What is Social Listening and Why is it Important?

Nowadays, social media is not just another platform for sharing pictures, life events and what you had for lunch. It is also used to voice your opinion about many different things. The digital revolution has changed traditional marketing and consumers have learned to take their inquiries, comments and criticisms online. Therefore, any business or brand for that matter, must learn how to integrate social listening in their marketing strategy.

Imagine the amount of insights you can acquire from a certain market that is made up entirely of consumers who are talking about your brand. Social listening is the process of tracking and identifying what is being said about a specific brand or industry. It is important to monitor consumers’ tone when they speak about your brand via keywords, as they can help you leverage your insights and discover new ways to create content focused on your audience. Although social listening and social monitoring often go hand in hand, there is a certain difference between these two. Social listening does not merely focus on close monitoring through personal response on comments and queries. The main goal is to thoroughly analyze consumers’ sentiments and be able to extract pivotal insights from these conversations in order to create a strategy that is based on what people are saying. Think about it this way: social monitoring is like a cure – as a certain problem arises, it will help you be aware of and act on it on the spot. However, social listening is more like prevention – rather than just dealing with the problem after it arose, listening will help you prevent the problem from happening in the first place.

Why is Social Listening Important?

Brand Reputation

When you actively listen to what social media says about your brand, you know for sure that positive and negative feedback is inevitable. The thing is, social listening will help you identify and successfully recognize harmful threads before they create a lasting impact your brand. A good reputation is what allows a company to continue flourishing, and thus contribute to the entire brand health. 

Product Development

Social listening also gives more room for improvement. From the word itself, listening will help you get valuable feedback that could be the basis for your product development plan. Draw out an effective solution by focusing on the points that people find unsatisfying and highlight whatever works well for your brand.

Key Influencer

In this generation where even ordinary people can have an extended reach or impact on social media, it is also practical to know who has the power to influence consumers in a relevant marketplace. Influencers from different fields or industries love to discuss products online, particularly those they personally patronize. This may help you come up with a strategy if you know how to take advantage of their social / online connection.

Brand Engagement

What is the most logical thing to do after learning what consumers have to say about your product? Engage. Actively communicate with them and manage the growing brand loyalty so you can look forward to a potentially lifelong commitment between your brand and its users. In the age of digital marketing, it has become easier to reach out to your consumers to properly address their concerns through mobile and social media. Brand engagement is the key in making consumers feel that their voice is being heard and that their opinions actually matter.

Social listening, in a nutshell, will allow your brand to be at the forefront; it is just a matter of addressing and properly acting on your consumers’ wants and needs.