Social Listening: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How To Do It Effectively
If you want people to like your business, or you want them to continue liking your business, then practicing social listening is essential. And the best way to start practicing it is to learn more about it. So, here's a short explanation on what it is, why it matters, and how to do it effectively.
What Is It?
It's not social monitoring. You're not just tracking engagement rates, conversion rates, and other metrics - you're also responding to them. Here's an example of social listening:
Imagine your business is a clothing store. Now imagine that two customers in your store are discussing your products. One states that they like your designs; the other states that they don't like how your designs are displayed. After hearing this, you ask around: "What is your opinion on how the store displays the clothing?" Based on the answers you get, you adjust the display - which then causes customers to speak positively about your store's appearance.
This positive change wouldn't have been possible if you weren't social listening.
Why Does It Matter?
The benefits of social listening are huge because it allows you to see opportunities that you otherwise would not have. Here are just a few:
Better audience engagement - when you're actively looking for comments about your brand, you can respond faster, which makes your audience feel more seen.
Better crisis management - from bad PR to dropping engagement rates, you will spot negative changes more quickly. This means that you will also be able to adjust your strategy more accordingly.
Insight into do's and do not's - when you're monitoring your competitors, you can also learn from them: what mistakes to avoid, what practices to adopt, and what plans you can make based on what they're up to.
Insight into audience desires - does your audience want your products to be a little different? Are they in need of a certain service? Is there a conversion barrier you can reduce?
How Can I Do It Effectively?
Create a list of what you're going to monitor. Here's a list to start: your brand name/handle; your product names; your competitors brand names/handles and product names; industry keywords; your and your competitors’ slogans; names of notable people within your and your competitors’ businesses; campaign names; branded hashtags of you and your competitors.
Make sure you're listening everywhere. Based on where your audience is talking about you, you can create a coherent strategy on how to join the conversation.
Take your competitors into account. What are people saying about them? If the general feedback is positive, adopt their practices; if they're negative, avoid their practices.
Change along with your results. If you see the conversation about your business becoming negative or you see engagement numbers dropping, change your strategy - you don't want this downward trend to continue.
