Social Media Monitoring Isn’t Sexy. But it isn’t negotiable

October 06, 2009 by Chuck

Anybody that spends more than 30 seconds in the social media world would be able to tell you that “stories” spread like wildfire. With the explosion of sites like Twitter, stories can reach hundreds of thousands of eyeballs long before you have had the opportunity to react. The only way that you, as a company, can try to stay on top of the conversation is through social media monitoring.

However, as is the case with traditional media monitoring, most companies aren’t monitoring their brands in social media. And if they are, they are taking a bare bones approach. Why? I think we’re in need of a reality check here…everything else in social media is negotiable. I’ll give the kool-aid drinkers a second to gather their thoughts and start pounding away on me (cue jeopardy theme music). OK, ready? Wherever you are on the social media spectrum - kool-aid drinker, personal user, strong understanding of the business applications - you should know that, for companies, participation in social media is negotiable. Not EVERY company needs to be using these tools to reach external audiences. Not EVERY company should be developing strategies for Facebook, Twitter and the like. Even what you are measuring, if you do happen to engage external audiences, is somewhat negotiable based on your goals and objectives.

That being said, the only way you would know if an external approach is appropriate is through monitoring. I’ve written a lot here, and on other blogs about how to approach monitoring. I’ve even written about how to structure your listening program (the 5W’s if you will recall). And I am not nearly the only one that’s preached the importance of social monitoring. In addition to being a brand reputation management tool, further amplified by new tools like Google’s Sidewiki it also provides critical insight into what your customer is thinking about you at any given moment. Yeah, yeah…I know…you know all about your customer. But anyone that’s spent anytime in marketing will tell you that consumer sentiment can shift with a few bad experiences - a shift that’s only magnified by the free flow of information through social networks.

Most companies, if asked, would say they are very interested in what their customers are saying. Ask those same companies to pay for monitoring and they balk. Perhaps we need to rebrand social media monitoring as audience research? That’s essentially what social media monitoring is, right? Maybe with the advent of tools like Microsoft’s LookingGlass, where we can overlay market research on top of social media monitoring results, will help that process. I don’t know. What I do know is that social media monitoring isn’t negotiable and we need to figure out a way to make sure companies are using commercially available tools for ONGOING monitoring - not just a one-shot deal. Maybe you can help me…how do we get to a place where all companies are using commercially available tools for ongoing monitoring?

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