Social listening is the process of analyzing social media conversations, shares, mentions and other social media data to make better business decisions.

It is not the same as social monitoring, which is a simpler process of identifying brand mentions in real-time in order to respond to them. Social listening is an entire analytical approach, and with the right tools, it can be remarkably valuable. Here are five ways social listening empowers your brand.

1. Improves Understanding of Your Industry and Potential Disruptors

Social listening doesn’t just provide brand information. It provides industry information too. With social listening tools, you can learn about and follow any information that hints at potential disruption in your industry so you’re not blindsided by it. By the same token, if you plan a disruptive product or service, social listening allows you to gauge receptivity to your ideas.

2. Helps You Create Better Content and Better Marketing Campaigns

When you really listen to the social conversation surrounding your brand and industry, you learn more about the questions people have and the information they want. This information helps you shape your content marketing campaigns to speak to your customers more clearly and address customer needs more effectively.

3. Empowers You to Improve the Customer Experience

Social listening helps you dig into social mentions and find out what people are actually saying. You can find out which products are mentioned most and the sentiment behind those mentions. You can also learn when brand mentions are negative and why. The trends revealed through social listening can help you improve customer service and improve customer experience. This is one of the most powerful ways to use social listening.

4. Delivers Insights You Can Use to Innovate Products and Services

Social media doesn’t just share what people already like or dislike. It is also a hive of buzz about what they would like or what they wish they had. If people are clamoring for a product you offer, only in a unique color or with a particular feature, social listening can give you insights you can use to innovate or iterate on products and services. Think of the competitive advantage of being first to market with something that’s been generating social media buzz.

5. Helps You Understand Exactly What Your Customers Want

Success and a strong reputation depend on knowing your audience and knowing what they want. Social media lets you know these things in ways that traditional focus groups could never do. Social monitoring is great for tactical actions such as responding to social media mentions. Social listening takes it to a higher level, helping you take the mass of social data surrounding your brand and mine it for a better understanding of your audience.

Take Social Media Management to the Next Level

Social listening is just one component of effective social media management to improve your brand reputation. Download How to Improve Your Reputation with Effective Social Media Management today to learn more.