A company making 100 million dollars in revenue has a lot of searching to do if it wants to capture most mentions of it on the Internet. Metaphorically, let’s call it 100 miles of coastline to search. So, why do most companies do spot searches on the ten miles of coastline adjacent to their headquarters instead of sweep searching all 100 miles of coastline?

First, some definitions. Sweep search pertains to a wide search of the Internet for all blogs and tweets mentioning the company. A spot search is when a company does a specific search with key words plugged in. For example, ["Merrell Oyster Race"]. This search is for all mentions of Merrell’s specific race series.

Most companies or their sub-contractors believe that it is the most efficient use of time to spot search, which means they search only when a topic comes up or an event launched.  It’s also more convenient.

Sweep searches require culling through as many as 500 posts a day. It is time consuming. And hard work. But here’s why brands should do it…

What happens when a company misses several posts and those posts create momentum…becoming an issue?  Well, those responsible for social media monitoring rapidly move to do a spot search and find all relevant posts of this new issue.

May be too late. Case in point: Motrin management went home on Friday believing it had released a great new tv ad about the need for Mom’s carrying babies to consider Motrin when backs or necks get sore. On Monday, Motrin was greeted by a negative firestorm about that television ad.

A sweep search on Friday with the tag [Motrin] would have picked up the beginnings of the problem. ” Ms. Vice President of Marketing, we are picking up negative comments about Motrin and it appears to be sponsored by the tv ad. And it is building.”

You see consumers don’t always put the right words into their tweets. So, they don’t always write..”Am really angry with the Motrin television ad that has just aired.” They write…”really angry with Motrin. How could they?’

So by Monday Motrin was already on its heels..and recovering only when they pulled the ad, losing millions.

Sweep searches pick up all potential problems early…which is when a company needs to react. Miss a potential problem and it could explode into an issue over night.

And hello crisis management.