This post originally appeared on the oneforty blog.



Quantifying the value of social media is a necessity for PR professionals.



The problem is there is no magic bullet. A few tools are generally useful when measuring social media, but there is no one tool to tell you everything you need to know. Trust me—I’ve searched for it.



Here is a list of some of my favorite tools to use when evaluating social media or PR efforts. Again, keep in mind that these are not perfect, but there’s a time and place for each.



1. Microsoft Excel. Before you go calling me a nerd, hear me out. Excel enables you to do simple things like keep track of a list of blog posts about your brand, and it enables you to perform more complicated calculations. You can easily track the volume of social media conversations over time or find the average number of comments your brand’s Facebook status updates receive. The sky really is the limit.



2. Facebook Insights. If you have a Facebook page, the Insights tool is pretty darn handy. You can explore the basics, such as connections or fans. Plus, you can dive deeper into demographic stats, which can help you determine whether you’re reaching your target audience, and interaction stats, which can show you what content most engages your Facebook fans



3. Google Search Insights. This tool enables you to track how searches for particular terms or phrases are changing over time. This is a great way to show whether you have moved the search needle, specifically if you’ve offered a new message. If you want to be known as “Mom’s favorite peanut butter,” try running this through Google Search Insights to see whether more people have searched for the term after your campaign. You can also compare search terms to determine whether more consumers are searching for your brand than that of your competitors.



4. Radian6. This paid service may not be a reasonable solution for everyone, but Radian6 can be a fantastic tool for measuring social media. It aggregates content from across the Web based on keyword searches, and it’s easy to track coverage over time and analyze sentiment. There are also great workflow options available making it easy to track and understand social media chatter. (Note: I recommend manually assigning sentiment yourself, but the automated sentiment can still serve as a useful index.)



5. Topsy. I always recommend using a URL shortener to track links that you share about your own campaigns, but if you want to know how many people have tweeted a negative blog post about your brand, then Topsy is a great tool. You can search for any URL, and it will tell you how many people have shared it on Twitter. Though I’ve noticed it’s not always 100 percent accurate, it can be a great way to index how people share relevant posts