What Is Social Listening And What Are The Benefits?

If you are running a company and only just starting off on your digital marketing journey, you might have heard the words “social listening” banded around the internet.

It is important to take note of it because this is one of the most valuable means of gathering data.

According to a recent survey, nearly two-thirds of digital marketers have noted how social listening has increased in value throughout 2022 and into 2023.

At this stage of your company’s growth, any marketing channel that increases in value is undoubtedly an avenue to explore, not least due to the number of other benefits that social listening can bring.

But what is social listening, and what are these benefits? Below, we have come up with a quick run-through of the term and how exactly it can assist your company in reaching its goals:

What Is Social Listening?

Social listening pretty much does what it says on the tin. Like an ear pressed against a door, the strategy aims to monitor your social media channels, listening for any mention of your brand, competitor brands and keywords that are related to your company.

A strong social media management platform can ensure this is all done in real-time, and it can give your company a solid insight into how your brand is performing and how your consumers – and potential consumers – are reacting to it.

It should be noted, however, that there is a difference between social listening and social monitoring. Whilst social listening is a way to track and analyse sentiment online, social media monitoring is more about alerting your company to negative sentiment, which must be responded to as quickly as possible.

It does not give as much of a view as social listening, especially when it comes to what people are saying about your brand and competitor brands in the industry.

What Are The Benefits Of Social Listening?

Of course, there is the obvious benefit of being aware of customer sentiment, but there are a number of other analytical benefits that you can glean from social listening.

For one, it can allow you to re-evaluate your brand depending on its competitors. For instance, if you are unsure how to price your products effectively, you can take account of cheaper – or more expensive competitor prices – and react to compete with them. You can also switch up the sort of content you are creating, judging on the weak points of your competitors – identifying or manipulating your USP to be more in line with what customers are talking about.

In terms of content, you can also gather the data you have attained through social listening and infuse strong customer experiences into your own content. User-generated content is often far more credible and engaging than corporate content, especially when it comes to the authenticity it radiates to less trusting consumers.

Social listening is also important when it comes to both damage limitation from negative feedback and boosting morale from positive feedback. We have mentioned earlier that there is a difference between social media monitoring and social media listening, but both still give you the opportunity to track the experiences of your customers and respond quickly.

This is a positive factor when it comes to preserving your reputation, as well as gaining awareness of what your company is doing right and how to maximise the impact of that success.