Social media listening and monitoring
Knowing how you’re perceived is a vital first step to creating the brand you want.
What is social media listening?
Social media listening is the process of finding and analysing mentions of brands, products or topics on social media and online forums. It allows us to see what’s being said, by whom, where and when. Done well, the process results in a clear understanding of how you’re perceived by your online audiences.
Why is social media listening important?
Social media listening is a valuable source of information for communication and marketing strategies. Knowing how you’re perceived is a vital first step to creating the perceptions you want. The insights we gain from social listening expose reputational risks and identify strengths and opportunities. We can find out not just what our audience thinks of us but also what they think of our competitors.
Conducting social listening regularly is a good way to track perceptions of your brand or an issue. It is a cost-effective and quick method of measuring the impact of communication and marketing strategies.
Social listening is also crucial in issues and crisis management. A good social listening program can help you identify issues before they become a crisis. And, during a crisis, it’s necessary to know what’s being said about your brand, services, people and products to respond effectively.
How do you do social media listening?
The process involves creating targeted queries that direct social media listening tools to find and return relevant mentions. We collate and categorise this data and then apply our experience as marketing and communication professionals to deduce insights and recommendations for your strategies and/or crisis responses.
Experience and expertise play a crucial role in social listening. First, in the design of targeted queries that return the information you need without the ‘noise’. And second, in the extraction of meaningful insights from large volumes of information.
At Kamber, we use a suite of technologies to gather data. We decide on the right mix of these technologies based on your requirements. Over the years, we’ve deduced valuable insights for governments and global brands. Please contact us to discuss how we can help you.
What’s the difference between social media listening and social media monitoring?
Simply put, social media listening captures mentions anywhere they occur on social media and on online forums. It paints a complete picture of how you’re perceived and talked about online.
Social media monitoring typically refers to the act of using a social media management platform (we use Sprout Social) to monitor and respond to interactions on your social media profiles.
You’ll find a number of articles online that provide in-depth comparisons between social media listening and social media monitoring. This blog post on Sprout Social’s website offers a useful comparison, as does this post on Sprinklr’s blog.