There has been a lot of talk about social media listening over the past several years, but what exactly is it? Social media listening isn’t literally listening to anything. It’s much deeper than that. It’s using a system for monitoring the information that exists about a brand online. If you’re a business owner, you probably want to know what others think about your products and services.
What’s amazing about social media listening is that you can obtain comprehensive information that can provide the guidance you need to take your brand to the next level. Depending on the tools you choose to use, social listening can provide a deep dive into how consumers feel about your brand. This is important for many reasons. Chief among them is being able to market your brand with a greater level of effectiveness.
Finding Out What Matters
One of the benefits of social media listening is being able to find out directly from either your existing customers or your potential customers what matters to them. You won’t have to make assumptions or hold focus groups. Instead, you can find out what they are actually talking about. This includes what they like about your products and services and what they hate about them. If you listen closely, you can also find out what matters to consumers, which is the kind of information that can drastically boost sales when acted upon.
The ultimate goal of social media listening is using the information that you have obtained to meet the needs of your target demographics. This will in turn result in more traffic to your website and greater profitability. There are many other benefits, such as finding out about your competition and being able to boost engagement on various social media platforms.
Creating a Social Media Listening Strategy
To create a social listening strategy, you will first need to have your social media accounts established. As you may well know, this will likely include Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, but there are other possibilities. Which socials you choose will depend on your target audience. Once you have your socials established and post regularly, it will be time to establish a strategy. This requires you to understand what you hope to achieve. In other words, why do you want to know what consumers have to say about your brand? How do you plan to use the information? This will require you to detail what you hope to achieve for clarity.
The most common reasons why brands opt for a social listening strategy is because they want to use it for the development of a marketing campaign. They want to decide where to post on social media, how often to post on social media, when to post on social media, and what other types of marketing channels should be used. Answering these questions alone can provide you with a wealth of information.
Identifying Your Desired Outcomes
To determine the details of your strategy, it’s important to clarify your desired outcomes. For instance, one of your goals should be to determine where to find information online that’s important to your brand. You may also want to know which socials attract your target audience most often. These details can help with your overall marketing endeavors. For assistance with social media listening, top brands choose NetBase, a recognized leader in the industry. They can provide exactly what you need for social listening. NetBase provides information that can help you achieve your short and long-term business goals by providing data that is accurate and actionable.
