Why Routine Social Media Management Is Critical

Social media happens in the wink of an eye. Word travels so quickly that you may hit the sack feeling wonderful and wake up to a firestorm. This can be most certainly apt to be true if you are not in the practice of routinely monitoring your social media channels. Monitoring the conversations about you and/or your brand online could be much more than a reputation management best practice. Attention given to those in search of information early in the sales process could lead to a significant increase in conversions. Primarily, however, this is about creating a firewall between trouble and you. Cutting the bad news off at the pass is the objective here, and there are a handful of very simple methods to manage this, which of course is everyone’s fear. It doesn’t need to take all day, as shown in this HubSpot article.

How to keep track your social media conversations

• Social media monitoring tools like TweetDeck or HootSuite are invaluable on the subject of saving time, and seeing most if not all of your social media in one place. They are simple to use, have free versions, and can make it easy to get into the habit of checking on your social media daily.
• Google Reader and Google Alerts have long been very useful tools in the hands of marketers who were intent on monitoring the buzz around their products or brands. However, recently Google has decided to end Reader, and Alerts seems to be broken. Many are wondering how to find a useable alternative. Here are a couple you might check out: NewsBlur, AOL Reader, or Flipboard for mobile. For Google Alerts try TalkWalker or Social Mention.
• Scan for questions or comments on your blog, social networks, videos, and your Facebook pages. Answer anything urgent, especially those that are unhappy or confused about your products or services. This can head off loads of trouble!

However you decide to do it, make sure you actually make the time in your busy schedule to make this happen daily. Unhappy customers and unresolved issues will fester and turn into major headaches if you let them. Moreover, this sort of problem will often take on a life of its own, magnifying what started out as a small fire into a big conflagration! Don’t allowed this to happen to you!