Customers actively discuss products, share opinions, and leave reviews. This way, brands can hear what helps them get closer to their consumers. Social listening comes to the rescue — a system for monitoring and analyzing mentions that allows businesses to “listen” to customers/ In this article, Markway outlines five essential rules to make social listening an effective tool for business growth.
What is Social Listening?
Social listening involves monitoring and analyzing mentions of a brand, products, competitors, and key topics on social media. It is a powerful tool that helps companies better understand their customers and their needs. The essence of social listening is not just “hearing” what people say about a company, but interpreting that data to adapt strategies, improve products, and build a positive brand perception.
According to a report by Brandwatch, over 50% of companies are already actively utilizing social listening in their operations. In 2024, its popularity continues to rise: companies that actively use social listening show a 21% increase in customer retention and an 18% higher profitability compared to their competitors. Brands are using social listening not only for monitoring but also for engaging in dialogue with their audience and predicting market shifts.
It is recommended to monitor mentions at least once a week to respond promptly to potential issues and changes. However, in dynamic industries such as fashion or technology, monitoring frequency may be increased to daily or even hourly intervals.
What Can You “Hear” from Mention Monitoring
Social listening allows companies to gather key data about current trends and audience needs. Here are the main aspects that can be uncovered from monitoring mentions:
- Trends: Social listening helps track the current topics of interest to the audience.
- Competitor Analysis: Companies can learn what people are saying about their competitors, their strengths and weaknesses.
- Customer Preferences and Behavior: Monitoring allows businesses to understand which products the audience prefers and what piques their interest.
- Reviews and Issues: Companies can learn about emerging problems with products or services and resolve them promptly.
- Growth Opportunities: Social listening helps identify potential areas for product or service improvement.
Thus, social listening provides information that helps companies improve products, adapt marketing strategies, and build closer relationships with consumers.
How to Make Social Listening Effective: 5 Rules
It’s important to follow several key rules to ensure social listening delivers tangible results.
Rule 1: Define Goals and Key Metrics
You need to define the goals you want to achieve. This will help you determine metrics to focus on, the number of mentions, overall tone, the most mentioned competitors, or popular products.
Rule 2: Choose the Right Tools for Monitoring
For effective data analysis, it’s essential to use modern social listening tools. Platforms offer extensive capabilities for collecting and analyzing data, including filtering by language, region, and channel. When selecting a tool, pay attention to features that may be particularly useful for your business, such as competitor analytics, detailed location reports, or topic segmentation.
Rule 3: Segment Monitoring by Categories and Topics
Effective social listening requires data segmentation. You should divide the monitoring into categories such as product reviews, service feedback, competitor mentions, and general trends.
Rule 4: Be Proactive in Responding to Mentions
One of the key aspects of successful social listening is active engagement with the audience. It’s crucial to respond to their feedback, whether positive or negative. Timely responses to complaints or offering assistance can not only improve the brand’s reputation but also increase customer loyalty.
Rule 5: Analyze and Use the Data for Improvements
The results of social listening should not only be documented but also used to drive business development. It’s important to regularly analyze the data and make strategic adjustments based on these insights.
Social listening is a powerful tool that allows businesses to stay closer to their customers, respond to their needs in a timely manner, and leverage market trends to boost competitiveness.
