Do you know how you’re being talked about? Have you set up a plan for following your competition and even countering any negative commentary? With the four most popular social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and blogs) growing exponentially every day, marketers participating in social media must also efficiently track the exposure they’re getting.
How can you follow the conversations being held about your company? There are free options out there such as Google Alerts, which is as easy as selecting the term you’d like to monitor, the type of media you’d like to follow (blog, web page or video, for example) and how often you’d like to receive this information. You can run simple searches on Twitter. Sign up for free services like Technorati, founded as the first blog search engine which crosses platforms such as Twitter and blogs. Once you’re in, you can run searches on the conversations you’re most interested in following… like those about your own company and the competition! An increasing number of companies, such as Radian6, Scout Labs and Techrigy, offer paid monitoring.
All these options can both help you judge the effectiveness of your social media efforts and track what people are saying about you. It’s as important as behavioral analysis of more traditional campaigns or promotions. You can quickly find out whether your Twitter followers are asking customer-related questions, if your most recent marketing promotion is being received favorably or how well your customer service is perceived. In the end, it’s all about better understanding your customers, industry and competition.
Let us know what social monitoring tools you’ve come across and recommend!