Social media has changed the way businesses operate and connect with customers. Online presence has become necessary and those without it can suffer immensely.
The online world has shifted the power to the individual and opened floodgates of opportunity as well as challenges for businesses. 3.6 billion people globally use social media and it is projected to increase to 4.4 billion in 2025.
However, just the presence of brands on social media isn’t enough. Listening in on your brand mentions and monitoring them is key. Businesses that know how to use social media listening and monitoring are leveraging its benefits. They are better able to find leads, increase sales and create a positive brand image.
In this article, we discuss how you can do the same and set yourself up for success in the online world. Let’s first understand the terms social media listening and social media monitoring and the difference between the two.
What is Social Media Listening vs. Monitoring
The terms social media listening and monitoring are often used interchangeably but they’re different. Social media listening refers to gathering analytics on your audience to drive campaign strategy and keeping up with conversations around your brand and industry along with related topics.
On the other hand, social media monitoring is about keeping an eye out for your brand mentions to respond and deal with them accordingly. You may have a lot of customers that use your brand but not all may be directly linking to you in online mentions. Social media monitoring helps you find all mentions as well as those that otherwise you wouldn’t find out about.
In essence, social media listening helps you answer the why while monitoring answers the what. According to this, emarketer report, half of marketers all over the world are using social listening during the pandemic to understand consumer’s changed preferences.
The Business Applications for Social Media Listening and Monitoring
With this difference clarified and a basic understanding of social listening and monitoring, let’s find out how you can use social media listening and monitoring in business applications and drive business growth and sales:
Lead Generation
Social media listening and monitoring immensely help companies in their lead generation efforts. Lead generation is an important part of the sales process. A lead is simply any person who has shown interest in your product or service. However, the company has not yet done business with them but they are a potential customer.
This means that lead generation is essentially a way for a company to increase future sales. When you monitor the internet for relevant terms related to your brand and industry, it can help you identify those leads and convert them.
Let’s say, for example, your company sells noise cancellation earphones. If you’re monitoring the right keywords for that, it can help you identify if a potential client is looking for the exact thing online and you can try to solve their problem by recommending your brand or directing them to your brand sources to further make them interested.
Brand Monitoring
Today, customers have more than enough platforms online to talk about your brand. Keeping a watchful eye on your brand mentions has become a crucial part of business longevity and health. Simply put, brand monitoring helps you become aware of how your brand is perceived by customers online and the general sentiment. It also helps you track and respond to a potential crisis timely.
However, with social media listening and monitoring keeping track of your brand mentions, gauging public sentiment about your brand, and taking their feedback has all become easier and possible. Brand monitoring plays a key role in business growth. As you identify your brand perception, you can act accordingly to take in the direction you want.
Product and Service Feedback
It’s important for businesses to gather feedback for their products and services, especially after a new product launch. It is a chance to interact with customers, listen to any problems they may be facing, and fix product and service issues.
All this is possible online if businesses are engaged in social media listening and monitoring for their brand. Tools like Notifier make it easy to track keywords and identify where target customers are leaving feedback. Brands can chime in or listen in on the general perspective of their products.
Social media platforms like Twitter, Reddit, and others are increasingly used by customers to post their reviews and feedback. In today’s world, these are gold for any business that is serious and takes their customers seriously.
Brands that go the extra mile to incorporate feedback to improve their products and services are likely to beat the competition and win their customers over. This will only be possible when you are where your customers are, in the online world.
Reputation Management
A brand’s online reputation is undoubtedly a factor that can affect its business growth and sales. A positive brand image can help influence your customer’s decision to purchase from you while a negative brand image can keep them away.
It has become extremely important for brands today to manage their reputation online and this is possible through social media listening and monitoring. It can seem like a daunting task but tools like Notifier make it easy to track your mentions online so that you can do damage control in time.
You can use social listening to amplify your customer’s positive mentions while at the same time responding courteously to handle a negative situation. Brands that listen to their customers, acknowledge their mistake and show empathy are far likelier to maintain a positive image as opposed to those that choose to ignore tricky situations.
Marketing Strategy
When you engage in social media listening and monitoring for your brand and industry, you’ll get insights and ideas as well. You can become aware of the industry shifts taking place and if you’re quick to act, these insights can help you devise your next move and hone your marketing strategy.
It’s very important for businesses to be agile in this day and age. Changing trends call for a quick response. You simply can’t choose to stay ignorant of online conversations around your product and brand.
By becoming a part of those conversations online by using social media listening and monitoring, you can better respond to your audience and create a positive brand image. Do you use a social media listening tool like Notifier and track your mentions? If not, start your free trial today and see how its benefits for yourself.