Like us, you've probably joined the throng and set up a Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn account for your new beauty salon, personal training service or computer software. 

But with these social media platforms all being disconnected, how do you monitor your social media strategy?

Courtesy of HubSpot, PR Guru shows you what to look for and how to create a 10 minute social media monitoring routine that'll free up your precious time.   

Set your goals  

What do you hope to achieve? Do you want to find conversations that could help drive traffic to your website? Or do you want to increase your companies thought leadership?  

What should you be looking at?   

Here's a list of what you need to be monitoring and responding to:

Facebook: 

• Wall posts: anyone who ‘likes' your page can post any content on your pages wall. They can say good things about your software, complain about their haircut or ask why you are the right personal trainer for them?
• Comments: here's an opportunity to react to a wall post, both you and your fans can comment.
• Likes: the classic thumbs up! If someone ‘likes' a wall post this means they agree with the content.

 Twitter:

• Relevant questions about your company: if someone tweets "should I get my make-up done at Butterfly Beauty or Sammie's Salon?" you may want to respond with a current deal or provide a testamonial.
• Relevant questions about your industry: answering someone's question is a great way to build a relationship.
• Complaints, feedback and praise: critics are always out there. Acknowledge and resolve issues immediately. And for the champions of your product or service who give praise, respond and thank them, retweet or save to your favourites.
• Competitors mentions: Get an insight into what people are praising, complaining and asking questions about on your rivals tweets.

 LinkedIn:

• LinkedIn answers: showcase your expertise, get involved and respond when there are requests for information, resources, business tips and advice.
• Group discussions: members often interact with LinkedIn groups by posting discussion questions, topics and more. Here's an opportunity to discuss, comment and link to your resources.

Blogsphere:

Maintaining a blog is great way to create content that drives visitors to your website and reading other peoples blogs keeps you up to date. Make sure you are tracking relevant blogs, comments and links.

 The 10 minute routine

 3 minutes: Check Twitter chatter about your company and competitors. Using TweetDeck or HootSuite you save time by saving searches and reacting via the tool itself, without logging in.

2 minutes: Scan Google News and Google Blog alerts for important articles. You can subscribe to these alerts as they arrive, hourly or daily.

3 minutes: Filter and flag relevant LinkedIn questions. Use LinkedIn's RSS functionality for question categories.

2 minutes: Log onto Facebook and scan your wall and comments.

Have 5 minutes more?

Finally, make a to-do list from what you have read during the monitoring process, prioritise the list and then start responding to build your connections and brand.

Want to read the full article on social media monitoring in 10 minutes? Visit: www.hubspot.com