The problem is that I can’t pay my bills on free coffee/lunch/dinner PLUS it devalues my business.  I actually once had another marketing consultant ask to meet for coffee saying he had some social media business that he might send me.  At the meeting he basically asked me for my advice so that he could implement it with his clients.  He wasn’t even a friend.  I was SO SHOCKED.

I love my job. I love what I do. I love helping people. But if I answer every email question or meet with people for them to “pick my brain” I wouldn’t get any work done.

The article on Forbes suggests that you shouldn’t give away your advice for free.  Even to your family and friends. To me that is a little extreme since I really do enjoy the opportunity to help my friends and family and give back.

Here are the key challenges that I see:

1. Determining who is a good investment to meet with. My business is largely built on networking. If I don’t meet people I won’t have a business, so I can’t turn down everyone.  A few years ago I adopted a policy not to meet with anyone (even on the phone) where there isn’t a clear purpose and benefit for me.  I don’t want to review your product or get a tour or give you my feedback.  Even with this policy, people still get through.  I’ve had people ask to meet to talk about partnering, when really they want referrals from me (with no incentive for me). On the other hand I’ve met with people about partnering and seen tremendous returns.
2. How do you nicely say no. Seriously, I HATE saying no to people.  I find it hard.  How do you tell them no?  I sometimes deflect by saying that we could discuss some of these things if we had an engagement, but it is still hard.  Especially for people I like who have already signed up for some of my classes.

In our Facebook discussion on the issue, Michelle said:

“It takes a certain amount of discernment and judgement to figure out when a meeting would be a worthwhile investment in other ways besides money (open doors down the road, support a good cause etc). For me – if I had the time, I would say yes as often as possible just for sheer karma because, heck, I picked a few brains when I was getting started. But honestly, I was getting to the point where I was drinking so much free coffee and my work schedule was going haywire. Something (or someone) has to give…. back! I think what it boils down to is not necessarily just saying “no,” but finding a way to be helpful in a way that is equitable. Equitable is not the same as equal, but it is healthy and fair. No one can argue with the need to function in a way that is healthy and fair. And, in fact, when you are able to show where the boundary is (like they say in the article) and what your needs are, and do it diplomatically, you earn respect of those who truly are worthwhile connects. But still, there are those cases where you just have to follow your gut and take a leap of faith.”

Some Creative Solutions to Turn “Pick Your Brain” into $$

1. Membership program with a Q&A - If you really do respect my advice, then you should be willing to invest in one of my programs to get it.  If it isn’t worth $27 for a social media marketing membership program (that also gives you webinars and countless videos) then it probably isn’t worth my time to give you my advice.  This is actually one of my solutions that just launched. The membership program for only $27 gives you the opportunity to get access to my content plus call in to a monthly Q&A call and ask whatever you want.  If my advice isn’t worth it to you than don’t waste my time.
2. Tell them you have an upcoming webinar on that topic - Many years ago when I was starting out Cliff Ravenscraft gave me this idea. He suggested that if someone asks you a question, tell them that you have a webinar coming up on that topic, and that it will give them a much better ROI than your consulting rate.  Next, create the webinar, charge $25 or $50 for it and market it to your existing contacts as well.  If you get 10 people signed up it is a better ROI, and you answered the question.
3. Don’t be accessible - I know people who do this.  They don’t give you the opportunity to talk to them directly until you have invested in a training or coaching program.  They give you the info and don’t share any personal contact information. This way you are paying for access.  I don’t think that this fits well with my brand or in working with corporate training programs, but it can probably work for a lot of businesses.
4. Have Your Fee Schedule Handy - This technique is suggested in the article.  Always have a fee schedule handy and pass it out when the subject arises.  It can be tactful and hopefully turn questions into clients.
5. Include Follow-Up Questions in Proposals – I do this with many of my corporate projects.  If I have been hired for training or consulting, I want to make sure that my clients have everything they need to be successful, and I am happy to answer a few questions after the engagement has ended.  That being said, I’ve had some clients send VERY in depth questions, well after the engagement has ended.  So, in my proposal as a VALUE ADD I include follow up calls as a line item.  This way they have a set amount of time to ask questions without feeling guilty, and if the follow-up exceeds my time allocation I can ask them how they want to handle it.
6. Create a Group for them to Poll - Michelle Spelman said in our Facebook conversation “Saying no to brainpickers isnt fun, but it feels better than being taken advantage of. Most people don’t realize they crossed a line. The linkedin group I started was a direct result of too many brainpickers…. now I give them my consulting rate and invite them to join the group and pick the group’s brains. If they are seriously wanting my expertise, they hire me. If they can only afford coffee/lunch, they just join the group. It’s a win/win for all involved.”

