Are you using a social media monitoring system to keep track of what’s being said about your brand? If you’re not—or if you already use one, but you’re in the market—it’s important to research each option, because monitoring tools can be expensive.

Good thing oneforty blog shared some sage advice about the questions to ask when choosing a social media monitoring system.

Some of the questions you should ask before purchasing a monitoring system are:

1. What type(s) and how much of the following social media channels do you index: Facebook, Twitter, blogs, forums, traditional news, videos, photos, etc..?

2. How much historical data is provided for new queries? On the first day, how many days of data are available?

3. How long does it take for a new search to return results? Is there any lag time?

4. If you don’t already index a source, can users add them manually?

5. When someone posts something online, how long does it take for the data to appear in the application? What is the lag time by channel?

Read the rest of the questions at oneforty.