I think we can all agree that Facebook has grown to be a medium that we should all be paying attention to. Whether or not having a branded Facebook page is part of your online strategy, monitoring Facebook for general brand awareness is still exceedingly important. We should know by now that even if you’re not starting the conversation, consumers are still out there talking about you.

Below are several Facebook search tools for making yourself aware of the online conversation.

48ers

Recently launched in beta, 48ers.com allows users to check in on conversations happening across some big social networks including Facebook, Twitter and GoogleBuzz. As co-founder Mike Whyley explained via e-mail, “we felt that the other realtime search engines did not provide a real-time enough interface as to what everyone was saying – as such 48ers was born…we imagine it could be used by bloggers, music bands or individuals who want to track what is being said about them online in realtime.” Currently 48ers makes it easy to follow conversations across the Web from one easy location, and sentiment analysis may soon be added to the mix.

Facepinch

Facepinch offers a simple and easy-to-use search for Facebook. Simply enter a keyword or name and you instantly have real-time updates, or you can watch the homepage as it is updated in real-time as well. This tool also offers a list of recent searches, the most popular searches and hot trending topics, similar to those found on Twitter. While this tool isn’t terribly fancy, it offers a quick way to get a sense of awareness about conversations on Facebook.

Kurrently

Similar to Facepinch, Kurrently offers a quick and easy interface through which you can monitor conversations on Facebook and Twitter. One of the best features of Kurrently is the automatic refresh which shows new updates in real-time so you can engage and react as the conversation happens. There is also an option to search using numerous search engines, like Google and Baidu.

Tweetaboogle

With even more handy features, Tweetaboogle offers a unique search option. The interface looks much like Facebook itself, and search results are similar to those pulled from a regular Web search but with social integration. For example, if the first Web result is a blog post, below it will be tweets which include the blog post’s URL or Facebook posts which have shared or liked the post. Play around with this one for a while, it’s pretty nifty!

Bing Social

Bing Social features public updates (from Twitter and Facebook) at the top of its search results, and other social results like blog posts. Public updates are updated in real-time and results can be filtered by Twitter or Facebook, trending topics and shared links. (Microsoft is an Edelman client)

Google Social

As one of many search options, Google Social allows you to not only see top social results but also allows you to filter by only those folks within your own social circle. You can also filter these results by just those who are near your location or see all social results. This can be an easy way to learn more about brand awareness of those in your own circle or in your city.

On any given day there are 750 tweets per second on Twitter for a total of 65 million tweets per day. With an overload of tweets daily it can be difficult to grasp what is really trending at any given moment. Use the tools below to quickly find current Twitter trends and trending conversations.

Trendsmap

Trendsmap is an interactive map with real-time Twitter trends. It’s Twitter trends meets Google Maps and it is the fastest way to view trends at a global and local level. Each trend has in-depth data including frequency and volume, a description of the trend and any links that are relevant.

What the Trend

What the Trend goes beyond just telling you what’s trending on Twitter to let you know WHY certain topics are trending. What the Trend also has a great section called “Week in Review” which highlights the top 20 trends of the week and their editors provide predictions for upcoming trends and analysis of current trends.

TweetedBrands

TweetedBrands is a collection of the 50 most mentioned brands on Twitter for the current day, the previous week and the last month. While this tool is a great way to see who is getting the most buzz on Twitter it isn’t grabbing all the mentions of keywords associated with a brand so it shouldn’t be used as the primary monitoring tool for buzz.

What the Hashtag?!

What the Hashtag?! is a user-editable encyclopedia for over 14,000 hashtags on Twitter. Each hashtag has a detailed information page with a definition, related hashtags, links, stats for the last 7 days and a list of the top contributors for that hashtag.

Thingbuzz

Thingbuzz is a site to discover the most talked about products through real-time Twitter search. The homepage shows the latest and most popular products that are being shared via Twitter. You can also search on Thingbuzz by the demographic that tweeted the product. For example, one of the most popular products being tweeted by “gamers” is a WiFi scale with over 6,000 tweets.

Twitter stats updated June 29, 2010

As we are building our Twitter network (whether personal or for a brand) there comes a time when it’s a little difficult to keep up with the influx of new followers. While Twitter’s email notifications have improved over the years, they don’t necessarily give you all the information you need to follow someone back and it can be time consuming to look at every individual new follower profile as notifications come in throughout the day. The tools below can help you keep up with day-to-day updates associated with your Twitter account.

