You’re Talking On Social, But Are You Listening?

“The art of conversation lies in listening.” –Malcom Forbes.

The social landscape is far wider than our digital handles. Conversations we’re unaware of are happening every day. When developing a social media strategy, marketers tend to focus solely on their specific channels and the engagement directly linked to individual posts. Unfortunately, many communicators neglect to put the same level of effort into listening to other digital avenues for insights on their brand, products, industry, and even competitors.

Put another way: if social listening is not part of your social media outreach, you’re missing out on opportunities to engage and control the message.

A social listening initiative means monitoring digital channels (social media, blogs, news sources) for references to your company, brand, products, executive leaders, industry and competitors.

Once you’ve collected that valuable data, you then need to understand the trends and sentiments, and decide what action, if any, needs to be taken.

Why you should be listening and not just talking…

Find and join conversations – Dialogue about your brand and industry are happening all around you, not just on your feeds. Users won’t always post directly on your page. Find these conversations so you can join and guide them. Listening for conversations also allows you to direct traffic to your channels, as needed, and engage with your audience. With social listening tools you can easily identify these conversations and cash in on the engagement opportunities.

Connect with influencers – Do you know the influencers – micro and macro – who are driving the conversations about your brand, product or industry? An overwhelming 94 percent of brands believe influencer content outperformed brand content, according to a report by Linqia. Social listening tools provide insights on who is mentioning you or your competitors. And most tools allow you to quickly filter mentions by the “follow size” of the commenter, allowing you to identify key influencers. And then you can connect with them!

Gauge sentiment – A thumbs up, angry face or heart gives a clear picture of the reaction to your latest post, but what is the user sentiment outside your direct channel? Social listening tools gauge the sentiment of posts based on a standard algorithm of keywords used in posts. Though not an exact science, it can provide you with the overall trends so you can modify messaging, if needed.

Expand your audience – By exploring who is talking about you, following you and liking you, social listening provides an opportunity to expand your audience. Based on the situation, engage, follow and mention users you want to connect with. In addition to expanding your digital reach, this also creates the opportunity for better customer service and new relationships.

Manage reputation – Analyze listening data to understand your reputation in the digital space and how that compares to outside factors and brand awareness. In social forums, especially for large companies, you build credibility by being engaging and accessible to consumers. Negative feedback in the digital world may be inevitable for certain brands and industries, but by understanding your company’s perception, you now have the opportunity to influence your reputation more through messaging and improved customer service.

Understand your competitors – Social listening gives you a plethora of insights into your competitors. You have a clear view of their digital footprint – their social media posts, engagement, the influencers they relate to, and the conversations they are joining.

So when thinking social, make sure your digital plan doesn’t focus only on pushing out content, but also considers the importance of social listening. Through an array of social listening tools and an agency’s knowledge to understand the data and provide counsel on the actions to take, the simple act of listening positions you to manage your messages and reputation and find opportunities to grow your business. Listening can go a long way.