Social Media Monitoring

Large organisations are increasingly using social media monitoring as a way to find out what the public are saying about their products, services, brands or employees on the Internet. When the technique was initially developed, it was largely for the purpose of crisis management. It was invaluable for a company to know if someone had made a negative comment about their product or service on Twitter for example. This would give them the opportunity to respond to it in real-time, appease the customer, offer a refund and generally deal with the situation without a viral hate campaign ensuing.

Social Media monitoring is used by numerous departments, from public relations and marketing to product development, customer services and even human resources. As well as monitoring the most popular social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, organisations are looking at customer support forums, LinkedIn other websites and relevant blogs.

There are hundreds of software options that allow businesses to monitor social media in various ways. When choosing a product, it is important to consider what you are trying to achieve. If your focus is on improving customer service by listening to consumer opinion, you will need different software from a marketing department that is looking to encourage buyers away from their competitors.

You need to decide whether merely to tune in to your own Facebook page or whether you are looking to monitor the rest of the wider social shpere. Another important consideration is language; for example, if your product is big in Europe, you may wish to tap into what is being said in several different languages.

In order to conduct social media monitoring, you will need to adhere to the stringent privacy laws of the country in which you operate.