1. Important, 2. Somewhat Important 3. Very Important, 4. Not Important

And if you could also share which Social Media Monitoring tool do you use to make decision?

I hope we can learn from each other.

@russellallert Hi
Thank you for answering that in details. If i may ask you how do you find Hootsuite for monitoring social landscape, as i see they are Marketing Automation software and they do little bit of Monitoring..do you think a stand along Social media Monitoring software would be useful.
I want to understand this because i see synergy with Hootsuite with our monitoring product.

;if it  would acttually  give  results for us,  i would   try some….but  for us   we  market in so many ways and dont sell online, so for us  it  wouldnt  be  worth the effort….

we had an event  last weekend….they got   word of  mouth….email…and  several facebook posts..and lots  came to it last yr…and  a hand out  calendar of  events……. about  500  came….tracking this  would  be  my issue..

.i know  social media  helped  a LOT…..but luckily  i dont have to have positive proof  to keep  up  my   big  efforts  …. here proof  is more like   general positive  feedback  from the  buyers…business  judgement   

but i do monitor, thru  pinreach for pinterest….. insights  for  facebook….and  statcounter  for  website..i need that   good  general  info…and i  check my  google   fairly often.

@danielmckean Hi

Thank you for answering that so crisply. I am Intrigue to learn more about your experience with Radian6 and Sysomos. As a young company your views and suggestion will help us improve our own Social Media Monitoring product. 
@Jeremy Burk Sure, will keep you posted@annfurnivall Thanks!!

Bhuvan @beevolve.com

@bhuvan,

It’s very important.

That said, what tools you end up using is, in my opinion, largely a function of the size of your company and your audience. Big brands need enterprise platforms like Radian6, but if you’re a small mom-and-pop shop, Google Alerts and Twilert (both free) will more than suffice.

When it comes to monitoring and/ or anything else social we believe in organic. No hootsuite or tweetdeck or anything that makes the “brand” look like they don’t care enough to be ‘on’. 100% organic monitoring to us is having a real person behind the page or account 24/7 listening and responding to everything. Not only that but every time a comment or review is generated we look into the person generating it… For example if Susie B. leaves a positive review about lunch for Restaurant A we look into not only her Yelp profile but is she connected to us on Facebook? Yep, frequent comment-er.  Did she check-in? Yes on Facebook. What did she eat? Steak n cheese philly with a bud light. Did she visit with friends? Yes 3 friends. What other restaurants has she reviewed? Other restaurants, a few bars and a brewery. Now that we have answered these questions we can respond to her review in the most meaningful way to her ‘Thanks for the great review Susie B. we are so glad you and your friends had such a good time at Restaurant A, and for being a fan on our Facebook! Can’t wait to see you again! Next time show this message to a manager and we’ll buy you a beer!!’  That’s my example of hat we do every day with organic real time monitoring and response. We also keep tabs on what everyone else like restaurant A in the same area is doing through private interest lists. 

@jamesalonso Typically we will search for them on Facebook and if it’s the same name and looks like the same person we just assume it’s the same person. Once you find them and scroll down under their interests it will tell you what you have in common.. If we both like Restaurant A I will see it as one of Susie’s interests! 

@jamesalonso Well we think it’s worth the search, getting to know the people who interact with your brand is where you will find the most success!

@ashleyhyde …nice to hear   your    real world  details….this  sounds   like the smartest  way… especially  with anyone in a fairly  local  situation……its always   nice  to think there is a real  person in there…wherever there is…

thanks.we do  everything  inhouse…,,,sounds like a  good  service for  some tho…………… ..ours  is  based  on  a lot of  good  pictures…..we  know what just  came in the   last  truck load and  do a lot of  pictures  based on the  day………….we  do  everything as   organic as possible….  which  seems  to work out  great…i like  your   details  tho!!!

we have  2  admins, me  and my tekk person ,  so that helps…

This is a great discussion so far and very helpful, as my organization is looking into a larger scale social media monitoring initiative. Currently we do manual monitoring using Facebook Insights, Hootsuite and Google Alerts, but we need something that captures more. I had never heard of Sysmos Map, so thanks to @danielmckean for mentioning that one. I have also looked into HubSpot, Meltwater Buzz and Radian6. Have any of you used these services before?

I would say very crucial.

Monitoring what consumers are saying about a brand and product Is very important as enables a company to post a reply to what is Being dicussed about.Google alert keeps us informed whenever There is any mention about our keyword but these other tools:Radian6, Sysomo,and Brandwatch are new to many of us.For tha reason its good To wait until Angela let’s us know which one is better among the three Monitoring Tools

I have come across a open source tool Thinkup app which you can download from the thinkupapp dot com site and install on your server. I will suggest to go for cloud to get the best out of it, it can also be installed on amazon web service from the app site itself.
Coming back to the discussion, i agree to what Ashley pointed out here regarding the use of monitoring tools. Specifically if you are a small business or an individual. If you are serious about getting result from social media marketing you got to spend time or deploy some one to look after it with human eyes all opened.
The monitoring tools definitely helps with statistics and figures, but only to measure how effective was your plan and use it to split test all your medias and strategies.
Radian6 and similar tools is very effective when you handle huge database and queries to get meaningful signal and trends you are looking for.

@eddysleiman

I agree with what you have to say and would add that regarding hackers, not all hacking involves breaking into someone’s website. There are other forms, such as hacking a site’s rules without breaking them or any laws. Also keep in mind that social engineering, often associated with hacking, is used by social media and companies to gain business as well.