How to Keep Your Cool When Social Media Monitoring

With more than 500 million users on Facebook and 155 million messages posted daily on Twitter, social media monitoring is essential to the management of a company or brand’s online reputation.

As the social web coordinator at Peak, I am the eyes and ears to what’s being said online about our clients. This task is critical to managing a company’s image and in measuring the success of a social PR strategy.

It can be daunting to monitor dozens of clients, across just as many industries, throughout the day. To keep my cool when I respond to negative comments, track media coverage and watch crises digitally unfolding, I do the following:

1. Use paid and free social media monitoring programs

Time is money – especially in an agency. To effectively monitor and listen to what’s being said about a client, use tools such as Radian 6, Vocus or Sysomos. These tools provide access to social conversations on blogs, social networks, forums, micro blogging sites and other media sources based on keywords on a particular client.

Using Google Alerts as a free alternative is helpful but fails to capture the same amount of data from all social networks and media outlets. For a quick and free social search, use IceRocket’s “Big Buzz” search. You can search by keywords, tags or URLs.

2. Use Twitter management programs

Tools such as HootSuite and TweetDeck make it easier to monitor specific topics on Twitter. Set search streams with relevant keywords and hashtags to find new content to retweet or share on your profile, and to find new influencers.

Although these Twitter apps allow you to schedule tweets in advance, remember to always check your actual account.

3. Prioritize and keep a daily list of to do’s

When multitasking and scanning many tabs in your browser, it’s easy to get lost in the noise. Keep focused on your objectives and the specific branding tone of each client.

Keep a list of tasks to ensure nothing gets missed. In the social media department at Peak, we use Google Docs to keep our lists of duties for clients up to date and make sure we’re all on the same (web) page.

How do you monitor and engage with your client’s online communities? What works in your daily monitoring routine? Share your favourite tools with us.