Social media management is more than posting status updates, sharing blog posts and event booth pictures, and scheduling evergreen content. Social media management is so much about being in the moment, engaging with others, listening, and helping the community grow.
So we decided to dedicate an entire chat about just that—listening.
We invited Lucy Rendler-Kaplan. She’s the founder of Arkay Marketing, a PR and social media marketing agency that caters to small business, mostly in the lifestyle, food, and health industries. She’s also written an article about the benefits of social listening.
Here’s a summary of our chat.
Guest: Lucy Rendler-Kaplan
Topic: Social Listening on Social Media
Format: Eight questions directed at the guest. Everyone’s welcome to share.
To put it simply, social listening is listening to your audience. It means you’re keeping a constant eye on your notifications, mentions, and any conversations that revolve around your brand. But it’s more than that too…
Social listening is tracking mentions of your brand/industry to then analyze and respond…but it goes way further than just watching when your @ is used… #twittersmarter
— LUCYrk (@LUCYrk78) November 14, 2019
As our friends from OnePitch mentioned, you’re not only listening to what they say about you, but also for what problems they have. This is an excellent way to generate content ideas and restructure your strategy based on community responses.
A1: Social listening is when you, as a brand, are listening to the conversations around you/in your community. You are listening to what people are identifying as pain points, what they are saying is valuable to them, and where their current focus lies! #TwitterSmarter
— OnePitch (@onepitchsaas) November 14, 2019
Remember, the goal is not just to show your audience that you’re listening, but also to use that information to improve your service. And as Gabriela pointed out, you can listen across various social media channels. This will give you a broader range of feedback to compare and analyze.
A1
Social
listening isUtilizing social media channels
to monitor and proactively track??mentions
??feedback
??keywords
??competitors
??topicsIn an effort to gather insight
that will help you improve yourcontent
service/product#marketing#branding
CX
etc#TwitterSmarter pic.twitter.com/NjApp7mdjL— Gabriela Cardoza (@CardozaGab) November 14, 2019
The best channel for listening to your audience’s preferences is the channel they’re actually on. It’s important to know which platform your community most uses and be on it yourself.
A2. YES! The channel where most your audience likes to hang out. But at the same time, you want to know what peoples sentiments are that AREN'T necessarily where you "expect" to learn that knowledge… #twittersmarter
— LUCYrk (@LUCYrk78) November 14, 2019
For example, Reagan pointed out that not everyone’s on Facebook. And it varies based not only on age group but also the location of your audience.
A2: it’s wherever your audience is at. For my generation Facebook wouldn’t be the best social media for listening, because many of us aren’t there. #twittersmarter https://t.co/FYMggah4vY
— Reagan Ortiz (@Rreagan_Ortiz) November 14, 2019
However, you’re lucky if your audience prefers Twitter over the others. With hashtags, advanced search, lists, and column-based monitoring that most social media management tools offer, Twitter has become the easiest to track conversations.
A2 cont'd…that being said, imo, @twitter makes it the easiest, because you can use advanced search for keywords and hashtags. #twittersmarter
— LUCYrk (@LUCYrk78) November 14, 2019
Speaking of channels other than Twitter, our community members said LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, and review sites are good for listening too.
If you’re on Twitter, you have to listen. You learn many things that way—what your audience expects from you, what your competitors are doing, who the influencers are in your industry, and more. It also greatly helps improve your customer service and response rates.
A3
1. Get an Edge on Your Competition
2. Identify Influencers and Brand Advocates
3. Find Your Tribe
4. Improve Customer Service
#twittersmarter https://t.co/GNnxAEPY9J— LUCYrk (@LUCYrk78) November 14, 2019
As our friends from DigitalDiary pointed out, listening is a good way to ask yourself some serious branding questions. It helps you analyze what’s working and what’s not. You get to engage with your competitors on a public forum and observe their tactics—all while being professional.
A3 – To know where are you in this competitive world? how are you doing with your fellow competitors? Analyse the questions and answer them with your smart moves #TwitterSmarter
— Digital_dairy (@DigitalDairy) November 14, 2019
Here’re a few other reasons to listen, as shared by our chat members:
Building on the previous question, there’re so many conversations flying around on Twitter that it can get overwhelming at times.
