Tag : competitors

  • 15 Paid Monitoring Tools That May Be Worth Every Penny

    Posted Sep 24th, 2010 By in Business, Internet Marketing, Social Media With | 11 Comments

    You’ve heard social media gurus say that you must listen online before getting involved with social media, but you don’t understand what that means.  So, what does it mean to “Listen” in social media? To listen also means to monitor, to lurk, or to observe what is going on online because it is essential to do your homework before you leap.

    A couple months ago, I listed 25 monitoring tools that will not cost you a penny; however, there are tons more that may be worth including into your budget.  Below are 15 monitoring tools that have a price, but will help you ensure that nothing online will escape your radar.  They are listed in no particular order.

    Radian6: One of the most comprehensive tools out there, Radian6 allows you to listen in on conversations that involve you and gives you the opportunity to put the information into quantitative formats, which allow you to create an action plan to improve your strategy.

    Visible: This platform comes in at the higher end of the spectrum of social media monitoring services in both price and functionality. Get not only updated trends on online conversations, TruCast will make you aware of all the influencers that people listen to when looking for new brands to try out. It also offers very strong customer relationship management (CRM) capabilities.

    Trackur: One of the more affordable social media monitoring solutions. Trackur provides conversation trending, email alerts, custom filters, a nifty AJAX dashboard and the ability to monitor brands, execs, employees and competitors. (more…)

  • Is There Such A Thing As Competition?

    Posted Sep 10th, 2010 By in Business With | 4 Comments

    As you may recall, I wrote two posts about competition not too long ago:  3 Major Reasons You Shouldn’t Ignore Competitors on Social Networking Sites and 3 Undeniable Ways to Turn Competitors into Enemies on Social Media Sites.  I think Ivan Misner’s Philosophy below really complements these posts well.  Enjoy!

    My philosophy about competition is best summed up by Henry Ford, who once said, “The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all, but goes on making his own business better all the time.”

    In my business organization, BNI, members or directors often express concern about other competitive networking groups that are forming and bad-mouthing our company or attacking our program in some way. I tell my team that if they feel like someone is biting at our backsides, it’s because we’re out in front. Success in business is about constantly improving your product or service and making it better all the time. The process is a journey, not a destination. However, if you are constantly working to improve the system, improve the product, improve the culture and improve the team, you will also improve your position in the marketplace.

    Almost 10 years ago I had a particularly aggressive competitor publicly state that he was going to bury our organization. Since then we’ve grown by almost 400 percent. I haven’t heard about his company in years. I’m not sure whether it’s still in business. Ford got it right. Keep making your business better, and you’ll have no need to fear your competitors–your business will be the one competitors fear the most.

    Guest Author: Called the “father of modern networking” by CNN, Dr. Ivan Misner is a New York Times bestselling author. He is the Founder and Chairman of BNI the world’s largest business organization. His newest book, Networking Like a Pro, can be viewed at www.IvanMisner.com. You can also read more of his valuable information on the Neworking Now Blog.

  • 25 Monitoring Tools That Will Not Cost You a Penny

    Posted Jul 6th, 2010 By in Business, Internet Marketing, Social Media With | 5 Comments

    Your brand, industry, and competitors are being discussed online whether you use social media or not. Actively monitoring what people are saying about you, your brand, your industry, and your competitors has many benefits, including protecting your brand reputation, discovering what customers want and need, learning of new opportunities, staying on top of competition, avoiding disasters, and measuring ROI.

    Below are 25 monitoring tools that won’t cost you anything to use, and will help you gain a wealth of knowledge about your brand, influencers, prospects, customers, competitors, and much more.

