski Email me at [email protected]

Written and compiled by:


Thank youif you would like to talk to us further about strategy, community management, online reputation or just to share ideas to make better business decisions, please feel free to contact us:

Mike [email protected] @mikewronskiza.linkedin.com/in/mpwronski

cherylann [email protected]@mylifescapeza.linkedin.com/in/cherylannsmith

about FusewareFuseware offers social media monitoring and analytics services that provide real-time consumer insight and feedback that can be utilized in marketing, public relations, product development, market research and business strategy.

Fuseware also provides comprehensive social media reports, detailing audience demographics, conversations and the influencers behind social media content for South Africa’s best brands.

about Global MouseGlobal Mouse is an integrated full service communications agency and delivers full brand strategy and creative solutions to our clients, creating exceptional experiences between brands and consumers. Global Mouse tells stories that create memorable brand experiences. Getting the basics right is the foundation for true integration and creativity. We love what we do and we can do it for you.

Open ResearchThis independent Social Media Tools report was 100% funded by Fuseware and Global Mouse. As a collaboration we publish data, analysis and insights into digital marketing, media and monitoring. This report is published under the principle of Open Research and is intended to advance the industry at no cost. This report is intended for you to read, utilize, and share with others; if you do so, please provide attribution to Fuseware and Global Mouse.

disclaimerAlthough the information and data used in this report have been produced and processed from sources believed to be reliable, no warranty expressed or implied is made regarding the completeness, accuracy, adequacy or use of the information. The authors and contributors of the information shall have no liability for errors or omissions contained herein or for interpretations thereof. Reference herein to any specific product or vendor by trade name, trademark or otherwise does not constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation or favoring by the authors or contributors and shall not be used for advertising or product endorsement purposes. The opinions expressed herein are subject to change without notice.

Technology

Top free social media tools Report 2013