SOCIAL MEDIA AND IR

While growing up I was never short of things to say, and my mother would often have to remind me of what she called the 50/50 rule. At our house this meant that in a conversation you should only be talking 50% of the time and listening the other 50% of the time. Today I can see the far-reaching wisdom of this rule. For a company that, like mine, is active in social media, the ability to listen is just as important, if not more so, than speaking. Given an endless number of blogs, websites and social media users, finding an efficient way to monitor what is being said about a company is no small challenge. In this article, I will look at what social media monitoring is, how to use it and how to choose the best platform.

What is Social Media Monitoring?

Social media monitoring is the process of listening to what is being said about a company on social networks. Monitoring can be done by manually scanning networks for keywords and mentions or by using a platform to compile this information. The biggest advantage of using a platform is that it captures much more data than an individual could with a manual process and it aggregates this information in one place. 

How Social Media Monitoring Platforms Work

Social media monitoring platforms work by crawling sites for keywords. Depending on the tool, this may happen in real time or at a set interval. Once keywords are identified, sites and mentions are indexed so that the users of the platform can easily receive and interact with the data. Monitoring platforms may be limited to certain sites; however, most will provide coverage of websites, forums, blogs, news sites and major social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter. A good tool will also screen for spam and duplicates, ensuring that the IRO’s inbox doesn’t get clogged with mentions that are of no value.

Setting Keywords

Keywords are the words used on social media to identify a company. These may include the full company name, abbreviations, names of executives or Board members, products, regional areas of operations or technology used. Service providers have different approaches to keywords. For example, some may limit the number of keywords allowed, while others may allow unlimited keywords. When setting up keywords, it will be important to work with your service provider to ensure that keywords and search functions maximize the system’s capabilities.

Benefits of Using a Platform

Using a platform to monitor delivers information in an accurate and efficient manner. Actively monitoring provides a better understanding of the sentiment about a company and enables the IRO to respond to questions and identify misinformation or possible issues before they become a problem. Additionally, most platforms will include the ability to post to networks from the platform – eliminating the need to sign in and work from multiple sites. Analytics and reporting capabilities are another great function. These capabilities assist with building a quantitative understanding of the social media landscape and allow the IRO to efficiently share this information with the organization. Types of analytics typically available are reach, engagement, peer benchmarking, and sentiment.

Choosing the Best Platform

The number of social media monitoring platforms has exploded over the past couple of years. What tool is best for a given company depends on the size, scope and objectives of its social media program. For example, if the program is small and focused on one or two networks, perhaps a free service targeting those platforms will be sufficient. At ARC Resources, we chose a platform that aggregates traditional and social media coverage. This was a crucial function for us, as it streamlines our workflow and limits the daily time commitment required for monitoring. Other important elements for a company to consider are interface, functionality and pricing.

Choosing a platform with an interface or dashboard that is intuitive and user-friendly will be the first step to successfully implementing a process and getting full value from the platform. Just as with any new piece of technology, it will take time to learn the software.  Request a free trial to explore the platform and ensure that it meets the need. Although this can seem like a huge time commitment in the beginning, it will make life easier and provide added peace of mind in the end.  

When considering functionality, it’s important to get a clear understanding of what sites the platform captures and how. In today’s complex media landscape some providers will have greater access to specific sites and news sources than others. Never assume that particular sources are covered. Another thing to ask is how the data is collected. Is it solely done through web crawlers or is there a real human responsible for ensuring the validity of the data? Many service providers will use a combination of both, and this may be one element that influences pricing. Finally, the quality and type of analytics and reporting features is another function to consider. Take time to understand the scope of data available, the methodology behind the metrics, and the ease of creating and distributing reports.  

For most companies, pricing is an important consideration. It is often hard to compare apples to apples when each platform provides slightly different functionalities and pricing bundles. Pricing can range from free to thousands of dollars per month. How a platform is priced typically depends on items such as scope of coverage, number of keywords and number of users. There are many excellent free solutions available, but generally there is a cost when it comes to scope and quality of data, and analytical functions.

Here are some popular platforms as a starting point:

• Hootsuite
• TweetDeck
• Sysomos
• Cision
• Radian 6
• Sprout Social
• Visible Technologies
• MediaVantage
• Infomart

Thanks for listening!

Megan Hjulfors is Investor Relations Advisor at ARC Resouces Ltd. in Calgary.