The Whole World May Be Listening But That?s No Longer Enough

This is a guest post Erin Galad is CEO of social media management system tracx. He argues that social media monitoring and measurement is a booming business but merely listening to audiences is one-dimensional and ineffective. Rather like the little Dutch boy who held his finger in a dike and stayed up all night to prevent the flooding of his country, companies and brands are trying to stem the flow of data that threatens to engulf them. The 'Hero of Haarlem' was an invented character in a broader book called The Silver Skates, but there is nothing fictional about the efforts brands are making to not only control this data, but also how to manage it. Big data and social media are entwined, but that data will not be brought alive until brands understand what is being said, what the sentiment is, what the response is, who is driving the conversation and what it really means for that company.

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