I’ve begun working on a new system for social media monitoring. While I can’t speak about the specific details on how the system will work, there are some things that I’ve concluded in the process of building the system. There are three components to effective social media measurement:

1. Hyperlinks - Hyperlinks are what determine the buzz on the web. Sites such as Techmeme and Megite perform this task superbly. Google already determined years ago that hyperlinks are the way to go.
2. Weighting System - This is the critical component that differentiates one monitoring system from the next. By creating a unique combination of factors, each resource can be weighted effectively. One example of this is Google’s PageRank^TM. Other examples include the Alexa rating and the Technorati rating.
3. Time - Most of the value in publishing is timeliness. If I’m reading news that is days old (or event minutes old sometimes), it is practically of no value. As a result time is the final factor weighing in on social media monitoring/measurement.

The market for social media monitoring and measurement is going to continue to boom. As people are restricted to the amount of attention they can dedicate to monitoring, more effective filtering solutions will become prevalent.