The Power of Social Listening
When we think about the action of social listening, the first thing that always comes to mind is the audience. Not the brands and what the brands are talking about, but what the audience is or is not vocalizing about brands or topics of conversation. And hey, we get it — many companies, and especially their social media managers, can get overwhelmed with the amount of content they’re being asked to publish and the thought leadership they want to create and feature, so they skip over or move past the opportunity for deep engagement. And this is not all brands by any means, however it does and can happen anywhere. So, if you’re missing the mark with what your audience cares and talks about, and not engaging with them, then you’re letting many opportunities slip through your fingers.
Anyone else start singing “Slipping Through My Fingers” by ABBA whenever you say that? 😅
Your audience holds the power to your brand, and as much as brands don’t like to admit that, that’s the reality. And, if they hold so much power, why wouldn’t they be ingrained into your social media strategy to amplify the brand voice and achieve your goals? If that doesn’t tantalize you to start crafting a more comprehensive game plan for social listening, then maybe some of the opportunities below will:
🩵 Drive and increase engagement
🩵 Brand loyalty and reputation
🩵 Surprise and delight (B2B companies can do this too!)
🩵 Expanded crisis management
🩵 Competitor conversations and intelligence
🩵 Stronger social customer service/care
🩵 User-generated content
🩵 Content ideas and innovation
🩵 Influencer marketing
🩵 Gain and expand business opportunities
🩵 Follower insights
As you went through that list, you may be thinking “that’s too much I don’t have time,” “we don’t have the resources” or even “sounds great, but I have too much on my plate.”
The good news? You absolutely do not need to tackle all of these opportunities at once. Craft a plan that allows you to incorporate at least one or three into your current day-to-day, and then create a timeline, goals and strategize the opportunities you can add later down the road. Some of these options are also great chances to create stronger partnerships with marketing, customer service and sales teams — specifically the surprise and delight, content ideas and innovation, gain and expand business opportunities, social customer service and competitor conversations.
The biggest piece to remember is that social listening (and engagement) should be about giving before you get. If you jump into a conversation immediately asking for something then you’ve already lost — the engagement, the opportunity, the sale, the connection and more. It’s also important to take into account the verbiage and terminology that you use internally because it won’t necessarily translate to what’s being used in conversation on social media. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t listen for those key words, however you should expand it based on the other phrases or terms being used to talk about the topic. And by expanding, you may also come across new content opportunities!
So, to all the social media managers out there, remember to take your time, plan, utilize other teams in your organization and have fun! Social listening is one of our favorite parts about working in social media because of all the hidden gems you can find 💎, the incredible relationships you can build and the dazzling content you can create.
We wish you luck on your social listening journey 🧡
