Transitioning from Social Listening to Direct Messaging: A Call to Action for Brands

Social listening tools have evolved in response to changing consumer behaviors and preferences. Most of the prominent social listening companies emerged between 2010 and 2015 due to several key factors. These factors include the growing popularity of social media as a means of personal communication, the shift to digital and mobile communication, and consumers' aversion to long hold times when contacting brands. This led to a trend where consumers publicly voiced their concerns on platforms like Facebook and Twitter to get quicker responses from brands or to share their experiences with others. This phenomenon has even given rise to aggregator sites tracking such results across various industries.

Transition to Direct Messaging:

However, brands have recognized the need to adapt and have started to leverage direct messaging as a more efficient and customer-centric way to engage. A notable example of this shift is the cosmetics brand LUSH, which decided to discontinue its social media presence due to algorithmic challenges and instead focus on direct communication with customers. Even Facebook's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has emphasized the importance of private messaging, consolidating platforms like Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram to create a unified messaging experience.

Advising Brands:

In light of these changes, it's clear that social listening should no longer be a primary platform investment for brands in 2019. Rather, it should serve as a complementary tool within a broader business operations and communication strategy. Similar to transitioning away from IVR systems, email, and traditional websites, brands are increasingly embracing digital, direct messaging as the new standard for customer interactions. This approach blends artificial intelligence and human intelligence to deliver highly personalized customer experiences at scale.

Getting Started:

Leading companies, like LivePerson, recognized this shift in consumer behavior and began developing solutions like LiveEngage to facilitate seamless digital communication. LiveEngage allows brands to extend their customer care to social media channels by monitoring and responding to customer comments through public posts and private messages. While social listening plays a role in this transition, the ultimate goal is to foster direct messaging between customers and brands.

Conclusion:

As the world's largest social media company, Facebook places a strong emphasis on messaging, it's crucial for brands to prepare for this paradigm shift. Focusing primarily on servicing public social media feeds can be costly and resource-intensive. Instead, brands should focus on transforming their communication strategies to embrace the efficiency and customer-centricity of direct messaging. Brands that have adopted this approach, following operational blueprints, have witnessed remarkable results, including reduced operational costs, increased customer satisfaction, and improved agent efficiency.