Social Media

What is Social Listening?

Discover the power of social listening to unlock your business success by monitoring industry evolution. Still don’t know how to get started? Check this out!

April 20, 2023
Carolina Guimarães

What is Social Listening for?

Were you aware that social listening is a vital tool for expanding your business? If you're not already familiar with these techniques, don't worry – now is the perfect time to get started! By understanding the evolution of your industry on social media, you'll be able to stay ahead of the game and make informed decisions. So let's dive in and discover why this practice is crucial for your success!

Social listening definition

Social listening is the process of monitoring and analyzing online discussions, dialogues, and exchanges on various digital channels such as social media platforms, websites, and forums. This method allows businesses to gain valuable insights into customer needs, opinions, and behaviors.

By doing so, they can gain a deeper understanding of their brand, products, or services and pinpoint areas for improvement to strengthen their online reputation. To do so, companies use social listening tools to track keywords, hashtags, mentions, and other relevant data points and using this information to inform marketing, sales, and customer service strategies.

Staying up to date with the latest industry trends and taking a leading role is essential for brands, and social listening has become an increasingly popular practice that they simply cannot ignore. So let's take a closer look at all of this 👇

Social Listening is important for a brand

  • Stay on top of industry trends

Social listening is critical for brands for many reasons. Not only does it help companies keep an eye on their online reputation, but it also enables them to stay in the loop with industry trends and what their competitors are up to. This is possible by tracking keywords and hashtags related to their industry, which can help brands identify emerging trends and keep up with the market.

  • Remain competitive by fulfilling customer aspirations

To thrive in today's fast-paced and constantly changing marketplace, businesses need to stay ahead of the game. This means keeping a close eye on emerging trends and innovations, anticipating shifts in customer preferences and market demands, and adjusting their strategies accordingly. Brands that stay ahead of the curveand integrate emerging technologies gain a competitive edge.

  • Build a solid online reputation to increase customer loyalty

Naturally, social listening also helps companies respond to customer issues and worries in no time. By keeping tabs on social media mentions and feedback, businesses can reply to customer complaints, answer questions, and offer support, which can lead to higher customer satisfaction and loyalty.

How can a social listening strategy help your business?

Implementing a social listening strategy can be highly beneficial for businesses. By actively monitoring and analyzing conversations, trends, and patterns across social media platforms, businesses can gain valuable insights into their customers' preferences and behaviors. This approach allows businesses to identify emerging trends and topics within their industry, enabling them to adapt their marketing and sales strategies accordingly.

Social listening can also help businesses identify key influencers and advocates who can help promote their brand and increase engagement with their target audience. By gaining a comprehensive understanding of their customers' viewpoints, interests, and actions, businesses can tailor their products, services, and messaging to better meet their customers' needs and expectations.

Overall, using a social listening strategy can help businesses stay on top of things and engage better with customers on social media. And guess what? Combining it with social monitoring can give a clearer idea of your brand's reputation and how customers perceive it on social media.

Difference between social listening and social monitoring

Social listening and social monitoring share a common goal: to help businesses gain insights into the latest industry trends, emerging consumer desires, and popular themes that extend beyond social media discussions. Yet, their approach and the insights they provide are quite different.

Now that you’re familiar with social listening, let's explore social monitoring. Basically, it involves actively tracking and responding to mentions, comments, and other interactions with your brand on social media platforms. This allows businesses to promptly address negative feedback or complaints and resolve any issues that may arise.

Simply put, the key distinction between these two approaches is that social listening primarily involves monitoring industry trends, while social monitoring is mainly focused on brand reputation. But, there are many reasons why social listening should be a top priority.

Of course, monitoring your brand's reviews is crucial for building your online presence, but what really sets you apart and establishes you as a market leader is keeping up with all the latest trends in your industry. So don't wait any longer - start social listening now!

About the author

Carolina Guimarães

The big winner of the Nationality Oscar (Portuguese, Brazilian and French!), and new Right-Hand of the CEO is full of joy. In her 2022 vision board you will find: dance, Blair Waldorf’s wardrobe, lots of ice cream and an excel board of the future! #IceCreamAddict🍦 #SciencePo🎓