Are you using social media listening to your advantage? Come here, let us tell you a secret. Listen up. A little closer… you should be. There are so many business opportunities that can be generated through social media listening. Maybe you have no idea what we’re talking about or maybe you’ve heard the term, but don’t really know how to use it.
Either way, we’re going to walk you through it and provide a few options for tools you can use to improve your social media listening skills. Let’s get to it.
Why Should I?
There are many reasons why you should. Here are a few reasons that might entice you:
- Customer Support
- Find & connect with niche influencers
- Convert competitor’s unhappy customers into your happy customers
- Make happy customers Brand Ambassadors
- Identify your weak points so that you fix them
- Get content ideas from your customers’ interests and struggles
Social media listening can give you a lot of insight into your product or service as well as your customers. At the very least, it’s worth trying. You’ll probably be surprised by how much information you can get out of it that will benefit your business.
OK, What The Heck Is It?
Imagine that you own a simple restaurant that serves burgers and sandwiches. One day, while you’re behind the counter flipping burgers, you hear two customers talking.
“I love the spicy chicken sandwiches here, but the burgers are too thin.”
The other customer chimes in “Oh my god, yes. The chicken sandwiches here are so much better than Cluck It Bucket. But if I want the best burger, I go to Burger Burglar.”
“Same!”
So you start to ask some other customers over the next few days what their favorite menu items are and if they’ve tried any other menu items. You discover that most people think your burgers are too thin and most of them love the chicken sandwich. So you start to make changes. You listen. You make thicker, juicier burgers, and you add a new chicken sandwich variation to the menu. Low and behold, more customers start coming in for the new chicken sandwich and some of Burger Burglar’s customers are showing up to try out your new burgers!
That’s what social media listening is but it’s, you know… on social media. What are some common complaints you see in reviews or in the comments? What are some things people seem to love? Visit a competitor’s page and figure out what customers like and dislike about them.
Social Media Listening Tools
Here are some social media listening tools you should consider trying:
SentiOne is an AI-powered social media listening tool that will automatically prioritize social media messages, help your team to compose replies faster, and talk to your customers autonomously through a chatbot. It will also keep records of your past interactions so that in future conversations you can look back at what’s happened in the past.
Agorapulse is unique because it combines social media management and listening. Not all mentions on social media are created equal. Some of them are from customers actively considering your business or who need assistance in the buying process. Those need immediate attention. Some are complaints that might not need immediate attention but will require a reply and probably a forward to customer support or product development. Some are testimonials or positive comments that can be added to your website.
Agorapulse will allow you to assign different types of mentions to different people so that each type of mention can be dealt with in an ideal way.
a href=”https://tweetdeck.twitter.com/”>Tweetdeck
Twitter can be categorized as its own beast simply due to the instantaneous nature of it. Tweetdeck is a Twitter management and listening tool that’s free to use. Use it in combination with Twitter lists to make the most of it. Add people to different Twitter lists (Bloggers, Past Customers, Influencers) and then create separate columns in Tweetdeck to pull tweets from each list. When you have a few minutes, open Tweetdeck and reply to recent tweets in each column. This is a great way to keep a personal connection with past customers and keep interacting with influencers and bloggers.
If you’re not doing any social media listening, now’s the time to start! If you are, maybe it’s time to take it to the next level and try out one of these tools.
