Broback's Blog

Among the econ and finance blogger set, there’s been a bit of a tempest in a teacup (IMHO) over an RFP asking vendors to supply the NY Federal Reserve with a bid for a comprehensive social media monitoring solution. Have not seen a similar uproar from the social media set.

As someone who for several years has been keeping up with latest developments in the monitoring space, this document seems to fall closely in line with what we see being demanded from big organizations of all stripes — in both public and private spheres. Big organizations just what to know what the buzz about them is, and engage when necessary.

I’d recommend this RFP as a good reference for our corporate partners to use when shopping their own needs.

Some key questions being asked:

• What is the geographic scope of social media sites being tracked?
• What languages are supported?
• What sites and networks are the data gathered from?
• Is it real-time?
• Does it provide sentiment analysis? How is this managed?
• Can it provide summary reports on specific topics? Can they be archived/saved?
• Can summaries be drilled down into for granular analysis?
• Is there a dashboard? Can it be customized>
• Can it integrate with in-house platforms?
• What is the price structure?
• Archiving: How far back will it store?
• How does it filter out unwanted items like spam, splogs and duplicate content?
• Describe the search logic: Keyword, phrase, boolean, other
• Can it exclude terms and/or sources?
• How customizable is the core engine?
• How is support and training handled?
• Can it display traditional media alongside social media?
• Does is inherently provide engagement features?
• Can engagement be issued via our current social accounts?
• What metrics are provided?
• What types of alerts are available?
• Can it weigh platform and user influence?
• Can it offer best practices, key insights and actions/recommendations?
• Is the data encrypted while in transit?
• What variety of user access roles and access controls are supported?