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There is a steadily growing number of free tools online that businesses and individuals can use to get a handle on who has influence, who is popular and  what platforms are the most engaging.
Regular readers of this blog know that I use Grader, TweetLevel and now Klout to compile my monthly ‘Twitter top 20‘ rankings.  There are other, wider reaching analytics tools I use for social media analysis too.
I’ve just tried out a few other tools.
Twitalyzer
Subscriptions start at US$4.99 per month but there are some ‘free to use’ functions.  The …

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LinkedIn Labs has recently launched InMaps a new service that visualises the collection of a LinkedIn ‘connections’ as a single network graph. Each colour represents a distinct group within a professional network, as labeled by profile owner. The graph lets users see where their connections’ networks overlap and identify areas that might be underrepresented.
Here’s a video explaining how to use the tool:

Related posts:

Gartner’s 2010 Hype Cycle social software
Measuring social media roi
Measuring Twitter influence

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LinkedIn has just launched another new feature: Skills.  It allows people to search for a specific skill among the millions of profiles.  It really enhances the search facility by allowing users to find key people within that community, locations, related companies, relevant jobs and relevant groups.
This new feature is still in beta, and it marks an important new iteration for the professional networking platform. Now searchers get contextual information that is really, really useful.
It’s easy to use. Just login and go to the LinkedIn Skills page.  Search for a skill …

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We’ve got a lot of new entries on the popularity ranking (Grader) this month.  Welcome to @phdinparenting who enters at No. 1. Also @zaki_usman and @seanpower. Good-bye @suzemuse, @plevy and @jason_otoole.  And, there’s been some changes to the influence (TweetLevel) charts too. Good-bye to @bambiblue, @pmharper, @michelfortin and @brianhurley. Welcome to @phdinparenting, @snookca and me (@sherrilynne).
These lists are just as a bit of fun,  but they do prove an important point: just because you are popular on Twitter (Grader) doesn’t mean you have influence (TweetLevel). And you don’t …

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LinkedIn has announced the launch of the it’s new ‘share’ button.  Publishers, bloggers and businesses can  include a button on their site that lets readers and visitors  ’Share on LinkedIn’ by adding a few lines of code to their websites.
In the past, publishers like The Huffington Post have integrated LinkedIn share on their website. Starting today, sites like Bloomberg, Forbes, and the Mercury News’ SiliconValley.com are doing the same. In addition, they are also integrating even more advanced functionality like the ability to sign-in to your site with LinkedIn credentials.

The …

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Image via CrunchBase

Next week sees two interesting, free webcasts that will help businesses understand how social networks can add value.
The first is hosted by well known blogger and FIR podcast contributor Dan York who will look at how to scale support for Twitter, Facebook and other social networks.
By 2014, Gartner Research estimates that social networking services will replace email as the primary communications vehicle for 20% of business users.  As companies connect to customers in social channels, a key question is – how can that communication scale? If team members …

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Image via CrunchBase

Suppose a government department sets up a discussion group in LinkedIn and then, when it doesn’t like the tone or content of the discussion taking place, the comments are taken down.
“It would never happen!” I hear you exclaim.  “To do so would go against all recognised best practice for the social internet!  To do so would  invite derision, hostility even, from members of the community!  The government department would  immediately suffer in terms of credibility and integrity and important relationships could be materially damaged!”
It’s true. In a perfect …

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Image via CrunchBase

LinkedIn is launching company pages to help businesses attract new customers using trusted, professional product and service recommendations.
The idea is to showcase products and services by making it easy for people to become brand ambassadors, building on word-of-mouth marketing. They are invited to write and share endorsements to build out their own personal brands, highlight expertise and provide value to their connections.
Already, tens of millions of professionals follow more than a million companies on LinkedIn to stay up-to-date on new developments and opportunities. Company pages will make it easier …

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Image via CrunchBase

A survey conducted by the Forum of Private Business (FPB) found that 52% of respondents who use social media sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter, regard them as ‘not useful’ or ‘useless’ to their businesses.
Of course, if this statistic is true it means that, by implication, 48% of small businesses do find social media useful. This underlines a strong trend in the adoption of social internet technologies.
I suspect that many small business owners buy into the myth that social media media is ‘free, easy and anyone can …

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Would you walk into a pub full of people you don’t know, sit down at a crowded table and blurt out, “Buy my stuff!  I’m brilliant and I’ll do you a good deal!  Call me! Email me! Buy my stuff!”
No?  So why then would you go into a LinkedIn group and start spamming it with your sales and marketing bumpf?  Why would you go to someone’s blog and spam with comments with links to your own site and Sell Sell Sell! messages? Or why would you auto reply to new …