Social Media Monitoring: Whistle and the Torch

Most of us not only consume Social media content, we are the content. Every morning when we change our status msg on FB, every time we tweet a cup of coffee and every time we comment on a job switch, we consume and create social media content.
From the level of just being a distraction at work (or studies), it has reached the strategic screens of many company's think tanks. All this content has reached a level that has started impacting the way companies approach the WWW. The time for "Social Media Monitoring" has really come.
What is SMM?
In simple words it is digging into all the User generated content on Social networking sites and blogs and analyze who is taking what about you or your product. It is the process of analyzing, understanding, and responding to conversations about brands, products, reputation and end user opinion in the WWW's Social platforms.
What elements are involved in SMM:
Viewing or tracking conversations and updates in real time.
Check for trends and analyze them.
Determine and segregate these on basis (a)locations (b)demographics (c)other specific criteria
Determine and segregate these on basis (a)sentiments +ve, -ve (b)repetition (c)other specific criteria
Identify influence r/s or Community Nodes(people)
Devising a response strategy: To blow a whistle(raise an alarm) or to be the torch (Lead the way in reputation building)
What after the analysis?
You can opt to react/respond/reply/comment on both negative and positive outcomes of the reports in the following manner
Gauge the necessity of a statement from the company's CEO/PR/Marketing.
Make Product improvements or do bug fixings.
Product innovations or new revenue streams can be created.

Oh yes!. If you are a blogger like me who doesn't blog for money, you can do 'Ego surfing'. Believe me its interesting.