From Denmark to Detroit, social media is a worldwide phenomenon that seems to be part addiction and part necessity. With Facebook's recent announcement that it's hit 500 million users and Twitter's move toward advertising with @earlybird it's becoming more apparent that if you want to get the word out about your business you need to step into the social media arena. However, all the excitement about social media doesn't mean much if you can't decipher what it means and what it's doing. Analytics to social media are like a compass to a navigator - if you don't understand where you're at you won't know where to go.

If the thought of analytics and numbers makes you shudder you're not alone. There are more people than not who feel intimidated by numerical data. The two toughest aspects of social media analytics are interpreting information and deciding what analytic tools best meet your needs. Fortunately, basic analytics doesn't require a PhD in statistics and the internet is filled with outstanding free tools and resources to help make metric crunching easy. So, if you can't afford enterprise-level services like Scout Labs, Radian6 or Sysomos, you'll want to check out some of the freebies below to help you get a grip on your analytics.

Blogs

Use PostRank to help rank your blog content and news and and to determine what your fans are reading, sharing and organizing. It also identifies what your most popular posts are in your RSS feed.

Think of BlogPulse as a search engine for blogs and their posts. It's similar to Technorati, but it provides additional views such as trending and conversations so that you can see search competitive topics and how other blogs are ranking.

Comments

Beyond standard search for keywords and brand names you’ll want to penetrate what’s being discussed in blog commenting systems too. That’s where YackTrack comes in. Simply enter your keywords or terms to see a nicely organized list that you can drilldown to get specific mentions from.

Branding

One of the more substantial branding tools available is Social Mention. It aggregates user generated content from across multiple social media platforms and streamlines outcomes into a very simple and easy to interpret web page. The one thing Social Mention doesn't do is show a report over time. A work around this missing feature is to create an Excel spreadsheet and manually enter daily data that you gather. Otherwise, it's a great (and free) tool.

Perhaps more of an entertainment tool rather than a true metric evaluator, How Sociable measures your brand's keywords throughout 32 different social media sites. There's some confusion around the 'visibility score' that How Sociable has developed and not all data appears to be accurate. For example, if you run a search on iPhone it yields a visibility score of 9,453 and a Google PageRank score of zero. Odd to say the least. Looks like brand visibility metrics might have a few glitches, but it’ still worth exploring.

Trends & Topics

Head over to Addict-o-Matic and enter a unique search term, brand or product name or just about anything and it will perform a search that delivers the buzz (or results) broken down by social media platform. It's a very convenient snapshot that let's you look at your social reach and the social sites where you have more presence in comparison to others.

Twitter

There are so many Twitter tools available that deciding which one to use can be a daunting task. For the purpose of benchmarking your brand against your competition, Twitalyzer is ideal. It shows you what social media strategies are working and what’s not, which makes it easy to adjust social media campaigns to maximize better results.

The power of influence is a core component in any social media campaign. Knowing who has better reach and strength and engaging with them can help persuade your audience to promote your brand. Klout measures influence as it relates to your brand through Twitter. You can identify which customers and communities are more likely to become brand evangelists and work with them to drive conversations.

Another hand Twitter tool is TweetStats. You can graph how many tweets per hour, day and month, as well as look at your tweet timeline and reply statistics. TweetStats is a fantastic way to track your level of interaction and look at areas that need improvement.

Google

Google Analytics (GA) may leave you feeling unnerved, but it actually does a tremendous job on tracking numbers and data. We'll save GA how-tos for a future post. In the meantime, use PageRank Checker to see what Google thinks of your site. Using a scale from zero to 10, with 10 holding the most authority, you can run a quick search to find out how you rank.

In order for GA to actually work on your website you need to install tracking code on each page that you want the Google bot spiders to crawl. To make sure that you've set-up your code use SiteScan to confirm that you've performed a correct installation. Although SiteScan and PageRank Checker aren't direct analytic tools they are helpful in gauging Google-related tasks and standards.

