Your customers and your audience are the lifeblood of your brand. But are you really listening to them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Think about a time you talked with someone who just wasn\u2019t listening. You couldn\u2019t trust that person to know how you feel and understand your needs. Many brands out there are making the same mistake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Social listening is crucial for every brand, especially brands that work with influencers. Influencer content has to align with what your audience wants to see, and knowing what they want requires a social listening strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At GRIN, we built a social listening tool<\/a> because we know how powerful it can be\u2014especially for brands working with creators. If you\u2019re still wondering how it fits into your strategy, let\u2019s break it down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Social listening is the practice of finding out what people on social media are saying about your brand, your competitors\u2019 brands, and your industry as a whole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This includes comments people make on your brand\u2019s content, comments made on your influencers\u2019 content, and posts your audience makes on their own. But it\u2019s not just about reading comments. It\u2019s about understanding the deeper reasons behind them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are four key areas social listening is useful for: negative comments, positive comments, competitor analysis, and industry trends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s start with the negative, since that\u2019s something many brands are afraid of. Social listening makes you aware of what your customers dislike about your brand. There could be something about your products or services that didn\u2019t meet their expectations, or they may be unhappy with shipping times or customer service wait times. If you\u2019re not aware of how your customers feel, these problems will cause higher return rates and more cancellations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then there\u2019s every brand\u2019s nightmare: A piece of content ends up offending the audience. We\u2019ve all seen the brands that scramble to do damage control when people think their content is racist or offensive in another way. The better you are at social listening, the more likely you\u2019ll be able to avoid this, and you\u2019ll be able to respond more effectively in the unlikely event it happens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can see why social listening is important for tracking negative comments. However, positive comments are also a big part of social listening. If you post a piece of content that resonated with your audience more than usual, look closely at the comments. Try to understand why that post connected so well. Create more content similar to it (influencer content and your own content).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another type of positive comment is audience suggestions. Fans of your brand may make suggestions about products they wish your brand would create. Social listening gives you a way to know about these comments so you can adjust your product offerings. Every brand has something special about it that customers love, so it\u2019s smart to know your strengths and lean into those.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A good social listening strategy focuses on comments about your brand. A great<\/em> social listening strategy also includes your competitors. Pay attention to the types of content your competitors are putting out, the influencers they\u2019re working with, and audience sentiment about their content. The goal isn\u2019t to copy your competitors but to know what they\u2019re doing so you can do something different and better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Social listening isn\u2019t just about your brand. It\u2019s about the entire industry your brand is a part of. There are several questions to think about when using social listening to study your industry:<\/p>\n\n\n\n What conversations are people having on social media about your industry? What keywords and hashtags are used most often? What are the most popular attitudes and opinions among people in your industry, and which ones are falling out of favor? Knowing these answers will give you a powerful advantage when planning social campaigns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You may have heard of \u201csocial monitoring,\u201d which is similar to social listening. Social monitoring tells you what people are saying. Social listening goes deeper\u2014it helps you understand why they\u2019re saying it, what they care about, and how sentiment is shifting over time. Social listening and influencer marketing go hand in hand in several ways:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Social listening allows you to view the entire landscape of how people on social media feel about your industry. That includes what kinds of content is most popular in your industry and who\u2019s creating that content. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Social listening helps you surface creators who are already talking about your brand\u2014often organically. These authentic fans can be powerful partners, especially when their content resonates with your target audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Social listening helps you understand how your influencer content is landing with your audience. While performance reporting<\/a> shows you metrics like reach and engagement, social listening reveals the context\u2014what people are actually saying about your posts, what they\u2019re sharing, and how they\u2019re reacting across different segments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s the difference between knowing a post got 10,000 likes and knowing why it resonated\u2014and how to replicate that success.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhat is social listening?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Negative comments<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Positive comments<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Competitor analysis<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Industry trends<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
What\u2019s the difference between social listening and social monitoring?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
It also involves learning people\u2019s sentiments about your entire industry. In a nutshell, social monitoring tells you what <\/em>people are saying, but social listening tells you why.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nThe role of social listening in influencer marketing\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Creator discovery<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Measuring campaign performance<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Understanding audience sentiment\u00a0<\/h3>\n\n\n\n