What are people saying about you or your business on social networks?   Social network search engines exist specifically to filter out common search engine results and show you what conversations are taking place around brands, people and topics across the world. Listed below are some of my favorite social network search engines that I use.

Yet, before I list them, why do you think these would be good to use?  Well, some of the reasons I use them are to do quick searches for a clients brand conversations or topics that are in alignment with a clients brand.  Think about it for a second.  If you knew there was an increase in social conversations on specific networks, wouldn't those be good candidates to increase your social media marketing efforts?  Well, in a quick review of a few of these top social search engines you can uncover brand influencers, track what people are saying about you, locate high engagment networks, determine reach of your brands social posts and so much more.

1. Social Mention is a social media search and analysis platform that aggregates user generated content from across the universe into a single stream of information. It allows you to easily track and measure what people are saying about you, your company, a new product, or any topic across the web's social media landscape in real-time. Social Mention monitors 100+ social media properties directly including: Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, YouTube, Digg, Google etc.  Oh, and you can set up "Social Media Alert" tracking that sends you updates through email!
2. Kurrently is a real-time social media search engine that focuses primarily on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.   I like the simplicity of this one that makes it easy to switch results based on three buttons.  It will really blow your mind to see how much information is available to internet searches external of being logged into facebook.
3. Topsy is last but definetly not least.  It's actually one of my power tools for real-time insights into online conversations.  It provides me not only with the most recent search results, but also very relevant search results based on the social influence of the online conversation.  This tool helps anyone attempting to do a social media audit a step in the right direction. But, don't get me wrong there are $100/month tools that can do similar.  I'm just suggesting you try this beast out for a while.  I'd recommend reading this blog post to learn more about How to use Topsy.

After you take a peek at a few of these social search search tools let me know what you think.  Does it seem useful, does it concern you, is there room to make it better?  Please leave your comments below!