Stop listening on Social Media!
When I was a child, my parents used to give me long lectures all the time. I realized they would stop after awhile if I tried to act like I was listening. I wasn’t learning though.
Listening is Easy
More and more companies these days have started to gather data on what their consumers/ potential consumers say about their brands on social media. Since there are tons of free and paid tools in the market that claim to give comprehensive results, companies started to think that they can do “social media listening” by themselves or just hire summer interns to gather everything they need to know in the online space. But what do these numbers mean to their business?
Agencies’ secret recipe for listening
Many so-called social media agencies started to offer “Listening Programs” and try to hide their listening tools from clients and competitors because they feel like they can lose business if they give out their “secret recipe”. Truth is, the secret recipe an agency needs to gather valuable online consumer insights is not about the tool they use, it’s about how these tools are used and how these data are connected to the brand/ product positioning and link them all with opportunities that help the business.
Start Learning from consumers!
Many people argue there’s no social media experts in the field, but it does take certain level of knowledge in new media and branding to properly gain useful insights through social media, which a blogger with 70,000 followers might not know how to give. Stop listening only because all your competitors are doing the same, try to take advantage of this new media and tailor your products/ services to give most value to consumers through “learning” what they say about brands!
