As the business world – and the world at large – has changed in recent years, companies have had to adapt and pivot in many aspects of their operations.
That’s why messaging – and listening to how people respond to that messaging – can be so important.
Social listening has become a key tactic in marketing, and it is all about the way a company monitors and evaluates social media content that relates to its products in order to improve the work that it does in both product development and reaching customers.
It can be a way for companies to understand how customers are experiencing their products, but also the way a customer views your company in comparison to other companies.
But just as importantly, keeping track of the conversation may help a company mitigate public relations issues that could arise.
The Social Intelligence Lab’s State of Social Listening 2023 report found that 51% of respondents select data sources in relation to the question or problem they’re trying to answer.
Social listening “is an underused tactic for gaining consumer insights at scale,” said Glenn Gaudet, founder and CEO of GaggleAMP, an employee advocacy and social media management platform, writing in Forbes.
In the view of Karen Ong, executive creative director + principal at Change Co., companies need to cut through the noise and find an effective way to get their audience’s attention.
“My advice may seem simple: Instead of trying to shout — listen to your audience,” Ong wrote in a post on LinkedIn. “Stop thinking about how to be clever or challenging yourself and your creative team to come up with the best interruption by being the loudest and funniest. Listen to your audience. What do they need? What do they want? What will help THEM?”
Ong calls it “thinking backwards,” taking a break from your own best interests and looking at things from the point of view of your audience.
Social listening has so many benefits, experts say. It can help identify trends, detect situations that might lead to a crisis, and provide guidance on how to get through such a crisis.
Many tools exist for companies that want to boost their social listening skills. For example, Brandwatch analyzes conversations – both historical and real-time – to find current trends, while BuzzSumo allows users to track trending topics and monitor trends across leading social networks.
When companies seek out new ways of connecting with their audience, the possibilities for growth expand exponentially.
