The Power of Social Media Monitoring! (Must-Know)

Keeping track of conversation about your brand or yourself in social networks isn’t a smart act – it’s a necessity. I have seen companies go down in flames simply because no one was listening to conversation about them. I helped a small business owner years ago who hadn’t a clue that both positively and negatively, conversation about them was happening on Twitter. By the time they discovered, negativity had taken off and run, and they had to scramble and try and make damage control work in their favor.

But social media monitoring isn’t about damage control, of course. It can enable companies and creators to track trends, track public opinion, and even track competition (in a purely ethical manner, of course!). But most importantly? Having an idea about what to do with information when you have it.

Social Media Monitoring’s Role in Brand Management

A single tweet, a single post, a single TikTok can destroy a brand’s reputation, and I have seen it in real life. One of my students was having a campaign for a business and totally disregarded a customer complaint taking off. By the time they noticed, everyone was having a laugh at its expense, and it was a little too late to respond in a state that wasn’t defensive.

Monitoring social media enables brands to:

• Keep an ear out for real-time conversation.
• Catch and respond to negativity early.
• Catch positive mentions and utilize them for marketing.
• Keep an ear out for conversation and trends in your field.

And if you’re not listening for what’s being discussed, in a manner of speaking, then effectively, you’re handing your brand’s reputation over to the web. And that’s not a smart act, most times.

Tools for Successful Social Media Monitoring

There’s no one-fits-all when it comes to social tracking tools. I’ve wasted my budget on tools that were too darn complex and tools that were glorified Google Alerts in my book. I’d go back in time and say, “Hey, start with a free tool and switch to a paid one when I actually have a use for it.”

Some ones I can rely on include:

• Hootsuite – Wonderful for working with many social networks.
• Brandwatch – Rich social listening tool (but pretty costly).
• Sprout Social – Fantastic analysis, but not for beginners.
• Mention – Simple and effective for tracking mentions.

If a newcomer, a simple tool that pings when your name comes up is probably all you’ll ever need. But when working with a channel or a business, you’ll need one with deeper analysis capabilities.

Monitoring Competitors with Social Media Monitoring

I’ll admit—I enjoy checking in with competitor activity. Not in a creepy, I’m-a-social-media-vampire kind of manner, but enough to have an edge over them. Monitoring competition can school you in a variety of ways:

• What kind of posts work for them.
• What posts and campaigns tanked (so you don’t repeat them).
• How many times a week they post and what most engages them.

I have a client who refused to monitor competition for fear of “cheating.” Several months later, a competitor campaign hijacked my client’s audience in full view of everyone. If they’d kept an ear to the ground, they could have changed direction in a timely manner. Don’t make that same mistake!

Monitoring Trends and Consumer Behavior

I still remember my first encounter with tracking trends’ value. That happened when TikTok took off, and I saw brands hopping onto short-form video posts and Instagram story long beforehand when it hadn’t yet reached the mainstream yet. Some of my friends questioned me, but I’d have a gut feeling it’d pay off to try it out. Fast forward a year, and brands who bet early with TikTok were getting off-the-charts compared to brands who waited a little later.

And that’s why social media monitoring comes in handy. It helps you:

• Catch trending terms even before they go viral.
• Know your target audience actually wants.
• Make your content real-time-aware.

Being a notch in advance of trends isn’t about luck – it’s about listening.

Social Media Monitoring for Mitigation of a Crisis

Here’s a fact: a social media crisis doesn’t announce its presence in advance. One minute, life’s peachy. Next, you’re trending for all wrong reasons.

I have a client who totally overlooked social tracking for social media simply because they deemed that they “weren’t big enough” to have an issue. Well, a post about them trashing them went semi-viral, and then heard about it when a supporter mentioned them in a follow-up post. By then, it took off, and then they had a lot of work in terms of damage control to do.

Here’s how social media monitoring can save your bacon:

• Catch potential PR catastrophes in its infancy.
• Respond professionally and timely to grievances.
• Frame your narrative and not have your case made for you by the internet.

If your brand isn’t monitored, then you’re in a state of constant defending. And that’s a perilous activity.

Social Media Monitoring and Customer Engagement

There’s nothing worse than a business that doesn’t care about its customers. I reached out to one business via Insta for its service and received zero contact at all. I reached out to a competitor with a similar question, and I received a contact in a matter of seconds. Guess who won my custom?

Replying to your buyers isn’t about having a chat with them, it’s about creating relationships with them. Social media monitoring helps you:

• Track and respond to direct mentions.
• Reply to potential buyers who don’t tag.
• Show your following that you care.

And trust me, your buyers will remember when your business talks to them!

Measuring ROI and Performance with Social Media Monitoring

Numbers don’t lie. If you’re not monitoring performance, then your throwing your content in at sea and wishing for a miracle!

Some key statistics to monitor include:

• Engagement (like, comment, and shares).
• Sentiment (how happy, or grumpy, is your following?).
• Customer response times (how quick are you getting back to queries?).
• Competitor benchmark (how’s your competitor’s performance?).

The information that you gain isn’t for amusement’s sake alone—it’s for changing and improving your tactic!

Role of YouTube Subscribers in Social Media Growth

Everyone forgets that one of social’s biggest platforms is actually, YouTube. Social media isn’t just about Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook—it’s about tracking YouTube subscribers too. Monitoring subscriber growth for your channel isn’t any less important than tracking your Insta, Twitter, etc., activity!

I have a creator I recently partnered with who was fuming with me for not growing their subscriber base. After investigating a little, I discovered that:

• The most engaged watcher base for them consisted of older vids.
• They were losing subscribers at a rapid clip following specific uploads.
• They liked shorter vids, but creating long ones.

Once altering vids, subscriber count soared. Monitoring your YouTube statistics isn’t about vanity statistics—it’s about knowing your watcher!

Sum Up

Monitoring your growth isn’t a marketing tool – it’s a survival skill. As a creator, an owner, or a brand, having an awareness of conversation, trends, and behavior in real-time puts one at a significant competitive advantage.

The best part? No social media tracking expertise is required – pay attention, adjust, and react with your observations. Don’t start tracking social media yet? Do it today. Trust me, your future self will thank you.