Social monitoring
There are 2.77 billion social media users around the globe in 2019.
Along with pictures of their food and pets, these people are also sharing valuable insights for brands. Every message from a customer related to your industry is a chance for your business to grow by finding out what your customers like, dislike, want and need.
The more you monitor consumer conversations, the more information you gather. This data then informs future campaigns, so you’re no longer guessing at what your client expects. You’re delivering valuable responses to their queries and demands.
What is social monitoring?
The term “social monitoring” is often used interchangeably with social listening. While both terms refer to a form of social media intelligence, they don’t mean the same thing. Monitoring tells you what your customers are saying. Listening tells you why those conversations are happening.
- Social media monitoring is the process of collecting social conversations and messages into a database of useful information. You may also react to each message you read individually, addressing concerns, complaints and questions on each channel.
- Social media listening is the act of analyzing the useful conversations you capture. From there, you can create bigger campaigns and make changes to your business based on trends you notice in the data.
Monitoring is more of a reactive process, while listening involves actively transforming your business based on what you hear and understand online. Listening is excellent for evolutionary insights, while monitoring helps your business stay on top of customer comments and concerns.
The benefits of social monitoring
Most social media monitoring tools come connected with social listening features. When implemented effectively, these solutions help to boost your communication strategy and strengthen your brand. Some of the benefits of social media monitoring include:
- Improving brand reputation: When you’re always aware of the things your customers are saying, you can respond to their needs immediately.
- More engaged customers: Monitoring finds opportunities for businesses to get involved in useful conversations with customers. This leads to stronger relationships over time.
- Better insights from campaigns: By tagging messages and using keywords on tools like Sprout Social, you see how different audiences respond to mixed messages from your brand.
- Never be out of the loop: You won’t have to worry about losing track of trends in customer sentiment or experience. Social monitoring ensures that you always know what your audience thinks and feels.
How to use social media monitoring
The easiest way to engage with social media monitoring is to use the right tool. Solutions like Sprout Social allow companies to track and analyze conversations initiated by their audience on social media. You may even decide to monitor communications that include the name of your competitors so that you keep an eye on your position in the marketplace.
Social media monitoring tools even give businesses chance to win back lost customers. If you know which clients are unhappy with your business, you deliver the excellent resolutions they’re looking for, fast. The quicker you respond in a meaningful way, the more likely it is that you’ll turn unhappy clients into brand advocates.