Competitive

Quarkbase has been touted as the ‘imdb.com for websites’. By entering a website’s URL you are presented with names of people associated with the site, traffic data, social popularity, site description and sites that are similar. This is one of the best free competitive research tools available. Data can be used to help you better position your brand and establish goals and objectives.

There you have it. Granted, there are so many tools, free and paid, that accessible on the web, we hope that this short list gets you moving in the right direction.

What are some of the other free tools that you're using? How do you make them work for your brand and what do you like best about them? Share with us.

Social media continues to evolve in amazing and creative ways. Just when you think you've seen it all, a fresh spin on a simple concept will pop-up and completely change everything. Enter Stickybits. Founded by social media entrepreneur Seth Goldstein and software engineer Billy Chasen, Stickybits lets people take barcode stickers and adhere them to objects and then use an iPhone app or Android app to scan the barcode. The fun part comes when people attach digital information to the barcode by either embedding messages and text or attaching videos or photos to it.

An Example

A better way to explain the concept is by using an example. Let's say you bought a birthday card for your best friend and you put a Stickybits sticker inside of it. You use the barcode sticker to attach a funny video of you singing her favorite song. Next, you sign, seal and deliver the card and when your pal receives it she uses her smartphone to scan the barcode. She'll be connected to the video and a happy birthday greeting from you. Stickybits uses SimpleGeo to automatically encode GPS information into the barcode that forms a trail each and every time the barcode is scanned. Nifty.

Stickybits barcodes can be purchased from Amazon ($9.95 for a pack of 20 vinyl barcodes) or you can download up to 50 unique barcodes directly from Stickybits and send them to your printer for instant use. Once you've got your barcodes you're only limited by the boundaries of your creativity. There are limitless possibilities with Stickybits on a social media marketing level.

Business Cards

Some people are attaching Stickybits to their business cards and including links to their blogs, resumes and LinkedIn profiles. The great thing about Stickybits is that you can update what your barcode links to as often as you wish. This allows you to keep things current and interesting for new business relationships and potential clients. Plus, you can keep tabs on who's scanning and viewing your barcode by setting up alerts. You can even receive notifications that tell you when your barcode is on the move or if it's changed locations. A nice feature for anyone who's attending a networking event and handing out multiple cards to leads.

Zazzle

Stickybits has partnered with Zazzle, the online retailer that allows users to upload their own images and create their own merchandise, like shirts, posters and coffee mugs, or purchase merchandise created by others. Essentially, you could print Stickybits t-shirts that feature a barcode that your customers can wear, scan and keep to access unique offers or discounts. Regular updates will keep offers fresh and your customers become a trendy, walking marketing tool for your company.

People are applying Stickybits to cereal boxes and sharing recipes that contain the cereal as a main ingredient. Others are designing flyers with Stickybits and attaching videos for people to see instead of traditional photos. Stickybits has tremendous potential and it would be no surprise to see it adopted by the masses. It's definitely a must-watch website and application that we predict to be a social media success in the next year.

Currently, there are more than three million active Facebook Pages on the top ranked site, with the typical Page boasting an average of less than 1,000 fans - oops, I mean 'likes' (seriously, that just doesn't roll off your tongue quite the same way). Standing out from the static requires you to dress up your Page and make it more interesting and fun for your 'likers'. That's where Facebook applications come in. They're basically like plugins for your Page and there are tens of thousands of them available. Deciding what apps you'd like to incorporate depends on how you'd like to engage with your peeps (that's an even better word than 'likers').

Here's a compilation of some must have applications for any Page. They're great additions to the the basic layout that Facebook provides and they can be used in interesting ways to move your 'likes' into action.

Static FBML

Yes, mentioning this application seems totally redundant because it seem to make it on every single must-have Facebook application list. However, it's really that great. This application is what lets you customize tabs and content on your Page and transform it into part of your brand. The only downside with Static FBML is that you need to have some knowledge of HTML, CSS and Facebook Markup Language (FBML) so that you can create the code needed for content display. Examples of Static FBML in action are the Victoria's Secret Page, MontBlanc Page and Gary Vaynerchuk Page.

