Among the best Google products I love playing with are Google Docs, especially Google Spreadsheets. They are feature-rich, highly flexible, reliable, and, on top of that, absolutely free.

I've been using Google Spreadsheets for ages... for campaign tracking, reporting, automating, and aggregating some of the most complex search engine optimization (SEO) and social media tasks.

In this article, I'll share the three most useful, yet easy-to-implement, Google spreadsheet tips any online marketer would find useful.

 

1. Google Spreadsheet Functions and Scripts

The beauty of Google Spreadsheets is its flexibility. You can be as creative as you want (or, at least, as "your geekiness" permits). If you are not ready to spend hours trying to figure out Google functions and Google scripts, here's a quick look at the three most interesting ones:

Script* / function

What does it do?

Google spreadsheet to demonstrate it

Courtesy / further instructions

=importxml("URL"; "xPath")

Works great for scraping any Web data (e.g., search results)

Google's RELATED: search results  (via)

Built-in

=FacebookLikes(URL)

Counts Facebook "Likes," shares, and comments for any URL. It's great to use in combination with =importxml function to automatically extract social media interaction for the scraped search results.

Facebook LIKE Analytics

FB Like Counter

=tweetMemeCount(URL)

Counts tweets for any  URL (based on Tweetmeme). It's great to use in combination with =importxml function to automatically extract social media interaction for the scraped search results

Easy Reputation Management Spreadsheet

PHP Climber

*Though functions will work as soon as you copy-paste into the cell, a script requires additional effort. To install a new script to your Google spreadsheet, do the following:

  • Go to Tools > Script gallery.
  • Find the script, and click "Install."

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Three Awesome Google Spreadsheet Hacks for Marketers

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

image of Ann  Smarty

Ann Smarty is founder of ViralContentBee, a Web-based platform that uses a crowdsourcing model to facilitate the generation of real "social buzz" on quality content. She also offers guest-blogging services at SEO Smarty.

LinkedIn: Ann Smarty

Twittter: @seosmarty