Measures of (Social-Media) Success

Congratulations, you've jumped into the social-media waters, and it feels pretty nice. Now what?

Your social-media plan — if you have one — should consist of goal-setting, implementation and measuring, among other things. That last part, metrics, frequently is overlooked, partly because the tools for measuring are still maturing and partly because there's 
no clear agreement over what to measure.

Not all tools measure the same kinds of things, so you may find several of these useful for your efforts. In addition, some are useful for measuring your blog's or website's reach, while others assess your mojo on a particular social network. My criteria, writing from the point of view of Socialbrite.org? The tool must be useful, free (freemium versions are allowed) and we had to use it ourselves.

Here are 14 free tools to measure your organization's impact in social media and on the Web.

SEMRush

What does your site rank for?

I'll bet you a nickel you haven't heard of SEMRush — and that you'll find it valuable. Just plunk your blog or website URL into the search field atop the page, and SEMRush will show the keywords it ranks highest for. For example, I had no idea that my Socialbrite article "4 Examples of Corporate Social Responsibility Done Right" is the No. 1 Google search result for "examples of corporate social responsibility" or that our article "How to Set Up an SMS Campaign System" is the No. 2 Google search result for "sms campaign." SEMRush will show you what you rank for, what your competitors rank for, what Google AdWords you might consider buying and the terms you should be focusing on in your blog posts.

Woopra

How are visitors behaving?

We like what we've seen of Woopra, a Web analytics tool that provides real-time data about how users are interacting with your site. While the visitor moves through your site, you can see where she came from, her approximate location, the actions she performs and where she goes off to next. Woopra has a freemium model: While the free version of Woopra is severely limited, you may soon want to move up to the Bronze ($4.95 per month) or Silver editions ($14.95 per month), which let you segment your visitors (say, referrals from Facebook, Twitter or StumbleUpon), print out customized reports and track trends over time. Like SEMRush, Woopra helps you get your own house in order before moving on to your outposts on the social Web.