Monitoring and measuring the results of Social Media are two of the keys to success in this field. The hard part is, of course, finding the right tools to use, since there are literally dozens of options. The best tools should monitor and measure your brand on social media. These two terms are often used interchangeably, but there is a difference between the two, which we’ll look into here.

Social Media Monitoring

Monitoring is the process of discovering conversations with the purpose of learning, engaging, helping and collaborating. You can do this with your customers, prospects, industry thought leaders, former customers, partners or others. Monitoring has a stronger real-time implication than measurement, as one of the purposes is to track keywords as they appear, with the goal of quick reaction.

• How it works: Typically, monitoring is performed on a keywords basis. Relevant keywords include your brand name, product name, etc. Based on your keywords, your monitoring system of choice goes out to the social networks you specify, grabs the relevant articles and messages, and hopefully arranges them for easier digestion and action.
• Why it’s important: My favorite analogy for social media is that it’s like the “largest cocktail party in the world.” It’s a room filled with people driven by one desire to communicate, share, digest and relate while carrying on many independent conversations. Some of these conversations can be about you, your competitors or your industry. Some of these conversations could be people looking for a product like yours. They will talk about all these topics regardless of whether you are listening or not. However, you wouldn’t know any of this if you weren’t listening.

Social Media Measurement

Measurement is more concerned with metrics over a specified period. Measurement answers questions of “How did my keywords perform over time?” “How does that compare to my competitors?” and “What are some trends I can glean to make my product more usable by these people who are giving me feedback?”

• How it works: Similar to monitoring, your system of choice goes out and looks for articles where that particular combination of keywords occurs. It then tabulates these occurrences and presents them to you in relevant data reports. You need to be able to slice and dice the data by source, date, and other dimensions, as well as drill down to the social media “atom” level — the individual message — if you need to.
• Why it’s important: Unless you are immune from management or client accountability, you will probably be expected to provide some metrics that justify your company’s social media marketing or listening program. But that’s only a part of the story. Constant benchmarking is the only surefire way to know if things are working. Social media is a quickly evolving beast, so if you don’t routinely measure and course-correct, you could be marching down the wrong path. The idea is to “fail fast.”

Social media monitoring and measurement leverage the same data for different business ends. Measurement is crucial for benchmarking and tracking your success over time. Monitoring, on the other hand, lets you listen and respond in real-time and protect your brand from negative word-of-mouth. Clearly, both monitoring and measurement should be a significant part of your social media strategy.