Here are My questions to YOU:

(Feel free to answer one, all or talk about something else)

1. How do you decide which meetings to take?
2. How do you say no?
3. How do you get people to say yes?

In case you missed it, the short story is:

1. Chapstick posted an add on their Facebook page of a woman with her a$$ in the air
2. A blogger wrote a post about how offensive she found it and also left a comment on the Chapstick Facebook page
3. Chapstick deleted the comment
4. Others comment on the Facebook page and their comments are deleted
5. Chapstick’s ads with the line “Be Heard at Facebook.com/chapstick” become comical
6. Chapstick continues to try to delete posts, but the posts are getting through (they can’t keep up with it)
7. Eventually Chapstick deletes the offensive image
8. Chapstick “apologizes” sort of.
9. The head of global media relations for Chapstick says “We’re committed to listening. We’re committed to the dialogue. This is a perfect example of listening to your followers, your fans. We’re trying to live by those words.” (haha)

Where they Went Wrong and What You Can Learn

1. Don’t Delete Comments

If people have a problem, acknowledge it and address it.  I don’t personally think the ad was all that offensive, and in reality, many ads offend someone.  People share with you that they are offended because they want to be heard – they don’t expect you to immediately pull the ad.

My assumption would be that the person managing the Facebook page didn’t know how to respond, so they deleted the post while they figured it out.

This was the biggest initial mistake.  Don’t delete comments, respond.

Let them know:

- You are sorry they are offended

- You care that they are offended

- You will share their feedback

2. If you Apologize, then ACTUALLY Apologize

Chapstick doesn’t really apologize or take ownership.  The “apology note” says “We apologize that our fans felt like their posts are being deleted”.  They didn’t feel like their posts were being deleted, they were actually being deleted.  It was a fact.

Next, they basically tell you that it is your fault that the comment was deleted.  In most cases I suspect that the comments wouldn’t have actually fallen in to those categories.  Sharing dislike with a brand is not offensive.

When you apologize, actually apologize. Admit your mistake

3. Do What You Say or Become a Laughing Stock

Part of the problem is that brands are used to having mission statements like “we care” or “committed to improving lives”, but they don’t really do it.  It is really just a bunch of nice words put on a page.  They don’t mean it or live it.

In social media, if you don’t do what you say you can quickly become a joke.

The response from the VP is kinda hysterical  A commitment to listening doesn’t mean that you eventually take down an ad because someone doesn’t like it.  It means that you respect and acknowledge their comments and feedback.

Do what you say you will, or people will laugh.

One of the biggest challenges for businesses on Facebook (or on any social media channel) is to understand the actual content that will drive fans to engage (step 1) and take action (step 2).  The key to success in developing your social media marketing plan is to really understand what it is that your customers want.

A study in September of 2011 asked fans what they want from brands in Facebook.

Your Challenge: Compare your content on Facebook with the content that fans generally want.

Knowing what users expect form you after liking you is the key to posting great content.  One of the challenges to keep in mind is that Fans make the choice to pay you the honor of publicly being your fan. Ask yourself, how can I reward or recognize these fans?

