Wouldn’t it be great to know what your customers really think about your business?
What are people saying about your company? How about your competitors?
If you’re not performing social listening, you’re missing out on these valuable insights and more.
What is social listening?
Social listening is the practice of observing your online presence by monitoring, tracking, and analyzing conversations about your business or brand on various social platforms.
It’s about gauging the collective online “mood” and analyzing those insights to better integrate your social media marketing strategy.
Social listening is a two-step process:
First, monitor social media for mentions of your brand.
Then, analyze what people are saying to find actionable ways to evolve your social strategy.
Why does it matter?
Practicing social listening helps businesses manage their reputation, track growth, identify new opportunities, and develop a strong, loyal fan base.
Social listening also allows you to take small actions, such as replying to customer comments or addressing issues and complaints, or large actions like changing your marketing efforts based on customer feedback.
You may even be able to identify an entirely new customer pool based on the data you collect.
Let’s say, for example, your target audience has always been Demographic A. However, it turns out Demographic B has been tweeting great things about your product!
After monitoring what Demo B has to say, you take action by adding segmented messaging to your next ad campaign that targets Demo B specifically.
Voilà! You’ve just used social listening to acquire an expanse of new customers that were previously off your radar.
Tips for getting started
Here are a few tips for businesses that want to start or improve their social listening process:
– Develop a go-to reference list of keywords, topics, hashtags, phrases, or competitor names.
– Periodically monitor your keyword list across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google, and anywhere else people might be talking about you.
– Insights & metrics are offered through many social platforms, so check them often. Facebook’s Insights tab will even recommend up to 5 competitor pages you can track as “Pages to Watch.”
– Set a Google Alert for your business, products, or competitors to easily find blog posts or news coverage about your company.
Monitoring the digital sentiment around your brand can help you gain real, valuable insights into what your current and potential customers want from your business.
Put your findings to use. Remember to take actions will allow your company to improve the customer experience, open doors to new opportunities, and continuously shift your strategy to fit your current need.
Looking for other tips and tools that can help your small business?
Reach out to us! We’d love to hear from you at hi@condronmedia.com