The number of social media conversations taking place at any given time is enormous. From grandparents sharing local, old photos on Facebook groups to endless pop culture debates on Reddit, there is something for everyone. What does that mean for businesses? Let’s find out…
What Is Social Listening?
Social listening is the process of gathering information from social media platforms and forums about a specific topic. Social insights are gained through the observation and analysis of social conversations about a brand, product, or even an unmet need or problem.
Data from the March 2020 Gartner survey (as cited in the company blog) suggests that 51% of marketing leaders worldwide are relying on social listening platforms to get rapid information about consumers.
Consider this:
Wendy’s is well-known for its fantastic Twitter feed, and it is able to keep track of conversations by monitoring its social channels and providing quick responses to people who contact them. For more than a decade, the brand has been a champion of social listening, even when they are not mentioned at all.
They introduced “natural cut with sea salt” fries in 2010. It was the first time in the company’s 41-year history that their fries had been completely redesigned. Wendy’s listening to customer conversations was a major driving force behind the change. Wendy discovered that sea salt elicited more positive responses, whereas regular salt elicited more negative responses.
Wendy’s took that information to heart and revitalised its fries, unveiling the new menu item to the delight of fans worldwide, despite the fact that the “improved” fries actually contained more sodium.
The Takeaway: Even if positive conversations do not directly mention a company name, they can still be beneficial. You can discover sentiment around related topics and long tail keywords through social listening, which can lead to brand growth opportunities.
Value Of Social Listening for B2B & B2C:
On the internet, people discuss anything and everything. It means that there is scope to use social listening for almost every company or organisation.
B2C (Business-to-Customer):
If you’re a B2C company, it’s a great way to find out what your customers are saying about your brand. Do they praise you or criticise you? You can see which products are most frequently discussed, gather feedback, and learn more about their demographics.
Not only that, but it can be used to conduct research for business strategy. Perhaps you want to expand into a new product category. You could look at what people are saying about it already and see if your current customers would be interested in the new product as well.
B2B (Business-to-Business):
Social listening can also be useful for competitive benchmarking in a B2B company. You can look at who your competitors have the most influence over, or you can keep an eye on the latest developments. This is in addition to learning more about potential customers.
For example, even if you sell to businesses, you still need to connect with people in order to do so. You could identify your target decision makers/ CXOs and use social listening to learn about their interests, demographics, and latest online activity.
Social Listening for Account Based Marketing (ABM):
The popularity of Account-Based Marketing (ABM) has skyrocketed in recent years. Marketers are increasingly being pressed to deliver data-driven strategies rather than relying on their “gut” instincts. By focusing on a small number of top prospects, the ABM approach allows you to combine precise data with prior customer knowledge and sophisticated audience and social listening techniques.
In conclusion, if you actively use social listening, you will generate valuable leads, create content that your audience enjoys, and improve the overall customer experience.
Brands can be “everywhere” in real time with the help of social listening. The advantages and implications of social listening are enormous, as is the power of social media in general. It is up to you and your brand to decide where this power should be directed.
Whatever you do, we are here to help you with your social listening strategy and get you to the next level and beyond!
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