Social Listening for Results
If you’re engaged in business online, or if your business relies on the internet as a point of reference, listening to your customers should be a priority. With social media tools, it’s possible to get a feel for your customer’s attitudes, opinions, and overall sentiment towards your company. When a company ignores this information, it can yield detrimental results, causing a decline in business. Fortunately, companies like NetBase exist to help you engage your customers positively with tools that take care of the work for you. Growing your business can always seem challenging, but getting a grip on the online components can make it seem much easier to manage.
What is Social Listening
Listening is a rather broad term that can encompass many areas. In the strictest sense, it’s monitoring what’s being said about you, your employees, and your business on social media platforms. While we typically consider social media to include websites like Facebook and Instagram, the pool gets quite a bit deeper. These are just a few social media outlets where your business could be mentioned:
- YouTube
- Quora
- Reddit and more
Add to that Google, Angie’s List, Yelp, and many other smaller forums where people go to talk about their experiences. We’ve all looked up a business that had many poor reviews with no interaction from the owner or management. Most of us avoid these businesses due to a perceived lack of interest or concern. If the owner or management responds with a reasonable resolution, we’re more likely to give that company a chance to earn our business. Whether our business directly benefits through online sales, or if we’re just a small restaurant, more often than not, customers will be researching us before even considering a purchase.
Where Should We Listen?
Social listening requires the ability to find the information that’s said about our business. While some examples have been given, they’re only useful if we know how, when, and where our customers are engaged. Social media tools actively scan the web and social media platforms to find this information and alert us to the results. Examples of social media tools that are commonly utilized include:
- NetBase
- Talkwalker
- Brandwatch
- Reddit Keyword Monitor Pro
- Mentionlytics and more
Identifying Sales Opportunities and Emerging Demographics
Social listening also allows us to gear our product offerings and marketing efforts to those that are interested in buying. If you’re wasting advertising revenue, social listening can help you fine-tune your efforts and get your company’s products and services in front of the right audience in real-time. You’ll also be able to market products or services to areas where there might be a new market emerging. For example, if your company sells camping and survival supplies and there’s an area that’s had a flood, you could market effectively to those that need your products, immediately. If you’re focused on customers that won’t need your products until camping season, you’d most likely be losing out on a huge opportunity, not to mention, wasting your advertising budget, needlessly.
Try NetBase On for Size
NetBase is an industry leader that has provided social listening for many clients with exceptional results. The company also offers free tools and resources that you can implement to see results without spending a dime. Devising a strategy to get your message to the right customers, on time, every time and without missing a beat is what NetBase does best. Get in touch with us for your needs, and expect great results, today.