Why is Social Media Monitoring Important

Why Is Social Media Monitoring Important? 

As a business, you’re likely to have a presence on at least one major social media platform. While some choose Facebook, others choose Twitter, Instagram, or even smaller platforms. It’s easy to focus solely on what your brand is saying on these channels but it’s equally important to know what others are saying about you!

What do people think about the brand? 

Are people talking about your brand, positively or negatively? 

Are you missing crucial conversations surrounding your products or key executives?

You can answer all these questions and more with social media monitoring. 

What Is Social Media Monitoring? 

Ultimately, social media monitoring describes the process of learning what customers are saying about your brand and products online. You may have previously monitored social media by looking at comments, likes, tags, and shares. Now, it’s a much more detailed process that connects you to the conversations that people are having about your brand.

At this stage, we should point out that there’s a slight difference between social media monitoring and social listening. The latter concentrates on everything that could affect the brand, such as market forces or the strength of your competitors, rather than just the brand itself. By contrast, social media monitoring plugs you into conversations about your brand that you might want to engage with.

What Can Social Media Monitoring Accomplish?

According to a recent survey, around four in every five social media users have at some point mentioned a brand in a tweet. Every day, customers can talk to each other about your brand online without your knowledge. Well, it’s time for that to change, because you can’t afford to miss even one conversation that could develop into a viral scandal and a news story.

For one thing, social media monitoring allows your business to learn more about itself and its audience. You learn what people like about your service and what they dislike; from here, you can improve your business and ensure that you iron out the problems while emphasizing your achievements and best qualities.

Additionally, customers appreciate it when brands respond to their messages, and this is one of the primary purposes of the practice. It lowers the barrier that exists between brands and customers, even if it’s a simple heart emoji in response to a glowing review. 

Customers need to feel as though their opinions matter, and you can reward them by responding to messages. Should you just reply to positive comments? No, there’s lots to be gained from responding to negative comments. Not only could you resolve the problem for the customer, but you show the world that you take customers seriously. If there’s an issue, you should want to fix it. As you respond to both types of comments, you will grow your credibility with customers and develop a reputation as a company that truly cares about the people who use its products and services.

Speaking of which, responding to a comment can also allow the business to generate new leads. For example, lots of people ask brands questions on social media. By providing the necessary answers, you may just persuade the user to click through and place an order. On top of that, responses from the brand have a long shelf life. Dozens of people could stumble across the conversation in the future, and your answer could convert them into clients as well. 

By monitoring social media, you also potentially uncover the influencer currency that could transform your strategy. Does the audience seem to respect the opinion of a specific influencer? Get them on board, and you’ll win over an entire market. 

In case these reasons aren’t enough to use social media monitoring, the feedback you get by monitoring conversations will help the brand to grow. You don’t ever have to pay for a focus group again when all your stakeholders (customers, employees, investors) are giving away their opinions for free online. Although it’s uncomfortable at first, you learn what people love and hate about your brand. If you can truly listen, you can remove the features people dislike and introduce more of what people love, making more clients and employees happy in the long run. Listening to conversations could generate ideas for future products or content, and benefit your long-term marketing strategy.

Consider starting or refining your social media monitoring strategy this year to connect with stakeholders of all kinds, make more of your budget, gain credibility, and become a brand that people love to work for and with! 

Want to learn how we’d approach it for your brand? Reach out to shout@luminodigital.com!