The power of social media listening

More than ever, consumers are using social media to spread the word about brands they like and perhaps more importantly, those they don’t. With the introduction of each new media channel, the digital landscape shifts and brand owners need to adjust quickly to stay ahead.

To achieve this, organisations now adopt formal tools and processes that structure how to track mentions of their brands in social media. But if you’re to survive in this connected space, you need to mine – not just monitor – these conversations, because it’s this data that throws up valuable insight that informs future strategy.

The social shopper of today has all sorts of perceptional baggage – information that they bring with them to the point of activation, the point at which they make the purchasing decision. It comes from a variety of avenues: how people influence each other, how marketers influence, how traditional media such as advertising influences, as well as how social media influences. So before a brand even opens its digital mouth, it needs to listen and observe the culture of communities, interactions between members, how influence is expressed, and even if there’s a particular vernacular. The communities can be private or open, but regardless of where they sit, brands need to get to know the members, stakeholders, and community norms.

Here’s where the difference between listening and monitoring comes into play.