26/03/2024
Social listening is the process of using modern day communication platforms like Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter) and Reddit to gain a better insight into what the general public is saying about a certain topic, event or brand. It can also involve scanning comment sections, new sites, forums and other websites for mentions of a brand or topic.
Social listening allows businesses to follow trends as they’re happening, or even sometimes as the tide is turning socially. This means brands are able to stay ahead of the curve and ready themselves for both social and financial shifts in the landscape. Major brands have been left behind in the past, sometimes even collapsing as they’re unable to adjust in time when their industry changes. Social listening means they’re able to stay ahead and prepare for a future, no matter how different it may look.
By having a clear window into the conversations surrounding specific industries, businesses are able to identify areas such as upcoming trends or emerging markets, customer preferences, common mistakes and most importantly, what to avoid and how to avoid it. The overall perception of a specific industry is made up of a variety of different elements caused by a variety of different factors, and by listening to what is being said by both the majority and the minority, brands are able to gain a clearer understanding of the market.
Engaging with audiences in real time can be the difference between customer retention and customer loss. Understanding what audiences are feeling allows businesses to better tailor their responses, content and overall marketing materials to match the mood of their audience and navigate any major social events or topics that may require a specially crafted approach.
When implemented correctly, Social Listening can be used to greatly improve brand image and customer satisfaction based on feedback. Customers and clients may give more honest and useful feedback in a social scenario than they may do in a more traditional format such as a review, survey or complaint. Brands can use this kind of feedback to find out where their biggest pain points and weaknesses are and make changes accordingly to not only improve their customer experience, but their overall business.
Understanding what other competitors are doing, as well as what their audience feel about it can help brands make informed decisions to enhance their market position and stay ahead of the competition. It also allows brands to understand the negative opinions of their competitors and work to keep those specific decisions and actions out of their day-to-day business.
Negative opinions or hit pieces can have a long-term effect on both individual brands and industries as a whole. By staying ahead and keeping an eye out for potentially harmful misinformation, changing of opinions and upcoming issues, brands can protect themselves from potentially long-term issues with public perception. These issues and topics can be addressed in real time before they’ve had time to cause harm, allowing brands credibility and public opinion to remain positive.
RiF Social Listening is our new tool that monitors any mentions of your brand online and helps shape a clearer understanding of how consumers feel about you, your services and your products. Working together with us, brands are able to decide exactly what it is they want to monitor and excluding what they do not need, ensuring that we collect the right data to drive intelligent insights that can help shape your business.
You’ll be given access to your own live dashboard, which is accessible at any time, along with summary reports on a regular basis so you’re free to use the data as and when you please.
Founded in 2013, RiF is an award-winning market research firm focusing on the financial services sector. Our goal is to deliver reliable actionable insight to brands that improves their overall performance. For more information please don’t hesitate to contact us or call us on 0207 104 2235.
Richard has over 16 years experience within the financial services market. Having begun his career working in international media across the financial sections of some of the worlds leading newspapers.
