The list of social media monitoring tools gets longer everyday. Each tool offers something different. There are lots of bells and whistles that separate the free from premium, things like sentiment and influence analysis, workflow and demographics. But regardless of the tool, tools provide data – not answers.  A tool alone is not enough.

1. Technology is only part of the equation
   A monitoring tool requires human interpretation. No matter how cool the technology, a tool provides data (for you to dig into), not insight into what the data means or what to do with it.
2. Social Media Monitoring probably isn’t your core competency
   Social media monitoring is both art and science.  Experience is everything.  Much like SEM and SEO, listening requires skill and in-depth knowledge of technology and linguistics.  For this reason you’re probably not executing SEM & SEO campaigns in-house, you’ve outsourced them to the experts.  Social media monitoring is no different, it’s complicated and it’s time-consuming.
3. Social media monitoring is cool, but first establish why you want to listen
   Sure people are talking about your product or service, but what are you ‘listening’ for?  Is it to track a campaign? Learn more about a competitor? Measure a new product launch?  Data in of itself doesn’t deliver better business decisions.
4. Tools offer promises, not deliverables
   Insights, intelligence, action and ROI are the promises of tools, not the deliverables.  Expert people are needed to turn these promises into deliverables.
5. Real-time insights drive the ROI
   More timely, insightful information makes for better decision making.  Better decision making is what drives ROI.
6. Answers are everything
   Ask a social media monitoring tool to answer a question…

Social media intelligence is the combination of social media monitoring technology and expert insight delivery.  It includes dashboards, reports to answer tough questions, and expert services to better understand what the data means and (most importantly) what to do with the data.   You’re able to answer questions like: Is our ad campaign working? What do people think of our new spokesperson? Why do teens choose our competitor? How do we increase enrollment?

If you’ve already tried a DIY monitoring tool and want to take the next step in gathering intelligence, we can help.  Contact us and we’ll show you how social media intelligence transforms business.