Action for Marketers to Take:

When asking people to fan your page, tell them what they will get by fanning you.  Rather than blindly posting “like us on Facebook” buttons all over your site and in your store, tell them WHAT THEY WILL GET by connecting with you, and make sure that you have a compelling proposition for them.

Dispel Their Fears

Another chart in the Emarketer article asked what has prevented people from fanning a brand.  The results of this are also telling.  The things that prevent people from fanning a brand, are probably also the same things that prevent them from signing up for your email, following you on Twitter or engaging in the rest of your opt-in marketing.

Action for Marketers to Take:

The Implication for marketers is to proactively communicate to avoid not getting liked because of these fears.  Tell them “Don’t worry, we’ll only message you once a month” or “we post once a day” or “we don’t sell your information”. Be sure to do what you can to dispel these fears upfront so that people will still connect with you.

This is my first book, and it is actually being modified and turned into a textbook for social media marketing (you may have seen the post on that). I have so many people to thank for helping me get here, and later this week I will post an entire Thank-You post. I can’t tell you how much I value and appreciate all of the support and encouragement I have received over the past few years as I started my business.

I wrote the Field Guide after I started running social media training programs a few years ago, and after training thousands of people I created some systems to help explain and create a system for social media strategic planning and to help businesses understand the social media landscape, which can be overwhelming.

Part 1: The Social Media Planning System

I created the social media system, which is the underlying model for the book based on working with many companies and individuals on their social media marketing strategies. One thing I learned was that most business owners lacked a real solid social media plan. They weren’t getting results from their social media marketing because they didn’t really approach it with a plan. Someone told them they had to get on Twitter or that all of their competitors were on Facebook, so they created accounts and started posting content. They came to me because they weren’t getting results.

The Social Media System is a planning method that helps businesses get results by laying out a strategic plan. This is the part that most businesses skip in their rush to get on social media and it is also why most businesses don’t get value from social media. They have no real plan – they just throw stuff out there without a real audience in mind.

Part 2: The Social Media Field Guide – The Landscape

The second part of the Social Media Field Guide is the Field Guide model, which is a model to help businesses wrap their heads around the key opportunity areas in social media. Rather than tactically focusing on the social media tools like Facebook and Twitter the Field Guide encourages businesses to think about the broader functionality of social media. The Social Media Field Guide categorizes social media into 8 categories – Publishing, Sharing, Social Networks, Microblogs, Collaboration and Co-Creation, Discussion and Review, Public Relations and Mobile. Rather than focusing on an individual tool, businesses should think about how they can leverage each of these categories, and then drill deeper into the specific tools.

In addition to the book, the Social Media Field Guide also comes with a FREE ACTION PLANNER DOWNLOAD so that you can put the Field Guide into action.

In the past 10 years of , I’ve traveled to Brazil, Vegas, NY, San Francisco, London, Toronto and countless other cities where I’ve had the pleasure of speaking to thousands of business owners, marketers and social media managers. These experiences have helped me in creating this essential resourceful media guide full of great tips and advice. It also served as a great tool used in my social media certification program held at the newly established Institute for Social Media at Cincinnati State.

I’ve already received some great feedback about the book and I would like to hear what you think! Click here to order your copy of the Social Media Field Guide.

Also, stay tuned for the official announcement, but I will be hosting a book party and showcasing my new office space on January 20th.

For more information on my new book, visit http://bootcampdigital.com/social-media-book/.

Marketers have become so obsessed with measuring how many fans (now likes) or followers they have or how many “impressions” their ad makes, and are potentially losing site of whether or not any of these things are REALLY making impressions.  A follower or fan that completely ignores your message isn’t worth much.

I’ve seen a lot of conferences use this logic to promote the reach of the conference to potential advertisers.  Some media publications are also starting to report metrics in this way.  The logic goes something like this:

We have X thousand followers, and typically we get X number of brand mentions for each of our sponsors.  When we combine the # of followers that the people who mention you have, you will have a reach of X million for your brand/business/product.

