Social Media Monitoring is Junk

social media junk
We are in the process of testing and introducing Version 2 of Channel Signal. In reviewing that performance, which is very good and getting great, I was reminded about the amount of junk in social media.
It comes from Google AdWords advertising, content farms, affiliate marketing sites and from consumers talking to themselves about almost nothing and happening to mention a brand.
Let’s look at affiliate marketing sites. Google has created a whole economy around AdWords. Google makes money when people click on keyword-rich websites that show up higher in the search results. Advertisers pay them for that performance of being placed higher in the search.
And when a consumer clicks on a blog that leads to a site and the consumer buys from that site, that blogs get a piece of the action.
It’s a system that rewards junk.
And how much junk? Well, Channel Signal filters out about 95% to 97% of all daily post volumes. If these spam sites are not filtered, then measuring is skewed to the point of being worthless.
Are you measuring noise?  If so, you are not measuring.