Social listening or Social media listening is a process of monitoring different social medias and check what others are saying about a business’s brand or an industry. Social listening is the next big necessary task for businesses to improve their brand.

For most businesses, having a website and social media account is the biggest effort towards brand management. It is just considered as a part of the marketing department. Businesses find just posting updates to the many social media accounts a challenge. However, with more customers relying on the Internet sources, Social listening has become mandatory for businesses.

Businesses are tagged with a keyword or hashtag and feedback is posted on the social media accounts. Any improvement areas are directly mentioned in the posts. It is the responsibility of the businesses to monitor the social mentions, online posts, reviews, tweets, message boards, videos, photos, and so on and identify the customer feedback. General improvements in the industry and competitor trends are also first available to the businesses and general public via the social media.

Manual response can be posted in a public or private mode and any grievances can be addressed. If there is a social mention due to the lack of knowledge of a feature, that can be clarified. Any negative feedback can be noted as area of improvement for the business and positive feedback can be appreciated. General comments can be left alone but any severe feedback must be addressed. By openly responding to the social mentions, businesses can further improve their brand.

Social mention trends such as during a season or after an event can be monitored. Identifying the peak times and days of the week, when customers are likely to mention is possible through Social listening. Manual Social monitoring and Social listening can be performed for small businesses with a few accounts. For large enterprises, special platforms on top of manual Social listening are helpful. SEMRush, Twitter Analytics, Google Alert, Simply Measured, Sprout Social, Brandwatch, and so on are some of the platforms for Social Listening. These platforms provide a basis for conversations, discussions, and decisions. When, why, what, and how of the social mentions can be analyzed using the tools.

Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, Reddit, Google Reviews, and so on can be monitored for Social Listening. Different tools and platforms are available to manage multiple accounts. Alerts and notifications can be sent to an email if there is a social mention. Social monitoring involves monitoring the mentions and responding. Whereas, Social listening can be applied to determine trends and change the business strategy and marketing methods.