zig, a creative communications agency with offices in Chicago and Toronto, is keeping up with social media thanks in part to monitoring with Radian6.

zig’s Executive Creative Director, Digital, Cam Wykes, says that social media is a moving target, and it can be a challenge for agencies to keep up with the pace.

“Today it’s Facebook and Twitter, tomorrow it’s something entirely new,” he says. “It’s a matter of taking it one site or platform at a time to find a project where you can invest a small amount and carefully track the results. The more you know about how messages and dialogue migrates from network to network and how it manifests itself through that dialogue, the better you’ll be able to harness it and have a greater impact on your campaign.”

With it’s broad coverage of blogs, mainstream news, multimedia like photo and video, Twitter, forums, and other online social networks, Radian6 helps provide agencies like zig with a comprehensive way to track what’s being said online about their clients’ brands.

As Wykes can attest, the word of mouth and networking behaviors of consumers are essential to understanding how products are being received, what’s being shared and why, and what messages are being spread and shared throughout the community.

Armed with information gathered from the social web about buying preferences, brand impressions, and company reputations, agencies like zig don’t have to make assumptions about how consumers are responding to their communications. Beyond just web analytics that can only provide linear and sometimes transactional perspective, social media provides anecdotal and influencer-driven intelligence about what’s driving attention, awareness, and engagement.

“Online audiences are fast moving and savvy, and as an agency, we need to be smart about how we allocate budgets to provide the results our clients are looking for,” says Wykes. “Tapping into social networks and key influencers helps us get right to the people who can make a big difference as to how our message is absorbed and shared.”

If you think your agency might benefit from Radian6′s monitoring capabilities, sign up here for a free online demo of the platform. Have a story about how Radian6 has helped you better serve your agency clients? We’d love to hear from you! Drop us an email here and let’s tell your story.