Toll Free: 1-877-695-7388

GTA: (647) 699-2838

Search Engine People
  • SEO
  • SEM
  • CRO
  • Display
  • Blog
  • Why Us
  • Contact
  • Join Our Team
  • Get A Quote

Toll Free: 1-877-695-7388

GTA: (647) 699-2838

Most Effective Ways to Search and Track Online Conversations

Ann Smarty | April 6th, 2009
Tweet
Share2
Share
Pin
2 Shares

Internet is buzzing with conversations. Right now people might be discussing your brand or a topic you are very interested in and you will never know what they are saying. Let's have a look at most effective tools that will allow you not to miss what is important for you.

Search Email Messages:

MarkMail.org is email messages archive and search engine.

The archive includes many millions of email messages across thousands of lists... It provides end users with powerful search and discovery tools for finding answers and understanding activity in popular mailing lists, such as those used by open source projects.

Tools: The search engine supports various advanced operators:

  • Narrow search by date range: [date:1995-2001];
  • Exclude any term: [-keywords];
  • Narrow search to the sender's name or email: [from:usernamee];
  • Narrow search to the message subject: [subject:keyword];
  • Search for exact match:["key phrase"], etc

Best area of implication: reputation management (i.e. brand mentions)

Tracking: register and add the search to your set

Sample search: amazon

Search messages

Track Comments and Social Mentions by URL

YackTrack is an awesome business intelligence software that will show a wealth of data for any URL you submit:

  • Twitter mentions (including TinyURL backlinks);
  • Actual on-site comments to the post;
  • Comments on Mixx;
  • Reviews on StumbleUpon;
  • Google reader comments;
  • Google Blog Search reactions;
  • Comments on Digg.

Tools: browser bookmarklet for quicker access;

Best area of implication: track comments to a controversial / sensational article;

Tracking: register or subscribe to RSS

Sample search: track comments to this Lifehacker post:

Track URL

Search and Track Forums

Apart from numerous social media networks, many valuable discussions are still help throughout forums. Unfortunately, forum trackers are few and all of them are not really useful.

BoardTracker is the most popular among them. However its index appears to be fairly small.

The good news is that there are not so many powerful blogs in each niche, so you can set up tracking yourself.

Tool: Google search.

Best area of implications: reputation management

Tracking: choose any SERP tracking tool here.

Sample search: [site:webmasterworld.com OR site:webproworld.com OR site:digitalpoint.com OR site:highrankings.com OR site:seorefugee.com ann smarty]

Note: of course you can also include date operator to catch only recent mentions.

Track forums

Do you track web conversations? Share your tips!

Ann Smarty is an SEO Consulting blogger; you can see her posts at Search Engine Journal and also follow her on Twitter.

Tweet
Share2
Share
Pin
2 Shares
Posted in Analytics & ROI Analysis

About the Author: Ann Smarty

Ann Smarty is a blogger and SEO consultant and professional blogger. Check out Ann's personal project My Blog Guest - the forum meant to connect guest bloggers to blog owner for plenty of mutual benefits. Ann also provides guest blogging services.

SEOsmarty.com

11 thoughts on “Most Effective Ways to Search and Track Online Conversations”

  1. Rob Diana says:
    April 6, 2009 at 11:43 am

    Ann

    Thanks for the YackTrack mention! One comment about the Lifehacker post you used, Lifehacker has a custom blog platform so YackTrack does not pull their comments very well. For WordPress, Blogger and TypePad/MT we do a much better job.

  2. blogging for beginners says:
    April 6, 2009 at 7:29 pm

    Good post. I have used MarkMail before and it is super easy and very useful. I actually never heard of YackTrack, but I will take a look at them and see what they are all about.

  3. Ilya Pashkov says:
    April 6, 2009 at 11:49 pm

    Thank you, good post!

  4. rashida says:
    April 7, 2009 at 2:03 am

    Thanks for providing the information about tracking online conversations.It is very useful and most effective.

  5. Ned Carey says:
    April 8, 2009 at 9:02 pm

    I have been using Google alerts. I am surprised you didn’t mention it. Thanks for the tips, I’ve bookmarked YackTrack

  6. Martin says:
    April 9, 2009 at 7:20 am

    I’ve got a few http://www.whostalkin.com searches bookmarked that I visit a couple times a day on behalf of clients, plus a few Google alerts. The WhosTalkin service seems similar to YackTrack, but (IMO) is faster and more robust. Also using BlogPulse, Technorati search and Delicious search.

  7. andrew says:
    April 9, 2009 at 7:52 am

    isn’t yacktrack kinda of like google’s Link: operator only prettier!

  8. Awxus says:
    April 16, 2009 at 4:55 am

    I can’t comment with url, Any suggestions??

  9. Elana says:
    May 19, 2009 at 7:56 am

    Do you know of a conversation tracker that tracks YouTube mentions? Would be great if YackTrack added that…

    1. Ruud Hein says:
      May 19, 2009 at 8:49 am

      Not of the top of my head, no. Sorry!

  10. Ann Smarty says:
    May 20, 2009 at 2:23 am

    Elana, is this something you may find useful: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/how-to-track-youtube-videos/8389/
    ?

Comments are closed.

Recent Posts

  • Maximizing Your E-Commerce Sales:
    A CRO Audit Guide
  • Movin’ On Up! Why Migrating to Google Analytics 4 (GA4) Should be a Priority
  • A Year in Review: The Digital Marketing Trends That Defined 2021
  • The Basics of Video Marketing
  • Just How Much Do Google Reviews Impact Your SEO Ranking?

Categories

  • Analytics & ROI Analysis
  • Company News
  • Content
  • Conversion Optimization
  • CRO
  • Display Advertising/RTB
  • Email Marketing
  • En Español
  • En Français
  • Inbound Marketing
  • Lead Nurture & Marketing Automation
  • Local Search
  • Marketing
  • Mobile
  • Partnership Marketing
  • PPC
  • PR
  • SEO
  • Social Media Marketing
  • Web Design

Additional Posts

Longer Snippets at Google Means…?

April 3rd, 2009 | by Megan Slick

Ruud Questions: Angie Haggstrom

April 3rd, 2009 | by Ruud Hein

The Big SEO Copywriting Secret: Quality Content That Converts

April 1st, 2009 | by Angie Nikoleychuk (Haggstrom)

LET'S TALK

Need more information or want to get in touch?

Get in touch!
  • SEO
  • SEM
  • Display
  • Blog
  • Why Us
  • Join Our Team
  • Contact Us
  • Local SEO
  • Small Business SEO
  • Enterprise SEO
  • International SEO

LOCATION

1305 Pickering Parkway,
5th Floor Pickering, L1V 3P2

PHONE

Toll Free: 1-877-695-7388
Greater Toronto Area: (647) 699-2838

Social

© Search Engine People Inc. 2023 – Canada’s Top Digital Agency
© SEP 2023 – A Search Engine People Company | Privacy Policy

Search Engine People