Tracking what customers are saying about your organization, brand, products and executives is becoming a daunting task with the proliferation of social media types and sites, both accessible on the web and on mobile devices. To meet that requirement, organizations have created tools to help businesses track various aspects of what is happening online.
The list of possible tools is long and expanding. if you are searching for Social Media Monitoring Tools, Panorama.net has created a list of over 100 Social Media Monitoring Tools, briefly what they do and if they are fee or free. Check out the list for more details.
The various tools range from simple to more complex. One organization I found that specializes in listening is DigitalMR. Their blog post titled Defining Social Media Research has this chart in it that shows the spectrum of analysis available in the marketplace.
- Brand Buzz
- Do it yourself search terms
- Dashboards
- Syndicated Insight Reports
- Custom Analytics and Business Insights
I expect there will be some rationalization over time, or some tools that will be more popular than others. The shake out may take time as the ways to express customer satisfaction continues to expand.
Some of the problems with social media monitoring tools, regardless of what tool or tools are being used are:
- People don’t know what to do to with the data.
- The people working with the tools have no serious business experience so they cannot interpret what the data means.
- Some of the data, comments, etc, may not be valid, posted by competitors or cranks or multiple posts by a small number of disgruntled customers.
I use Google Alerts and Socialoomph personally to track people using my name on the web. I am often surprised to find where my name gets referenced.
Reputation Management firms have grown in importance to fill the gap. Public relations firms are adjusting their offerings.
This area of monitoring customer satisfaction levels, customer sentiment, and reputation is a growing industry.
What experiences do you have with Social Media Monitoring tools? Write your experiences in the comments section below.
Adele Berenstein
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