The sheer amount of information created each day on social media channels is one of the primary reasons holding people back from interacting and beginning social media outreach. With dozens of platforms and millions of blogs and forums broadcasting conflicting opinions and perspectives, finding a clear direction and actionable insight from the sea of information is a daunting task.
A group of companies has begun to address this problem by using sophisticated data mining and sentiment analysis to give specific insight into how companies and brands are being perceived and discussed in social media. I have been reviewing several social media monitoring companies, and here are some general thoughts on some of the main categories you should consider as you evaluate social media monitoring solutions.
1) Reporting – The major social media monitoring solutions offer different levels of granularity on their results. All of the solutions I’ve tested allow for exportable graphs of results, but the criteria you can analyze data on is really crucial for getting value from social media analysis. Look at the ways you can analyze the data the platform gathers. Can you track sentiment? Can you refine the imperfect algorithmic results with individual dictionaries and human oversight? Does the platform deliver demographic data? How about geographic analysis of results? The more ways you can analyze the wealth of data returned, the more value you will see from a monitoring solution.
2) Pricing – Some of the monitoring software programs have confusing pricing structures that can add up quickly and skew your budget. Determine if your needs on personnel access and data gathering can be accommodated for a reasonable cost, and ask about maximum result limits and pricing structure.
3) Support – The companies I’ve evaluated offer varying levels of support for your operations, and this can become a crucial aspect of your monitoring if you need assistance understanding results or learning more about the ideal way to use the system. Some companies offer consultative services at no additional fee, which can be very useful if you want to optimize your use of the monitoring program. Others only offer support in chat or on an additive cost basis, which can obscure the total cost of ownership of some of the platforms.
There are many different options in social media monitoring, so consider your needs and objectives carefully, then do several demos to get a sense of what the market offers. Match the capabilities and price to your company’s goals and budget, and you should be able to determine the best fit for your organization.
