Listening and Monitoring Resources

As a class, we have seen many examples of what happens when an organization fails to listen to the conversation being had about them via social media. As more organizations take steps to better listen to and monitor the social media coverage they are getting, it is important for them to consider what resources and tools best fit their listening and monitoring needs.

Many smaller organizations my choose to use free and simple means of listening and monitoring. Google Alerts is a widely used free service from Google that provides email updates of search terms. Organizations can alter how broad or narrow their Google Alerts results are by varying their search terms.

Twitter can also be used as a valuable tool for listening and monitoring. Organizations can search for instant conversations using a hashtag search or simply entering their search term into Twitter’s search box. Another easy option is to create a search column with your organizations search term on TweetDeck.

Larger organizations may be interested in more advanced tools and resources for listening and monitoring. Collective Intellect is a company that uses automated demographic filtering technology to monitor conversations and break them down by age, gender, and geographic location. they provide both qualitative and quantitative research. Collective Intellect’s software can track real-time conversations for activity, sentiment, demographics, and even emerging conversation trends.  Custom Scoop offers tracking of online news clipping, blog monitoring and analysis. Radian6 offers listening and monitoring from 100 million sites and sources, including public Facebook groups and has the ability to take votes and comment counts. They can also pinpoint exactly who the opinion leaders are for your brand or organization.

Check out the Radian6 YouTube video:

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