Lara Kretler’s blog

Each Friday I bring you five finds from the world of web 2.0, whether cool sites or links or happenings. This week I’m focusing on tools and toys I call “visual monitoring” devices. These aren’t necessarily useful for longterm social media monitoring or tracking over time, but they are great for showing what’s happening right now in the world of social media - and they do so in a very visual way. I find these to be fantastic sites to bring up when “demo-ing” social media for new folks. Because of their visual nature, these tools make a great first impression.

1.  TopicHawk. Just as Twitter answers the question “What are you doing?”, monitoring post TopicHawk answers the question “Right now, people are talking about…” Just plug in any keyword and up pops a steady stream of real-time findings which may include mentions from Twitter, Technorati, Friendfeed, Google News, Yahoo News, Wikipedia and more. TopicHawk also shows you what hot topics and keywords are currently trending on Twitter and Google. Here’s an example – just for fun, I put in the keywords “Lost TV” to see what it would bring back about ABC’s Lost. Imagine the impact of having this on your big screen, with your client’s brand as the keyword entered, next time they stop in for a meeting.

2. Spy. Not unlike TwitterHawk, Spy is another way to quickly and easily see conversations in social media based on keywords you enter. Early adopter Louis Gray enthused about Spy, calling it an interesting offering that offers the ability to watch not just Twitter, but also blog posts, Google Reader shares and FriendFeed. At a September social media club breakfast, Best Buy showed off Spy as a way to demonstrate how the company engages in social media. I plugged in another TV show, American Idol, to see what Spy would bring back. It’s pretty entertaining to sit back and watch the conversation flow.

3. Addictomatic. This is a fun, user-friendly little site which allows you to set up a social media listening dashboard for instant access to all the online buzz on a particular topic or keyword. Addictomatic’s tagline is “Inhale the web” and that’s exactly what it allows you to do. Some time ago, I set up a vanity page on myself and now I visit it every once in a while to be sure everything is as it should be. This is something I recommend as part of a personal online reputation management strategy, and certainly it makes sense for companies or brands to have their own Addictomatic pages as well.

4. TwitterFountain. A widget rather than a site, TwitterFountain mashes up Twitter and Flickr search results into a visually pleasing flow on your blog or social network profile page. It’s a little quirky and was created in the Netherlands so you may see some Dutch words pop up here and there, but I think it’s pretty fun. You can see the TwitterFountain widget in action on my PRopenMic page. It’s a bit orange, but I’m sure you can tweak the color if you’re just a little more tech savvy than I am.

5. NetVibes Listening Post. This one requires a special thank you to my colleague Dave Chlastosz, aka the King of NetVibes. I knew about NetVibes but had never spent time with it until I saw what Dave had done with it for a client. It blew my mind. It’s like one-stop shopping for all your social media needs, including blogs, widgets, RSS feeds and more. The thing about NetVibes is that you do need to spend some time – probably a couple of hours – setting it up the way you want it. Once you have it set up though, NetVibes is a thing of beauty and a real time-saver. Here’s a link to mine which is a work in progress. I continue to add blogs, create new category tabs, find new widgets and move things around.

There you have it – my five favorite social monitoring tools with a cool visual twist. I hope you found something new to work or play with.

Now, what have I missed – what else belongs on this list? And what would you like me to cover in my next Friday Five?