EQUTE — There are so, so many different software packages designed to help keep tabs of social media, and many are quite pricey.

Even if the general public could sign on, CoTweet runs $1,500 a month — just for Twitter — and other services charge monthly fees and huge start up fees just to sign on. So how can one keep tabs on their brand, their site, their product or their business leaders within the social media landscape?

Well one option is Yahoo!

Yahoo! you say?

Yes.

I had never personally used much before, but the Yahoo! Pipes are pretty interesting and are something I will surely use in the future. Just type in your business, brand, CEO etc and see what people are saying across all of social media. Since you can drop in several keywords and really get an eye on what people are saying. And instead of going to all the hundreds of sites and searching internally the “social media fire hose” checks them all and gives you a handy list and map.

Play around with it, there are scores of other interesting Yahoo! Pipes for just about anything.