There are a number of problems with this metric.  First, it is using old media metrics in new media, which doesn’t really work.  Second it is assuming that the impressions are actually happening, and finally it assumes that the impressions are worth something.

Old Media Metrics Don’t Really Work in Social Media

The example above, counting the number of “impressions” in social media is really using a traditional media metric in social media.  And it doesn’t really work.

Traditional media uses reach or number of impressions to measure how far reaching their advertising message is going.  Reach is commonly used to quantify television, print or billboard advertising.  Simply using old media measures for new media doesn’t really work that well.

Most of the impressions don’t exist

The reality is that VERY few people, if any, read every single tweet from every single person they follow.  The real reach of a twitter account is much less than the number of followers, and the reach of an individual Tweet is even less than that.

The same is true on Facebook.  The Facebook newsfeed shows the most relevant posts and updates for each individual, not every single post (unless you look at most recent).  If your Facebook post doesn’t have any interactions (likes or comments) chances are it isn’t even making the newsfeed of most of your audience. (I wrote a post about how the Facebook algorithm works a while back).

This is why so many consumers still prefer email – because they know that they won’t miss anything for the brands that they really care about.

The reality is that the concept of followers or fans = impressions doesn’t hold because most people don’t actively monitor every post in social media sites.  Counting impressions just doesn’t work well in social media.

The Impression Might not be Worth Anything.

Even if you can measure the number of impressions accurately, they might not really be worth anything.  The reason that impressions or reach make sense in advertising is because the message (the ad) is tested and controlled.

Advertising messages are tested to be sure that they actually create business value.  Before an ad airs it is tested to be sure that it actually improves the brand or business impression (people think it is better) and that it increases purchase intent (people are more likely to buy it).

In advertising the message is proven to be valuable before it airs.  That is why reach is relevant – because the message is known to be valuable.

In social media not all brand mentions are valuable and actually increase whether or not someone will buy your product over time.  All mentions are not created equal.  TV advertising has proven time and again that an impression that doesn’t focus on brand benefits doesn’t increase sales.  The same is probably true for social media.  The mere mention of a brand without a meaningful benefit probably isn’t valuable.

Bottom Line

Don’t get sucked in to big numbers that may not actually indicate anything.  Focus on creating brand IMPRESSIONS that actually are impressions – that people are reading and that say something meaningful about your brand.

What do you think?

This morning I read a post on Geoff Livingston’s blog that shows that about half of Twitter users read other people’s tweets less than weekly.  This further highlights the fact that your actual audience is probably far less than the number of people who may follow or fan you.

What do you think?

I was really intrigued by this story idea because I haven’t seen social media or Facebook used for this before.

Facebook now has over 500 million registered users (which is greater than the combined populations of Canada, the US and Mexico) and more people check Facebook each day than listen to the radio or read a newspaper.

Why were missing people put on milk cartons?  Because milk cartons were in everyone’s home and they looked at them every day.  Facebook is today’s milk carton – it is in every home and accessed every day.

Specifically, there are a few reasons why Facebook is a great tool to leverage when looking for a missing person:

1) Viral Spread

Facebook has built-in viral spread, which makes it a great tool in looking for a missing person or in spreading any message.  An average Facebooker is connected to 130 people.  So, if Joe posts about a missing person 130 people will see it.  The viral spread happens when those 130 people also interact with the post by liking or commenting.  The post is then exposed to their entire network.  It only takes 10 interactions to reach 1000 people.  Compare this to how long it might take to reach 1000 people posting fliers on telephone poles or handing them out in a shopping center.

2) Timely

With only the click of a button and very little effort content can be easily shared on Facebook.  Facebook allows for extremely quick spread of information – in only a few hours a Facebook post can spread through multiple online networks.  Facebook spreads information quickly.

