Monitoring matters when it comes to social media

Social media has become more than a mere buzzword – it’s now a part of everyday life – whether we’re talking business or pleasure. The vast majority of organisations, from the smallest one-man band to the biggest multi-national, all have an online presence in one form or other. This ranges from websites, to Facebook, to Twitter feeds, Instagram, YouTube … the list goes on.

Keeping these communication streams regularly updated with interesting content is the most important task. However, vying with this, in terms of significance, is monitoring how and when your online content is viewed. In the main, businesses are too busy actually doing business to keep track of this side of their communications campaigns; but this is where a good partner agency can help, using some of the many tools that are available – from established, simple low-cost options through to more complex paid-for models. These include:

• Web analytics – a tool that collects and analyses data about ‘traffic’ visiting your website
• Google Alerts – enter a word to search on and receive emails showing the latest relevant Google results from across the web
• Twitter searching – search for phrases, words, Twitter handles or hashtags
• Socialmention.com – social media search and analysis platform that monitors 100+ social media properties including Twitter, Facebook, Digg, etc.
• RSS feeds – receive updated information on your chosen subjects such as blogs, news stories, audio and video, etc.
• Yahoo Pipes – online service that helps you combine many feeds into one, as well as sorting, filtering and translating the results

• Paid for services – such as Brandwatch and Spiral16, that provide options for online measurement

Find out how you can ensure that your online profile is constantly updated, and monitored for effectiveness, by calling CBI PR on 01825 714329 or email info@cbipr.com