The social media world is a constant flood of content – making it a competition to be the piece of content that jumps out at catches a person’s attention from the computer or phone screen. From brands, to memes, to personal connections; social feeds are a never-ending stream of posts that’s sole purpose is to capture your attention. This means your brand has a matter of seconds to engage audiences. Instead of screaming your point louder, there are different strategies to breakthrough the noise and help your brand capture the attention of audiences in a more intimate way – social listening.
Social listening is the act of monitoring social conversations to gain insight, observe trends, and ultimately join conversations. Brands that take this extra step to observe what their audience values and go beyond just being present on social media, are the brands that people remember and even feel connected to.
Ways to Use Social Listening
Respond to Consumers
For example, responding to a consumer who uses a hashtag that is relevant to your brand or product and creating a one-on-one dialogue with them is more memorable than a post in their feed that they could easily scroll past. We have talked a lot about how to truly humanize your brand and it doesn’t get any more straightforward than the practice of social listening.
Build Relationships
Not only will partaking in social listening help your brand build personal relationships, but it brings things full circle by engaging with a person who is clearly trying to join in on a conversation . When audiences tweet or create posts using a certain hashtag, it is almost as if they are begging to join a conversation and be acknowledged. Giving them the response they are yearning for could help you create a relationship with this person. Making your brand top of mind the next time they think about your products or services.
Monitor Social Streams
Monitor social streams for certain words, not just specific hashtags, to find audiences who are talking about an issue or topic that you can engage with even without using the “#” symbol. It is also extremely important to not cross the line into a clearly personal conversation, tread the waters and see how audiences respond to your one-off tweets to them. After establishing a good method of when and how to engage with audiences, continue to make time for social listening in your day.
Observe Trends
As mentioned, social listening can also help to observe trends and gain insight into consumer’s thoughts. Turn this insight into ideas of what type of content you should create in order to better serve your social communities. Social listening can also be beneficial if you are able to find what type of comments audiences are making about your products. Consider social media as a giant focus group. These are real, un-biased people who are just expressing their opinions to the world in hopes that someone will hear them.
We know that social listening is not a standard practice when it comes to social media management, but here at DMA we see the benefits of it loud and clear. Have questions or wonder how you can start implementing social listening for your brand? Reach out to us for a free social media consultation!
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