What is Social Listening?
Social listening involves utilising the communications data from our audience and target market to identify and leverage what is being said about the brand. But it is not so much as ‘monitoring’ and goes beyond data mining to look at the underlying factors and adds a whole different to layer to brand perception and brand awareness. It also extends beyond the brand and products to include trends, culture, social issues and topics, opinion on and from individuals and public figures. Think of it as ‘reading the room’ to capture how your brand fits in and using it to influence your direction and responses. We want to know how people are feeling beyond numbers and metrics.
How to we practice social listening?
Engaging with our audience is at the forefront of social listening as we want to establish what the sentiment or ‘vide’ is . Provoking conversation and engaging in two-way conversations brings the information to you, then you need to listen actively to what is being said, but don’t fall into trying to sell.
Software can be used in data collection as well as manually monitoring comments, forums and online communities. Big companies will track mentions of their brand, industry and competitors and as a small business you can do this too. Look at community group pages where you are tagged - look at the competitors that are grouped with you, pay attention to what the original poster was looking for. As an example; I’m often tagged in business and marketing requests that I don’t cover but it helps me shape my own messaging to ensure my target audience knows what I offer. You can also set up Google Alerts for any related areas and keywords and apps such as Mentionlytics can be used to track keywords and hashtags as well.
Why should we practice social listening?
Social listening gives us a direct line of communication with our target market. It creates a link between what we offer and how it will be perceived in the marketplace. Remember, we are also looking at social issues, concerns and trends of our audience so we can ensure we are on the same page. This gives our brand a huge advantage as we are in a better position to forecast what will resonate and gain more traction with our audience and also what is likely to be received with negativity. Social listening gives us a deeper understanding of preferences and underlying motivations and this is invaluable to brands looking to connect on a deeper level.