As our guest suggested, ask yourself: What does your community need that they haven’t got already? This can help you narrow down your searches and find more specific feedback you can work with.
A4
What are people seeking that they currently aren't getting? You want to know that you're getting that info FIRST so you can then inform your strategies and content to give the people what they want/need #twittersmarter— LUCYrk (@LUCYrk78) November 14, 2019
Here are some more things to watch out for:
First, don’t prioritize selling. Listening is about being aware of conversations, and not shoving your solution at people every chance you get. As our guest said, you could be an active listener—someone who participates in a lot of chats, offers suggestions, shares helpful links, and answers community questions. Or you could be a passive listener who observes and asks questions more than they say. Either way, the key is to listen.
A5 There's active social listening and passive social listening…you can be a good listener both ways – by listening 🙂 Not offering your brand as a solution. Good listeners also as a LOT of questions. #twittersmarter
— LUCYrk (@LUCYrk78) November 14, 2019
Kathy gave us a few more great tips:
Make sure you know what you’re talking about. A big part of social media management is about mastering the product or the nuances of the service you’re offering. That helps you be a better listener and a good responder.
A5
-Differentiate Between Monitoring and Listening
-Define the Problems You Can Solve
-Always Respond Fast
-Take Social Listening Seriously
-Know Your Topics, Not Just Your Keywords
-Plan for Negative Reactions
-Act on what you hear#TwitterSmarter— Kathy Kopacz MS (@kkopacz1) November 14, 2019
Our community members shared their tips too:
The top things you’ll learn when you listen purposefully are,
A6
Sentiment
Where people are most active (digitally)
What are their pain points
Who is influencing your current and target consumers #TwitterSmarter— LUCYrk (@LUCYrk78) November 14, 2019
But you also learn a lot more—
The best and easiest way to incorporate your lessons is to focus on creating content that answers your community’s questions and concerns. Like our guest said, that content could be in any format—video, how-to guides, animated GIFs, infographics, live video training, or anything else that works.
Q7 Use what you learn to inform your content – there are so many ways to do this! For twitter, you can answer customer service via a video, you can do a training on Twitter via TikTok…as long as you're making content that comes from what you learned… #TwitterSmarter
— LUCYrk (@LUCYrk78) November 14, 2019
As Dr. Donald agreed, it’s also helpful to time your content, not just at a specific time of the day, but also to a specific time during the year. For instance, if you know a lot of people are struggling to learn and understand a new feature of a popular product, share a comprehensive how-to guide. That’s relevant and timely.
A7: Yes I feel it is timely too. Decide the best times to post your content to receive the most attention. #TwitterSmarter
— Dr. Donald Hecht (@realDocHecht) November 14, 2019
Just remember, if you’re not incorporating your lessons from listening, you’re only sharing stuff you think your audience wants. You don’t want to live in that bubble.
A7 (again)
Without listening, you are just putting out the content YOU want to share… #TwitterSmarter— LUCYrk (@LUCYrk78) November 14, 2019
For listening on Twitter, it’s pretty good by itself. That’s why our guest doesn’t use any other tools.
A8
I'm a rare one and use no outside apps – looking to learn more about what you're all using! #TwitterSmarter— LUCYrk (@LUCYrk78) November 14, 2019
However, our community members use quite a variety of tools for various purposes.
SL Thomas, for instance, uses Hootsuite to filter relevant hashtags and keywords. Having a proper filter makes it so much easier to listen to the most relevant content.
A8. I use @hootsuite. I choose my keywords for each stream (and platform) and I start listening. Once I see what I am looking for and how it is working for a similar brand, then I start strategizing, reviewing my content and scheduling.
I love @hootsuite #twittersmarter— SL Thomas (@iamslthomas) November 14, 2019
Here’re some other tools for you to consider:
Well, folks. That’s all I have for this week’s summary. Thanks for reading, and as always if you’re interested in reading more great ideas from our chat with Lucy, check out this Twitter Moment Joana put together.
Feel free to join us next Thursday at 1 pm ET for the next #TwitterSmarter chat. We’re all nice and it’s super fun. And fast.
About me, Narmadhaa:
I’m a writer of all things—technical and marketing copy to fill the pocket; haiku and short stories to fill the soul. A social media enthusiast, I’m a member of the #TwitterSmarter chat crew, and always happy to take on writing gigs.
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