Since its inception, social media has greatly revolutionized the communication landscape. These platforms have given us the freedom to express ourselves and our ideas and to sell products. A vast majority of people are becoming aware of this fact, and they are looking for insiders and experts to teach them how to best take advantage of this priceless commodity. Brands are not sparing any expenses in a quest to figure out how to get more people to follow them, how their profile needs to look, how to get people’s attention, how to entertain an audience and how to sell a product or a service. However, very few people know how to listen to social media and understand the value of doing so. This is very unfortunate because for one to be successful in the digital age, one has to learn the craft of online social listening

For brands to be able to deliver personalized experiences to their audience (the Launchpad to successful social marketing), they have to allocate considerable time and resources towards social listening. Social media listening refers to analyzing the conversations and trends happening not just around your brand, but around your industry as a whole, and using those insights to make better marketing decisions.

Social listening allows you to track, analyze, and respond to conversations about your brand and industry online. It’s a key component of audience research. If you don’t have a social listening strategy in place for your brand, you end up missing out on valuable insights. What do your customers think about your brand? What are they saying about your competitors?

In order to achieve success in the digital marketing sphere, you have to understand that it’s never really about you, how good you are or what you share. It is about the people who choose to buy your products and services. You have to know what your audiences really think about you and your brand. Rather than making assumptions about what your customers want or need, you should hear exactly what they’re saying. It’s common for people to publicly share their opinions — whether political in nature or about a trending meme — so it’s no surprise they do the same about the brands they interact with.

Here are some tips on how best to utilize social listening to redefine and realign  your brands ROI for the better.

Show the people in your community that you care about what’s important to them by regularly commenting on their posts.

Psychological research suggests that humans evolved as a cooperative species, living as small tribes or extended family groups. Each person depended on the group for their survival, and for comfort and love. Therefore, we may be hardwired to seek approval and avoid rejection from those around us. This is why People like to show off what is going on in their lives and a simple like or comment can go a long way. It is a great feeling to know that an important person or an expert is supporting us on our choices.

Try to Foster online camaraderie with other businesses near you that have similar activities as your own

Maybe that business next to yours may not need your products or services at the minute, but they may require them in the future. So, it is very important to create connections with the people around you because this is how you build and gain their trust. If they get to trust you individually, it gets easier for them to trust your business. You can do these by showing support to their online posts.

Make a habit of Responding to people’s comments on your posts and answer their questions

Whenever you publish a post online, follow up is very important. People don’t spend their time to comment on a post just so they can be left unread. By replying, you’re not only letting people know that you’re actively involved in reading the comments, but you’re encouraging them to come back and comment again later. Keep engaging and show that you are listening. Not taking the time to continue to engage can and will turn off your online community.

Learn to accommodate your online communities’ opinions about you or your business.

Research shows that 92% of consumers view online ratings and reviews before buying something, and 40% of them form an opinion of your business before contacting you. When that many consumers rely on others’ opinions, the importance of online reviews cannot be ignored, and so is the response. You have to treat social media as review sites responding to both positive and negative reviews for many advantageous reasons. Google can actually confirm that responding to online reviews improves the local SEO. Many businesses think it’s only necessary to reply to negative reviews (as damage control), But actually, you should also always reply to compliments you receive as well.

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