Why social listening matters more now than ever before

Social listening matters

Social media has revolutionised the way in which people communicate with each other and with brands they are interested in. Since the world has been in lockdown, it is social media that has enabled us all to stay connected, and the brands who have adapted their approach to social media, are the ones who remain relevant. More so than ever, we need social listening tools to understand what it is that people need, want and care about. Our buying habits have potentially changed forever and we will only understand what this means for our business If we listen and adapt our marketing accordingly. 

The digital space allows businesses to reach customers globally in order to sell their products and services. Social media, blogs, vlogs and email marketing all serve to drive engagement with our offer. The key to success in the digital space, however, is relevance, and this is absolutely the case in this Covid, and post-Covid, world.  

The algorithms used on social media platforms to assess how well business pages are performing are, in its simplest form, measured by relevance. Social media platforms have been built as listening forums. They listen to see what people are saying, just as you must. If you do not listen closely to what people are saying about your product, your brand and the industry you operate in, how can you possibly be expected to create content that will resonate? Social listening is as crucial in business as it is in our personal lives. For us at Buy-From, partnering with Maybe has enabled us to listen rather than monitor, and transform our approach to marketing for our clients as a result.

So, what is social listening?

Social listening can be defined as the process of monitoring social channels for gathering information. This can include customer feedback and reviews, mentions of your brand and any discussions that are taking place that include your brand or industry. Maybe*s social listening tools provide one space to collate all this information and enable you to extract actionable insights and reports from this information. 

The key to understanding the relevance of social listening is that, with the right tools, you know what, why, where and how discussions are taking place so you can be totally responsive in your marketing activity. Maybe*s tech involves monitoring competitors, keywords, themes, brands, industries and topics so that you develop a clear, dynamic, 360 degree picture of the landscape in which you are operating. 

Only by knowing what people think, can you develop relevant and meaningful social media campaigns that stand apart from your competitors. Social listening also enables you to understand how to construct effective and high performing ad campaigns and develop powerful influencer partnerships, all of which we have been able to action since working with Maybe*. 

Customer service is also the key area that benefits from social listening as it allows you to swiftly spot issues and pain points, enabling you to moderate your social media accounts quickly and easily. Maybe*s dashboard will allow you to detect negative feedback and respond directly and in such a way that you stand out from other businesses. 

The Buy-From team are now using Maybe*s social listening tools to develop content for our clients that their consumers really want, that they care about and that enables them to stay relevant at a time of great difficulty globally. We are more responsive than ever, equipped with data that allows us to constantly reassess how we are communicating and the impact of what we are communicating.

Why is social listening important for marketing?