Why social media monitoring is the smartest first step.
When you first approach your advertising agency or a consultant about social media services, is your attention focused on activities with direct customer interaction? I know that my clients often overlook monitoring and measurement, unless I direct their attention to them. The irony is that these less-sexy activities often provide the most practical business value, particularly at the outset of an organization’s explorations into the social media space.
Starting a social media program without first spending some time doing monitoring of their customers, brand references and competitors is much like launching a traditional advertising program without doing any market research. An even better analogy is that it’s like jumping into someone else’s conversation without first spending some time listening. You can just imagine the potentially embarrassing outcomes.
Beyond being the best foundation for social media marketing, insights drawn from social media monitoring can also improve your traditional marketing efforts. Understanding your customer—his attitudes, interests, and behavioral drivers—is critical to the success of any business. Using social media monitoring tools and analysis to draw specific and clear insights about your target audience can add value even to your traditional advertising efforts. What are the descriptive, emotional words people use most when they’re talking about your brand? How does that compare with your competitors?
Because the information is pulled from real online conversations, rather than surveys, the qualitative data provided can deliver deep, honest and accurate insights into the minds of your customers.
If you’re a marketing director, make sure that as you’re investigating the benefits of social media for your business, you don’t overlook monitoring services. And if you’re a provider of social media services, don’t forget that any discussion about those services should probably start with a discussion about monitoring.
