What is Social Listening?

What is Social Listening?

You might’ve heard marketing pundits ramble about Social Listening Tool and their benefits and ask yourself, What is social listening? It is simply the process of monitoring conversations on digital platforms and understanding what customers or potential customers are saying about a brand. With the advent of newer technologies, this process is evolving every day. 

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Understanding What is Social Listening?

Let’s go into a bit of detail about What is social listening? Imagine you want to introduce a new fitness product in the market. However, businesses don’t thrive solely on creative ideas. You need to understand the needs of the market, the sentiment of fitness enthusiasts, and emerging trends. Social listening uses various tools to collect real-time data and analyze them. So, you can understand what is consumer behavior, preferences, and whether your product is a good fit for the market. 

An example could be, online polls or discussion threads in the comments section. 

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Social Media Listening vs. Social Monitoring

Both Social media listening and Social monitoring are often used interchangeably. However, Social media listening is more attuned to conversations happening on different social media platforms. Let’s say people are talking about your brand on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Social media listening will zero in on these conversations and gather Customer Insights. These insights will help you gauge your overall public image. Social monitoring on the other hand is more of an umbrella term that encompasses everything being said about your brand on all online platforms. 

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The Social Listening Meaning in Today’s Market

Social listening meaning doesn’t only mean collecting consumer insights using the Social Listening Tool. It’s about interpreting that data to set KPIs and create an action plan. How does that work - 

1. Data Collection: Use an AI-powered advanced Social Listening Tool to collect huge chunks of data from different online platforms. 
2. Analysis: Tools like Hootsuite, Sprout Social, DeepDive, and Mention have powerful algorithms that can find trends and patterns from these data. 
3. Actionable Insights: These results from Social media listening help refine your marketing and product efforts. You wouldn’t want to invest more in Churros if your customers are talking about some other dessert item instead. 

You as a brand would prefer to listen actively rather than react passively to customer feedback. That is the concept behind Social listening meaning. Social media listening is about giving meaning to data and transforming it into effective strategies. 

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The Benefits of Social Media Listening

Social media listening provides tons of advantages in the competitive digital landscape -

Real-Time Customer Insights

You get to identify issues before they escalate. It’s like they say, “Nip it in the bud.” Use Social media listening to solve problems before customers notice. Understanding What is social listening in marketing? helps improve crisis management as well. Like dealing with negative customer feedback. 

Enhanced Competitor Analysis

“Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another”. Meaning learning from your competition can help you get ahead in the game. Social media listening doesn’t only track your brand’s performance but also your competition’s. If you were Nike, you’d keep an eye on what Adidas is doing. It’s what Apple and Samsung have doing for years. It’s important to know why something is not working for you and why something is working for your competitors.

Data-Driven Strategy Optimization

If you are a marketer, you need data to back your ideas while pitching them to clients or your bosses. A Social Listening Tool can do that for you by collecting relevant data. Also, knowing What are social listening tools? will always help you choose the right technology. 

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What is Social Listening in Marketing?

What is social listening in marketing? Marketers don’t create needs but they help fill them. To identify these needs, they need to rely on Social Listening Tool. The use cases in marketing are immense - 

1. Audience Segmentation: Segmentation is a very common term in marketing. Conversations can help marketers separate different segments and pick the suitable one for their brand. 
2. Content Strategy: Your content strategies should be the byproduct of your customer insights. A travel blog can have content on a variety of topics. But if you take a closer look, a lot of content blogs cover how to travel on small budgets targeting bachelors or students. Because that’s what a specific segment wants.  
3. Campaign Measurement: Campaign evaluation is a critical part of marketing because one campaign can set the precedence for another. You can get real-time updates on your performance using Social media listening tools and make updates accordingly.

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Get Started with Social media listening and Social Listening Tool

If you are still confused about What is social listening? this quick guide might help you.

Social Listening Guide - Getting Customers in B2B

But if you have a bit more knowledge about Social media listening or What is social listening? and want to learn the best use of a Social Listening tool, here’s a quick guide for you -  

Your objectives and the tools you use to achieve them have to be in sync. Different tools have different USPs. You have to pick the one that fulfills your KPIs. Do you want to improve customer service or track a competitor? These questions matter before choosing a Social Listening Tool. If you need a starting point to make a choice, check out this video.

5 Best Social Media Listening Tools 2024: Effortless Brand Monitoring

There are different free Social media listening tools as well such as Google Alert. However, free things have their tradeoffs. Such tools capture a lot of noise and come with limited features. But if you are a beginner, these tools might be a good introduction.  

Also, you need to remember that Rome wasn’t built in a day. Your efforts have to be consistent. Social listening meaning is constantly being attuned to what your customers are saying. Most of the time, it will be similar comments or redundant remarks. However, you need to be patient with your Social media listening efforts. And once something works for you, you need to be ready for a change because the market is very dynamic. 

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Conclusion

It doesn’t matter whether you are a new business or an established brand. It is imperative that you understand What is social listening? You need to be constantly on the top of your customer’s mind. So, utilize Social media listening using advanced Social Listening Tools. 

Remember that data means nothing if you can’t assign a meaning to them. So, try to understand What is social listening in marketing? Social listening meaning is to listen actively and analyze deeply. Only then you can be more proactive as a brand. 

Curious about social media marketing or social listening? Check out our blogs!

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