Why Social Listening Matters

Why Social Listening Matters

Having a social listening strategy in place for your business is a smart marketing move. When you’ve got the tools in place, social listening helps you understand just how your customers and prospects are thinking about your business just by analyzing what they’re saying on social media—not only about your company, but about your competition. It’s like getting the keys to a treasure chest of opinions.

What is Social Listening?

In the most basic sense, social listening is “the monitoring of your brand’s social media channels for any customer feedback and direct mentions of your brand or discussions regarding specific keywords, topics, competitors, or industries, followed by an analysis to gain insights and act on those opportunities,” as defined by Hubspot. There are countless conversations happening at any time on social media platform, so the idea of gathering all the chatter and analyzing it to benefit your business is a no-brainer. All this data allows you to gain insights into your business that you never had before, helping you better understand your brand perception, online presence, and more. In essence, social listening is key to helping your business become a household name.

Why Does it Matter?

You know how we’re always talking about the changing consumer landscape? Trends change and evolve at the drop of a hat—and businesses need to be at the forefront of all of this in order to stay relevant and top-of-mind. Social listening lets you come up with content, products, and marketing techniques that your customers and prospects will actually engage with—the stuff they really want. A customized experience, if you will. We all change: staying ahead of those changes is one key to ensuring your company remains cutting-edge.

Furthermore, we all want to be heard. Consumers posting things on social media about your company—whether they are positive or negative—are only doing so to get the word out about their thoughts on your brand. With active social listening, you’re able to respond to those thoughts in real time. And those responses go a long way in making customers feel like they’re being considered.

How Do You Do It? 

While you can’t really participate in social listening without help, there are plenty of digital tools available to get you on the right track. There’s Hubspot’s Social Media Management software, Sprout Social, and Hootsuite—to name just a few. Most of the available options offer free trials of their solutions so you can test and learn what works best for your business and budget. Regardless of which product you choose, the main goal of social listening will always be to shed light on what’s happening out there—and open the door to how your business should respond.

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