Social listening is a two - step process where you can monitor social media channels for mentions of your brand, competitors, product, and relevant keywords to your business. Next, you can analyze that information and look for ways to put what you learn into action. Taking the right action can mean responding to a happy consumer to shifting your brand’s positioning.

So, why social listening matters? If you’re not using social media listening, your marketing strategy might be missing the big picture. Remember: Real people are talking about your and your industry online. Social media listening helps you identify from small to large opportunities to be able to engage the brand your potential consumers. With the opportunities, you can also be able to tweak your online marketing strategies in real time. Social listening also helps you address PR disasters or controversial issues revolving your brand online.

Monitoring social conversation about your industry will give you a sense of who the significant influencers are. This will allow you to find people who already are in love with your brand and who are saying great things about you on social media. Make sure to analyze the patterns and trends over time, rather than just individual comments to make the insights from social listening tools worth it for your future strategy.