NutshellMail

NutshellMail is an email notification tool that allows you to customize what information you’d like to see and how often you’d like to see it. For instance I can see a list of all my new Twitter followers, my quitters (people that have stopped following), search term mentions and an overview of the most recent tweets from my Twitter lists as often as every hour or every Tuesday at 2:00 P.M. Nutshell mail also goes beyond just Twitter to service users of Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn and Ning.

Topify

Topify is another upgrade for Twitter email notifications. The new follower email is streamlined and informative with the follower count, following, and the most recent tweets. Topify also allows you to easily follow a user back by simply responding to the notification email. Topify is currently an invite only beta but you can request an invite on their homepage.

Twimailer

Twimailer is very similar to Topify in that it shows you followers, following, bio, and updates. Twimailer also replaces your primary Twitter email address so you don’t receive duplicate email notifications. Twimailer is currently open to the public and a free tool to use.

Tweetymail

Tweetymail is a more general notification email tool that sends alerts based on custom search filters, mentions and new followers. However Tweetymail has a few features that separate it from the rest. Tweetymail works similar to Posterous in that you can tweet (including pictures), unfollow, block and DM all from your personal email account.

I was a little reluctant to write this post because much of the Twitter community is fixated with follower count. I see many tweets, even in my own stream, of certain people announcing that they reached 500, 1,000, 5,000 Twitter followers as if it’s some sort of huge achievement like receiving a Grammy Award or something. Of course I understand that community acceptance and ego is important to all of us at times so I can see why someone would share that information. However, the misconception is that follower count somehow equates to various levels of influence on the social web. While there might be an ounce of truth to that statement, I would much rather have a small community of followers that value what I share on the web than a much larger community of followers who just follow me in hopes that I reciprocate in an effort to grow their follower numbers.

Nonetheless, whether you are a marketer, blogger, manage a branded Twitter account or just some random socialite; it’s important to provide value to those who follow your tweets.  Here are some tools that I have used in the past that are good starting points:

Twitalyzer

Out of all the measuring tools I have experimented with, Twitalyzer provides the most robust analysis of a given Twitter account. They offer base line metrics which include an impact score and influencer type (as described by Forrester) for anyone; and they also allow you to look at other accounts as well. By signing in to Twitter, you can get full access to Twitalyzer including support for multiple accounts, Google Analytics integration, activity tracking over time and audience exploration tools. Account Dashboards are only available to Twitalyzer Business and Agency subscribers which range from $29.99 per month to $199 per month. The only challenge with the tool is that there are essentially too many metrics and it’s a little overwhelming to manage and make then make data driven decisions.

TweetLevel

This tool was created by our very own @jonnybentwood and @alexparish from Edelman.  What I appreciate about this tool is its simplicity. All you have to do is enter in a Twitter account, and the algorithm will spit out four key metrics — Influence, Popularity, Engagement and Trust. It’s a free tool all users; and also gives users recommendations on how to increase the four key metrics:

• Influence – what you say is interesting and many people listen to it. This is the primary ranking metric.
• Popularity – how many people follow you
• Engagement – you actively participate within your community
• Trust – people believe what you say

Klout

One of my favorite things about Klout is the user experience of the tool itself. It’s easy to find what you are looking for, read the scoring information and the graphical output is awesome.  It’s also a free tool.

The Klout Score is a numerical representation of the size and strength of a person’s sphere of influence on Twitter. The scores range from 1-100 with higher scores representing a wider sphere of influence. The score itself is a factor of over 25 different variables broken down into three different categories; True Reach, Amplification Score and Network Score.

• True Reach – calculates engaged followers and friends vs. spam bots, dead accounts, etc.
• Amplification Score – the likelihood that messages will generate retweets or spark a conversation
• Network Score – this number will be high if  engaged followers are highly influential

Here are some other tools that I have explored in the past but don’t know too much about:

• twinfluence
• tweetstats
• twitteranalyzer
• tweeteffect
• twittergrader

Any other tools that you find valuable? Please let me know in the comments!

