Are you listening to your customers? Importance of Social Media Listening

According to the study done by 'Search Engine Land,' 88% of the customers googled for the details of the product before making a purchase. 85% of the customers check up to 10 reviews before making a purchase. The momentum of using google to check the availability of solutions, checking for product reviews, asking the people to suggest or recommend a solution or a product has become a common practice. Customers openly express their opinion on various products and services of companies on social media and their opinion matters. We all check for product reviews on Amazon or check for Hotel reviews on MakeMyTrip before making a purchase decision. The power of social media can influence the growth of the company to a large extent and we all need to listen to social media carefully.

Social listening (or Internet monitoring) is the activity of collecting content from the Internet with a tool, based on the predefined keyword(s). In other words, social listening enables a user to find out what is being said on social media and other online platforms.- BRAND24

The following are the advantages of social listening.

1) Generate Leads - It is no wonder that if you type ' Villa plots in South Bangalore', within minutes you get a call from a real estate agent. People ask for the recommendation or suggestions on social media and ' Can anyone suggest me' is a trending phrase in google search. People are looking for suggestions on social media and it is very important to give an ear to the voices to check whether your solution is an answer to those questions.

2) Brand Image Remember the saga of Nestle? The story started with a social media post in Poland and the snowball effect affected the reputation of the company. It is very important to understand what is the sentiment of the people about your product. Text Analysis and Sentiment analysis are the two interesting parameters that can give you great insight into your brand image.

For example, I checked the sentimental analysis of a well-known writing tool and found that 33% of the customers are talking positively about the tool. However, there is a 3% increase in the negative sentiments and 20% of the customers are talking negatively about the solution which the company needs to focus on.

3) Market Opportunity

It is always better to focus on the market where your brand is well known and the places where people are talking about you on social media. The buzz on social media shows that you are well known in geography. For example, the following is an example of a well-known company and its social media presence.

The company is the talk of the town in the USA and for the last 30 days and people are searching or mentioning in the English language followed by the Indonesian language. Astonishingly, India, and China are also an emerging market for this company. You can take strategic decisions on market opportunity based on the inputs received by social media listening.

3) Social Media Strategy

For the same company, I checked various social media for two criteria.

1) Sources by mention. ( Company name) 2) Sources by the search. ( Company name)

Following are the results of both the criteria and Twitter is a leading platform by the mention ( of the company) and people are searching for the company on Facebook. Whooping 305.4 million people have searched for the company on Facebook for the last 30 days. Social media to be focussed on by the company is Facebook.

4) Authors and Sentiments It is important to check the performance of the influencers and the sentiment they are creating. The company can focus on performing influencers and creating a positive influence on social media. The analysis shows an interesting factor that yongyeezy is the great influencers with 65.2k reach.

5) Better Customer Services By listening to Social media one can act fast on customer services so as to avoid further damage.

Are you listening to your customers on social media?