Just realized that I haven’t updated in quite some time, but that’s related to being busy with some great projects. Just wanted to keep you all in the loop about what’s been going on.

• The Age of Conversation 3 has been released and it’s been listed on Amazon. From the official media release: “Age of Conversation 3 captures the distinct shift from social media as a hypothetical consumer loyalty tool, as it was considered only a little more than a year ago, to its current state as a staple in the modern marketing toolbox.”

Having participated in all three editions, I can tell you that it’s been a truly rewarding experience. Not only do proceeds go to charity, but as a contributor, I have the unique chance to connect with smart marketing folk from around the world. Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy being a part of it.

• Things are heating up on the speaking circuit again. Next week, I’ll be presenting at the Social Media for Pharma Conference put on by the Advanced Learning Institute. The topic is: “How To Listen Before You Lead: Developing A Strategic Social Media Monitoring Program In Pharma On A Limited Budget”.

• On June 9, I’ll be presenting at Social Media Breakfast Montreal, again speaking about social media monitoring. Tickets, just $5, are on sale through Eventbrite. Hope to see you there.

• Late next month, I’ll be back with the Advanced Learning Institute team to deliver a workshop at the Social Media for Government Canada conference. The three-hour session is titled, “A Step-By-Step Approach To Using Social Media Tools Anyone Can Understand To Monitor Online Conversations, Manage Community Participation And Build Your Organization’s Reputation”. It’s the morning session on the Thursday.

• Big plans are in the works for socialmediamonitoring.ca. With help from the team at Toast Studio, we’re completely revamping the entire site. Work is just getting underway, but I encourage you to keep an eye out for news either here or on Twitter @All4Monitoring.

• Finally, just a friendly reminder of all the different places we can connect:

– @MarkGoren

– @All4Monitoring

– LinkedIn

– Social Media Monitoring LinkedIn Group

– Social Media Monitoring Tool Directory (#smmtd)

Hope to connect with you soon!

Consider this a formal invitation to join the new Social Media Monitoring group on LinkedIn.

After examining the different LinkedIn groups that touch on this subject, it’s clear that not one discusses strategic online listening in a general way. Actually, most groups are directly linked to a monitoring platform.

My goal is to fill the void and, much like the @all4monitoring twitter account we’ve got going, create a destination where we can discuss all related topics, stories and case studies, albeit in a much more in-depth manner.

Right now, you’ll see that there are a couple of news feeds being pulled into the group. These are mostly from different social media monitoring company blogs. If you have suggestions for others, I’d be happy to add those as well. There are already a few discussion thread open, but, obviously, I’d love to see you add your own. And make sure to add your name and info to the “Roll Call” thread, which is designed to help everyone get to know each other.

On “Social Media Monitoring Mondays”, we’ll start a new thread and encourage a new discussion every week. We’ll try to make these threads timely, topical and relevant to current news.

To share information emerging from this group, please use the #SMMLI (Social Media Monitoring LinkedIn) hashtag. Don’t be shy to spread the joy!

Also, we invite you to learn more about monitoring at socialmediamonitoring.ca. This site delivers an easy-to-read explanation of the importance of listening and its Social Media Monitoring Tool Directory (#smmtd) has often been cited for being one of the most comprehensive lists of monitoring services on the web. In fact, there are now over 115 free and paid tools indexed there.

Hope to see you on LinkedIn. I look forward to making the Social Media Monitoring group active and vibrant!

Earlier this week, Cossette posted the results of a survey they conducted last fall of over 3,000 web users in Canada, the U.S. and UK. You can find the complete report here.

Specifically, one of the findings stood out to me:

Among some 20 online activities surveyed that can be tied back to social media behaviour, two are particularly meaningful:

• Two-thirds of Internet users turn to online information about products, brands or companies that have been produced by family, friends, colleagues and others they don’t know personally.

• 30% have shared something online about a brand or a company in the past week. More specifically, 20% have cited a company or brand in a personal web page or blog. They are the only group that finds advertising as useful as social brand content, and a lot more likely to join various types of sponsored communities

Of course, this has many significant meanings for brand managers and the agencies responsable:

1. You’re no longer in control of your message. (If you haven’t heard that before, it’s time you did.)
2. People are planting seeds on your behalf around the web and it’s up to you to know where they’re talking and what they’re saying, as their positive and/or negative comments can have a profound impact on purchasing decisions.

As a result, you must start a strategic social media monitoring and response program. Without one in place, the public becomes your brand’s manager and, due to the shelf life of search, anyone who can type your product/service name into Google can be influenced by what’s already been said. It’s on you to find the relevant conversations and join in, so you can correct wrongs and misconceptions and have your point of view on record.

So, do you know what they are saying about your brand?

I’ll probably hear some good natured opposition to this post from some friends at different Social Media Monitoring companies, but I stand solidly behind this advice.

No matter which social media monitoring platform you’re committed to, use others as well.

True insight comes from using several different kinds of search engines, applications and tools. That’s not a knock on the different services, it’s reflective of the monitoring environment’s reality. By using several of the different services available – mostly for no added cost – you’ll uncover deeper intelligence, greater statistics and a better understanding of the conversation.

There may be any number of reasons for this logic, whether you’re committed to paid or free tools:

• Every algorithm is different. While one tool may be capturing certain conversations quickly, another tool may be filling in the blanks in a more timely way. By cross checking different engines, you’ll be able to catch more results sooner.

• Even if you’re using a robust, feature-rich service, there are likely many different insights that the service doesn’t incorporate. Take Twitter, for example. You’re collecting tweets, but are able to drill down about the user, who the person is connected to, since when they’ve been on Twitter, frequency of Tweets, which links they’ve posted, what pictures they’ve linked to, and so on and so on and so on? The more tools you use, and some offer very specific functionalities, the greater you’ll come to understand a particular conversation.

• Backup your main monitoring service with others, just in case. In case your system is going offline for maintenance. In case results turn up missing. In case you don’t have access to a wifi network. For example, through you may be using a web based service, you may want to download mobile applications – Tweetie and Say What? come to mind – to check in while you’re away from your computer.

• Sentiment analysis. Different services go about providing this analysis in different ways. Some automate the process, relying on different “trigger” words to reach a conclusion, others assign sentiment through human analysis, while still others leave it all up to you. As a result, if you like so many of the features offered by the platform you’re committed to, but don’t “trust” how it handles sentiment, you may want to go in a different direction to gain an accurate measure.

• Unless your platform allows you to add custom RSS sources, which helps ensure that you’re not missing any results, you’ll have to find different ways to keep track of these other results.

These are just some of what could be a very long list. And in no way is this post meant to diminish the importance of finding your comfort zone with a primary platform and sticking to it. That said, a single social media monitoring platform just isn’t enough if you really want to get more out of your monitoring program.

So, I ask you, what combination of sites, tools and applications are you using? Need ideas, here’s an exhaustive directory of social media monitoring tools that will show you the potential of what’s out there.