Social Listening: What It Is, Why It Matters, Tools To Get Started

Social listening is the hottest new topic in marketing. Because of social media, brands now have a more intimate relationship with their customers. This new dynamic creates more brand loyalty but also creates higher standards for brands. 

Customers now have a public platform to voice their critiques and concerns, and as a business, monitoring those comments and responding thoughtfully is now more important than ever. So, what is social listening, why does it matter, and what are some tools that you can use to get started?

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What Is Social Listening?

Social listening is part of community management. It’s the process of tracking social media conversations about your brand, analyzing them for insights, and then acting in accordance to the general sentiment.

While data tracking is an important part of the process, social listening goes beyond that. It assesses the general mood so that you can understand how people feel about your business. This can then be leveraged for meaningful decisions appropriate for the social climate.

Why Does Social Listening Matter?

While tunnel vision can sometimes be helpful in social strategy, it’s equally important to at least understand the environment that your content is being deployed into. If your social media strategy doesn’t account for social listening, it’s like you’re going in with blinders on. Real people are talking about your brand and your industry. Listen to what they have to say so that you can anticipate their needs and position yourself more favorable light.

3 Tools For Social Listening

1. Brandwatch (Formerly Falcon.io)

Brandwatch is an AI-based platform that takes the labor out of social media monitoring. It helps you identify popular topics related to your brand and allows you to craft smarter campaigns based on data insight. This tool can analyze messages in multiple languages and automatically marks mentions as positive, neutral or negative to help you prioritize engagement.

Plans start at $108/mo with a 14-day free trial.

2. Digimind

Digimind uses intelligence software to help you fully understand consumer insights, competitive environment, and market trends. It enables you to see conversations in real-time across millions of online sources to gain valuable insights that can then be used for marketing. 

Plans vary in pricing in accordance to monthly mentions and queries

3. Hootsuite

Hootsuite is one of the best free social listening tools out there. This platform allows you to set up social media streams that monitor conversations, keywords, mentions, and hashtags. 

Hootsuite is free to begin with but social listening functions might be an additional cost

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Is social listening a key part of your marketing strategy? What are some tips that you’ve found helpful in monitoring your brand’s social media image? Share with us in the comments below!