Why Social Media Monitoring is Imperative

Your brand is what people think it is. So it makes sense to engage in social media monitoring, by which an understanding can be reached of how your company and products are perceived by the intended target market. So before ticking off the social media checklist, invest in being able to listen throughout the campaign.

We use social media monitoring to gather intelligence on customers, gathering an understanding of the tone and words by which they view the brand we are working for. It's a goldmine for real-time marketing campaigns. And it goes far and beyond simply setting up a Google Alert. It's about having a presence wherever conversations around your brand is taking place, filling in the gaps between reality and perceptions, wherever need be. It's also about being the brand voice to help confused prospects through their eventual journey.

After all, one-sided relationships never last. Brands that invest in the listening element of their campaign can broadcast smarter, just as how a friend that listens is able to add more value when it's her turn to speak. Our clients have experienced four core benefits with social media monitoring, namely:

1. Extend the Customer Lifetime Value

With keyword tracking, we can track mentions of our clients across the web, ensuring to list variations of the product name as well as common misspellings. We are after all in a market where English is often the 2nd language. Doing this alerts you to instances where a customer is complaining about your brand, offering room to swoop in, lend an ear and respond to address each and every concern. Doing so also reveals an insight into the gap between the corporate design customer experience and the user experience that the target segment partakes on their own. With this, we can extend the customer lifetime value.

2. Finding Customer Advocates

Social media monitoring can point you to regular 'half glass full' fans of the brand, or the problem it solves. Finding influential people with a chip on their shoulder becomes easy with effective listening and scanning. Incentivize them to share more positive content. Brand advocates are a useful means to reaching target segments and building trust organically.

3. Reach the Watering Hole

Social listening can help you identify the communities that are actively talking about your brand or the problem you solve. This means you can spend social media efforts inside those communities more, rather than outside them. We have found unexpected success with Reddit and Facebook groups.

4. Elevate Customer Service

Customer complaints are silent pleas for reconciliation in my experience. If someone is complaining, they want someone to swoop in and 'save them'. Once again, be that brand voice and prepare to listen. Try the "Five Why's" if you have to. This improves the operational team's customer outreach and prepares the after sales team in being knowledgeable of common complaints. Follow these tips to stay ahead of any customer backlash and identify issues before the balloon up.