We’re All Ears – The Idea of Social Listening

Being in the midst of football season, everyone has at least one friend that is completely obsessed with all things football. Whether that is his (or her) fantasy team, his (or her) favorite college team or everyone’s stats in general, he is constantly talking about the same things over and over again. Now the bright side is this friend will likely become a normal person again around the time of the Super Bowl.

This friend is a lot like most companies’ social media accounts. They tell you the same thing about their business over and over. Though they have a vast amount of information about what they do, it’s tough to want to be their friends (or followers). This is where social listening enters into the conversation. Around 2009, you could be the guy talking about football non-stop and have countless followers. In today’s social realm, that just won’t cut it. You need to not only be well-versed on the company and what it has to offer, but you also need to be posting content that your followers are interested in.

To find content that your consumers would be interested in, you need to constantly be on the lookout for trending content. This content could be like the failed #WakeUpCall selfie campaign that happened earlier this month where celebrities posted selfies in the morning to bring awareness (wake people up) to the Syrian conflict. This content could also be this summer’s popular “Ice Bucket Challenge”. The problem is that each of these social campaigns look the exact same when they first start out so you either need to commit to a campaign that your company believes in and support the campaign from the beginning to be a thought leader, or hold off and join the conversation later when you know it is successful. There are pros and cons to either choice.

On a smaller scale, social listening can help bring in interactions by posting articles that are trending. Whether these articles are industry specific or just for entertainment, they are more likely to bring in a response and clicks. The sole result that other people are interested gives that article more value. Social listening can also help you locate communities you might want to reach out to. The internet is connecting people and groups daily. There are online communities (even some that connect into local groups) you would have no idea existed unless you went on social media and listened. On top of that, social listening can also help you to find advocates. If you have samples of your product, you might want to send it to the few followers who can reach the most people.

Social listening will help you to have a well-rounded social media site that many people want to follow, rather than the guy who says the same thing over and over.

While social listening is a huge asset, it is incredibly time consuming. What? You don’t have time to sit in front of your computer all day to watch for trending articles your followers might like? Well the good news for you is that Ilfusion has a social media department that can do that for you. For more information about social media, click here or visit our Facebook.