3) It Leverages People Like Us through Social Graphs

Most of our connections on Facebook are people who are like us – who live near us, have similar hobbies, etc.  In the case of a missing person there is a lot of relevance from leveraging social graphs, or people like us.  For example, if I post about a missing person, most of my friends are from the area, so the message is relevant.

4) The Content is “Recommended” or “Curated”

Content from Facebook is vetted by our network, so it has a higher level of trust than information that you may randomly receive.  Since the content comes from our friends we are more likely to pay attention to it – it is from a trusted source.

5) Facebook has our attention

Simply put, Facebook has our attention.  Many people watch the news while they are multi-tasking or glance at a photo on a lamp-post.  We only give these images a passing look and a small fraction of our attention.  On Facebook people are more engaged and spending lots of time!

Has Anyone else seen unusual uses of Facebook?  What else could it be used for?

PS – Tim the camera man did an awesome job

While all forms of traditional media – from print to radio to tv news – seem to be struggling, the key question that needs to be asked is How do we reinvent ourselves to stay relevant?

Here are a few examples of how new and old paradigms of business have co-existed by adapting.

Blogs are like WalMart

Remember when WalMart started to grow and how communities reacted? Some communities tried to keep WalMart out, for fear that their local businesses would be destroyed.  The reality is that WalMart did put a lot of companies out of business – both retailers and suppliers.  Businesses that survived adapted their model and built their business around a strong value proposition.  They provided something that was more important than just price, or they died.  Despite the success of WalMart there are still new retail businesses starting every day.  They differentiate themselves on quality, selection, location, convenience, etc and thrive and grow despite WalMart.

Blogs are the WalMart of the media world.  They create content that people like for a lower price.  Most bloggers publish as a labor of love – they don’t need a huge paycheck.  Big blog publications have a different cost structure than traditional media, so they can generate profits from online display ads (a cost structure that won’t work for most traditional media).

In order for traditional media to survive the content revolution (where everyone is a content creator), they have to adapt their strategy to focus on their core value proposition – investigative journalism.

Most bloggers (not all) don’t do a lot of primary research.  They actually build their stories on stats, facts and research from traditional media and use it as a source for their articles.  Traditional media should be The Resource for investigative journalism – a service that is needed for bloggers to exist.

I have a friend who is a TV news producer.  To “create” the news producers do research.  They check facts.  They look up stats.  They get multi-media from different sources, or create it themselves.  They go out and interview a variety of people.  They investigate and report. These core competencies of traditional media must be heightened to create a clear value proposition.

Video Killed the Radio Star

Actually, it didn’t.  When TV and video came along, radio didn’t die – it adapted.  Now I wasn’t around at the time, but if you look at the evolution of radio, prior to mass adoption of TV radio was a platform for both music and story-telling entertainment. Families would gather around the radio and listen to stories for entertainment.

Then TV came along.  Radio wasn’t really the best medium for story-telling type entertainment – TV was.  So, TV focused on fictional story-telling entertainment and radio focused on music.  Radio adapted the content to focus on content areas where it could win – music, call-in talk shows, etc.

Both TV and radio continue to exist but with different content and in different use cases.

So What Now?

There are some traditional media sites that have innovative views about how they can adapt.

Chris Graves at the Cincinnati Enquirer launched a program called LOL: Locals on Living .  LOL creates content for both the web and print editions, and it clearly changes the cost structure for the enquirer (no full time writers creating content). Clicking on the blogs opened 2 highly annoying ad pop-up windows, however as the model evolves perhaps there will be opportunities to find different revenue streams.  It launched last July and has expanded to integrate local bloggers from lifestyle content to Sports Content (see SportsTalkCentral).  The program is beginning to dip into news/business with the integration of BuildingCincinnati, which is featured both on our business and news page. They currently integrate 17 bloggers on the site.

