Social media analytics and tracking can be very time-consuming and expensive. You’ll find quite a few smart social media monitoring tools, but what if you can’t afford them?
That’s why many social media marketers and power users are in constant search of free, efficient alternatives. Here, we’ll share a few ready-made spreadsheets you can copy (navigate File + Make a copy) and use for social media analytics. They are free, highly customizable and extremely easy to use.
Most of the scripts that run the spreadsheets are “public,” meaning you can access them from the Tools + Script Gallery menu (this also means they were reviewed and approved by Google Spreadsheets team).
1. Fetch Twitter Search Results
GetTweets is a simple and fast Google Spreadsheet script that lets you quickly export Twitter search results into a spreadsheet. You can play with the spreadsheets in two ways.
- Increase the number of results returned — up to 1,500. I managed to fetch about 1,300.
- Twitter search operators can help you filter out links (search “-filter:links“) and find tweeted questions (search “?“). Check out this article on advanced social media search as well as this list for more search terms.
Spreadsheet details:
- Public script? Yes.
- Copy the spreadsheet here.
- Spreadsheet credit: AutomateAnalytics.com.
2. Count Facebook Likes and Shares
FacebookLikes script evaluates Facebook user interaction for any given range of URLs. It will display:
- Facebook like count.
- Facebook share count.
- Facebook comment count.
- Overall Facebook interaction.
Additionally, the spreadsheet’s embedded chart lets you compare Facebook interaction for the number of pages provided.
Spreadsheet details:
- Public script? Yes.
- Copy the spreadsheet here.
- Spreadsheet credit: Facebook Likes Counter.
3. Compare Facebook Pages
Like the previous spreadsheet, FacebookFans is a Google macro based on Facebook API. For any Facebook page ID, it fetches the number of fans. It also visualizes the data with a pretty pie chart. Track your as well as your competitors’ Pages using the script, and the numbers will update each time you open the spreadsheet — easy!
Spreadsheet details:
- Public script? Yes.
- Copy the spreadsheet here.
- Spreadsheet credit: Facebook Fans Counter.
4. Monitor Social Media Reputation
This spreadsheet not only generates Google search results for the term you provide, but also fetches Twitter and Facebook counts for each page returned. Anyone can easily run a search for his or her brand name and see how actively it’s being discussed in social media.
Try using a few search Google operators, for example:
- ["brand name" -intitle:"brand name"] to find in-text brand mentions you are most likely to have missed.
- [inurl:"guest * post" search term] to find recent guest blogging opportunities on the topic of your interest. Note: if you are getting a “too many connections” error, try another search to refresh the scripts. Or re-save the scripts from Tools + Script Manager.
Spreadsheet details:
5. Extract and Archive Your Followers
This spreadsheet is the hardest to set up, but also has the most complex functionality. It lets you extract your friends and followers to easily search and filter your Twitter contacts.
The script requires your own Twitter API key (which is pretty easy to get), and provides easy-to-follow set up instructions. Try running the scripts a couple of times to get them working. Go to Tools + Script Manager and run Test script.
If you have done everything correctly, a Twitter Auth will pop up. Then, you’ll be able to authenticate your own application. After, go to Twitter + Get Followers and you should see the tool importing your following list. However, if you have large following, you likely won’t be able to import it all (for me, that meant about 5,000 recent followers).
Spreadsheet details:
- Public scripts? No.
- Copy the spreadsheet here.
- Spreadsheet credit: Export Twitter Followers and Friends.
Are you aware of any other useful, social media-related Google spreadsheets? Please share them in the comments!
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Jirsack
article written by Ann Smarty on Mashable
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