Senior Social Media Executive
Social Listening and Identifying Opportunities Through Data
If you're like me and are someone who enjoys getting her hands dirty, then you will like the creative process that comes with sifting, categorizing and identifying new ideas through the data that’s being pooled in by the tool. Notice that I used the word “creative”. Why?Well, I believe that problem-solving is a huge component of creativity. This requires the ability to detect patterns, synthesize and provide recommendations based on all the data that’s retrieved. As you begin the process of social listening, you will find yourself bubbling with new ideas especially when you’re buried in social conversations about your brand and then you’re suddenly inspired with an idea. Sometimes, all it takes is listening to your audience on how to innovate or make your brand/product better.So, how can you use your social listening data to help your business? 1. Content marketingThis is a powerful one. When you can tune in to the conversations about your brand, you will definitely have more ideas on how to make your content more relevant because you know exactly what your audience is looking for. I think the greatest tragedy on earth is churning content that is irrelevant to your target audience. And from what I can see, this happens a lot. When you have a social listening tool that’s constantly pulling in feedback, ideas, thoughts and conversations from your audience, you will find yourself addressing the need of your audience through content which in turn will have positive effect on your brand. And the best part is that you are able to track the response of your content and improvise where necessary.2. Social Media Channel StrategyYes, we all know that Facebook is the conversation platform, Twitter is the premier reach platform and Instagram is the #influencerhub. But let me remind you that in the wonderful world of social media, one size does not fit all. When tracking the media breakdown of your mentions, notice the reach and audience size of each platform from where your mentions are derived. Perhaps you've spent all your time and effort beefing up your Facebook strategy, when in fact, most of your target audience congregate on Instagram. Once you've analysed the media breakdown of your mentions, you'll be able to determine the purpose for each platform and the content pillars + paid strategy to support it. The last thing you want is mismatched objectives on social.3. Crisis management. Of course, this forms the crux of most social listening strategies. I find this particularly useful for Telco, Banks and Government corporations where the chances of “unwanted” viral conversations happen. When you have a dashboard set up for crisis management, you will be able to present concrete evidence and figures on the amount of people talking about you, which media had the highest activity, what hashtags were trending and some tools even track emojis! This helps your PR team form a better response to crisis management because you have a better view of the situation, thanks to the data you have at your fingertips.4. New Business OpportunitiesVery important. If you have an app or a service, even more so. While sifting through the data, you might find yourself with new ideas and key insights on how to expand your business. If you're stuck on how to solve a product-related problem, you could tune in to the feedback you are receiving from your audience and then detail your action plan on how you're going to address it. One of the great things about a social listening tool is the ability to geo-locate my audience. This means I can identify potential micro influencers or brand advocates and leverage on hashtags surrounding my brands. At the end of my report I insert a table with three main sections - key insights, recommendations/opportunities and next steps. This produces a brief plan on how to maximise the data I have derived which can be used for the benefit of the brand.As you continue your journey with social listening, you will find yourself filtering a lot of information, firming up your keywords to improve your data tracking and sometimes, feeling amused by the reactions you receive from your audience. It’s all a process of ensuring that you are able to track and monitor what is being said about your brand/product and then leveraging on that to bring about changes and new opportunities to take your brand to the next level. 0
4 min read
Social Listening Tools
I would define social listening as a process of monitoring and and assessing conversations on social media on what is being said about a product (this applies to individuals and brands) and then leveraging on these insights to identify business opportunities and data-backed solutions for your brand.In my view, ALL brands need social listening as part of a comprehensive social media strategy but here’s the major drawback: it’s expensive. You must be willing to invest in what your customers are saying about your product and then implement those insights into solutions that will benefit your customers. The consistent process of listening and acting on solutions derived from listening will result in higher brand equity and of course, ROI.You might ask: “why should I care about what my customers are saying about me?”Simple answer: negative sentiment impacts sales. With social media increasing its reach as a sea of opinions, perspectives and a means of self-expression, you better be concerned if your product has a negative sentiment among your customers. Once negative sentiment about your brand has spread like wildfire, don’t be surprised if sales start to dwindle. Also, you may be missing out on constructive feedback about your product and (equally as important) monitoring your competitors on social media.So what are the benefits of a social listening tool?1. Share of voice — The number of social mentions your brand receives vs. competitors. This helps determine your level of brand awareness and the level of engagement you are receiving in comparison to your competitors. 2. Sentiment — Once you have your mentions, analyse these mentions. Are these good comments or complaints? Look out for trends, themes and patterns in these social conversations. Are people giving you the feedback you need in order to improve your brand? Are people happy with your latest app update?3. Media breakdown — Here’s where you can see where your audience is most active. Perhaps you’ve been investing in Facebook all this while but to your surprise, most of your brand mentions are coming from Twitter. Perhaps this could be an opportunity to tap into a wider audience?4. Word cloud — What are the main topics of conversation surrounding your brand and your competitors? e.g. if you are a bank, are people comparing your mobile app features and asking for better updates? This is something your product team should be looking at. Or say you’ve just launched a new product — how’s the response like? what are people saying about your product which you could look into? 5. Trends and visibility — This is especially useful if you are monitoring competitors closely. Tracking your competitors’ visibility and trends on social media helps you plan out your game plan and serves as a check-and-balance to see if you could be doing more on your end in order to be more visible.6. Influencer identification — Are there potential micro-influencers or brand loyalists that you could tap into? Or perhaps content publishers or e-commerce brands that have been mentioning your product which could inspire a new partnership? These six points are just the main insights that you can derive from a social listening tool. Of course, different tools have different offerings which is why you need to know your objective for having a social listening tool. I hope this gives you a little bit on insight into social listening. Feel free to reach out if you have more questions. 0
3 min read
