Choose channels and formats

Open the campaign's Monitoring tab and choose Configure monitoring. Steps 2, 3 and 4 all happen in the dialog that opens — channels on the left, keywords beneath them, dates and credit estimate on the right. Nothing is committed until you choose Start monitoring.
Start with the channels. Selecting fewer, more relevant formats gives you a cleaner content library and less noise to sort through afterwards.
  • Instagram Stories: Almost always for events. Stories are where the real-time event coverage lives, and they vanish in 24 hours.
  • Instagram Reels & posts: You expect considered, produced content — recaps, hauls, styling posts.
  • TikTok videos: Your creator mix skews younger, or the event is visually driven.
  • YouTube: You have long-form creators, vloggers or a review-driven product.
  • Snapchat Spotlight / Twitch: These channels are specifically part of your plan. Otherwise leave them off.
Note: The keyword field only appears once you have selected a channel. If you cannot see it in the Monitor creators dialog, go back and toggle at least one format on. Do not confuse it with Content tags on the campaign settings form — that field detects scheduled posts inside a campaign, and keywords entered there will not drive your monitoring.

Define your keywords

Keywords, hashtags and mentions are how CIMS decides which content is about you. This is the single step that most determines whether your monitoring works well.
Rule of thumb: three to six keywords per activation. Enough to catch the variations, few enough to keep the library clean.

What to include

  • Your brand handle — the @ mention creators are asked to tag.
  • Your campaign or event hashtag — the official one from your brief.
  • Your brand name as plain text — many creators write the name without tagging it.
  • Product or collection names — if the activation is about a specific launch.
  • Common variations and misspellings — spaced, unspaced, with and without foreign characters.

What to avoid

  • Generic single words that are not distinctive to you. These flood your library with irrelevant content.
  • Only one keyword. If a creator forgets the hashtag, you lose the post. Layer several.
  • Assuming everyone tags correctly. They will not. That is what the All posts view is for.
How keywords stack: Keywords stack as OR rows — a post matches if any row matches. Adding a second chip to a row with AND narrows that row to posts containing both. Layer variations as separate OR rows; keep AND for genuinely paired terms.