Likes, pokes, shares and retweets have invaded our common vocabulary, but if you’re new to the world of monitoring social media for your brand, there are probably some terms that are confusing to you. Before you dive deep into monitoring services and software, get acquainted with the following terms.
Firehose
This is the real-time stream of all Twitter users’ tweets. This access typically carries a hefty price tag.
Gardenhose
Having Gardenhose access to Twitter allows you to see 10% of the Twitter stream. Although it doesn’t give users full access to the Twitter stream (which consists of about 55 million tweet a day as of September 2012), 10% of that stream is still very helpful.
Spritzer/sprinkler
The lowest level of access is known as Spritzer or Sprinkler. This gives users 1% access to the Twitter real-time stream.
Sentiment
Did your brand just do something newsworthy? A social media gaffe perhaps? Or a new product launch? Measuring sentiment will tell you the attitude of user comments related to your brand. Some social media monitoring services offer this as a feature, but there are also free services that measure it, like SocialMention.
Reach
Although knowing how many fans or followers your social accounts have is helpful, you also need to know how many total people are seeing your posts. This is referred to as reach and includes posts seen by fans and non-fans.
