PostRank’s new white paper Listening Beyond Keywords highlights some key ideas to consider in the realm of social media monitoring as well as the need to move past the standard keyword-based approach. PostRank thinks the future is in URL-based content monitoring and they make a pretty good case. (more)
As people in the industry know so well, building truly comprehensive keyword searches is “an unattainable goal.” The problem with social media is the sheer amount of content. There is no way to be sure you’ve captured everything about your own brand, let alone competitors, industry trends and customer chatter.
This problem compounds when it comes to reading, understanding, prioritizing and engaging with all the conversations you do come across. It is time consuming, expensive, and frustratingly, only gets more difficult as your monitoring improves.
The solution PostRank suggests is URL-based content monitoring. By following the URL attached to a specific piece of content, you can go right to the source of the conversation and follow its path across the web.
PostRank says this is key for two reasons:
1. It will reveal the secret life of your content, enabling you to see what works well, and where, so you can optimize your content going forward.
2. You’ll be able to map and tell the story of your competitor’s content. Where it’s going, what they’re doing well, and again, what you can do to optimize your own content.
Listening is one of the most important aspects of effectively participating in any discussion. If URL-based monitoring will add precision to monitoring and increase efficiency, how can that be a bad thing?
Check out www.postrank.com for their ideas on social media intelligence.
