Would You Like a Free Apple iPad With Your Trackur Account?
As you know, a couple of weeks ago (my company) Trackur launched Trackur Free–a competely free version of the popular social media monitoring tool.
To celebrate Trackur Free’s success–and to get as many people protecting their reputation as possible–Trackur is now giving all users a chance to win a free Apple iPad!
Yep, you can get your hands on a free online reputation monitoring tool AND enter to win the hottest gadget around!
Want to enter? Head over to the Trackur site pronto!
Trackur Shakes Up the Social Media Monitoring Space with a Free Plan
I’m not sure if you know the back story of why I decided to launch social media monitoring tool Trackur.
After completing Radically Transparent, I felt like there was a huge void between those that had outgrown Google Alerts and the monitoring tools available at that time. You had Google Alerts (free) then you had services that started at thousands of dollars.
Fast forward a couple of years–yes, Trackur is two years old this month–and Trackur has grown to be one of the most popular monitoring tools on the web. So popular in fact, that we’re racking up many agency clients–attracted by our quick, easy, and affordable tools.
I digress. No really, I digressed. While we were serving the big agencies, we kind of neglected those that I wanted to help the most: those that had outgrown the limitations of Google Alerts. So, today I’m delighted rectify that by announcing Trackur Free.
Trackur Free comes with all of the great functionality we offer in our Personal and Corporate plans, but without the price tag! You get unlimited search results, anyone can share your login, you get reports, CSV export, RSS and email alerts. Just about everything we offer. The only restriction is that you can only save one search on Trackur Free. For individuals or small businesses, that may be all you ever need!
We’re making Trackur Free retroactive, so if you’ve previously taken our 14-day free trial, you’ll find that your login has been automatically rolled over to the free account.
We hope you’ll make the switch to Trackur Free. It’s a great way to take Trackur for a spin without any time pressures and, when you’re ready, you can upgrade to any of our paid plans. Remember, even our sophisticated Agency plan is just $297–about half the price you’ll pay for many companies’ entry-level offering!
(TechCrunch also has coverage of Trackur Free)
84% of Marketers to Shift Portion of Direct Marketing Budgets to Social Media
According to its 7th annual survey, Alterian suggests that 66% of marketers plan to invest in social media over the next 12 months, but only 36% plan to monitor and analyze the success–or failure–of their efforts.
In fact, when you look at the breakdown, 40% of the 1,000 marketers surveyed plan to steal 20% or more of their traditional direct marketing budget to feed their new found social media marketing habit.
Considering Alterian recently acquired Techrigy, I’m sure they share my surprise–and maybe concern–that compared to the amount of spending planned for social media marketing, more is not being allocated towards actually monitoring and measuring that ROI.
This chart shows best the disparity between spend on each:
Yeah, I’m biased–I want you to use a social media monitoring tool–but really, would you consider launching an seo campaign without having web analytics on your site? No? Then why would you spend hundreds of thousands on a social media marketing initiative, without monitoring your reach, response, and successes?
Of course, it could just be that these marketers are more thrifty than naive. After all, why spend thousands on media monitoring, when plans start at just $18 a month? A blatant plug, I know, but mama needs a new pair of shoes! 
Yipee! Microsoft Enters the Social Media Monitoring Space
Microsoft is building a social media monitoring tool called Looking Glass.
Now, at this point, you’re probably thinking that I’m panicking. After all, isn’t that what my own company, Trackur, does? Aren’t I scared stiff that Microsoft will hurt my business?
Nope. In fact, when I spoke to Microsoft executives in 2008, I asked them why they didn’t already have a tool like this? If I can build Trackur, shame on Microsoft for not having its own offering.
Am I insane? Possibly, but for different reasons. Let’s explore this announcement.
The idea is to connect social-media-monitoring tools to the rest of a marketer’s organization — customer databases, work orders, customer-service centers and sales data. Looking Glass will pull in a variety of feeds from platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr and work with third-party data sources as well (the folks behind it have already talked to some firms such as Meteor Solutions and Telligent). All of the data collected will connect into Microsoft’s enterprise platforms, such as Outlook and Sharepoint.