If you are one of the millions of people active on Twitter then there is also a good chance that you may be creating content elsewhere on the interweb and committing your thoughts more fully to the blogosphere. If that is the case then you ought to consider using one of the many widgets available that enable your tweets to appear on your blog (or website for that matter). Not only is this aesthetically pleasing and gets readers involved in your tweets, it also helps strengthen your personal social media ecosystem – by this, I mean using one platform on which you are active to sign post traffic to another. So there you have it – this post was borne out of necessity to highlight some of the tools available that allow you to make your tweets show up on your blog. I hope this post highlights a few widgets from the basic, up to the more sophisticated.

Twitter

Twitter allows you to embed your tweets fairly easily by copying and pasting some HTML into your blog. If you’re just starting out in the blogging game, I would recommend you use this widget as it creates the code in a matter of seconds. Whilst, the Twitter option is functional, easy to use and offers some personalisation, it is perhaps less visually pleasing than its cooler rivals. However, simplicity is not necessarily a bad thing and for someone with an urge to create content, rather than get bogged down in the intricacies of code, you could do a lot worse than using the standardised Twitter widget. To get this quick bit of code, simply visit the Twitter Goodies site and choose from a profile widget, search widget, faves widget or list widget.

TwitStamp

TwitStamp is very much in the same vein as the standard Twitter widget in that it speedily offers you a choice of funky badges that displays your latest tweets. This app scores higher when it comes to personalisation in comparison to the Twitter widget, whilst retaining its user friendly feel. There are some other great features that let you play around with the badge’s size and background, as well as a handy TwitCard feature you should check out that incorporates your name, avatar, bio, latest tweet and number of followers.

Language is a Virus

This writing prompt (and somewhat unusually named) website offers hundreds of widgets that you can select by size, colour and style. If you are looking for something unusual that other people (probably) won’t have, then this site should be your first port of call. Whilst, there are many, many widgets which are not to my taste, the sheer breadth of designs is worthy of your attention. The main problem will be choosing just one. Again this site guides you through an easy step-by-step process and gives you some code at the end.

Tweetizen

Tweetizen is a slightly more complex widget as it incorporates tweets from particular groups. This is ideal for blogs with several authors or companies who have their employees tweeting for them. It’s fairly straightforward and produces a piece of embed code that you can add anywhere on your blog or website. In addition, you can even customize the look and feel of it by adding an extra stylesheet to override the default CSS stylings.

Tweet

In common with a lot of Twitter tools and apps, the best ones are often created by small teams of developers elsewhere. The beauty of opening up your API is that the crowd can take it on, change it and ultimately make it better. Tweet is another fine example of just that. This unobtrusive piece of JavaScript code enables you to do lots of things, way above and beyond just embedding your latest tweets. For instance, you can display tweets from a particular Twitter search, incorporate tweets from other accounts, as well as the automatic linking of #hashtags. Whilst, this code enables you to do all sorts of creative things, a decent understanding of coding basics is required.

Seeing is believing and visuals are powerful. I’ve collected a few visualization tools for Facebook, news feeds, and Twitter to let you view networks and conversations at a glance.

Mentionmap

Mentionmap is a web app for exploring the Twitter users and hashtags that mention your account most.  The great thing about Mentionmap is that it is interactive which allows you to be able to drill down within your network to connect with people or topics that are relevant.

Twitter Venn

Twitter Venn is a Venn diagram based on three Twitter search terms. The diagram shows how many times each term is tweeted a day and if two or even all of the keywords are mentioned in the same tweet it will show you how often those topics overlap.

The Health Tweeder

The Health Tweeder is a health specific visualization tool that displays the top discussed health keywords within certain Twitter networks. Once you click into a topic you are able to see all the tweets regarding that keyword.  This is a great tool to monitor health trends and debates.

MSNBC Spectra

MSNBC Spectra is a visual newsreader that you can customize to your news needs. By sorting thought MSNBC topics and selecting the specific categories you are interested in, you are able to tune in to stories that matter to you. Visually this web app is stunning but it also provides very functional tools like being able to save stories you want to read later in your “newscollector”.

Friendwheel

Friendwheel is a Facebook app that shows you the connections you have within your Facebook friend community and it also shows mutual friends within connections. For a more robust and interactive version try Touchgraph.

Google Play

Google Play is a fun way to display your Google Reader feeds in a slideshow format. Each post is shown one at a time so this isn’t best for people with hundreds of feeds. However, if you tend to have a very visual collection of RSS feeds (photographers, food bloggers, craft blogs) this might be an ideal viewing tool for you.

