At virtualmuseum.ca / Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN), we are a 100% online heritage institution, hosting substantial collections and learning resources from museums across Canada (>1M images, >500 virtual exhibits, etc.). One of our biggest challenges in the Social Web era is tracking where these copyrighted assets are being used (or misused), distributed, and discussed online.

Our tracking was relatively “reactive” in 2010/2011, employing a number of different tools to find out what was happening with our brand and in the industry in general. In the interest of developing a more “proactive” system, last year we deployed a Social Media Enterprise System (“SMES”, AKA Social Media Management System SMMS). This allowed us to undertake more comprehensive tracking of not only our brand and our online resources, but also identify topics related to our resources and overall mandate that are being discussed globally in Social Web. I’m seeing in the tech industry at-large a movement to these types of integrated social Web monitoring systems over traditional stand-alone tactics.

I’m very interested to hear what tools, tips and tricks other institutions are using for Social Web monitoring and tracking – free to paid, open-source to proprietary, basic to industrial-grade. How are you monitoring your brand &/or resources? Are you using an SMES/SMMS (e.g. HootSuite)? How does your tracking fit into your overall social media strategy?

(FYI – I’ll be able to give a *brief* overview of our SMES via tablet at the workshop)

Look forward to seeing you Wednesday! ~ Dave