At ad:tech Chris Anderson, EIC of Wired shared information about how Tablets can provide new opportunities for publishers.  By leveraging interactivity and the tablet technology, publishers may have the opportunity to charge for content vs. the current web model where everything is free.  It will be interesting to see if this plays out.

What do you think?

How can news sites continue to thrive?  Quality investigative journalism is important for our society, but traditional media outlets are struggling with their business models.  How can they reinvent themselves?  Have you seen other examples of this?

When social media first began to emerge as a marketing tool, it was relatively easy for brands to break through and connect with consumers.

Consumers were curious about why brands were online and what they were talking about – there were not very many of them after all.

Social Media Enthusiasts and advocates gave the early brand participants a lot of credit just for showing up.  People liked JetBlue just because they cared enough to be on twitter.

There wasn’t a lot of noise in the earlier days of twitter.  There were only a few million people using the service and hardly any brands.  People didn’t spam DM you or try to sell you stuff all the time.  It was easy to be heard if you had a good message.

Gimmicks worked better because they were new.  When Zappos joined twitter a few years ago they built their following by giving away free shoes.  People often talk about how popular Zappos is, but it didn’t happen by accident.  Today, brands offering prizes to follower is frowned upon and considered lower engagement marketing.

Why Things Have Changed

As social media has evolved, things have changed. What works and doesn’t work changes all the time as the mediums mature and evolve.

With more brands (and more people) participating, social media has become cluttered and automated.  According to Facebook there are:

• More than 3 million active Pages on Facebook
• More than 1.5 million local businesses have active Pages on Facebook
• More than 20 million people become fans of Pages each day
• Pages have created more than 5.3 billion fans

With all of this noise, how does your brand break-through and stand out?

What it takes to be Successful in Social Media Today

Today it takes more to be successful in social media.  You can’t just create an account, try to be nice to people and expect to see marketing miracles.

Social Media today requires a great creative execution.  How will you creatively engage your consumers?  What interesting or useful content will you provide them with?

If you look at some of the brands getting it right these days, they have a strong strategy, great execution and creative ideas on what to do with the medium.

Here are some examples:

PetCentric on Facebook

Petcentric on Facebook ran pet photo contests on Facebook using Flickr.  They had one of the most active Facebook fan pages I have come across.  Now, they have gone so far as to create an app for the photo contest.

Key Learning: Great creative idea (pet contest) start simple (use Flickr/Facebook) take it to the next level after success (app)

HubSpot

Many people think that BtoB brands can’t succeed in Social Media.  They can.  Hubspot is a great example.  They have tools, blogs, webinars and a twitter account that all position them as the clear leader in Internet Marketing.  I have called into a number of their webinars, to listen to industry experts talk about marketing and social media.

Key Learnings: Use multiple touchpoints to reach customers, become the thought leader, give free valuable information, talk about what your audience is interested in instead of your product.

The Key = Creative

These days the key to social media success is strategy and creative.  Understand your target audience and what they are interested in (hint: it probably isn’t your product).  Come up with something interesting to engage them with.  Do more than just show up.

What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Here were my 3 key takeaways from ad:tech.

The Digital Economy is Recovering

The attendance and buzz in the exhibit hall were enough to signal this.  Despite the current economic climate ad:tech NY attracted over 10,000 marketers – exceeding attendance expectations.  The exhibit hall was overwhelming.  Companies are still spending.  Digital is still growing.  The hottness of the party scene further confirmed this – smart businesses are growing and spending.

The tone was upbeat (although these industry conferences always are) for continued growth in digital.  As brands continue to tighten their spending, digital is still seen as an area with potential for ROI.

What is Hot? Social and Mobile.

The two “hottest” areas at ad:tech NY were social media marketing and mobile marketing.

