Social Listening: What it is and the advantages for your business

Social listening, also known as social listening or social media listening, is a technique that allows companies to know everything that is said about their brand, their products, their competitors or their sector on social networks.

It involves monitoring and analyzing the conversations, opinions, comments and mentions that are generated on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube or LinkedIn, among others.

Social listening aims to understand users' perceptions, needs, problems and expectations in relation to a brand or a specific topic.

In this way, valuable insights can be obtained to improve marketing strategy, customer service, product development or online reputation.

Why use social listening?

Social listening offers multiple benefits for companies that want to better understand their target audience, improve their online presence and increase their competitiveness.

Some of the most important advantages are:

• Understanding the consumer : Social listening allows us to understand the interests, preferences, tastes, habits and behaviours of users on social networks. This allows us to better segment the market, create more precise buyer personas and offer more personalised and relevant content and offers.
• Interact with customers : Facilitates the identification and use of opportunities for interaction with current and potential customers. You can respond to their questions, queries, complaints or suggestions, thank them for their praise or recommendations, resolve their problems or generate engagement with participatory marketing actions.
• Measuring campaign acceptance : This allows you to evaluate the impact and effectiveness of digital marketing campaigns on social media. You can measure the reach, virality, sentiment and conversion of the actions carried out, as well as detect the strengths and weaknesses of the strategy and make the necessary adjustments.
• Avoid reputation crises : Helps prevent and manage potential online reputation crises resulting from negative comments, criticism, rumours or fake news about the brand or its products. It is possible to monitor the evolution of the situation, identify influential users or detractors, intervene quickly and transparently to offer solutions or clarifications and restore the brand's trust and image.
• Detecting product failures : This allows you to collect direct and indirect feedback from customers about the products or services offered by companies. This allows you to know the degree of satisfaction or dissatisfaction, the advantages or disadvantages, the strengths or weaknesses and the opportunities or threats that the products or services present.
• Identify influencers and new potential customers : Social listening allows you to discover and interact with social media influencers who can act as brand advocates or ambassadors.

How to do social listening?

To carry out social listening, it is necessary to define clear and specific objectives, establish key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the results and use appropriate tools to collect and analyse the data.

Some basic steps are:

• Define keywords : You must select the keywords you want to monitor on social media. These can be the name of the brand, the name of the products or services, the name of the competitors, the name of the sector or market niche or any other term relevant to the business.
• Choosing social networks : You must choose the social networks where you want to carry out social listening. This will depend on the type of business, the target audience and the objectives you are pursuing. It is not necessary to be on all social networks, but rather on those where the audience is and where more conversation is generated about the brand or the topic.
• Use social listening tools : Social listening tools should be used to collect, filter, organize and analyze the information generated on social networks. There are many tools of this type, some free and others paid, which offer different functionalities and advantages. Some of the most popular are HubSpot, Hootsuite, Sprout Social, Brand24, YouScan, Buzzsumo or Brandwatch.
• Analyze the data : Data obtained from social listening tools must be interpreted to draw conclusions and insights that are useful for the business. Attention must be paid to aspects such as volume, frequency, sentiment, tone, content, format, origin, profile or influence of mentions or comments about the brand or topic.
• Take action : The knowledge gained from social listening must be applied to improve digital marketing strategy, customer service, product development or online reputation. Action must be taken quickly and consistently to take advantage of opportunities, solve problems, satisfy needs and build customer loyalty.

What are the best social listening tools?

There are many social listening tools available on the market, each with its own features and benefits.

Some of the most popular ones are:

• Hootsuite : This tool allows you to manage your social networks and monitor user mentions, comments, opinions and feelings about your brand or topic. It also offers you reports and statistics to measure the impact and effectiveness of your marketing actions.
• Awario : This tool allows you to track and analyze conversations that occur on social networks, blogs, forums, news and other digital media about your brand or topic. It also allows you to identify the most relevant influencers for your business and participate in conversations.
• Brandwatch : This tool allows you to collect and process large amounts of data from social media and other digital media about your brand or topic. It also offers you valuable insights to improve your marketing strategy, customer service, product development or online reputation.
• Talkwalker : This tool allows you to monitor and analyze user mentions, comments, opinions and feelings about your brand or topic on social media and other digital media. It also offers you reports and graphs to visualize the data and draw conclusions.
• Buffer : This tool allows you to manage your social media and schedule your posts. It also lets you monitor user mentions, comments, opinions and sentiments about your brand or topic. It also offers analytics and reports to measure the performance of your campaigns.
• Brand24 : This tool allows you to monitor and analyze user mentions, comments, opinions and feelings about your brand or topic on social networks, blogs, forums, news and other digital media. It also allows you to identify the most relevant influencers for your business and receive alerts in real time.

Written by Moises Hamui Abadi : I am an entrepreneur, founding partner of Viceversa and SoyMacho. After leading several digital businesses and advising several other businesses, I decided to form MHA Consulting, a digital marketing consultancy dedicated to growing and empowering digital businesses in more than 7 countries and generating more than 1,500 million pesos.