Social media platforms are not just mediums of entertainment and communication anymore but have become a crucial element for every business. It is vital to constantly track your brand’s social media channels in order to look out for both, the good and the bad. The best way for this purpose is Social Listening which helps to tackle any kind of issues that arise.
What is Social Listening?
Social listening is the process of monitoring a brand’s social media channels for all kinds of customer feedback, direct mentions, and any kind of discussion regarding your brand. There can be specific keywords, topics, competitors, industries, and many other elements used in the process which is followed by a complete analysis in order to gain critical insights and act upon the issues for the brand’s betterment. Social listening is slightly different that social monitoring as it does not only monitor but finds and solves the root cause behind the issues occurred.
Crucial Reasons to Start Social Listening
Rather than making assumptions about your customers’ needs, social listening allows finding exactly what they are looking for. Here are 4 crucial reasons to start it.
1. Customers Like Brand Response – More than 46% of the customers prefer brands with social media and consider them best in class online. Being responsive over social media is one of the best ways to engage customers and 90% of the time they are likely to make a purchase. It helps to elicit brand loyalty while improving customer retention rates.
2. Track Your Brand’s Growth – Almost every other brand can face serious issues or negative feedback from unsatisfied customers. It is okay to ignore a few rude comments but it should happen in a long run. Track your brand’s growth and find the root of negative comments to remove the issue.
3. Discover New Opportunities – Customer feedback offers new opportunities to implement in business that not only help them but also improve the brand’s presence and awareness as you are listening to your loyal customers’ desires.
4. Increase Customer Acquisition – Social media helps to reach potential customers through interesting content without bombarding them with ads. It is a better way to reach more users and turn them into loyal customers than reaching out to every stranger with the thought of they might like your product or services.
Effective Tips on Social Listening
1. Identify Pain Points – You can leverage social listening by understanding the gaps in your industry as well as the pain points of the audiences. Based on demographics, reach, sentiment, and user behavior trends; you can hear the problems of the audience directly from them.
2. Strategic Keywords and Topics – Choose keywords and topics that help to monitor meticulously and find the most relevant information for your brand’s improvement. This will help you uncover new trends and topics in your niche.
3. Improve Customer Feedback – The purpose of Social Listening is to respond to customer feedback and thus it can help in improving customer service processes.
4. Follow Recommendations to Generate Leads – ‘Recommendations’ post in your industry helps to generate more leads and turn them into loyal customers. It also helps to find out more tips and tricks for your business. So, don’t forget to make hashtag research to find more relevant topics. You should also keep an eye on potential competitors.
Bottom Line
There are many Social Listening tools like HubSpot, Lately, Sprout Social, and many others that can help you in the process. Social Listening helps to identify constantly growing and shifting customer trends. So, start listening and witness an increased growth rate.