Likebutton.me

Likebutton.me is a Facebook “like” aggregation site that allows you to see at a glance what your friends are liking on the web. While it isn’t completely customizable and searchable yet, it does have a few categories that you can browse through to get an idea of what’s liked right now.

What visual tools are you using?

If you’re a regular on Twitter, you understand the importance of a URL shortener. With only 140 precious characters, filling them with a long, awkward URL is just wasteful. Even though a few of these shortening services were created pre-Twitter, they have become popular as the micro-blogging service has.

Some provide you with analytics and tracking, and some simply give you a shorter URL. Check out a few of the URL shorteners that we’ve come across lately:

TinyURL.com

As the first URL shortener to be developed, TinyURL was also the first shortening service I heard of and saw being used in the Twittersphere. Developed to prevent broken links in e-mail messages, this service offers the basics. You can copy and paste any URL into the generator to create a random URL or one with a custom name, and these URLs will never expire.

Is.gd

Is.gd is very similar to TinyURL in that it offers basic features. The big advantage to is.gd is the length of the domain itself and the guaranteed shortness of URLs it creates. This service guarantees all URLs will be less than 18 characters and most end up being less than 11 characters. What does this mean? Is.gd is preferred among Twitter users to TinyURL because the length of the shortened URLs leave even more characters for the rest of the tweet. These URLs will also last forever.

Ow.ly & ht.ly

Developed by hootsuite, Ow.ly offers similar basic features as the previously mentioned tools. Recently Ow.ly added a new service called ht.ly which is preferred by marketers because it adds a branded bar to the top of any linked or shared page. No matter which service you choose, you have the same access to click-through data, broken down by region or date, and spliced according to custom metrics. These service do not need to be linked with hootsuite but are integrated.

Bit.ly

Bit.ly was originally developed in response to TinyURL in order to offer a shorter and more robust option for Twitter users. Links shortened with bit.ly are automatically saved on a dashboard that bit.ly users can then use to view metric like total views, referrer domains (Twitter, e-mail, etc) and location of clicks. Bit.ly also offers a sidebar feature which can be easily integrated into any web browser and lets users easily shorten a page without going to the bit.ly website. This sidebar also allows for seamless sharing on Twitter.

Cli.gs

While I haven’t yet seen this URL shortener too much around Twitter, cli.gs offers the most robust metrics and data analysis options of featured shortening services. Cli.gs allows users to view the exact time at which each click was received, if a link was mentioned on Twitter or Friendfeed or blogs or websites and which of these sent traffic back to your link. Unique to cli.gs, users can create links which take viewers from different countries to different landing pages.

Yourls

As URL shorteners became more and more popular, every brand and company decided they wanted their own (e.g., Google, Coke and StumbleUpon). Wel, now you can have a URL shortener, too, thanks to Yourls. This service is a set of PHP scripts that lets you build your own URL shortener, which you can then keep private, make public and integrate into your blog. It’s pretty simple and there’s a great explanation of how to set one up using Yourls. This option does not give you metrics like some others, but how cool would it be to have your own URL shortener? Re.becca, anyone?

What URL shorteners are you using?

This is part 2 in the video tools series. Read part 1 here.

If you do any work on the other side of the play button – as a video content creator or curator – you’ll want to know about some tools to help you manage your video content.

These tools generally focus on two functions:

• Distribute: The more sites that host your video, the better its reach. The challenging task of publishing to and managing multiple accounts is much easier with tools that standardize
• Monitor: The data that can be extracted from online video is powerful, and should go much deeper than number of views. What sections of your video do users fast forward? Are more people watching your content in entirety, or are they dropping off and clicking away before it’s over. Who are these viewers exactly, and what else are they watching?

TubeMogul

TubeMogul is setting the bar for video distribution. Adding Facebook to its list of supported video sites the day this post was written, TubeMogul supports virtually every video platform that matters, and the publishing tool is smart and adaptable. You upload one video, with title, description and tag list, and TubeMogul publishes it to your accounts, making smart decisions about mapping categories and tags.

Monitoring is done well for most sites and the aggregated nature of this data provides a lot of insight – which video sites deliver the highest views, shares etc.

