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Listen Up! It Is The Key To Social Media Success

 In Social Media, Social Media Optimizaiton

social-media-listeningEvery stimulating conversation that I’ve ever had always started with listening. Social conversations are no different. Whether you are a B2B or a B2C business, your company’s approach to Social Media needs to be an authentic, cumulative daily effort that begins with actionable listening.

Let’s Get Ready To Listen

Your first step towards building your brand’s social authority is not about pushing your agenda, products and brand propositions. It’s about listening to conversations and joining in, answering questions and offering advice and guidance. The payoff will be increased brand awareness, loyalty, reach, acquisition and client retention. Not to mention, higher Google rankings, brand positioning and increased traffic to your website, blog or landing pages.

Social Listening Checklist To Get You Started

Social listening, also called brand monitoring, includes discovering what social channels your target market is using, building a brand presence within those channels and surveying engagement opportunities. By monitoring before engaging, you are able to gather vital insights that will help build your company’s online presence and enable a successful evolution through the social cycle of: Listening, Learning, Engaging, Converting and Measuring. Download the OpenMoves Social Listening Checklist to get started right away.

Harnessing Digital Word-of-Mouth

An important part of leveraging Social Media for business is to understand what conversations are happening online related to your industry. To avoid information overload, centralize your results in a simple spreadsheet and begin your efforts by listening for the following:

Discover: Find out who’s talking and what they’re talking about

  • Your company name and acronyms for your organization.
  • Your CEO, owner, executive director or figurehead’s name.
  • Keywords you use on your website or in your analytics.
  • Products you sell and hastags that you promote.
  • Retweets, mentions, post shares, comments.

Compare: See how you compare with your competitors

  • Identify the influencers.
  • Your competitors: names, products, publications and events.
  • Timely industry topics and trends.

 

Social Media is a Process

Social Media is a process, rather then a fixed event. It requires an initial investment of resources and time to yield continuous value and eventually demonstrable ROI. But take note, there is no shortcut to fast forward passed the investment phase of the ROI while building a social community. It all begins with Listening.

Drilling Down With Tools

When it comes to choosing tools for your social listening it is important to have a clear plan that is in alignment with your 3 main business objectives. Outlining your community and business requirements early on focuses your search for a social listening solution. I have narrowed down the most affordable and user friendly social monitoring tools currently available. These should be at the core of all your listening. You can always add more, but start here and learn to master them for your needs.

Social Listening & Monitoring Tools:

  1. Hootsuite– HootSuite gives you the tools you need to tune in to the conversation surrounding your brand online. Enhance audience engagement, monitor the competitive landscape, and respond to your customers so your brand isn’t lost in the noise of the social web.
  2. Google Social Analytics The new social media reporting tools from Google Analytics provides free social media monitoring and measurement capabilities. Also: Google Alerts, Google Reader
  3. Klout– Klout measures influence on topics from across different social media platforms. It allows you to track the impact of your links, recommendations, and options across a variety of social media platforms.
  4. Socialmention– Socialmention is a social media search engine that searches user-generated content such as blogs, comments, bookmarks, events, news, videos, and more.
  5. Crowdbooster– Crowdbooster is an intelligent social media dashboard- optimization, monitoring and analytics platform.

As your listening skills improve and you begin to master the various monitoring tools available, analysis of your collected data will bring you into the Learning phase of the cycle.

Let us know what works best for you. Reach out to us on Twitter at @openmoves or post your experience on Facebook at: OpenMovesInc for a chance to be featured in our next Social Media Case Study.

Download the FREE

“Social Media Listening” Checklist

Social Media Listening Checklist

 

 

For more Social Media resources visit:

Social Media Survival Essentials for Your Company

9-Step Social Media Plan For Marketers and Business Owners

Don’t Use Social Media | Email and Social Checklist

New Rules for Social Media from SMMW13

 

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