71% of customers online, who have had an excellent social media service experience with a particular brand are likely to recommend it to others. Many people believe that social media is only about conversations with your loved ones. Well, consider this stat 66% of users say that they use social media to learn about new products and services available out there. This means one and one thing only that your target audience (or sometimes even your competitors) is looking up for the products and services your company is offering through networks like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and a lot more.

But first, what is Social Media Listening? Social Media Listening is the process of monitoring online conversations (via a tool) to understand what customers are talking about a brand or the industry on various platforms. Social Listening drives awareness, consideration, intent to purchase and to share experiences about brands, taking your target audience through the customer journey and that is why more and more brands are switching to social media listening tools these days.

Using a social media listening tool is no rocket science. Use a dashboard to set up your listening process instead of checking each social media network natively. Set up a panel to monitor your multiple social media accounts (like Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, etc.), hashtags and search terms. Using a listening tool will save your team’s time, making them more efficient in the process.

Look for terms that your target client or competitor could be using. There are tons and tons of search terms that you can get and based on these terms; your brand can plan out new campaigns, product launches, etc. in the near future. 

Another factor that can help you grow your business via social listening is monitoring conversations about your brand that are happening locally. 

If you are a local restaurant, you might want to monitor all the conversations that are happening within an 8 km radius. This allows you to engage with potential customers nearby, perhaps by offering them a discount for stopping by.

There is a lot of potential social listening and engagements happening online. It is ultimately your call as to how you leverage all this data and come up with a strategy that may help your brand to grow.