Involver

Using Youtube to host your content, but want it to live in your Facebook page as well? Involver handles this ask neatly, as well as integrating a catalog of other applications into your page. They’re one of the best-in-class at YouTube/Facebook integration, which makes them a handy tool for video content owners and community managers.

YouTube, Vimeo, and the sites you know

YouTube and other big players in online video viewing such as Vimeo and Metacafe are well-known for their reach and popularity, but not all video creators are using the powerful insight tools that these networks offer. YouTube in particular delivers incredible analytics on videos, diving into viewer demographics, how engaged users are, what search terms drive traffic to your videos etc. You can find these insights within the “My Videos” tab in YouTube.

BrightCove

BrightCove is a video platform that’s been around a while, and provides a simple solution for uploading and hosting video. A recent announcement that they’ll be supporting Facebook’s Open Graph to allow users to Like and Share from within a video block makes them an interesting platform to keep an eye on.

Video Ad Networks

I’m sure some would argue that ad networks aren’t quite tools in the same spirit as TubeMogul, but I’m a big fan of paid media. If budget and strategy support it, a targeted ad buy, weighted towards engagement, can be really effective. The Top 10 online video ad networks for March 2010 are listed in this comScore report.

You like to watch online videos. No surprise – so do 85% of internet users. Watching video is without question one of the most popular online activities. And behind the camera, for individuals and organizations, video is arguably the most important medium for online storytelling, education, advertising, and generally engaging an audience.

So how can you make sure you’re getting the most out of online video?

In today’s first of two posts on online video, we’ll look at some tools that try to answer this for both creators and spectators. Of course these groups overlap greatly, since video sharing communities allow for varying levels of involvement – from viewer to member to commenter to influencer/content sharer. This post focuses on topical, valuable video platforms, and looking at some trends in online video.

Monday’s post will be specifically looking at tools for video creators – managing the distribution and analysis of videos, extracting valuable data to inform ongoing strategy and content.

The wide availability of video recording devices (you’re probably carrying one in your pocket, via your cellular phone), combined with video streaming sites that deliver video reliably and quickly, have made real-time, live broadcasting online a reality. Video streaming increased 40% in 2009, and shows no sign of slowing. The sites that are delivering the best streaming experience are generally the ones delivering great content and adapting quickly to mobile and social technologies.

Ustream

You know a platform is worth paying attention to when P. Diddy, Miley Cyrus and CBS news are actively adopting it.

Ustream is the big cheddar in live video broadcast streaming and for good reason – they’ve built a terrific platform and the content is just as strong. Their offering is scalable from individual users to premium business accounts.

Of particular note is their Ustream on Facebook application, a premium offering which integrates a live event directly into a Facebook profile or business page, complete with live conversation feed of people watching the same stream etc. They’ve also delivered a slick mobile application that supports live streaming, meaning you can be live in P. Diddy’s Las Vegas dressing room, while you’re riding the subway in Baltimore.

Justin.tv

If Ustream is all about big name content,Justin.tv’s focus is the here and now. Its streams tend to be a bit more magazine-style, community and event oriented, and their social network building tools are strong. There are some real gems here – like Inc. Magazine’s interview series with 37signals’ Jason Fried and it is worth spending some time exploring the content. With a growing community, a mobile app and a focus on integrating social networking, this is a neat video platform to discover and build topical communities.

LiveStream

Another large player in the space, LiveStream’s channels include big brand content. Behind the scenes, they’re a reliable platform to host video, with clean and customizable embeddable players, strong analytics, and an ad platform that allows content creators to monetize their content.

Niche video communities are growing, and at the same time big entertainment media is breaking into the online video space. It’s a great time to watch video online, and here are a few sites you may not have on your radar quite yet.

Do you like music? Of course you do. Vevo is a popular channel for big budget music videos, live footage from events like SXSW and Coachella, and music content like Rhianna’s favourite playlist.

Remember that idea you had where television was one big search engine and any show you could think of would be there for you to watch with one click? We’re getting there. The well-known (and sadly for us Canadians, US-only) Hulu has done an incredible job of bringing prime-time to the laptop. Also check out Clicker, which is focused on a channel-surfing approach to online video, with strong usability features like playlist building and advanced search engine.

One other site that is worth a link is 5min. A how-to and exclusive content destination on a rampage, 5min jumped onto comScore’s top ten video sites in 2009, and sits at more than 3 million active viewers. It’s a great place to discover high quality how-to and instructional content for pretty much anything you can think of.

