In the last post we reviewed some of the free and paid tools to help you monitor the Internet not just Social Media. Although social media sites will be where a bulk of your monitoring will occur. The question always comes up “what should I monitor and what should I do?” In this post we will focus on “what should you monitor”, next week we will cover how you should interact.
Step 1) Define your purpose for starting a monitoring program. Keep it simple, don’t over think and more importantly keep it sustainable. By creating a clear purpose you will be able to focus what is important. Some reasons for monitoring;
- Product or Service development
- Sentiment of your brand or product
- Service issues/questions
- Competition
- Marketing
- Sales
When you have defined your primary purpose, define the outcome of success. It may be research for a new product. The outcome would be if you should continue as is, or go a different direction.
Step 2) Score your results so the results can be quantified. I like to score a 1 thru 5, it gives you enough room to really grade but still keeps it narrow enough to be useful. The scoring would relate directly to your purpose you have defined. Create the average, and what areas you are monitoring, like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or blogs in general.
Step 3) Define the places and Keywords you will use. Keywords will really define what you monitor by default since you only get what you asked for. So make sure you are asking for the right thing. Take the time to test them prior to start monitoring.
Step 4) Create a time line for your monitoring, track how many returns you get if practical. Any program should be at least 30 days, ideally 45 to 60. This will give you a better sample of what is being said and avoid a quick trend that could skew your results.
Step 4a) Don’t trash your reporting or program, you may need them to follow up later. This will allow you to compare at a later date.
Step 5) Document your observations not just numbers and locations. This is not always for your boss or customer, it is a way for you to further understand the results. Think of it as an exercise to help you understand at a deeper level what is happening around you.
There are many things you can learn along the way, always keep a hand notebook, e-doc or spreadsheet if you find something interesting but out of scope.
How do you currently monitor? Do you monitor your brand at all?
Think about how often you are going to monitor, and how you are going to capture the information.
