“If you make listening and observation your occupation, you will gain much more than you can by talk.”
– Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Scouting Movement
Have you ever had a conversation and felt like instead of listening to you, the other person was just thinking about what they wanted to say next? Or perhaps you’ve caught yourself doing the same thing to someone else? Listening effectively is the way we learn and discern about other people’s wants, needs, and motivations. And good listening doesn’t just extend to face-to-face or over-the-phone correspondence; it is a vital component of a successful social media strategy as well.
Social Listening is the less well-known companion to the broadcasting of a business and its brand over social media. Most businesses are familiar with their need to start and maintain the social conversation with their customers and followers, but few recognize the equally pressing need to monitor their social environment (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, industry blogs…etc.) for indirect mentions of their business, services they offer, and buzz surrounding their competition. Social listening can be time consuming and expensive for small businesses without the aid of a professional, but you can “listen” socially by employing these easy, low to no cost tactics:
- Setting up Google alerts for keywords and brand names related to your business
- Searching those keywords on Twitter
- Staying on top of your social media traffic with free analytics programs for Facebook and Twitter.
Along those same lines, businesses tend to forget to assess and redefine the effectiveness of their social media efforts on a regular basis. This essentially defeats the purpose of those efforts. Long-term management and attention to adjusting your message to customer trends . . .that’s what social listening is all about.
Does all of this sound Greek to you? The R2R Marketing team can help you make sense of your social media environment – just call us at 1-866-566-7272 today!
