Tracy Moehnke
By Tracy Moehnke
According to a recent study, 82 percent of marketing and public relations professionals have at least six applications open on their desktop at any time during the average work day. Sorting through the clutter to identify relevant trends and new channels for reaching your target audiences can be tedious, but it is a necessity for any public relations program.
Media relations, digital strategy and social engagement benefit from incorporating the newest trends and ideology into campaigns. Consistent monitoring of the digital and social landscape helps PR professionals develop approaches to exhibiting thought leadership that adds relevance to client programs and your agency and personal brands. At Gable PR, we’ve found the following free platforms to be among the best for tracking trends in the digital universe:
- Think With Google searches for studies, trends and news by different industries, topics, products and platforms. Think With Google only uses credible sources to compile data on the newest trends. Have a client in the healthcare industry? Simply choose healthcare and scroll through studies like ‘how healthcare administrators make purchase decisions’ and ‘how hospital administrators research online.’ Incorporate this information into your campaign strategies; targeting audiences on their preferred platforms.
- Twtrland is a one-stop-shop for discovering people and places. The platform facilitates search of Twitter users based on their characteristics. Twtrland then categorizes users as influencers, champions or casual users. You can use this platform to search by keywords or demographics relevant to your business and client. Find all the 30-year-old women in New York who follow your account through a simple search and sort by influence. Explore and reach target audiences easier than ever, reaching the opinion leaders that matter.
- SocialMention searches the web for user generated content with keywords of your choice. It then classifies results by sentiment, strength, passion and reach. Filters can be selected to examine certain sources, users, hashtags and content type. SocialMention’s analytics provide comprehensive data that can be applied to digital media strategy by identifying what is hot on different platforms.
- Topsy is a Twitter maven, boasting an archive of every tweet since 2006. The platform offers search options for videos, photos, links and influencers. Expand your searches by clicking on ‘show search tips,’ which provides a keyword box to assist the search process. Search for all of a specific user’s posts that include certain link sources, or use a topic to search for trending relevant content. Topsy also creates great visuals on a line graph by comparing the popularity of one to three keywords over a length of time.
- Digg compiles trending news stories. The home page lists the most popular news stories by analyzing clicks, shares and comments. Digg also offers personalization through a Twitter sign-in process, allowing users to see trending stories from their feed. The platform is great for staying up-to-date with the ‘topic of the day,’ ranging from hard hitting news to pop culture events. Brands and businesses can use this to stay relevant with audiences.
Every monitoring platform will have its downfalls with certain industries. Spend time experimenting with various services to discover what is most applicable to your business or client. For ultimate success, checking in with your preferred platforms on a daily basis will keep your business relevant and up-to-date with your target audience’s chatter.