Social media continues to be quite the buzzword throughout marketing departments, even in the hardcore tech markets that traditionally show less interest. Not surprisingly, we're seeing more and more clients request advice on how to approach this medium. Many simply want us to monitor the space to ensure they're not missing out on any opportunities or chatter (good and bad), while others need us to actually post for them or build profiles, giving a proactive presence. In this post, I'd like to focus on the monitoring element -- what, how and a little advice.

Most of our clients want basic social media monitoring. What we call, "Social Media Tablestakes!" We're talking blogs, Twitter, Facebook... you get the drill. As most know, this is basically intelligent research. Research takes time. Time adds up quickly and costs money. Therefore, there's a point when agency research ceases to be a compelling option for social media monitoring. For example, while our team at VOXUS is fully capable of monitoring all outlets for our clients, regardless of size, we usually won't exceed 15 before suggesting a client automate with a tool. This doesn't require any additional work on the client end and allows the PR team to streamline efforts associated with a time-intense task. YES, it costs money. This leads to my next point -- what service and how much?

Our team likes Radian6's Social Media Monitoring Solution. This tool costs $100 for one user (the agency rep) and then $500 a month for a client. While that may seem expensive at first glance, if you truly want to monitor all social media and it's vital to your marketing efforts, it's a small price to pay (especially when you add up agency bill rates + research time). Not only does the dashboard allow you to monitor and compare (with all the charts, graphs, etc., you'd expect in a tool like this; we're thinking board meetings and measurement), it gives you a forum to instantly respond and interact with those posting about you or your business.

Not sure if you need this tool? While we always believe in taking the advice from your PR professional (you are after all paying them for it), Radian6 offers a great 7 day trial that allows you to use all the bells and whistles and see for yourself. Remember, social media can get expensive. Some agencies intentionally keep all research internal so they can drive revenue. If you're paying more than $600 a month just for social media monitoring, you may want to revaluate your agency or the methodology.




To remain objective, there's also another company Visible Technologies that offers a good service and they're local to Seattle. The technology appears to be solid. However, internal sales channels seem to be a bit undisciplined and flaky.

-posted by Justin

Tags: socialmediameasurement, radian6, visibletechnologies