Conversations on the internet produce massive amounts of unstructured data. Because of that, it’s important to know what an organization wants to achieve with a social media listening initiative. Depending on the goal, the right tool might be a series of free Google Alerts or an expensive software suite that includes ad hoc analysis and full integration with legacy customer relationship management (CRM) applications.
Here are ten tips to improve your social listening:
1. Pick a Tool that Allows You to Social Listen Properly
Firstly, there are many tools on the market, and not all will meet your needs. If you are interested in diving deep into Twitter or Facebook conversations, Awario may be the best way to go. Its Boolean search function provides maximum scope to deep dive but can be overly complex for some users.Brandwatch would be ideal if you want something simpler. It provides clear visualizations of keyword mentions on the vast majority of social media platforms and covers videos and images as well. Digital marketers are able to mix specific analysis with industry trends using their pricier packages, but the entry-level version still offers rich insights and analysis.
2. Know What Questions People Are Asking About Your Brand
One of the most valuable insights you can derive from social listening is what drives people to find out about your products. Every product and brand has its own set of customer queries.Understanding the high-value questions related to your brand allows you to create content more effectively, building brand awareness and boosting SEO rankings. Comments on social media are a treasure trove for businesses and brands looking to connect with and understand their consumers.
With a social listening tool, they are able to aggregate common questions and comments to highlight the main topics that people are talking about. A practical example would be a skincare brand launching a new product and customers asking variations of the question, “Where does this product fit in my skincare routine?”
With this knowledge, you could launch a targeted UGC or influencer marketing campaign, so users can see exactly how to use the product and when.
3. Keep Track of the Competition
Every company has competitors. Understanding why your competition succeeds allows you to position yourself for success better. Social listening often provides direct evidence of how customers see your products relative to alternatives. It can raise alarms if buyers start to show a preference for your competitor and can pinpoint exactly why they’re migrating towards the other business. This could be anything from superior product quality or better customer service.
Ultimately, knowing where you stand relative to other players in the market is essential, and listening to social media chatter will put you in a much better position to keep them in second place.
4. Find Out Who Matters in Your Sector
Many (if not most) businesses now rely on intermediaries to get their message out on social media. This could be fashion or cosmetics influencers on YouTube, IT experts on LinkedIn, or product reviewers on high-value magazine sites.Finding these influencers can sometimes be problematic, but this is another area where social listening excels. By tracking which social media users have the widest reach and linking that to core keywords, you can isolate the best third parties to work with.
Relying on social listening alongside research yields incredible results. The biggest name with the biggest following is not always the best option for your brand or business. Understanding who the key opinion leaders are in a particular niche can have outstanding results on your digital marketing strategy.
5. Participate in meaningful conversations
Marketers can discover hidden treasures by listening to their audiences. Joining the conversation demonstrates care for customers and the target audience. Brands can stay relevant by conversing with the audience regarding current events.
Slightly different from moment marketing, being a part of conversations online is more nuanced and requires a genuine interest in your target audience. This small step can easily set your business apart from others in the industry and allows your brand to become the first mover—anticipating consumer needs before they become mainstream.
Tools like Konnect Insights also assist in understanding industry trends to identify opportunities to integrate the brand into a hot topic or conversation.
6. Create. Click. Connect
Success depends on the ability to anticipate the needs of the audience. Personalized content is essential for brands, and social listening can help you understand your audience’s preferences. In this competitive environment, gaining the target audience’s attention is challenging, which is why 78% of CMOs see personalized content as the future of marketing.
Understanding the target audience, including their interests, likes, and dislikes, is vital to creating relevant content. Social listening tools allow businesses to easily track and analyze the sentiments of their target audience.
Addressing the audience’s unique needs is the first step to establishing a positive relationship. Social listening is a way to identify a target audience’s preferences to tailor content to their needs.
For engaging content, it is essential to identify the formats and topics that are most relevant to the audience, including headlines that engage and encourage sharing. Fortunately, a reliable customer experience management system can make this possible.
7. Reputation Management
A crisis can negatively affect a brand or company’s reputation. Regardless of size, location, or industry, no brand or business is immune to social media negativity. That’s when crisis management comes into play.
Even insignificant incidents can trigger negative sentiments that can last for years. There is nothing wrong with criticism, but it is crucial to distinguish rumors from facts so that negativity does not outweigh the positives.
A reliable social listening tool like can help businesses determine if the negative incident led to any adverse effects, such as an unfollowing or a drop in sales. A better understanding of the situation can help brands decide whether to respond to or ignore objectionable comments.
Social listening tools give marketers an overview of the brand’s health, allowing them to see what it’s good at and where it needs improvement. A brand health metric provides helpful insights to determine whether an organization should improve its reputation, cease controversial marketing campaigns, or improve customer service, among many other use cases.
Managing a crisis can be challenging, as most situations are unpredictable. The right social listening tool can identify potential issues by analyzing sudden spikes in negative sentiment or increased negative conversations.
8. Make sure you’re tracking the right KPIs
Although social media monitoring is not the same as listening, it enables us to identify metrics to consider when listening. It is also critical to monitor not only your metrics but also those of your competitors.
After mastering the basics of tracking, companies can leverage customer management tools that offer best-in-class social listening capabilities. Additionally, these tools help marketers keep up with online conversations. Insights like this allow brands to improve customer engagement and satisfaction.
Apart from that, several other features make social listening tools crucial, such as sentiment analysis, campaign analysis, the share of voice, and influencer identification.
9. Engage the audience where they are
One of the most crucial aspects of social media marketing is knowing where your target audience spends their time. Different social networks attract different types of users, so pick the channels where your target audience is most likely to spend the most time. Finding your customers on their native platforms reduces friction and improves credibility.
The right social listening tool will help marketers better understand their target audience. As a result, it’s possible to identify where and how our target audience spends its time online. Conversations occur not only on social media channels but also on forums, making it necessary to determine which channels to utilize.
The discussion of a brand could take place almost anywhere online. The best way to learn more is to pay attention to what consumers post online, what they share, and what interests them.
Social listening tools provide rich customer insights. By understanding overall sentiments, we can develop more effective marketing campaigns. Using the right tools, we can view our brand from our audience’s perspective, leading to a better understanding of the audience we are trying to reach.
10. Find user-generated content
Audiences often republish content or post comments online about their favorite brands and products without intending to endorse them. As a default feature of social listening tools, brands can track this kind of content, allowing them to identify what people are talking about and how they share it.
Using user-generated content is a highly effective and efficient marketing strategy. For instance, if a user mentions you in an Instagram story, you should re-post it on your business page. This helps leverage the social proof aspect, which resembles peer recommendations. As a result, it enhances your brand’s credibility, and engaging with your users increases the chances of earning their loyalty.
Concluding Thoughts
Social listening tools are the gift that keeps on giving. Investing in a tool requires research and reflection, meaning brands must first understand their objectives and what the tools will help them achieve.
With a plethora of use cases, extracting the best insights from your tool can help you accelerate growth, improve customer satisfaction, and uncover new opportunities to serve your target audience. With reputation management and competitor analysis, you’re empowered to protect your brand identity online and positively position yourself in the industry.
