Effective social listening strategy involves analyzing the conversations of your customers and competitors about your brand, products and services, and reputation.

The best social listening strategy includes listening to the voices of your customers and competitors regarding your company as well as its brands, products and services. In fact, this is a must in Measuring the Internet in the Business Market –    measuring the internet in the business market. This is because social media monitoring and listening also involve the collection, measurement and analysis of data.

But with so many voices in the Internet, identifying which ones are relevant and which ones are irrelevant is challenging. The results of data collection, measurements and analyses will be adversely affected when irrelevant voices are added.

With that being said, here are the top three things that you should be listening to in the process of Measuring the Internet in the Business Market in relation to social listening.

#1 Your Customers

Did you know that an increasing number of consumers are using social media as the first resort in seeking answers? But many businesses are slow on the uptake, which results in missed opportunities for building stronger customer relationships.

You can avoid such negligence by keeping these tips in mind:

• Listen to your present and prospective customers
• Engage in a meaningful communication with them, such as in providing them with useful answers
• Gather feedback from your customers as well as from people with vested interests in your company and its brands
• Dig deeper to find the customers’ sentiments
• Solicit opinions and suggestions from your customers

By listening to your customers, you will get useful and actionable strategies regarding your products and services, pricing schemes, and content value. You can even improve brand perception!

#2 Your Brand

Did you know, too, that you can actually measure your brand? This is part and parcel of Measuring the Internet in the Business Market and, thus, in your online success.

These are the things that you should look out for when listening in on social media conversations:

• Brand terms

Don’t just rely on direct mentions of your brand, products and services, and company. You must also find conversations using Twitter search operators to widen your search. You should keep an eye, too, on common misspellings so that you can actively engage more customers.

• Brand-adjacent terms

Do monitor brand-adjacent terms and, hopefully, find customers with the intent to purchase or patronize similar products and services. For example, if you’re a bed-and-breakfast, you can monitor for keywords like “best affordable places to stay in”.

You can use Google Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics in finding brand-adjacent terms and non-brand keywords.

#3 Your Competitors

Did you know that your competitors will also provide insights into your own brand and company? You should then track your competitors’ handles, key phrases for products and services, and brand and brand-adjacent terms. This way, you can gather useful information about their new products, marketing tactics, and customer complaints and satisfaction.

Of course, the effectiveness of your social listening strategy will significantly depend on the combination of several aspects involving your customers, competitors and brand. Strike for a balance between these three and you’re good to go.

Prospect Factory is author of this article on social listening. Find more information about Medir Internet en el Mercado Empresarial.