‘Listen, Listen, Listen!’: How to use Social Media to Lift your Brand’s Digital Marketing
Being reactive is not always preferred in every arena however in social media, listening is a big skill. The best social media marketing accounts are those that are listening to what their customers are saying, listening to the conversation happening in the culture, and who are listening to marketing trends. There are many advantages to why a social media account will want to listen, including none the more prominent than being able to control the conversation around their brand. By listening, you can elevate your reputation, enjoy more word-of-mouth recommendations, identify new opportunities, and better track your performance.
If you want to be a good listener on social media, you’ve got to start by setting up a system monitoring all brand mentions. Whenever someone mentions your brand, you should receive a report, a notification, or something similar which helps to show what’s being said about you. You may also wish to set up a notification-based system spying on your competition as well. This may identify potential opportunities to nab some of their unsatisfied clients or to grow a new product/service affecting your industry. For many brands, monitoring the competition is routine and is not an opportunity you should overlook when listening to what’s going on.
Next, any complaint, comment, or compliment should be considered for response. If there’s uncontrolled conversation happening on social media that’s negative, it can do a lot to negatively impact your brand reputation. If there are complaints and you can show you’re interested in helping and addressing those, that says a lot about your brand. If the same complaints continue to come up, make notes, and use these to take action. A lot can be learned just by listening to what others are saying about you and your competition. For this reason, social media listening is something we absolutely believe is worth looking at.
Complaints, compliments, backlinks, retweets, mentions, and questions can be used to rebuild and/or re-design your digital marketing strategy. There are a myriad of different apps and software which can be used to listen in on social media conversation, including Hootsuite, BuzzSumo, and more. Through these apps, you can monitor and manage all social media conversation across multiple platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and others.
Perhaps the most challenging aspect of monitoring social media conversation is how to handle complaints. A lot of us tend to react emotionally when we hear a complaint, sometimes being overly aggressive. A prompt response to a complaint to calm a grievance and seek to communicate can make the world of difference in customer satisfaction though.
Beyond complaints, don’t forget to thank customers for leaving a positive comment as well! Acknowledging customers is a powerful way to build trust and credibility. And, if you’re going to address the negative comments, addressing the positive ones as well can be a good move. Thank anyone willing to leave a comment, a favourite, retweet, or like!
Be it Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, or on another social media platform, conversations are happening all the time affecting brands small and large all over the world. Partner with Unlimited Exposure to monitor what’s being talked about around your brand and build a high-performance social media marketing plan to get your website to the top of the pile! Add credibility, engage and connect, and reap the rewards in real-time. Join us today for more details!
