Listening & Engaging in the Social Age
Most marketers agree that listening to conversations and engaging with customers are crucial aspects of a robust social media plan. However, the purpose of social listening and engagement is not just centered on crisis identification and management. The research team at thismoment unearthed some interesting studies on how social listening and engagement can drive marketing messaging and add value to online campaigns.
- According to Marketingprofs, customers who are emotionally connected to brands spend between 20-40% more on buying products when compared to other customers.
- Listening and interacting with customers helps marketers understand what they expect from the brand; this makes designing those YouTube and Facebook promotions easier.
- Effectiveness of a campaign is determined by listening, analyzing and measuring the buzz surrounding it. This is where sentiment analysis and demographic data is valuable.
- The success of online campaigns (determined by the sentiment and buzz) can help in the creation of subsequent marketing messages by enabling brands understand if their marketing strategy needs further tweaking.
Using Social Conversations to Create Winning Campaigns and Drive Marketing Messages
1. Creating a Social Listening Strategy: While monitoring the buzz online, one question that brands need to ask themselves is ‘what am I looking for?’ Are you looking to determine your target audience? Do you want to keep a close watch on industry trends and competitor activity before designing those ads? Creating a social listening strategy gives you a clearer idea of what exactly you’re looking for.
2. The Importance of User-Generated Content: This is where using thismoment’s Brand Monitor tool helps. Listening to social conversations and interacting with users via Brand Monitor simplifies the content creation process. This is an excellent opportunity for marketers to convert these social-savvy consumers into ‘brand advocates’ and ‘content contributors’ by allowing them to be a part of the promotional strategy.
3. The Post-Launch Phase: The social listening strategy is in place and the campaign is ready for launch; what next? Unveiling your brand’s social media campaign via thismoment’s Distributed Engagement Channel (DEC) creates one brand identity, yet, helps your brand be everywhere. While the ‘launch phase’ has been taken care of, the post-launch phase, which includes sentiment analysis and further engagement with the audience, is the next step. Once again, media monitoring enables marketers know the sentiment associated with the campaign and allows them to identify actionable conversations. These are crucial parameters for determining the success of online campaigns and are ‘must haves’ of the post-launch phase.
4. Does Your Online Marketing Plan Need Further Tweaking? This is greatly determined by how well your campaign has been received and the sentiment associated with it. Listening is not only an important part of the pre-launch stage, but is just as crucial after the campaign is unveiled. To craft the next campaign’s messaging, marketers need to first determine if their current marketing strategy is a success or if it needs to be tweaked further.
Social Media Conversations and Digital Campaigns; the Road Ahead
Unlike before, when consumers were mere recipients of marketing messages, today’s social media savvy consumers contribute to marketing content and make their opinions heard. This means brands have to be on their toes all the time by constantly listening to what they have to say, both before and after the launch of social media campaigns. With the scope of social listening and engagement extending beyond crisis management, we expect brands to increasingly focus on online chatter to add value to their marketing campaigns in the future.
- Shama Ahmed
Senior Executive – Content Development
