Importance of Social Listening in Creating an Effective Digital Marketing Campaign digital marketing
91% retail brands use social media platforms.Are all 91% making the best use of those platforms though?Have you, as a marketer, ever considered a ‘social listening’ strategy?‘Social listening’-It’s not what it sounds like, although eavesdropping might prove to be somewhat useful to marketers, albeit highly unethical. It’s really more of a personal preference.What we mean is social media listening. You probably already get the meaning now, but let us further elaborate.It’s when you pay attention on social media to get direct access to the prospect’s pain points, trace trends, form relationships, and create brand identity.Social media is a huge blessing for current marketers as it is a resource that provides such easy access to the audience. This highly useful resource was not available to marketers some 30 years ago and we bet some of them are saying ‘millennials have got it so easy’ right about now.Below are some of the ways social listening has proven to be useful to others and can yield similar results for you.Strategic social listening informs a brand. It informs all the various facets of running a successful business including product improvement, customer service, pricing, marketing, and content strategy. It dictates the direction a brand should take in each of these areas.You will not get the real gossip from a handbook. The good thing about social media is that it’s all out in the open. You just need to look to understand what the people and your prospects are actually saying and then seriously use that information to inform your marketing strategy and customer service.Listen to the good and the bad to see what works and what doesn’t. Don’t overlook the good reviews and don’t shun the bad ones. They are both equally important. Look for trends and commonalities to help you with your next strategy.Influencers are huge these days. You want to win favor with them if you want to be where majority of the audience is. Developing a good understanding of which influencer the people like and then building a good rapport with them or better yet collaborating with them will help your social image a lot.Also, observe influencers and their methods. The popular ones are creating content that is clearly appealing to a lot of people and if that is your target audience too then maybe you need to take a page out of their book.The other main way in which it will help is by helping you generate leads. You can get a very good sense of which should be your targeted demographic and even individuals who can give you some sweet conversions.Don’t become self-obsessed though. Look around. Use this directory of sorts to figure out where the real competition lies and what they’re doing right or wrong. With such conspicuous strategies you can apprehend their next move. A little healthy competition never hurt nobody.Use the platform to reach out to your audience and engage. Winning the common man’s favor can really contribute to establishing your company as an industry leader.The best and most entertaining content can be found on these social media sites. The memes and trends also can help if used appropriately. You can curate the best kind of content as well as valuable audience feedback.More the engagement better your brand relevance and you also get the chance to communicate one on one and address any pain points your prospects may have when they mention you or your brand somewhere.You can also use this tool to observe any other issues or concerns that they might have even if they don’t mention your brand directly. This way you can direct them to your content (which you will have written specifically for that issue). You’ve got to be quick on your toes for this.These are only some of the ways (11 to be exact) in which you can make use of social media. Our advice would be to keep it classy. Don’t spam people and don’t be offensive in order to be ‘hip’.Both of these things will put people off and do more harm than good. Other than that, there is a world of possibilities out there. Go wild!