The advent of social media has changed the way brands do their business, and it has also built a bridge for consumers to directly connect with brands. Recent reports suggested that around 74% of online shoppers rely on social media when making purchasing decisions. It is due to the democratic nature of social networks that come with unbiased reviews from both users and influencers. The perfect word that can describe both the buyer and seller is ‘convenience’. The customer can now easily purchase anything they want with just a click of a button, and receive pre-purchase and post-purchase guidance on their social network with ease. The brand can now also interact and connect with the customer’s conversation and reaction without any difficulties. But how does a brand know what is being said about them? This is where social listening comes in.
Social listening is not only a hot topic for brands but, the future of commerce. It is different from social monitoring, and it has become an integral part of any brand’s marketing strategy. So what is social listening? Social listening is when you track conversations and mentions on social networks that are related to your brand or business. You analyze them for insights and strategize an action that will improve experiences. These conversations can be directly aimed at your brand or business, or they may be on the broader aspect where the brand or business is not mentioned.
The concept of social listening has been there for a long time. People have been asking for feedbacks through surveys and other means. However, with the advancement of technology these, it’s now possible to surface this seamlessly from social media channels without having to ask, meaning you can seamlessly collect rich data at scale.
Why is Social Listening important for your brand?
Social listening helps to discover customer insights and see what they value. The insights help to build the relationship with the customer, offer relevant information about the product and influence the decision of purchase, and thereby, increase sales. One objective is to know what the customers want before they do. Another goal is to reach a deeper level of customer engagement. Social listening can improve the whole experience of your business, including customer, employee, product, and your brand.
When to use Social Listening?
There are multiple situations where social listening becomes important. Some of these are when brands need to make sure that their communication and interaction in line with their reputation, which is also known as online reputation management (ORM). Or when you require a competitors’ analysis. Here, you track on and analyze your competitors, and their relevance to you, you can stay one step ahead, and ensure you differentiate yourself from the rest and create or maintain your competitive advantage. Most importantly is to engage with your customers. Some of the best marketing campaigns are born out of social listening. By listening to your customers, and identifying advocates or critics of the brand, you can listen to what they have to say and use this opportunity to create a conversation and a moment that brings the community together. Alternatively, you can provide online support, by addressing to your customers’ grievances and rectifying the issues on real-time, thereby, turning a bad experience to a positive one, with active reaction to the situation.
Some of the other situations where social listening comes to use are:
- Customer Service
- Content Development
- Crisis Management
- Marketing Campaign Performance
- Business Pitch
- Lead Conversions
Social listening can do so much for a brand and business. Not only can it reveals your real customers, but also gives you a glimpse of your potential customer. It is about both the happy individual customer who talks about your product or business online and their friends and followers who demonstrate their sentiments across the globe. It also gives you the data to understand the market better, with its latest trends and topics of discussion that you can use to leverage your brand or product. But whatever it could be, social listening will give you the platform to springboard your brand and business to new heights of success.
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