Twitter for Pages

There are actually quite a few Twitter applications for Facebook, but either not all of them work very well or they are meant for a basic profile and not an actual Page. With that being said, Involver's Twitter for Pages is a quick and easy way to bring your Twitter stream into a tab of its own so that people can catch up with your tweets from Facebook. Just add and you're done.

Fan Appz

For serious social media marketing, you'll want to install Fan Appz on your Page. The Fan Appz application is comprised of a suite of sub-apps. It contains polls, sweepstakes, promotions and coupons and more. There's even a gift store that you can set-up to monetize your Page with brand merchandise that people can purchase. The advantage of Fan Appz is that instead of having to install individual applications for each one of these functions, you get them all in one central location. Convenient and powerful.

Welcome Tab For Pages

This very simple application lets page owners showcase just about anything. From profiles and businesses to products and upcoming events, the Welcome Tab for Pages is an ideal way to communicate with 'likers' (still hate that word, sigh). This application has a fantastic bonus feature - it comes with its own analytics and metrics so that you can track and measure how your Welcome tab is being received and make adjustments if necessary. Uber cool!

Page Maps

Give your business more visibility by adding a custom map your Page. Highlight your location and include surrounding points of interest too. The Page Maps application displays a mini-map with links to a larger map or directions. In a virtual world, having a map that features your business lets people know that you're not just an electronic profile, but an actual person and/or company.

Eventbrite

If you have special events, upcoming activities or group gatherings that you need to promote then consider adding Eventbrite to your Page. Created by the online event management and ticketing services company of the same name, Eventbrite publishes an event page directly on Facebook with your event details and a link to buy tickets. Your event is promoted through your newsfeed for all to see (and hopefully attend). Do you have to sell tickets to your event? Not a problem. For a small fee, Eventbrite can help you coordinate ticket sales too.

My Top Fans

Just like it says, this application shows you who your top fans are for your Page (wonder if they'll rename this to My Top Likes - sorry, I just can't seem to let it go). The application analyzes interactions and calculates who is sharing and engaging the most with you. Once you find out who's at the top, why not profile them as a 'Fan of the Month' or thank them with branded merchandise, like a t-shirt and post a photo of them wearing it on your Page. Stretch your creative muscles and put this app to work.

SlideShare

Import your existing SlideShare.net presentations from your account directly into Facebook. This application is integrated with the SlideShare application on LinkedIn. That means if you upload a presentation to LinkedIn, it will also show up on your SlideShare application on Facebook  and on your  main SlideShare.net account and vice versa. A major timesaver, but also a nice social media aggregation feature with SlideShare.

LinkedIn

Since your Page is already promoting your business, services and products, kick it up a notch and make it easy for fans to socially network with you on LinkedIn. Installation of this application is super simple and it gives you the option of featuring a LinkedIn button in a tab or box on your sidebar.

Web Profiles

Show off your other social media profiles with Web Profiles. There are more than 180 different social media platforms to choose from so chances are no matter what site you're a member of you'll find it on the Web Profiles list. If your site is more obscure than common you can instantly add it and feature it in your customized complilation. Much nicer than having to email the developer with a request to add and then having to sit back and play the waiting game.

My Countdown

Build up excitement around new product launches, grand openings, give-aways or just about anything that you have going on with your company. My Countdown can be added to any Page to countdown to the big hoo-rah that you've got cooking. And, you can customize its appearance and add icons to make it your own.

DivShare

With DivShare you can expand the types of content that you're sharing with your fans. Instead of being limited to sharing just links, DivShare allows you to attach MP3s, images, videos, documents and just about any other type of file that you can think of. You have the option of posting shared files to your Page, adding them to your news feed or choosing to share among groups of people or individuals. Max files size is 200 MB, which is a more than ample file sharing size.