Social Media is transitioning from infancy and ideation to real results.  We are seeing a clear shift in brands from simply creating assets (i.e. having a Facebook Fan Page or Twitter account) to building creative campaigns that leverage the social space.  Success in the social space is about creating contagious ideas that drive conversation.  Sharing is the new form of syndication and it has to be earned (vs. bought with traditional media).  Listening in social media is one of the keys to preventing social media disaster – especially since content spreads so quickly online.

While every year is “the year of mobile” one of the key trends from ad:tech was the interest in mobile and the general acceptance that mobile will become a key way that consumers consume digital content.  Mobile apps like the Charmin “Sit or Squat” app provide brands with opportunities to really add value.  Consumers vote on quality of toilets and there have been amazing results:  8.5 million mobile web ad impressions, 350 million impressions, 400,000 app downloads since the Charmin sponsorship.

While there is a lot of hype around mobile, one of the key questions to ask is: Is the Mobile Web a New Marketing Tool or an Extension?  That was the question posed by keynote Jonathan Miller, chief digital officer and chairman/CEO of the digital media group at News Corp., New York.  He went on to say that marketers and brands do not know how to treat the mobile space.

Brands need to include a mobile strategy early and learn how mobile web behaviors differ vs. traditional.

Don’t Forget Nuts and Bolts Digital Marketing

While social and mobile get lots of hype, traditional digital marketing might be your best opportunity to drive results.  Things like email marketing, landing page optimization, search marketing, PPC and branded websites are often downplayed, however these basic online marketing tactics are known to consistently drive results.

Queensland Tourism (the ones who ran the ultimate dream job campaign) said that most of their audience preferred to be contacted via email vs. on social sites.  That being said, social sites were the single biggest driver of traffic to the site.

One caveat to this type of analysis – twitter has experienced tremendous growth over the last few years, so increases in mentions, keywords, etc may not be related to your social media efforts, much of it may be just be related to the overall growth in twitter.

Here are some twitter tools for measuring volume reviewed, along with the pros and cons of each.

Twadl.com

Twadle creates a chart for you that shows you the daily volume of mentions of your keyword over time.

Pros:

• Nice chart
• Simple to use

Cons

• Only goes back 1500 tweets – if you have a popular brand (like skittles) this only gives you a few days worth of data.
• Not enough history

Trendistic.com

Trendistic.com shows a ton of data (thanks to Noah Coffey @blogindiana for the reco).  It is easy to use and shows you the volume of a keyword for 24 hours, 7 days, 30 days 90 days or 180 days (still not long enough to get year on year trends).  Despite the lengthy negatives, once this service gets the kinks out it will be really cool.

Pros

• Lots of data
• You can embed the charts
• Shows individual tweets as well (static or dynamic)
• You can tweet the chart directly from the page

Cons

• Data doesn’t seem to be correct (it is in beta).  You’ll notice it shows zero for recent days however there are clearly hundreds of tweets mentioning skittles each day.
• The embed option is a script which doesn’t play nice with wordpress – in this blog it showed a large version of the chart that went way off the page – you can pick large or small charts but you can’t customize beyond that.
• If it determines (and I have no idea how) that you don’t have a lot of volume for your term you will be restricted to the.  This seems to come up in error – with Skittles it had previously shown the data and then popped up the error message (see below).

Trendistic 180 day data for Skittles

Trendistic Error Message for Skittles

Trendrr.com

Trendrr is a paid for service (although you can do 10 pulls for free) that lets you track trends on multiple social sites.  I created a free account for the client I was researching and the twitter feed didn’t pull up (other social networks however did). (Thanks to Erick Osia for sending this site through).

I re-ran it for skittles and got results.  You can see in the chart below that you can select a number of time-frames with “max” being about 8 months.

Pros

• Accurate data
• Easy enough to use (although slightly more complex than others)
• Lots of flexibility in time periods
• Can view daily or hourly
• Shows root data also
• More than just twitter
• 8 months of history

Cons

• Have to pay for more than 10 queries
• With client work got no data (not sure why)

What other tools are out there? What is your experience with these tools?