Social media listening simply involves following conversations on social media that are relevant to you, the business you run or your brand. To start with, you should have a list of keywords, terms or hashtags that are peculiar to your business and customers (potential or existing).

What do they type when they are looking for a business like yours on the various online search platforms? What is being said about your brand?

How to listen:

Search for popular industry terms e.g. farming, agro, investment, agriculture in Nigeria, etc., and see conversations people are already having about the industry. Many times, you are able to jump into such conversations and promote your business' products and services. Do not feel like you are being forward when you do this, or be scared that the person might be annoyed at you for entering his or her conversation. The individual will actually be happy to find more information or a solution to his problem.
Make your business name one of your daily search words. Search out what your current customers are saying about you. Many times, people write about companies and forget to tag or mention them. This exercise helps you view honest feedback on your products and services at no cost. It can also help you find testimonials which can be used in your marketing activities
Search out complaints about your competitors. As a serious business, you must know what your competition is saying, doing and what people are saying about them. Think of your top 3 competitors. They probably act as alternatives to your business. Listen to what their crowd and customers are saying about them on social media. It could be complaints about their services, inquiries, testimonials, etc. After getting this information, you feed it back to the necessary department in the organization so that your company is one step ahead of other competitors and can preempt what customers need.
Listen for the type of content your followers want. What inquiries are coming into the email much too often? Do you need to create a short company e-brochure on the topic? Creating an e-brochure based on such information you got from social media listening will automatically draw those who have this need to you! Listening to your social media analytics is part of this. Listen to the numbers. Are your followers more interested in videos than audios? Do they prefer live videos to recorded ones? Listen and put more time into giving them what they want, not WHAT YOU THINK THEY WANT.
Note: 'Listening' should be done regularly. Not just once. It keeps you in sync with your market's needs

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