A social media monitoring tool allows a brand to control multiple social media profiles from a single source. Through utilizing such software, a brand can identify key influences that interact with the brand on a regular basis, and can look to accommodate them into future social strategies. Even if a brand isn’t looking to incorporate such users in future strategies, they could discuss with them what they would like to see in future campaigns, as these users are likely to be well-versed in what may appear most appealing to a brand’s follower.

It really would be of no use for you to have all those social media sites but not know how so use them. If  you are a brand,  you can use social media to the full by monitoring your fans well. There is a lot of information that you can get from these fans. In a way, getting viewpoints from your fans can be a steering wheel driving you in the right direction.  This especially applies to brands who really need to carefully examine their objectives before implementing any long or short term goals.

How can social media monitoring help in this regard then? Well, with a tool like this, you’ll be able to know how your fans are reacting to whatever strategies you are implementing at the moment. In turn, you will be able to make adjustments according to what works for you. Social media monitoring tools are able to flag comments and posts that may have specific words or phrases attached to them. This way, you’ll never have to blindly do things that you may regret in the future. This is something that you don’t get with the usual marketing strategies that you may be doing.

If there’s one thing you must love about social media marketing. You always have the chance to put light on your pathway and change directions whenever necessary.

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Practically all social media sites now have some button that allows you to express your ‘approval’ or like to whatever is being said or posted. This ‘like’ button may seem to be like a way to seeing who’s popular or for companies to endorse their products but what has happened with this ‘like’ button?

Stereotyping. Let’s say your friend posts some picture and you decide you ‘like’ it. The only other choice if you’ve enable the button that is is ‘dislike’. The fact is you probably have your own personal opinion on the picture, there’s something you like about it. This is where the problem comes in-the like button has ended up stereotyping everything you say.It’s either you like it or not. That viewpoint is really narrow. It makes things too easy.

Deceptive. Getting the most likes has become a ‘popularity’ game many companies play. The fact is that some things can’t be compared! So how can you generalize them into ‘like’?

Here’s another interesting scenario:

In response to people Liking criticism of the Queensland Police Service, the QPS tried to explain how to use the Like button:

“The ‘like’ button is used to show interest in a topic and to help alert other FB friends, or even to ensure you’re informed of updates.

“It does not literally mean that you like something, please refrain from continuing this debate.”

More than 1,200 Facebook users then Liked that comment. Were all those users endorsing the same concept, and how many were being sarcastic?

Something worth thinking about right? How do you know what the person liked about your post? Were they just doing it because they had nothing to comment? Do they sincerely agree with you? Or do they just like the fact that you were able to say that? It’s a mess!

Then there’s something that I’m sure you’ve noticed especially on Facebook. My friend for example posted a status with a photo saying ‘this was the last shot I had with my cam before I heard a crack’. Obviously not good news at all but vioala-people liked it!Why?

Did they sympathize? Did they like the fact that his cam broke?

The ‘like’ button has made people lazy. Instead of really understanding something and expressing their opinion, they just ‘like’ it. Sometimes not even knowing what exactly they liked.

The social media war for your opinion, then, is also a war between institutional control of public assessment on the one hand, and personal freedom of expression on the other.

Source article here.

First of all, is can and should you trust anyone when it comes to the internet? I mean, we all know whatever goes on there stays there so why bother? Well, the fact doesn’t change that Facebook and Google are two of the most effective marketing tools a company can use out there. Whether you find them safe or not- if you want to compete, YOU MUST USE THEM!

This being said, the question is which of the two deserves to be trusted more? Well, many would answer Google and I do agree with them. Think about these simple facts that really make you think twice before you trust Facebook.

• The man behind the book. When you compare the men behind Google and Facebook, it’s quite clear who deserves to be trusted more. I mean, how can you compare the ‘college guy’ Mark Zuckerburg to the two MEN who founded Google? It’s discriminating or anything, it’s just that it matters. Facebook is basically a ‘college project’ that happened to become popular. The only reason why businesses seem to flock to it is just because of the audience it’s been able to reach-nothing more.
• The trend in privacy settings. We all heard about the issue that came about because Facebook added the new face tagging thing without informing users first. Now if you ask me, someone who can do those things behind my back really is’t someone I’d like to trust. Compare that with Google, well let’s say they’ve never been any privacy issues.

Whatever happened to being fair, giving the benefit of the doubt and not judging you may ask? When it comes to privacy, you really have to take sides. Your reputation is at stake-that’s definitely not something you’d want to gamble with.

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To get ahead in this competitive world, you must try and be different. Weather it be by finding a new ‘killer’ product or experimenting with some new marketing strategy, you just have to be different! With the way social media is doing today, having a Facebook page, Tweeting and all isn’t anything special. Everyone else is doing it including your competitors so what now?

This is what businesses ought to ask themselves. Once you’ve gotten onto the social media bandwagon, you have to make sure that you stay on board. With the way things currently are-what does this mean? You’ve got yourself an account in all the top social media sites, you tweet a couple of times a day, you interact, you post valuable content but the point is-everybody else does it!

How do you stand out in this social media mad world? Should you now start to find more ways to get engaged like maybe be more frequent in your tweets or be more updated in your news feeds? Just what do you have to do to get up on top? Maybe it’s all about keeping updated to any news in the social media world. Being the first at everything that comes up. Is that what will get you ahead of your competitors?

The dilemma is this: how far will you have to go in this social media marketing for you to say ‘you’re on top’? In fact, will there ever be an end to how much time and money you put into your marketing?

Does it suggest success in social media is monitoring activity 24/7 so any inquiries or potential opportunities can be jumped on? Does it mean having a dedicated team to create compelling videos, blog posts, tweets, etc.? If so, does that mean whoever invests the most wins?

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