The Most Important Tool in Social Media Monitoring
Feb 2nd, 2010 by David Svet
A couple of years ago I fell and cut my head. It wasn’t a little cut, it was a 300 stitches plus 36 staples and getting a good look at your own skull kind of cut. So I got to spend some time in a hospital. I had an MRI, a couple of CT scans, a bunch of x-rays, and all manner of monitors connected to me. It was a technological tour de force. I was very lucky. I had some smart, calm friends who kept me in one piece until help arrived. Help came in the form of a team of Air Force Search and Rescue scuba divers with all of their equipment and training. I was taken to an outstanding ER with a fantastic team that put me back together. All of them used a phenomenal range of equipment throughout the ordeal. Even with all of the technology, it was the monitoring done by the people that mattered the most. Everyone had access to more technology than you can imagine. But it was one-on-one watching and listening between each person and me that gave them the information they used to make decisions.
Social media monitoring strikes me in the same way. All of the listening is important. It can get you to the essential data very quickly. But it is human contact, one-on-one, that is what’s needed to make good decisions. It’s a social network; it needs to be interpreted by people. Yes, you should use the available tools. I think they’re great. But don’t forget to use the most sensitive tool that you have available — you.
Photo: Andrew Ciscel
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Totally agree. All of the tools require a great deal of configuration and more importantly thought human analysis to make sense of things.
Dave,
As always, I like your post. You make great points about interaction. I phrase it that you have to participate online…but the big deal is engagement. We still have to connect with a person. You still have to find a potential customer who is dealing with a problem, issue or challenge.
Sure, I include “Online Monitoring” as a part of what I do. But the monitoring thing takes different shapes and sizes.
Thanks!