The versatility of social media as a marketing tool makes it a primary point of focus for any enterprise that wants to effectively reach out to their clients. It can be used for enhancing the professional lives of brands to levels that are outstanding if given the right approach. This is not as a one in a million chance, but a raised platform that can be utilized as a central part of the marketing and advertising channel for any business. On the bright side, more and more enterprises are discovering the powers of these easy to use platforms which offer a direct connection to current and potential clients in ways never envisioned before. A lot of factors can be attributed to this, especially the realization by most management teams that catching up with the latest e-marketing trends is a foolproof way of keeping up or flooring competition. It is no secret that failure to adjust to the rapidly advancing technological environment is the fastest way of losing relevance at a time when there is stiff neck competition is every micro-segment.
However, there is a catch when it comes to social media marketing, and that is the fact that it cannot be run blindly and expect the top notch results which are the primary motivation behind the numerous efforts. While for a personal social media page one does not require rules and you can easily rise to be a mini-influencer in your circle of thousands of ‘virtual friends,’ when it comes to brand marketing it is a different game-play. Unlike email marketing, which is another form of e-marketing, social media marketing makes you the focus of everyone, including your top competitors. Primarily, this means that all your weak areas will instantly be used by the enterprise that is after the same market attention to gain a competitive edge.
It is therefore important to ensure that your social media campaign is run in line with the industry’s best practices, and there are no loopholes that could make the bran lose out on its market relevance. To achieve this, it is critical to keep tabs on how every campaign is run, and that is where social listening comes to the rescue. A simple way to define social listening is as the monitoring and analyzing of a brand’s social media platforms with the intent of gaining insights on the gradual progress and potential opportunities. It is as such a never-ending process which requires constant social monitoring, keeping up with the latest conversations, making an in-depth analysis, and formulating strategies for improvements. While it might side like a lot of work, social listening tools have been developed and can easily be customized to suit all requirements.
Among the core advantages that come with running a social media campaign that utilizes social listening tools include;
1. The measurement of performance
The aim of any venture which a brand undertakes is to enable them to gain the upper hand in the market, and the confidence of this can only be achieved by having statistics to back every project. For social media marketing, social listening offers valuable insights which can be used to determine if there is any progress. Both quantitative and qualitative metrics are taken to account, creating a solid bottom-line for that can be used before, during, and after any marketing campaign. This is the core strength of using advanced social listening tools and strategies which effortlessly sets one apart from other companies.
2. Benchmarking and turnaround insights
It is easy to be comfortable with your current social media campaigns as long as you do not have facts that can make it possible to make a comparison with the other competitors. Social listening breaks this limitation and provides the actual picture which can be used for benchmarking against other competitors. These insights are often a new door which opens a world which any brand will find interesting as they will no longer rely on assumptions. It is not just to know which competitor is doing better, but it allows for the venturing into the ‘Why’s’ that can be used to develop more competitive marketing and business strategies. Social listening is, in the end, a key which unlocks the business potentials as they can take relevant actions based on the data they have.
