Social media monitoring - Is it important?

This is a sponsored post by Zanroo. Social media monitoring is no stranger to marketing practitioners, but some do not realise the value in implementing it. There are at least 5,000 marketing technology companies out there, 5 to 10% of which are companies that have a focus in Social Media Marketing & Monitoring. This does not represent the whole landscape of MarTech companies as many more are still undiscovered.You will find similarities in technology when you evaluate social media monitoring tools. But it is not the technology that is interesting. Instead, it is about the possibilities each vendor addresses varying demands and local market needs. Most businesses lack in-house capabilities to master analytics. According to MIT Sloan Management Review, four in 10 businesses lack appropriate analytical skills, and yet, this is one of the keys in solving most business challenges.The ability to gain real-time insights and communicate directly to your customers via social media is exciting, however, this can also be quite challenging when you are dealing with a large amount of data.So, where should we begin?1. Know what you want to achieve – It is always good to start penning down your challenges and goals for your business. Evaluate your overall performance vs your competitors and how you can reach a point to achieve it.2. Implement the right measurements – We need to look beyond ‘Likes’ and ‘Reach’ and move towards a metric that means something. Measure your performance by the number of conversations created about your brand. Evaluate your performance and compare it with the overall industry share of voice.3. Get everyone onboard – Get your team passionate and interested in understanding data. It is always good to instill the learning process amongst all team members in order to change the way you plan marketing campaigns. It doesn’t matter if you are an agency or an in-house talent, you should take the initiative to learn.4. Set a timeline – Set a timeline for implementation, learning and evaluation.Zanroo was established in 2013 in Thailand by two young gentlemen, Chitpol Mungprom and Udomsak Ome Dankhampai. Like other technology startups, Zanroo faced challenges in standing out from more established global companies. However, the company looks beyond providing just a technology platform, it also works with clients to understand their challenges and how they can utilise social media data to transform parts of their business.Today, the company has successfully expanded its business across several countries within Southeast Asia, and is now servicing some of the biggest brands in consumer goods, banks, telecommunications and more.Great ideas can derive from great insights. But it takes time and determination to learn and grasp the true potential of each tool. The soaring of marketing technology companies will not slow down and we should be positive about a future of innovation-powered economy that operates in a faster, more efficient way.[gallery link="file" ids="180602"]