Does the marketing world need another trend-spotting tool for Twitter? Toronto-based gShift thinks so and today added a Social Keyword Research module to its web analytics platform for high-end clients.

The tool is designed to keep up with the 58 million daily posts on Twitter and help marketers create content that drives traffic by reflecting the interests of the targeted audience.

Suite Integration

krista lariviere

That much isn't new, of course. There are many Twitter trend tools available, starting with Twitter's free search options and such geocentric tools as Trendsmap.com, which shows trends regionally through a zoom-able map. The gShift entry provides a longer-term view and also integrates with its suite, which the five-year-old company claims is now used by 10,000 brands in 22 countries.

“The biggest challenge faced today by marketing departments and firms is producing the kind of content that engages prospects and customers,” Krista LaRiviere, gShift's Cofounder and CEO, said in a statement. “With the Social Keyword Research module we’re providing brands with the opportunity to find what resonates with their audience and ultimately break through the clutter in a shorter amount of time.”

According to gShift, Twitter offers a "unique" environment to understand influences through keywords, hashtags and other sources. LaRiviere called the trend-spotting tool "a reverse engineering weapon" that can extract keywords in real-time and apply them to marketing search and social strategies.

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More specifically, it can show the frequency of conversations involving those factors in connection with the keyword and related content.

The company already offers  mobile traffic analysis, keyword metrics, social signals and back-linking tools designed for in-house and agency marketers.

The company, which offers tiers of service to customers, says on its website that the module is available on the Agency Pro level or above. The Agency Pro level is priced at $1,299 a month. However, CTO and co-founder Chris Adams said it could also be added as a stand-alone product for about $50 a month to other levels, including the $99-a-month Small Business level.

Adams said the primary advantage of the module over most other Twitter trending tools is that it tracks trends related to particular topics over a long period, allowing marketers to plan content marketing campaigns in advance.

Longer Term

"We're listening to it 27/7. We're constantly looking," he said, noting that information is available for marketers as they plan their content marketing effort. "A lot of content marketers are not working in real time."

Adams said the company is already planning a version of the module to work with Google Plus, bypassing Facebook and LinkedIn.

"Twitter and Google Plus seem to be the places that people are going to learn and share information," he explained. "Facebook and LinkedIn are places where people already have relationships."