You probably think you have a pretty good idea of their perception of your products and brand based on surveys, feedback and various pieces of data. And if you\u00b4re measuring customer satisfaction<\/strong><\/a> in your contact center or holding regular focus groups, chances are you do have at least a basic grasp of where you stand.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Why does it matter? Scott Cook describes it better than anyone else: \u201cA brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is, it\u00b4s what consumers tell each other it is\u201d<\/em>. We\u00b4ve entered the age of customer-centric culture<\/strong>, but what if we told you that, actually, your picture is at best incomplete and most likely biased?<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n There are thousands of other people out there who have an opinion about your brand, product or service. They just haven\u00b4t told you directly.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n However, they have certainly shared their opinion with their friends, family and colleagues.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n So how can you make sure you have a better view of these thoughts, and how can you turn that data into actionable insights that will improve your bottom line?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n …where you can gain a complete picture of insights and trends about you. <\/strong>We\u00b4ll answer some of the most frequently asked questions about social listening and help you uncover the best ways to use it to your advantage.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n It\u00b4s the art of identifying trends<\/strong>, actionable insights and issues about your brand, product and customer experience<\/strong><\/a>, as well as competitor information, by capturing and analyzing customer comments and conversations that are publicly available on social networks and channels such as forums and news websites.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Most definitely. How do we know? Because no matter what type of business you\u00b4re running or which product you\u00b4re intending to sell, customers are talking about it or their unfulfilled need for it<\/strong>. Customers share more on social media<\/a> than anywhere else. Social media is simply the best source of information for your company, especially if like us at ICR Evolution<\/a>, you put your customers at the heart of everything you do.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n This is still true even if you\u00b4re a very small company. In fact, social media is already probably a key part of your marketing efforts<\/a> if that\u00b4s the case and you\u00b4ve most likely already identified that social media advertising offers some of the best value for money. By incorporating social listening, you will no doubt amplify the ROI of your existing investment.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n The answer to this question is the same as most of your marketing efforts: be where your customers are<\/a>. And, as Lori Raff, the famous brand strategist, says: \u201cSocial media is here. It\u2019s not going away; not a passing fad. Be where your customers are: in social media.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Once we\u00b4ve said that, the hard work can begin. You need to spend some time and effort identifying who your current and target audience are, and therefore where they like to interact with others.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Different social networks are used for different purposes so if you\u00b4re selling baby clothes, targeting a motherhood forum is a good idea, but a gardening website is unlikely to be the best option. Geography is also key, for example Vkontakte is very popular in Russia whereas in LATAM, a lot of people use Telegram.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n We recommend that you systematically listen to all the main social networks such as Twitter or LinkedIn<\/strong>, in addition to some dedicated sources based on your audience interests and demographics e.g. forums. Remember to also listen to news websites and RSS feeds too, as you don\u2019t want to miss out on press opinions and reviews either.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Conversations, of course, but not just any conversation. You want to listen to all the keywords and phrases<\/strong> that are relevant to your brand, product and service. As Neal Schaffer said, \u201cThe key to listening to social conversations, then, is to understand the unique set of keywords that are potential triggers for lead generation\u201d<\/em>. When you\u00b4re building your keywords lists, make sure you\u2019re considering your industry, sector, product and competitors as well as phrases around customer service issues to shape the most complete picture.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Combining the right keywords and the right channels gives you an unprecedented data set, and this can be daunting to look at. We recommend focusing on these four key performance indicators to begin with:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n The short answer is yes.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Of course, dedicated platforms only use publicly available data, so they won\u00b4t give you any information that you couldn\u00b4t source yourself manually.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n The power of a social listening platform is that it will automatically scrape all that available data based on your choice of topics and channels. Then it sorts and categorizes it nicely for you in pretty dashboards, which you can then slice and dice at will to analyze to your heart\u00b4s contempt.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n In addition, social platforms give you insight on the demographics of your audience and help you identify influencers and detractors.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n What was a very niche market a few years back is now a full-on competitive market with solutions that range from end-to-end covering listening, content curation, paid advertising etc., to point solutions that simply do social listening.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n If you\u2019re using ICR Evolution<\/a> to serve your customers on social media, you can already engage on your owned channels so we recommend going for a point solution for social listening only, such as AgoraPulse or Mention which are affordable and will cover social listening needs.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n There are some options for you to still use technology, especially if you don\u2019t have a dedicated marketing resource for this.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Option 1:<\/strong> Chances are your marketing agency uses a similar solution so it\u2019s worth asking them before investing.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Option 2:<\/strong> Look into what your CRM offers. Some of the big names in the market have off-the-shelf solutions and these may already be included in your package or can be added for a small premium.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n What do you do with the social media data you\u00b4ve collected?<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n We\u00b4ve spoken already about all the great insight you\u00b4ll gather using social listening and how it will help you make the most of your marketing efforts and understand your market positioning.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n More importantly for us, as customer experience experts, social listening is the best way to understand where customer service or product issues lie and tap into the underrated channel that is proactive customer care.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n With ICR Evolution<\/a>, you can serve your customers using Twitter, Facebook Messenger, Telegram and WhatsApp<\/a>. Incorporating social listening to your customer service strategy means you can proactively reach out to those customers who are raising questions and issues about your product and solve it before they even feel the need to speak to your directly. And of course, that\u00b4s over and above your existing customer service channels. Very few brands have yet to implement this feature so you can really go the extra mile for your customers by doing this.<\/p>\r\nThere are a few reasons behind this:<\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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Welcome to the world of social listening… <\/strong><\/h3>\r\n
What is social listening?<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Social listening opens up a whole new world of customer insight where you can:<\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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Is it right for your business?<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Where should you listen?<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
What should you listen for?<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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Do you need a dedicated platform to perform social listening?<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
So all you need to worry about is finding those trends and insights!<\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Are you short on budget?<\/strong><\/h4>\r\n
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Remember, the quality of customer care is one of the biggest brand differentiators<\/h3>\r\n