During the last decade when Google was the leader in driving traffic to Web sites, a number of analytical services became available for brand competitors. Vying for Google’s search results on Page 1 (preferably above the fold), brands utilized tools to tell them if they were gaining or losing ground.
Today, with social media, the heir apparent to Google, brands are now more concerned as to how they stack up to their competition on social networks, namely Twitter and Facebook. Wildfire launched Social Media Monitor to tackle that task.
Since Wildfire is also a lead generator for brands who are looking to attract more Facebook fans, Twitter followers and newsletter sign-ups, it was a natural evolution of their services to create Social Media Monitor. Victoria Ramson, Chief Executive Officer for the firm called his product "akin to Compete.com, only instead of the enabling of web traffic, it facilitates the comparison of social media properties."
The tool is easy to use and social media execs can try it out in advance of registering for the free service. Users can pit companies against each other or those they compete with on an individual basis. In this Twitter comparison, I was able to compare my standings to two of my favorite followers, Stacy Kinney and Gerald Weber.
Ron Callari vs Stacy Kinney vs The_GMan
As you can see while Stacy and I pale in comparison to @the_gman (Weber) as far as the number of total followers, both Stacy and myself are tracking greater percentages of growth with our fanbases over the last three month period.
Using Social Media Monitor’s Facebook tool, and comparing name brands such as Target to Walmart, the former appears to be leading Walmart in followers and growth over the same three month period. A recent surge in November and December puts the gap between Target and its competitor around 600,000 overall.
Target vs WalMart
If users want to keep track of comparisons on an ongoing basis, they can also subscribe to "email alerts" – whereby every 7 days, they will be sent an email notice with the current status, as well as the growth rate percentage since the last update.
Social Media Monitor is sharable where any analysis can be tweeted, "liked" or shared with your friends by email. Users can also embed these graphs onto their Web sites.
There are other similar applications offered today. TwitterCounter is one. But not any that combine Facebook and Twitter tracking quite in the way that Wildfire has been able to aggregate. Readers, if you know of other anaytical tools that provide this kind of data, please leave a comment at the end of this blog with an appropriate link. I am sure as time goes by, these types of analytical tools will become part and parcel of a social media executive’s standard analysis reporting. After all, they have to justify their existence in some fashion – and an automated tool can be a great assist!
Social Media Reporting Cartoon
