So, you’re a new business, and you might be wondering. How do I know what my audience wants?
Let me introduce you to a powerful tool called ‘social listening’. Yes, as the name suggests, it’s a method that offers insights into the real-time conversations of your target market. It’s an invaluable resource for crafting targeted messaging, making it a critical component in any marketer’s toolkit. Before we start, let’s find out more about social listening.
What is Social Listening?
Imagine you run a sneaker brand. You overheard a group of teenagers talking about how much they love a certain type of sneaker. Now, imagine you taking notes on what they say. Then you design a sneaker based on what they love. That’s kind of what social listening is, but on the internet.
Social listening is actively monitoring and analysing social media conversations to gather insights. This isn’t just about tracking mentions or counting likes. It’s about diving deep into your audience’s sentiments, opinions, and discussions. By doing so, brands can observe and understand the emotions and motivations behind what people say online. Simply put, when discussing your category of products or services, you want to know what your target audience is talking about. You can also use it to monitor online chatter for your brand or business!
Why is Social Listening Important?
Social listening helps businesses discover what their customers want from the vast sea of online conversations. First, it provides direct customer insights, revealing what your audience loves, fears, and desires. This insight is crucial in crafting messages that resonate on a personal level. Furthermore, social listening acts as a health check for your brand, showcasing how the public perceives you compared to your competitors. It’s also an excellent tool for competitive analysis, offering a clear view of where you stand in the market. Lastly, it’s a trendspotter’s best friend, helping you stay ahead by identifying emerging patterns and topics in your industry.
Sounds great! How do I start?
If you google ‘free tools for social listening’, you’ll see many options popping up. So, it’s not something that is gatekept behind a paid subscription. Any business trying to keep its costs low can do it.
I like to use Answer the Public. Answer the Public is a widely acclaimed, free social listening tool that taps into the power of search engine autocomplete data, such as that from Google. This feature provides invaluable insights into the phrases and questions people ask about your chosen keywords.
As a repository of consumer insights, this tool is instrumental in generating fresh content ideas and enhancing customer experiences. Answer the Public offers a Pro subscription for those seeking more extensive features. This includes unlimited daily searches, weekly email updates, personalized data exports, dedicated workspaces for team collaboration, and a comprehensive package for education and training.
Okay, I have all the information I need…what do I do now?
If you’ve tried a few tools and got a sense of what your audience wants, it’s time to put those insights into action! The actual value of social listening lies in its application. For instance, content creation can be revolutionized by tailoring material that speaks directly to your audience’s interests and concerns. In product development, feedback and insights gathered from social listening can guide the creation or modification of products to meet customer needs better. In customer service, addressing complaints and queries spotted through social listening can significantly enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty. Finally, personalised marketing becomes more impactful when you base your campaigns on your audience’s preferences and needs, as revealed through social listening.
Conclusion
Social listening transcends being a mere buzzword; it is a strategic imperative in today’s fast-paced digital world. Effectively harnessed, it provides a treasure trove of insights to refine your messaging and deepen your connection with your audience. In the ever-changing landscape of social media, being an attentive listener is not just beneficial – it’s crucial for staying relevant and successful. The most essential and crucial step, however, is taking action. If you need help translating these insights into an action plan, that’s where a content editor comes in handy to plan your blog articles. Hiring a content manager will save you time thinking of new ways to engage your audience so you can focus on running your business.
