WhosTalkin is a new social media search tool that makes it easy to search multiple social media sources. It has a clean interface where you quickly search, scan, and click through blogs, micro media, news, forums, social bookmarking sites, social networking sites, and other sources that are talking about you. It's free, but if you want to grab the results in a RSS, it looks like that will be the pro service. There isn't any functionality that lets you summarize or visualize the data, slice and dice the results, or integrate into your workflow like Radian 6.
I listen in many different ways. Powerful listening is done through Radian 6, but I also have a Ruby Goldberg like set up of RSS feeds from about 25 different sources that search on my name, my blog url, and the various mispellings. (I also monitor specific topics, keywords, etc) So, WhosTalkin would elminate the set up the hassle.
I used to just get Google Alerts via email, but found that didn't catch everything. Google Alerts now has RSS feeds, I read those in my RSS and am able to compare what captures what. Of course, if you want to effective listening - you need to have powerful scanning skills, pattern recognition, and most importantly link your listening to action. Otherwise, you'll get overwhelmed and distracted.
What my Ruby Goldberg set up of RSS feeds doesn't have is a sweep through social networks and WhosTalkin has searches through the bigger online social networks. It's facinating to see who is talking about you in the LinkedIn questions.
It's another for the listening tool box!
Who do you currently listen for what people are saying about you, your organization or issue? What tools are you using? What do you think are the most skills for effective social media listening?
Beth's Blog covers nonprofits and social media.