Three Cheap Tools to Measure Blogs and Social Media

One of the big questions I often get asked by nonprofit campaigners is “how do I know if our blog and social media are succeeding and resonating with people?” Great question. The very first thing that nonprofits should do is setup a tracking system to measure their blogs and social media. Since most nonprofits are on a budget, there are three budget friendly products that are worth checking out. Before we dive into specifics, it’s important to recognize that no one product will measure everything you need and they are not 100% accurate. That said - they are still useful as part of your metrics and tracking.

Postrank Analytics

For $9 a month, PostRank will measure how engaging your blog or web content is. Do your website visitors find your content compelling enough to comment on and share on social networks? Do you know who they are? Postrank will show you who they are on the top 20 social networks. Or is your content a total snore and leaves people feeling un-inspired? Postrank can drill down into how “influential” or sticky an entire blog is right down to the blog post and author.

Greasemonkey Script

Want to know how big organizations like the National Wildlife Federation track some of their social media social bookmarking? Daniel Brigida who heads up their social media likes to use Greasemonkey script. It provides a:

• Breakdown of networks (Delicious, Digg, Facebook, etc) and you’re super users for these sites as well as tips on how to engage the audience.
• Allows you to see engagement trends over time.
• Analysis of each individual post while giving it an engagement number based on social shares and page views.

AddThis or ShareThis

A lot of organizations use ShareThis or AddThis on their websites since it’s an easy way to have web visitors share content across social networks. But many nonprofits don’t look at the analytics that these products offer such as how many clicks and social shares each of your blog posts receives, who are your top sharing referrers, etc. You should be reviewing these stats at least once a month.

What are some of your favorite low-cost tracking tools?