SSA to monitor social media sites

Social Security Administration (SSA) officials plan to hire a contractor to monitor what the public is saying about their agency on social media Web sites such as MySpace, Twitter and YouTube, according to a contract request from SSA.

The agency wants to monitor a type of information created and shared by the public known as consumer-generated media, according to the announcement made June 24.

SSA wants a contractor to provide a Web-based tool to monitor and analyze the data pulled from social media Web sites. The tool should be able to provide analysis and data reporting in several categories such as the topics and volume of discussions. SSA also wants to monitor the tone of discussions, according to the announcement.

SSA officials also want to know the types and number of communities that have discussions about their agency.

The monitoring will cover blogs, social networks, traditional media and video Web sites such as YouTube, the announcement states.

“Listening to and leveraging such media is important for ensuring that SSA can respond to the preferences and expectation of the public it services,” the announcement states.