Imagine being in a room filled with one hundred people who are all talking at the same time about what they sell and the services they offer. Everyone is trying so hard to speak louder than the crowd. How easy will it be to make reasonable conversations? Pretty awkward I'd say.
That's what social media is without social listening.
So what is social listening?
Simply put, Social listening is the process of listening with social listening tools to what is being said about a brand to filter out noise, sounds and actual conversations about a particular brand from different social media channels.
Why should you listen to your customers?
Apart from the benefit of being able to listen and respond to customers in the best way possible to meet customers at the point of need, social listening also guards a brand's online reputation.
Social listening helps you to find out:
1. What is being said?
Knowing what is being said about your brand helps you know where you stand against competition. It also helps the brand figure out how to get better and communicate well with its customers
2. Who is talking?
The next important question is who is talking about your brand? Are they influencers who you need to get on your side? Or unsatisfied customers? Social listening provides ample data and information to work with
3. Where are people talking?
To reach your target market, you need to find out where they are, what time they are there and go find them. Social listening helps filter out unnecessary social channels so you can focus on reaching your audience where they are.
4. Why are they talking?
If people are talking about your brand, competition or your industry, then you need to find out why. Is their a new development you need to catch up with? Is your competition doing better? All these questions are answered through active listening
5. How are they talking about your brand?
Your brand tone of voice goes a long way to determining your success online. You need to know how your customers talk, how they relate, what kind of content they digest.
How is the information gathered useful?
If you knew what your target market is talking about, where they are talking, how they perceive your brand and why they are talking, what will you do with the information?
You'll probably go back to the drawing board with this valuable information to re-brand and draw up a totally different marketing strategy.
Do you use social listening for anything else? Feel free to drop a comment below.
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