If you read the entire Ad Age article, it becomes clear that Looking Glass will be tightly integrated with other Microsoft products–a feature that will delight some and completely repel others. In addition, there’s no news on how much Microsoft will charge for Looking Glass–will it be free or come with a hefty licensing fee.
Either way, I’m actually excited that Microsoft is getting into this space. They have many more dollars to throw into advertising and awareness campaigns. Let them spend the millions of dollars that are needed to convince businesses they need to monitor the web. Not all of those potential customers will feel comfortable with Microsoft, its platform, or its pricing, and so they’ll likely compare Trackur as an alternative. What is it they say about a rising tide? 
In fact, Visible Technologies has more to lose than Trackur–Microsoft currently pays them a hefty fee to use their social media measuring technology. I suspect, we’ll see that relationship come to an end at some point.
OK, but Andy. What if Microsoft offers Looking Glass for free?
So what? When Google rolled out Google Analytics for free, many suspected it would be the death knell for other analytics firms that charge for their product. There are 1.8 billion reasons why those fears didn’t materialize.
Personally, I expect Microsoft’s entry to the space to be a wake up call for its mid-size competitors. Do they build a competing social media measurement product or acquire existing technology? If it’s the latter, they know where to find me! 
(via)
New Twitter Contest: $8,000+ of Prizes to Give Away!
You should already know that Trackur is the easiest social media monitoring tool around, so how about a Twitter contest that is equally easy to enter?
Get ready for the Trackur Twitter Sweepstakes!
Starting Wednesday September 23rd Trackur is giving away 14 fantastic prizes over a one week period. Each week day (23rd, 24th, 25th, 28th, 29th, 30th, Oct 1st) Trackur will randomly announce two new questions that are as easy to answer as Trackur is to use. The questions will be announced via the official @Trackur Twitter account and will use the hashtag #TrackurTrivia.
When you see that tweet, you’ll have 60 minutes to answer the question in the following format:
#TrackurTrivia @Trackur: [Your Answer]
Easy, huh? Trackur will then randomly pick a winner and award a prize. Want to know what you’re playing for?
- 1 x 32″ HD Flat Panel Television – just in time for football season!
- 1 x Slingbox media player – watch your favorite TV programs anywhere in the world!
- 1 x iPod Nano - the new ones let you record video!
- 1 x Nikon Coolpix digital camera – perfect for capturing those Fall colors
- 1 x iPod Shuffle – so small you need to be careful you don’t lose it!
- 1 x Trackur Enterprise account for one year!
- 3 x Trackur Corporate accounts for one year!
- 5 x Trackur Personal accounts for one year!
That’s a prize package worth more than $8,000!
Remember, all questions will be announced via the @Trackur account on Twitter, so you should probably “follow” right away. New to Twitter, you can sign-up here.
Good luck everyone!
Pilgrim’s Partners: SponsoredReviews.com – Bloggers earn cash, Advertisers build buzz!
8 Companies Every Marketing Pilgrim Should Know About
We don’t often ask you to thank our awesome advertisers, but the next time you need help with your marketing, please consider these Marketing Pilgrim supporters.
- Text Link Brokers – increase your traffic and search engine rankings.
- WPromote – offers a wide range of professional search engine marketing services.
- Sponsored Reviews – bloggers earn cash for reviewing products and services. Advertisers build buzz and links for your web site.
- Vertical Leap – offers search engine optimization and PPC management services.
- SEM Vendor – looking for search marketing firm to help you with your campaign?
- Trackur – quite frankly the best social media monitoring tool!
- PRWeb – the next time you send a press release, try PRWeb–it’s the newswire I personally use.
- PubCon – if you pick just one conference to attend, make it this one!
Want to advertise your business to some of the most affluent people on the web? Contact us for availability.
Pilgrim’s Partners: SponsoredReviews.com – Bloggers earn cash, Advertisers build buzz!
