Monitor and listen: Monitor social channels as frequently as you can. Utilize services that will help push notifications to you so you can ensure you’re not missing meaningful conversations across the web. There are countless apps for Twitter and Facebook (SocialEngage, HootSuite, TweetDeck, etc.) available, and you can set up alerts, as well (Fresh Web Explorer, IFTTT). Often the admin tools of various platforms will have this functionality built in. As you monitor, genuinely listen to what your customers tell you. Social listening data provides endless insights for brands and companies willing to listen. This can be your product feedback channel, your user experience consultation, and even your early warning system for when things gone awry.
Measurement: Just as you can glean insights about your products by sifting through your web analytics, you can gain similar clues by watching and measuring the performance of your social channels. Do posts about one product frequently outperform similar posts about another? Your customers might be telling you something about which they like better.
Determining your new channel’s goals should be something you think about from the very beginning. Why are you engaging on this new channel? What are you trying to get out of it? After you have identified your goals, you have to decide how to measure your success. For emerging platforms, this may take a while, depending on what analytics tools are available in the marketplace and how the platform’s API is set up. (You could always build your own if it’s open enough and you have the resources.)
Measurement leads to action; it’s hard to argue with that. Conversely, what we do must be measured, or there’s no proof it worked. An analogy with a tree falling comes to mind. 🙂
There are really three big buckets for social media analysis. Some data points will cross between buckets, and others may even fall outside of these, but for most businesses these three major categories should cover your social data needs.
Account growth and competitive progress will fall into this bucket. We’re really talking about hard data points in this bucket. Growth in followers and likes, reach, and CTR are all examples of measurement data.
- Crowdbooster
- Social Crawlytics
- Simply Measured
- Demographics Pro
- True Social Metrics
- Moz Analytics
Listening and insights:
Social media gives us unprecedented access to conversations. Listening tools help you take the massive flow of information and distill the meaningful bits. The insights you glean will help inform you of key customer pain points, competitive opportunities, and even overall brand sentiment.
- Topsy
- Radian6
- Sysomos
- Vocus
- RowFeeder
Monitoring and response: Getting a little more tactical, marketers need the ability to monitor all of those social conversations in order to take effective action. These tools typically have workflow functionality built in, so you’re empowered to not only find, but act. This is not limited to reactive posting, either. These tools will likely function as your primary content distribution tool if you’re not doing it directly from within each platform.
- BuddyMedia
- SocialEngage
- HootSuite
- Sprout Social
- Meshfire
- Buffer
Some tools may serve one or more of these needs. They can vary wildly in price and functionality, so taking a critical eye to what type and form of data you will need will help ensure you pay no more than what is necessary.