Imagine being able to hear what people are saying about you. Some comments might make you smile, while others might be less positive. Maybe we can’t do this in real life — but online, you have a front-row seat to what stakeholders are saying about your brand through social listening. The question is: Are you listening?

 

Brand health

Managing your company’s reputation is an ongoing and proactive process —it shouldn’t be left to chance, especially online. With the immediacy of social media, a crisis can catalyze quickly, breed misinformation and potentially cause long-term damage. Conducting a thorough assessment of your online reputation can help you understand what’s being said about your company and take action to protect and enhance your organization’s reputation.

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While the vast majority of online comments won’t rise to crisis level, there is much to be learned from what people are saying about your brand. Social listening enables you to monitor comments and sentiments, aggregate them and leverage them as an online focus group. This tactic is great for overall brand health, product insights, customer service challenges and other ongoing feedback.

 

Monitoring the competition

Social listening shouldn’t be solely self-focused — you should also take note of conversations surrounding your competitors. By keeping tabs on the competition, you can identify white space opportunities for your brand to differentiate itself from the rest.

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For example, if your social followers are consistently commenting on your products’ sustainability attributes, while most of your competitors are praised for product quality take a  deeper dive into sustainability messaging. You’ll be surprised, it may attract more environmentally focused customers offline as a result. 

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Charting the future

Although social listening adds color to a brand’s image, it also provides the chance to anticipate sentiment that might call for a change in strategy  —  both short term and long term. Although the term social listening might lead you to believe that quiet observance is key to sifting through the noise, the real value comes from hearing your stakeholders, connecting the dots and positioning yourself for a future built on self-awareness.