For good reasons, social media monitoring and measurement is all the rage as companies look to get information and intelligence about all the conversations taking place.
To offer comprehensive coverage, companies such as Sysomos (a client) monitoring blogs, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Wikis and forums, as well as traditional media. It’s all about getting as good a handle as possible on what’s happening and who’s driving the conversations.
One of the realities for anyone doing social media monitoring is how many social media platforms should be monitored – a challenge given the fact there are hundreds, if not thousands, of social media services being used to one degree or another.
For example, should Google Buzz be monitored now given it has nine million users? Some social media monitoring services such as Sysomos are already doing it because each Google Buzz user has an RSS feed that can be indexed.
What about Foursquare, which is the new shiny toy for social media enthusiasts? Does it make sense to monitor Foursquare right now when the only thing users doing is broadcasting their locations. Is that valuable or relevant social media activity that should be taken into account?
What about Ning, the do-it-yourself social networking service that has millions of users? Or Google sidewiki?
In other words, where should you draw the line? How popular or interesting does a social media service need to be before it needs to be indexed and monitored?
What do you think?
2 Comments
Would awareness that social media is being monitored cause people to become less public about their private life? Or would some go for shock effect, never thinking of any ramifications down the road?
I think the interesting part of this is in niche segments. Clients usually fall into a particular industry and those that really know the industry well generally use niche social networks. I can use HomeStars (who I work for) as one example of a niche small business site which is it's own little network. I'm sure sysomos and every other monitoring system could care less about us, however some of the most popular pages are for large companies which should pay attention.
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