    1. Backtype – Get alerts of where your competitors are promoting their website and who they are interacting with.
    2. Bit.ly – Shorten and track how many clicked on and retweeted your links.
    3. BlogPulse – Get data from blogs, news posts and other online content that include you or your competitors in the conversation.
    4. BoardTracker – Search forums and discussion boards or set up alerts that will tell you when and how often people mention a particular search term.
    5. DomainTools – Get a report on a website’s domain information.
    6. Google Alerts – Set up email alerts of target keywords or phrases that are important to you, your brand, and industry.
    7. Google Analytics – See where your website traffic is coming from, what pages are being visited, what keywords are being used to find you, etc.
    8. Google Video – Find videos on a specific topic, competitor videos, etc.
    9. Jodange – Track consumer sentiment about your brand or product across the Web.
    10. Klout – Measure who a person influences and the specific topics they are most influential on.
    11. Knowem – Check and reserve your brand, product, personal name or username on social media websites.
    12. Monitter – Find out what people are saying in real-time on Twitter.
    13. Oodle – Discover competitors’ plans for the future by monitoring the types of jobs they post online.
    14. Quarkbase – See traffic data, similar sites, social comments, description, social popularity about websites.
    15. SEO for Firefox – Find out a site’s PageRank, age, number of links at a certain domain/page, if it’s listed in certain directories etc.
    16. SEOPro Link Checker – Find out which sites link back to your website as well as your competitors’ sites.
    17. SocialMention – Check and get alerts on what people are saying about a term across different blogs and social outlets.
    18. Technorati – Find industry bloggers, influencers, and monitor who mentions you or your competitors in the blogosphere.
    19. Trendrr – Find out how your brand or product is trending in real time compared to others.
    20. Tweetburner – Shorten and track URLs on Twitter and Friendfeed.
    21. Twendz – Track conversation and user sentiment on Twitter in real-time.
    22. Twinfluence – Measure the combined influence of tweeps and their followers.
    23. Twitter Search – Using keywords and phrases, search what people have discussed on Twitter.
    24. Xinu – Find out how well your site is doing in popular search engines, social bookmarking and other site statistics
    25. Yahoo Site Explorer – Discover who is linking to you and your competitors.

    Of course, it does not stop with these. There are hundreds of tools out there! In another blog post, I will discuss the paid monitoring tools.

    What tools do you use? Which free tools did I miss?

  • 3 Undeniable Ways to Turn Competitors into Enemies on Social Media Sites

    Posted Jun 18th, 2010 By in Business, Social Media, Social Networking With | 8 Comments

    Have you heard the old saying:  “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer?”  This was said by Sun-tzu , Chinese general and military strategist.  This proverb has been applied in business as well, but it seems that many people using social media for business are not following this motto.enemieson socialmediasites

    Here are three undeniable ways to turn competitors into enemies on social media sites:

    Imitating

    Being a copy-cat is the worst thing you can do for your business.  Instead of boosting business, you end up making enemies.  As I mentioned in my “3 Major Reasons You Shouldn’t Ignore Competitors on Social Networking Sites,” you should definitely observe what your competition does online so you leverage some opportunities, not stalk them and imitate their every social media tactic and idea.  Social media copy-cats do not succeed because they lack authenticity, uniqueness, and creativity. (more…)

  • 3 Major Reasons You Shouldn’t Ignore Competitors on Social Networking Sites

    Posted Jun 16th, 2010 By in Business, Social Media, Social Networking With | 10 Comments

    Last month, I ran a poll asking what everyone thought about befriending competitors on social networking sites.  Despite the fact that many businesses fear competitors or malicious copy-cats who watch their every move online, 66% said “Yes,” 26% said “It Depends,” and only 8% said “No” to befriending competitors on social networks.collaboration

    If you are not engaging with competitors online you are missing the real point of social media and its many benefits.  You should be embracing the opportunity to converse and establish relationships with competitors who could help leverage your success online.

    Below are three major reasons you shouldn’t ignore competitors on social networking sites:

    Market Research

    Monitoring what your competitors are doing online will help you figure out their strengths and weaknesses as well as identify any opportunities and threats.  What better way to discover what they excel at and what holes they have in their strategy than befriending them on social networks. (more…)

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