Social Media Tools

BlogPulse, a tool created by Nielson, helps to identify and track blog topic trends. You can conduct searches by keyword or even search for conversations that link to a particular URL. It also provides basic metrics through its BlogPulse Profiles feature and creates nice trending graphs for use in presentations.

www.blogpulse.com

Blinkx is a patented, comprehensive video search tool that compiles results from 720 media partners.  Its search function is powered by sound and video analytics that help clarify the video content and deliver the most relevant results back to you.

www.blinkx.com

BoardReader is a forum search and tracking tool. You can monitor forum post topics, comments, forum names, images, and view basic trending data. BoardReader's advanced search settings also allow you to filter results by date, language, and domain.

http://boardreader.com

Bit.ly is a URL shortening service that goes one step further by providing helpful click stats. Not only can you see the number of people that have clicked your original link, but also who has retweeted it, how many people have clicked the retweeted links, and data including the location and time period of the clicks.

http://bit.ly

Social Mention is a comprehensive social media mention monitoring and analysis service that compiles content from a huge array of major social media platforms. The analysis functions deliver popular keywords, sentiment analysis, and top users in exportable CSV files.

http://socialmention.com/

WeFollow is a user-generated Twitter directory classified by category tags. Use WeFollow to find, build lists, and follow the influential individuals in your target industries or locations. You can also add yourself to the directory to help gain like-minded followers and build your reputation.

http://wefollow.com

Twitter Grader provides a power ranking of any Twitter profile entered along with statistics such as number of followers, number following, and total updates.

www.twitter.grader.com

TweetDeck is a personal browser for updating and tracking social media posts from Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, LinkedIn, and others. It also provides a search tool for finding Twitter lists based on keywords. iPhone and iPad versions exist.

www.tweetdeck.com

SM2 allows you to track conversations, review positive/negative sentiment for your brand, clients, competitors and partners across social media channels such as blogs, wikis, micro-blogs, social networks, video/photo sharing sites and real-time alerts.

www.alterian-social-media.com

Search millions of blog entries and filter results by date, URL, author and language.

http://blogsearch.google.com

Real-time search engine for status updates on Twitter.

http://search.twitter.com

Topsy provides a search engine for conversations on Twitter.  It includes a helpful feature that allows you to see all conversations linking back to a specific website.

www.topsy.com