Yesterday's Middle School Marketing meeting focused on something we talk about a lot: social media monitoring. Long-time attendee Wendy Scherer of The Social Studies Group kicked things off with a brief presentation that highlighted pros and cons of various monitoring tools.

No one argued that there are a number of tools available for monitoring brand(s) on the web. The trick, however, is find those that work best for you.  Key take aways from our discussion included:

• Set Up is Key: Regardless of the tool, time is required to set tools up so they're meaningful. The old, "junk in, junk out" phrase seems to apply; the time invested upfront will surely pay off later.  
• Time Commitment Required: As with any monitoring tool, time is required to review and analyze data. Similarly, it's not just about the information tools provide, it's what you do with the information that sets you and your social media strategy apart. 
• Sentiment Stinks: Overarching consensus was that no tool does a "great" job getting sentiment right. Human review is still needed. Tools like Open Amplify seem to be making headway, but we weren't convinced it replaced good ol' fashioned human review.
• No Tool Does Everything Well: Each tool has strengths and weaknesses. Some might be great at blogs and Twitter, but lacking on general media clips; others might provide in-depth data, but not sexy charts and graphs. Long story short: you'll likely need more than one tool to get all the data you need.