Social Media Monitoring, Metrics, and Influencer Strategies

Research in Social Media

Monitoring, Listening, Insights, and Analysis: Monitoring is tracking mentions and activity, while listening is analyzing the meaning and patterns behind those mentions.

Social media monitoring

Collecting and tracking mentions, comments, and conversations about a brand or topic.

Social media listening

Interpreting social conversations to understand sentiment, trends, and insights.

Behavioral metrics

Actions users take, such as clicks, shares, comments, saves, and conversions.

Vanity metrics

Numbers that look impressive but do not always show real value, such as likes or follower count.

Paid advertising

Social media promotion that requires payment to reach a targeted audience.

Impressions

The number of times content is displayed.

Reach

The number of unique people who see content.

Frequency

The average number of times one person sees an ad.

PESO model

Paid, Earned, Shared, and Owned media.

Paid media in the PESO model

Content a brand pays to promote.

Sponsored post

A paid social media post that is boosted to reach more users.

Display ad

A visual advertisement shown on a platform or website.

Native ad

An ad that matches the look and feel of the platform.

Video ad

A paid advertisement using video content.

Customer service through social media

Helping customers, answering questions, and resolving problems on social platforms.

Why customer service on social media matters

It is fast, public, visible, and affects brand reputation.

Why addressing complaints makes business sense

It can improve loyalty, reduce negative word of mouth, and show accountability.

Obstacles to great service

Inconsistent service, slow response, lack of employee training, poor communication, and weak systems.

HOURS playbook

Be Human, Open, Responsive, Unconditional, and Solution-oriented.

FEARS playbook

Feel, Empathize, Apologize, Respond, and Solve.

Influencer

A person who affects audience opinions, attitudes, or purchasing behavior.

Creator

A person who produces original content, often focused on storytelling, entertainment, or community building.

Influencer traits

Authentic, credible, relatable, and trusted.

Creator traits

Creative, consistent, engaging, and skilled at content production.

Micro-influencer

An influencer with a smaller but highly engaged audience.

Macro-influencer

An influencer with a larger audience and broader reach.

Mega-influencer

A celebrity-level influencer with massive reach.

Brand partnership basics

Clear goals, audience fit, content guidelines, disclosure, and performance tracking.

Brand-influencer collaboration

Sponsored posts, reviews, affiliate links, giveaways, takeovers, and ambassador programs.

Why influencer marketing can go wrong

Poor audience fit, fake followers, weak authenticity, unclear expectations, or brand safety problems.

Social media crisis

A serious online event that can damage a brand's reputation.

Ways a social media crisis can happen

Viral complaints, staff mistakes, offensive content, misinformation, or public backlash.

Types of crises by impact

Minor, moderate, and major crises.

Crisis response template

A prepared plan that guides a brand's message, response, roles, and timing.

Best practices for crisis response

Respond quickly, stay honest, take responsibility, be consistent, and monitor reactions.

Social media crisis communication

The use of social platforms to manage and respond to a crisis.

Nano-influencers

up-and-coming influencers who have traction with people visiting their account and sharing the content posted; they have less than 10K followers