22. August 2022

Social Listening - The ear on the pulse of the digital age

22. August 2022

evernine editorial team

Obtaining data and information from news in social networks and using it profitably - that is the aim of social listening. Find out what's behind the trend in this article.

Whether it's old friends on Facebook, sports fans on Twitter or managers on LinkedIn - the number of messages that users exchange on social media every second is enormous. The aim of social listening or social media listening is to extract relevant data from these conversations in a GDPR-compliant manner and gain interesting insights.

 Social listening - what exactly is it?

For many, the meaning of the term social listening is still new, although most marketers rely on it (Image source: Evernine Group).

Social listening describes the process of monitoring conversations, news and comments online and extracting relevant data from social media on specific topics, brands, products or industries. The information collected in this way can be analyzed to discover insights into consumer behavior, product and brand presence within a specific target group or marketing trends, which in turn can be used to develop new products, advertising and other areas of the company. With the right technology, companies can gather the unfiltered opinions of their customers without having to conduct expensive and inefficient opinion research.

However, it is extremely important to comply with current data protection guidelines. If you have any further questions, it is advisable to consult a data protection expert or ask the respective platforms.

 The added value of social listening

Social listening is particularly valuable for companies when it comes to combining existing information and analyses with the views and opinions of their own customers and thus expanding their own data basis on which business decisions are made. This can be helpful in the targeted placement of advertising, for example. For example, if users on LinkedIn are talking about the challenge of filling new positions, job portals can use social listening and the analysis of relevant conversation data to place their ads in the environment of the users in question or join the conversation via comment or direct message. In this way, companies can tailor their offers and marketing to the individual interests of their customers.

 What companies need to consider for their social listening strategy

There are also a few tips and tricks to consider when it comes to social listening (source: Evernine Group).

The variety of topics online is huge - users talk about everything on social media. Accordingly, social listening is also interesting for every company and every organization, because everyone is part of a conversation at some point. With the right strategy, social listening can generate real added value for you. This doesn't just apply to B2C companies. The B2B sector can also benefit, for example to analyze the presence of direct competitors in the relevant target groups or to keep an eye on new product developments. Marketing and sales can also use social listening to their advantage, as company decision-makers also use social media.

 Three tools for successful social listening

Choosing the right tool is crucial to making social listening a success. Programs can be used to track mentions of certain terms on the Internet. These three tools are particularly helpful:

Hootsuite

The free program offers companies the opportunity to monitor messages and comments in various social networks for specific keywords from a central dashboard, keep an eye on competitors and get in touch with influencers directly.

Synthesio

Synthesio can be used to track conversations, especially in specialized target groups. Various parameters such as location, time or gender and language of the users can be selected for monitoring. The tool then evaluates the results and creates a relevance ranking.

NetBase

Using Natural Language Processing (NLP), NetBase processes all conversations that occur on social media on a daily basis and also includes billions of older posts in the analysis.

The exact objective should be the next step for companies on the way to their social listening strategy. What should be found out with the help of the analyses? Is it just information on customer behavior, data for a marketing campaign or even the establishment of a crisis warning system? Some only use social listening for a short-term project, others want to achieve long-term results.

 The right data basis

Social listening and the insights gained from it can only ever be as good as the data on which the analysis is based. Companies must therefore decide which and how much data they need. Should the whole world or just a specific area be part of the analysis? Which time period is relevant? From which platforms should data be collected?

It is then important to select the right data; after all, social media is full of often pointless conversations and messages. Filtering the results of the data collection is therefore the biggest challenge. As always, the combination of different parameters helps. Searching for just one term is less effective than searching for an entire related group of terms.

Finally, it is important that companies always keep the fast pace of social networks in mind. Terms, trends, behavior, forms of entertainment, platforms used - all of this changes quickly! It is therefore essential to constantly review and adapt your own strategy in order to generate added value in the long term. Because social listening can be very effective if it is done right!

Would you like to find out more about this topic? Then don't hesitate to get in touch with us. We will be happy to help you.

Source cover image: Adobe Stock / Visual Generation

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