Social listening is a digital listening activity that consists of conducting an analysis of your various social media channels in order to gather qualitative data on the positioning of your brand and your competitors’ brands in the minds of consumers.  

By analyzing the comments under your posts, direct mentions of your company and keywords related to your industry, you will be able to build a picture of what consumers think about your brand.  

With this information, you can develop strategies to maintain, improve or even reposition your brand to ensure your profitability and sustainability.  

Although social listening was already highly relevant before the pandemic, this type of analysis has gained popularity in a world where the connection with the consumer is mostly done remotely and through digital platforms.  

According to eMarketer, half of marketers worldwide are turning to social listening to understand the evolution of consumer preferences during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since it is no longer possible to evaluate consumer satisfaction in-store, tracking users’ feelings about your products is inevitably done online, often through your various social platforms. 

A social listening report should contain several crucial pieces of information that you can use to improve your actions in the future. 

After performing this audit on social networks, it is necessary to observe if a change in sentiment towards your brand has occurred.   

• What did your consumers like or dislike?  
• Which publications created the most engagement? 
• Can you detect dissatisfaction with any of your products?  
• Is there a trend emerging on your platforms? 

Your social networks are a goldmine of information that allows you to better understand the expectations and tastes of your audience.  

The important thing is to discover the root causes of these changes in feelings towards your brand, whether they are positive or negative. To learn more about maintaining your relationship with your customers, visit Billy.social.

Your report should allow you to recognize your good practices, but also to learn from your not-so-good ones. It is a guide for the future that shows you the guidelines for good conduct.  

The goal is to avoid repeating the same mistakes made by your organization and your competitors. No one is immune to a scandal or a slip-up, the objective is to know how to detect them quickly in order to take action and avoid them getting out of hand. 

Social listening is also about listening to what is being said about your competitors and your industry. The objective is not to imitate your competitors’ strategy, but rather to be able to follow their developments.  

Their social platforms contain a multitude of clues allowing you to predict certain actions they will take. 

Are they about to launch a new product line? Have they invested in new branding to rejuvenate their brand?  

This information can be analyzed and used to challenge your own strategy. Would it make sense to invest in improving or adding a product? Do you have a competitive advantage that makes you stand out from your competitors? 

The external analysis also allows you to identify industry trends and unmet needs. These opportunities are extremely relevant and profitable because by positioning yourself as the only solution to this problem, the consumers in question will inevitably turn to your organization to address them.  

This means doing meticulous research by monitoring the keywords and conversations around your brand, but also across your industry.  

• Are you receiving recurring complaints about the use of your website?  

• Are consumers expressing a desire to use a mobile application?

Staying tuned to what your consumers share with you on your platforms is an optimal way to improve your products or even find new content ideas to incorporate into your own strategy.  

The important thing after completing a social listening report is to incorporate long-term strategies to improve, enhance or correct the observed phenomena. 

The benefits can only be positive, as the information gathered allows you to make a multitude of possible adjustments.  

Here are some of them:  

• Reducing your risk of future mistakes 
• The creation of content that is more appropriate to the needs of consumers 
• Analyze the evolution of your brands compared to your competitors 
• Continuously improving your feedback and customer response processes 
• Gather relevant information for the product development team 

• Am I listening to my customers?  
• Does my product or service offer meet their expectations?
• Could my customers’ opinions improve my offer?