When my children were younger I used to ask them, “Are you using your good listening skills?”
I asked this question when I didn’t think they were fully focused on what I was telling them or asking them to do. The message was to pay attention to me because I was telling them something important.
Your audience is telling you important things every day via social media. Are you using your good listening skills to pay attention to their important messages?
I wrote recently about Why You Should Implement the Social Media Planning Cycle to ensure your organization gets the most from its social media efforts.
The first step in the social media planning cycle is listening because, to establish successful social media efforts, you must first know what people are saying about your organization. This enables you to evaluate the organization’s current social media presence, which guides you in setting social media goals and strategies to achieve them.
Listening also helps you better understand what the competition is doing and helps you discover what people are discussing before you join the conversation.
Now I want to assist you in knowing exactly what you should be “listening” to.
When performing your ongoing social listening process, you should follow conversations about your organization, your competitors and your industry on as many social media platforms as possible, according to the book Social Media Marketing: A Strategic Approach.
“Listening” is an interesting word to use for this process because you’re not really listening so much as you are carefully observing.
Here’s what you should be watching for:
Listening about your organization
When listening to conversations about your organization, pay attention to the positive and negative things people are saying about your organization and how people seem to feel about it.
Based on what you observe, think about how you can focus on the things your audience likes about your organization while using the other information to solve their problems.
Listening about your competitors
When listening to conversations about your competitors, pay attention to how people view the competition, what the competition is saying about themselves, what the competition is doing well, what they need to improve, who they are targeting, and what social media they are using.
Based on what you observe, think about how you can build on and exceed what your competition is doing well while better and uniquely serving the needs of your mutual audience, specifically in places your competition isn’t.
Listening about your industry
When listening to conversations about your industry, pay attention to what the audience is saying about the industry.
Based on what you observe, think about what opportunities the positive and negative feedback creates.
Remember that your goal is to understand your industry, your audience and how the two coincide better than anyone else.
While you are listening in these three areas, you also should consider the tone of the engagement and pay attention to how the audience uses various social media channels. Doing all of this will help you draft strategic messages that resonate with your audience and reach them where they already are gathering.
Your audience will tell you what they want and need from your organization. You just have to use your good listening skills.
Let’s Talk Nerdy!
What’s your advice for listening to your audience via social media? What helpful tools or approaches can you share?
