Internet Monitoring – Best Practices for Marketing

Have you ever thought about what is social listening? Why as the person responsible for marketing in the company you should pay some attention to what people talk on the internet? Here are some  tips that will help you to understand.

Social media monitoring allows you collecting all the data published by the users. All you need is to define your keywords and you’re ready to gather all the posts related to you, your product, brand or even the branch.

Social listening is one of the methods that allows you to understand all the collected data. Just focus on what users say and carefully read what they posted. Try to collect as much information as you need – who are your consumers,  where do they live, what do they do, what do they like or even where do they work.

It’s important as it will help you understand who is interested in your product, why did the consumers choose your brand from all available in the market and what are your strong and weak points.

Remember, gathering that data has nothing to do with the user’s privacy, all of the mentions collected by the monitoring tools are posted with the privacy set to public, so please, do not be afraid that someone can sue you for sharing the content that shouldn’t be released.

Don’t be afraid to listen to what people talk about your company or the branch you work in. If you analyze mentions, you will get a short summary about  your brand and competitors.

There are several types of mentions: news, ads, revisions or opinions. What’s important, mentions sometimes include insights – these are the most useful information for you, that can be simply used for your marketing issues.

As you probably observed, people tend to share their opinions via Internet – sometimes they can be innovative and creative. Do they suggest what shall you do next? Great! Listen to them and think about some changes or campaigns based on what they say.

All these posts may improve your business. Maybe you will be able to launch a new product after reading what users posted about? If they talk about their needs and clearly say what should be done, you will be the one who can make their dreams come  true. But be fast, remember, competitors can do the same.

A user who makes some interactions with the brand is also someone whom marketers love. If they share or comment on some publications related to the brand, they will make it more popular and the chance more people will see it, is much bigger.

Be aware that you may find some funny or curious insights about you. It may appear that sweets you produce are liked by dogs, your vodka with hazelnut flavor is mixed with milk (according to users it tastes delightful and reminds their favorite desserts) or the body lotion you produce is used to shave legs. It’s nothing bad – it means that people are creative and maybe during your next campaign you can use their ideas?

What if there are many negative mentions? Remember, when people criticize your brand, don’t treat them as your enemies or haters. Try to get in their shoes, maybe they were right?

Maybe they could see something that you as the owner or the employee of the company was not able to see?  Maybe for some reasons they don’t find your product perfect but try to understand why do they think so. Maybe it’s all about features, prices or even colors of  your product? Read the mentions, you’ll find the answer and you’ll improve your product.

You may find social listening boring and exhausting (especially when your company is popular and there are many mentions about it on the Internet) but trust me – reading these opinions will not be just a waste of time. If you find first important insight, you’ll understand what I am talking about.

How do you track your brand online? Leave us a comment!