Social listening refers to the gathering, interpretation, and analysis of key information around a chosen topic on the internet. It allows us to monitor online conversations taking place publicly across social media channels. In turn, we gain a greater understanding of consumer mindset, brand positioning, and the market in general. But how important is this in terms of brand marketing?
Why use social listening?
The way a company or brand presents itself or its products on the social scene is very important. In the past, people relied on newspapers, television, and radio to get their information. Today, we have a much more advanced instrument to provide everything we need to know about a brand: the internet. A company or brand that receives positive online mentions attracts more clients, wins new partners, and gains trust among society. On the contrary, unfavorable conversations can harm a company’s reputation. This sort of data is usually unstructured, and social listening deals with that.
Strategic Insights
Social listening collects, authenticates and structures the data customers leave behind on the internet. Companies can use this to understand the online conversation around their brand. Knowing what is being said about a product or service helps companies to make improvements or integrate new advertising strategies. Agencies such as RILA GLOBAL CONSULTING monitor and analyze this information to provide strategic and actionable insights. Sometimes, results from social listening may show a negative attitude towards the campaign. This creates a unique opportunity for the company to explore why, and use the intel gathered to change people’s minds. For a company to perform effective social listening, it must understand the audience: who is attracted to the brand and its products? What information do they wish to learn? Once collected and analyzed, this data will help to develop a strategy.
Understanding the audience
If a company wants to perform effective social listening, it has to understand the audience, to know what kind of customers are attracted to the brand and its products. It also needs to identify the type of information it wants to learn. It is important to use social listening tools as they will help gather the most significant parts of data. Once the company has collected and analyzed all information, it needs to develop a strategy for the future development. It’s highly unlikely there is a company that hasn’t received at least one mention online. When a company presents its brand actively on the internet, it cannot be without social listening. These tools provide crucial information in terms of customer reactions, and society’s attitude as a whole.
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