• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, June 23, 2009

According to John Bell, Managing Director, 360° Digital Influence â€" Ogilvy, they are:

1) Marketing communications insight

2) Rapid response

3) Front-end platform for measurement

Bell was speaking on OMMA Social’s “Choosing a Social Monitoring Tool: How to Find the Right Fit” panel, and he uses the term “listening post” to describe online social buzz monitoring systems.

Basically, he’s saying it’s no longer enough to simply track online word-of-mouth about brands, but that savvy marketers need to figure out a way of monitoring those conversations proactively, and to do something upfront in the process, whether it is “story-correcting” untruths being made about a brand, or figuring out brand strategies before their needs manifest in the marketplace.