StumbleUpon is an older site, but still does a great job of delivering content customized to your viewing interests. As you watch, and provide feedback on video and other content, the StumbleUpon engine gets more intelligent, and serves content that increasingly fits your custom area of interest.

Image credit: Andyi

When it comes to driving positive brand awareness, it takes a lot of time and effort to maintain a company’s online reputation. Wikipedia says that a reputation is the opinion (or social evaluation) of a group, person or an organization based on certain criteria. With the dynamic nature of the social web and given that sharing content is as common as saying hello; it’s imperative for brands to monitor their reputation before a particular message or allegation becomes viral that probably shouldn’t have.

This is equally as important for individuals. I don’t remember the last time I didn’t Google someone I was about to interview. In fact a recent Microsoft study (client) showed that 70% of hiring managers have rejected candidates because of what they found on the Internet. It’s not all bad news, though, because 85% said they were influenced by positive information as well.

Here are some tools I have used both professionally and personally to manage my reputation.

Twitter Search

I hate to sound like a broken record but Twitter search is a great tool and their search functionality also works in applications like Tweetdeck and Seesmic. I use Tweetdeck and what I normally do is create search columns for my full name (Michael Brito) as well as my Twitter handle; in case someone references me and forgets the “@”.

Not everyone is grammatically proficient as they want to be so I often search for common mistakes made with the spelling of Michael (i.e. Micheal, Michal, Michel) and my last name Brito (i.e. Britto). You would be surprised how common spelling errors occur.

Twitter search is free and captures everything being said about you or your brand on Twitter. You can also opt to use TweetBeep and subscribe to the search results which tracks conversations that mention you, your products and your company. The tool also keeps track of who’s tweeting your website or blog, even if they use a shortened URL; just in case they don’t mention your name in their tweet (i.e. this company has horrible customer service – http://bit.ly/4hIed2), linking to your site.

Social Listening Software

There are a multitude of social listening platforms available to business and enterprise customers like Scoutlabs and Biz 360; but if you are a consultant or just managing your own personal brand, you may not want to make such a hefty financial investment in these tools. There are some free tools available like Social Mention which scans blogs, forums, Twitter, etc. for your search queries. I recommend using Boolean search techniques when using this tool (or any tool for that matter); otherwise you will most likely retrieve irrelevant results. Additionally, Social Mention results can be parsed out in different categories (blogs, microblogs, bookmarks, comments, events, images, news, video, audio, Q&A and networks.)

Similarly to Google Alerts, Social Mention also has “social media alerts” which will provide daily email alerts of your brand, company, CEO, marketing campaign, a developing news story, a competitor, or the latest about you.

Google Alerts

I have been using Google alerts for years. I subscribe to multiple alerts with several variations of my name coupled with any recent company I have worked for (i.e. “michael brito” + “intel” or “michael brito” + “edelman”). I used to receive daily alerts but opted for weekly instead because I am not that popular. I also subscribe to alerts for “Britopian” which is my blog title, Twitter handle and my profile name for many networks that I belong to.

Facebook

Believe it or not, Facebook’s search capabilities have improved over the years. For example, when searching for “Nike”, the results yielded various fan pages, profiles that mention Nike and various status updates. They also serve up a few web results at the bottom. The only caveat is that the status updates are only from friends in your network. However, if I worked for Nike and with 2.1 million “what used to be called ‘fans’ of my brand” there is an opportunity there to get more effective results in the search query.

Search Aggregators

I used to use Monitor This a few years ago. It basically searches for your query in 26 different search engines and allows you to subscribe to the results via RSS. Leapfish is a search aggregator that retrieves results from other portals and search engines, including Google, Yahoo, Digg, Twitpic, Blogs, Videos etc. The difference between these two tools is Leapfish’s real time capabilities. I also enjoy the their Facebook and Twitter integration and the ability to customize the home page.

At the end of the day, the source of your online reputation can always be traced back to Google. Jeremiah Owyang summed this up over two years ago and it’s only more true today. Google is not just your corporate home page, it’s everyone’s home page. Everyone uses Google to search about people, brands, sports and you name it. And, with “real time search”, it’s even more important that brands and individuals pay attention to what’s being said about them “real time” on the social web.