Getting Started with Social Media Monitoring
Managing social media is like hosting a dinner party. Picture a room full of people who are driven by the desire to talk, relate, or give an opinion, while having independent conversations. Some of these conversations could be about you, your industry, your competitors, or people looking for a product like yours. They'll talk about all this and more, even if you are not listening. However, if you are listening, you may find opportunities to engage potential customers!
These days, discussions about your brand and industry mostly take place in the social media space. It's one of the primary reasons to use a social media management tool. We understand that it can be challenging to listen and respond to every interaction. That's why we created Zoho Social's Monitor feature—so you can listen, respond, and keep the conversation going!
Monitor everything, all at once!
The Monitor tab makes it easy to track social media activity. Pay attention to the people who are talking about you, your brand, your product or brands you manage. Social media monitoring helps you discover conversations and opportunities to learn, engage, help, and collaborate.
You can create multiple columns to display specific content based on what's important to your business. Columns give you a quick way to keep track of what people are saying about your brand. It's like viewing multiple activities in one window. There will always be people talking about your industry; now you can jump into those conversations in real time. Engage with these posts by liking, commenting, or retweeting them directly from each column.
As long as you're in the Monitor tab, all your saved columns will automatically show you the number of real-time new posts as an orange badge, right at the top. When you click on the badge, it refreshes the column to show you the latest posts and updates specific to that column in Monitor.
Types of Monitoring Columns
Zoho Social has many types of columns that you can use to monitor conversations, depending on the specific social channel you wish to monitor. The types of activity you can monitor by adding monitoring columns are:
Facebook Page
- Reviews
- Page Search
- Mentions
X Profile
- Mentions
- Timeline
- Likes
- Keyword Search
- User Search
- Lists
Google Business Profile
- Reviews
- Questions
Instagram Business Profile
- Hashtag Search
- Tagged post
Note:
- Instagram Monitoring is available only for Instagram accounts connected via Facebook.
LinkedIn Company Profile
- Mentions
YouTube
- Likes
- Dislikes
- Playlists
- Moderate Comments
Bluesky
- Timeline
- Likes
- User search
- Keyword search
Threads
- Mentions
- Keyword Search
- Username Search.
Adding a new Column to your Monitoring Dashboard
Add columns to the Monitor tab to track social media activity such as posts by particular users, search results of hash-tagged keywords, X lists, likes, and more. When you sign up for Zoho Social, the following columns will already be added for you:
- Facebook Visitor Posts (If you've connected a Facebook Page)
- X Mentions (If you've connected an X Profile)
- Leads/Contacts (If CRM Integration has been enabled)
You can remove, rearrange, or add new columns to customize your view based on what matters most for your business.
To add a new column
- Navigate to the Monitor tab. If you have only one social channel connected, you can add the columns relevant to only that social channel.
- Click the + Add new column button on the top left corner of the window.
- Choose the column you want to add from the Select Column Type panel. For example, under Facebook, you can add columns for Visitor Posts, Page Mentions, and Page Searches. For Twitter, you can add columns for Mentions, Timeline, Likes, Keyword Search, User Search, and Lists. For Instagram you can add Hashtag Search Columns. Under Google My Business, you can add search columns for customer Reviews and Questions. For LinkedIn company profile, you can add a column to monitor Mentions.
The columns you have already added to your dashboard will be marked as you hover the mouse over these options. - You can directly add Twitter columns like Mentions, Likes, Timeline, and Lists, Facebook columns like Visitor Posts and Page Mentions, and Google My Business columns such as Reviews and Questions and LinkedIn columns like Mentions to your monitoring dashboard by simply clicking on them.
- To monitor a keyword, user, page, or a hashtag for specific channels, click the option and type in the relevant tags, and click Save. Also, all your Saved Tags will automatically be displayed in the list of column.
To refresh the posts in a column, hover over the top of the column and click the circular arrow.
When you start actively listening to your audience, you won't miss opportunities to engage with customers or collect valuable feedback. Make the Monitor tab your own by adding columns relevant to your brand. People mentioning your brand might not tag you in their posts, so make sure you are tracking all the variations of your brand name, with and without the @symbol. You might also want to track the usernames of your competitors and influencers.
Monitoring also includes keyword and hashtag search. Relevant keywords could include your brand name, product name, or industry name. Keyword searches can help you learn more about specific industry trends. You can use specific hashtag searches along with your keywords to deepen your search. Columns you might add include:
- Keyword Search - brand name (without @), industry name, product name
- Hashtag Search - trending and popular hashtags in your industry
- Username - your competitors, your influencers
- Page Search - competitor pages, influencer pages
- Reviews and Questions - for Google My Business
On the Professional Plan, you can add 5 keyword search columns per Brand. On the Premium plan and above, you can add up 
Access your files securely from anywhere
Zoho CRM Training Programs
Learn how to use the best tools for sales force automation and better customer engagement from Zoho's implementation specialists.
Zoho DataPrep Personalized Demo
If you'd like a personalized walk-through of our data preparation tool, please request a demo and we'll be happy to show you how to get the best out of Zoho DataPrep.
- Zoho Workerly Home
- Forums
- Connect With Us:
- Zoho Recruit Home
- Forums
- Connect With Us:
Zoho FSM Video Tutorials
Centralize Knowledge. Transform Learning.
All-in-one knowledge management and training platform for your employees and customers.
New to Zoho Writer?
Create. Review. Publish.
New to Zoho CRM Plus?
Deliver unforgettable customer experiences
New to Zoho CRM Plus?
Deliver unforgettable customer experiences
New to Zoho Marketing Plus?
Everything you need to run your marketing
New to Zoho Marketing Plus?
Everything you need to run your marketing
You are currently viewing the help pages of Qntrl’s earlier version. Click here to view our latest version—Qntrl 3.0's help articles.
New to Zoho Survey?
Zoho Sheet Resources
Zoho Forms Resources
New to Zoho Sign?
Zoho Sign Resources
Sign, Paperless!
New to Zoho TeamInbox?
Zoho TeamInbox Resources
New to Zoho CPaaS?
Design. Discuss. Deliver.
New to Zoho Workerly?
New to Zoho Recruit?
New to Zoho CRM?
New to Zoho Projects?
New to Zoho Sprints?
New to Zoho Assist?
New to Bigin?
Related Articles
Social Library
Social Library is a file management space that helps you add and manage images, GIFs, and videos to use for your social media posts. With the Social Library, you can upload pictures, videos, and GIFs from your Desktop or Cloud and maintain a ...Managing your team in Zoho Social
When you sign up for Zoho Social, a Portal will be auto-generated for you in your company name, and you'll be the Portal Owner and assigned the role of a Portal Admin. What's a Portal? A Portal in Zoho Social is an entity where you can manage all ...Analyzing Social Media Post Statistics - An Overview
Social media marketing is one of the most important aspects of digital marketing. It helps brands connect with their customers online, establish a presence, and increase sales and engagement. Social media marketers play an active role in building a ...Adding Location via Zoho Social
Let's say you run a small retail outlet and want people online to locate and identify your business. This is when plugging-in your location on your social media posts can help potential customers around you, find your product or service. You can add ...Getting started with Instagram Reels on Zoho Social
The Reels feature on Instagram has taken the internet by storm, grabbing the attention of users in short bursts through fun and entertaining content. Reels are short vertical videos that have a duration of three seconds up to 90 seconds, and can be ...
New to Zoho LandingPage?
Zoho LandingPage Resources