Social Media is here to stay – we use it to share our life happenings, talk about the latest episode of “This is Us,” and to praise or bash brands and companies. The latter is the reason why small businesses should listen carefully by trying Social Listening.
Are you aware of what your clients are saying about you online? You may want to try Social Listening. If you’d like to know more, tune in!
We gathered some excellent insights from our #BizHeroes community on our last chat about Social Listening, let’s see what they had to say.
What is Social Listening?
As our #BizHeroes explained it, social listening could be defined as just “paying attention” to specific keywords and messages about your company, your competitors or your market area.
A1: Social listening is the ability to actively listen to your customers and their opinions on your brand. #bizheroes
— Molina Careers (@MolinaCareers) December 13, 2016
A1: Social Listening is watching, learning and listening. You'll gain a lot from doing this. #bizheroes
— Madalyn Sklar – Digital Marketing since 1996 (@MadalynSklar) December 13, 2016
A1. Tracking words and phrases that apply to your brand and then using those to strategize and engage. #bizheroes
— National Institute for Social Media (@nismpulse) December 13, 2016
A1 It offers deep(er) insights into what people talk about, search, what they (not) talk about, what is being said abt ur biz #BizHeroes https://t.co/hg4TnEgFdc
— Zala Bricelj – 🇸🇮 😊 #edutech is my jam (@ZalkaB) December 13, 2016
A1. Gathering research on customer insights through the use of online platforms #bizheroes @paper_li
— Record Nations (@record_nations) December 13, 2016
Is it worth it?
Knowing what is being said about your industry and about your business online, could be very beneficial. It’s obvious that it’s best to know than to be in the dark about what people are saying. And, it doesn’t have to be negative!
On her post titled 8 Ways to Use Social Listening for your Business, Zoe Summer lists various ways you could it to superpower your strategy. Here they are:
- Generating leads
- Attracting new customers
- Identifying influencers & advocated
- Discovering where your community is
- Improving customer care
- Getting feedback on products
- Finding talent
- Driving innovation
Lots of opportunities there even if your business is not big or well-known enough to generate digital word-of-mouth. You can use social listening to gather new ideas, get new customers that are looking for a solution like yours or even find prospective employees. To add to that great list, here’s what our #BizHeroes community shared:
To add to that great list, here’s what our #BizHeroes community shared these insights:
A2 @paper_li Whether you know it or not, people are talking & sharing sentiment. Wouldn't you rather know? #BizHeroes
— Lars Helgeson (@larshelgeson) December 13, 2016
A2: Social listening can bring your business to the next level but you have to take action and show you care about your audience #bizheroes
— Sabrina Cadini, CHLC, CBFC (@SabrinaCadini) December 13, 2016
A2: It's critical for brands to listen to what consumers think, struggle with, love; but might be uncomfortable saying directly. #BizHeroes
— Tim Mohler (@TimothyMohler) December 13, 2016
Tools, Tools, Tools
It all sounds kind of cool but going profile by profile on your Twitter feed will not cut it, huh? There are some helpful Social Listening tools out there and here are some of the favorites listed by our community:
A4. @Percolate is magic. No other way to say it! #bizheroes
— Record Nations (@record_nations) December 13, 2016
A4. I've used @nuvi in the past, was ok.. but I now use @BuzzSumo & @SproutSocial and love them both! #bizheroes
— Becky (@BeckyShindell) December 13, 2016
A8:Hard- as most are expensive for #SMB . Mentioned @Tagboard (free), @paper_li of course & your existing social sched tool #bizheroes
— Tim Mohler (@TimothyMohler) December 13, 2016
A8: I recommend your incredibly awesome Juice app for iOS. https://t.co/YaeWKkFM1l I tell everyone to use it. It's my fave app! #bizheroes
— Madalyn Sklar – Digital Marketing since 1996 (@MadalynSklar) December 13, 2016
Use Paper.li for Social Listening
Use Paper.li to follow a hashtag, a Twitter List or a keyword to see what your competitors are doing or to get a grasp of the latest developments in your industry.
The Genius Source is the easiest way to get started. Learn more here.
If you have questions or just want to chat, don’t hesitate to tweet us @paper_li or contact our Support Team if you need help!
Join the conversation! What tools do you use for Social Listening?
