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analytical tools, analyze, bit.ly, communications, facebook, free tools, goo.gl url, google analytics, hootsuite pro, insights, measure, publics, shortener, social media, twitter
Your organization has their social media accounts, you have your life all thanks to advance post/tweet scheduling, what next?
Tweets and posts have started going out, time to learn how to measure your organization’s online presence. Sounds complicated. It is. But it is definitely not impossible.
If this was few years ago, one would be manually counting all their followers, mentions, posts, replies, you name it. But it’s 2013 so obviously there are a few hundred ways of going about showing your organization relevant statistics to please them.
If the organization just has a Facebook page, then there is no need looking for an external analytical tool. Facebook itself has one that is easy to use. It gives you all the relevant information you need to see what is working and what isn’t.
It does not however tell you the number of comments made that month or week. For that, you can either find an external tool which might cost you or count them yourself. Since the NGO I worked for does not have a budget large enough to buy an external analytical tool just for the comments, we sticked to the old fashion way. Though, if your organization has a large budget overall, it might be a good idea to invest in some other analytical tools such as Hootsuite Pro.
It is all about getting and investing in the right tools. One free tool which is great for websites is Google Analytics. If they advance into social media, in general, I would definitely invest in it.
Twitter, on the other hand, does not have an analytical tool for free users. If you are a brand and you pay for your account, you’ll get all the facilities. So what do you do?
Try some free tools. They are many out there and they all provide overall the same information. Number of tweets, retweets, followers, lists, and mentions. Few of them have an advance feature but again your organization needs to invest some money into them.
This is just a sample of six tools that are great. They mention Goo.gl url shortener to get the number of people who clicked on the link your organization sent out. It is a great tool but I like to use bit.ly. Reason? It is simpler and easy to use. But it is up to you or your organization to pick their favourite. These two are not the only ones out there. A simple google search will help you out a lot.
It is always good to know if the messages you are sending out or the discussions you are creating is worth it. But do not let it fully dictate how your NGOs social media accounts are run. Use these info-graphics as supplements to your organization’s overall social media strategy. Communications is not about disseminating information, it is about creating a dialogue between the organization and its publics.