An article was posted recently on aimClear Search Marketing Blog about “How to build a reputation monitoring dashboard.” It was an excellent article worth following for those who are interested in unpaid monitoring of online buzz about a person, company, product or service. Comprehensive monitoring is the first step toward successful online reputation management.
However, I feel readers may miss the point. The point of monitoring online buzz is so you can respond quickly and engage in the conversation. Monitoring alone is not the answer—it is not enough to be ON the web; you must be IN the web.
One thing that would justify investing in a paid tool would be to have a monitoring solution that also allowed you to MANAGE and document your responses to the finds from one unified interface. That is why we developed http://www.BuzzDing.com.
Time is worth money. You might save money by building a free monitoring dashboard, but how much money are you wasting by spending time trying to manage that drink-from-the-fire-hydrant source of information? Will your left hand know what your right hand is doing?
If you are a Public Relations Professional, BuzzDing! even allows you to give your client the ability to login and engage directly. They’ll be able to document their activity in the same place you document yours. So everyone knows immediately who is taking care of what, who is responding to what.
Free tools are nice, but consider the value of investing in software that frees you up to do the real work. Don’t just monitor; manage.