Media listening can be an invaluable tool. Global reach, real-time feedback, competition monitoring — it all sounds great. But does everyone need it? The short answer is yes. Building a brand or creating a business strategy without knowing what people are saying about you online is like navigating a pitch-black forest without a flashlight. If you don’t get completely lost, you’re at least bound to take a few wrong turns.
Spooky metaphors aside, here are the main reasons why any business can benefit from social listening:
- You learn your customers' true thoughts about your brand or product, shared in online conversations and reviews. You’ll never get feedback that’s as frank and honest from, say, customer interviews. It’s as trustworthy as it gets. You can use it to build on your strengths and keep potential weaknesses in check.
- You learn about your customer’s interests beyond your marketing niche. If you sell sports gear, your clients probably have interests besides track suits and running shoes. By discovering what these interests are, you can stumble across some unlikely habitats of your loyal crowd, be it online communities, geographical areas, or anything in between.
- You learn about opinion leaders and influencers who are already interacting with your product. Don’t miss out on a chance to collaborate with someone who has a large audience!
- You learn more about your competitors' clients and what they’re saying about them. Knowing their demands and frustrations can bring some additional insights to your marketing strategies.
Summing things up, you don’t HAVE to do media listening if you want to stick to your conventional methods of feedback collection. But we do believe you’ll get better and far more actionable results if you try monitoring online conversations. Besides, dedicated services like Smelter make social media listening and analysis easier than you might think thanks to AI-based automation and easy-to-use interfaces.
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