Social Media Monitoring:
The “Hows” and “Whys”
Social media monitoring is an essential part of any marketing strategy but determining how to apply this concept can be daunting for new business owners. Not only can social monitoring lead to crisis prevention and faster response time, but it can secure how others identify your brand. Let’s look at how social monitoring can strengthen brand loyalty with your customers.
Social Media Monitoring vs. Social Media Listening
It’s common to hear social media monitoring and social media listening as interchangeable terms, but they are different approaches to social media marketing.
Social media monitoring involves watching how others interact with your brand, but you don’t directly respond to these comments. Knowing what your customers think about your business can help you develop a social media listening strategy, which is learning how to connect to your audience. Both work hand-in-hand with each other to create the optimal customer experience.
Listening is a more proactive approach, but you can’t listen without monitoring. It’s important to monitor first before responding, so you do so appropriately.
What Social Media Monitoring Can do for Your Business
Social media monitoring helps make your customers feel supported, which will always establish a favorable opinion of your business. However, doing this yourself can be a very tedious process without the proper social media monitoring tools.
By using social media analytics, more customers will reach out to a brand if they’ve had a great experience, have a product service or a question, or have had a bad experience. Even though a user is more likely to speak to a business when the experience was positive, users are still inclined to leave a negative review more often than a positive one.
Based on these studies, it’s determined that customers who have had a negative experience won’t speak to the business they felt wronged them. However, you can use social media monitoring to make it more comfortable for users to express negative feedback.
Radio Silence:
The Ultimate Bad Look
Have you ever tried to contact a brand on social media only to receive no reply? You probably felt unheard or unappreciated, which impacted the way you saw the company.
Fixing this problem is simple for most businesses. If you’re more active on social media and respond to inquiries in a decent time frame, it’s possible to turn that negative perception into a positive. At the same time, customers who are unhappy with their experience are also more likely to discuss it with the business if the company’s reputation is positive.
Reputation and Human Interaction
Reputation exists off social media, which becomes apparent when friends will talk to each other about their negative experiences. If that customer speaks to their friend about this situation, that friend could talk about their positive experience.
Even if they have never interacted with your company, they may know of your social media presence, which can go a long way in changing someone’s perception. Nike is now known for its timely responses, which is incredible considering how widespread their brand is. Your company can also hold that place in the minds of others.
Keeping an Eye on Brand Advocates
Sorting through all the noise is difficult, but it’s worth it when you find a brand advocate that speaks positively about one of your products. Helping your average customers should be your property, but reaching out to influences can also help your brand reach more people. Speaking to influencers should be an active part of your marketing strategy.
Influencers with thousands, hundreds of thousands, and even millions of followers may take notice of your product, and it’s in your best interest to use social listening to comment on their post. Plus, you can keep them in mind for future marketing campaigns.
