How to Improve Your Social Listening

The vast majority of people have a presence on social media and that population is growing. The number of users on social media is increasing daily—last year, this number was 176 million. It’s not just folks looking to connect with family and friends, either. Many businesses are also getting on board to find customers; eight out of 10 companies use social media to market and drive business growth.

People now expect businesses and brands to be on social media and use this medium as their “go-to” platform for customer service. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are places where businesses go to learn and understand what people are saying about them.

Enter social listening. Customers are listening and talking to you on social media. As such, you need different marketing strategies for different social platforms.

“You can never be too rich or too thin,” says marketing expert, Tom Pick, “or have too many social media marketing statistics.”

Are you making the most of your social media marketing? Are you listening to your customers and using that to grow your business? Only 24 percent of brands use social listening accurately. That should be your top social media strategy—to engage with your customers and use the data to improve your product or service.

Here’s how you can improve your social listening.

1. Participate in Discussions to Attract New Customers

There is a new discussion on social media every 100 seconds, and users actively participate in them to voice their opinions. These discussions are your gateway to listen to your existing customers and find new customers. Users often discuss their pain points in these situations and, if you listen, you will find people who could be looking for or will be interested in products you offer. Take the advantage, join conversation and pitch your solutions.

Tip: Use keywords related to your product/industry to find relevant conversations.

2. Pay Attention to the Lead’s Behavior

Potential leads are always active on social media, you just have to find the right platform and see how they behave. Social media users share content, links, pictures and videos on their profiles. Analyze what interests them and use that data to improve your next email pitch.

Tip: Read what they are writing and try to create relevant content around it. Publish and share the same content in your next email campaign.

3. Explore Where Your Customers Participate

Watch what your existing customers are doing. Remember, a happy customer will tell a friend and an unhappy customer will tell the world.

It is important for you to know what your customers are talking about. Your social listening should be strong enough to know when, where and with whom your customers are talking, and participate in that conversation.

Tip: Follow the groups they follow and keep an eye on their timelines. It’s a good practice to engage in the discussion if they are talking about you, too.

4. Timely Response

Your response time on social media shows how good your firm is regarding social listening. Customers talking to you on your company page think they will get a prompter reply when compared to your helpdesk. Company pages on Facebook keep a tab on your response time. Consider stating your response time for your visitors. The later you reply, the longer your response time will be recorded.

Tip: Add real-time desktop or mobile alerts for every new comment, like or share to ensure you are on top of things. An hourly check on social media pages can come in handy, too.

5. Make Use of Social Listening Tools

Automation is a critical business tool and it helps in tackling real-time tasks across different accounts. Social listening tools like Agile CRM and Buffer allow you to schedule and automate posts and replies for different platforms and different time zones.

Tip: Try social listening tools such as IFTTT, Twilert and SumAll. These companies offer free versions as well, so you can keep your investment minimal.

6. Improve Product-Based on Feedback

You don’t have to wrack your brain to keep innovating with your product or service. Get on social media and see what your customers need. Make updates and add features depending on what they say. Customer feedback can help spark the innovation you are looking for.

Tip: Introduce a platform that allows your customers to leave feedback easily or to give new ideas that will improve your product.

If you nail your social listening, and keep innovating with it, your brand’s voice will be heard and shared faster.