By Elissa Ehrlich, Account Director, Affect Strategies
This morning, I attended Pay Attention! Social Media Listening Done Right event as part of New York’s Social Media Week. I was drawn to this event because lately, everyone seems to be drowning in a sea of information, whether it’s on Twitter, Facebook or in their email inbox.
True to its promise, panelists offered advice and best practices for finding and analyzing the useful information amidst the clutter. Here are some top tips and strategies for not only listening well, but how to best use the information:
- Put the information in the context of other data: You know the saying – you need to compare apples to apples. In the case of marketing, companies cannot create their strategy without understanding the broader marketplace and their competitors. To properly analyze the information gathered on social media, put it into dashboards or other tools that will draw correlations between competitors’ data and industry conversations. Also use the data to determine your brand’s correlation to other brands which can be potential marketing vehicles, like TV shows or musicians.
- Size doesn’t matter: To find useful information on your brand, focus on finding the group that’s most passionate about the company or product, no matter the size.
- It’s a work in progress: Use the community to get feedback for things as they are in progress, such as the Beta release of a new product. This information can be invaluable as you finalize the positioning and features of the product or initiative.
- Put the right person in front of the data: If you’re investing in social media, invest in putting the person best equipped to analyze the data in front of your monitoring tool or dashboard. The ideal person should also understand and have the authority to bring the insights gleaned to the right stakeholder and influence them to take action.
- Don’t be afraid of what you’ll find: If you’re engaging in social media, you’re already taking risks. Understand you don’t have control over the conversations happening in social media, but you can influence and respond to them when necessary. Also keep in mind that conversations online are more extreme than those that occur in “real life,” as traditional social norms are not always present.
- Don’t put too much stock into Tweets: Remember that the Twitter community probably doesn’t represent the opinions of your entire community. On the flipside, Facebook probably does represent your community better than any other social networking site ever can or will, as 25 percent of time spent online is now spent on Facebook. Keep in mind though that you will never be able to listen to everything on Facebook due to its privacy settings. And ethically, brands shouldn’t attempt to.
- Don’t respond to everything: A few years ago, brands were applauded for responding to any customer complaint or question online. This day in age, constant responses can overwhelm the consumer very quickly. Be selective on your responses and understand that not every complaint or personal opinion warrants action from your brand.
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