If you don’t have a social listening strategy, you’re missing out on some of the most valuable data available to help build your business. Nearly two-thirds of marketers believe that the value of social listening has increased in the last year. Social media listening tools enable you to thoroughly understand how customers and potential customers perceive you by analysing what they say on social media. You can also find out what they think of the competition. As long as you know how to access it, this incredible market research is available in real-time.

What exactly is social listening?

Monitoring social media channels for mentions of your brand, competitor brands, and related keywords is known as social listening. Social listening lets you track every brand recognition on social media in real-time. This will provide valuable information about how customers feel about your products or services, their pain points, and what they want to see from you in the future. However, social listening is more than just tracking brand mentions. You can also use it to monitor competing brands, trending content, and sentiment analysis on business-related topics.

This intelligence can be used to notify everything from advertising and manufacturing strategy to support and service to customers, enabling you to arrive at more informed, data-driven decisions that will benefit your company’s bottom line.

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Useful Tools to Turn Social Listening into Relevant Prospecting

Some social media monitoring tools will conduct the necessary research for you. Once you’ve determined what you want to listen for, it’s time to use social listening platforms. Here are the top social media marketing tools for social listening to use:

1. Hootsuite

You could use Hootsuite to set up social networking streams that supervise conversations, key phrases, mentions, and trending topics, even if you have a free or Pro Plan. Instead of logging in and out of different social networks, you can track and react to conversations or mentions directly from your social media dashboard. Hootsuite also enables you to keep an ear to the ground in your marketplace by monitoring the challenge and establishing relationships with media platforms creators (also known as influencers) and potential brand ambassadors.

2. Adview

Adview, unlike most social listening platforms, is only used for social media monitoring on Facebook and Instagram ads. It allows you to monitor up to three Facebook Marketing Accounts through unlimited pages. You also get detailed analytics on which advertisements get the most comments, allowing you to optimise your campaigns accordingly.

3. Awario

With plans starting at $29/mo, Awario is a comparatively recent tool that makes social media and web tracking cost-effective for businesses of any size. In addition, Awario offers many features typically found in Enterprise-level devices. The tool can keep tabs on mentions of your company, rivals, and sector or even set up complex Boolean queries for less obvious use cases. For instance, Awario enables you to find linkless brand mentions that you can turn into links, find plagiarised copies of your content, and track new backlinks to your website.

4. Agorapulse

Agorapulse is a great 2-in-1 option because it provides both the scheduling and monitoring components, so it’s a great alternative if you need more time to invest in a standalone social listening or reputation management platform. In addition to finding @ mentions of accounts you connect with and comments on your social media posts, the tool also enables you to search across Twitter for specific keywords. The device lets you quickly assign conversations to your team and find influencers among your social media audience. Agorapulse is an excellent option if you’re primarily interested in social mentions, even though it doesn’t offer web monitoring.

5. Synthesio

Synthesio is a social media listening tool that monitors conversations with carefully selected audiences about incredibly niche topics. Your social listening data can be divided by language, geography, demographics, sentiment, gender, influence, etc. The reports also include an excellent social reputation score to see how you compare to rivals.

6. Audiense

No matter the size, Audiense enables you to identify any audience. The application generates reports revealing what your audience is talking about, what they enjoy, and how they feel and act. The development of marketing personas, understanding of changes in consumer sentiment, and even product development can all be influenced by this data. With the help of Audiense’s social listening tool, you can quickly and easily connect with your audience on the channels they prefer by using automated organic and paid campaign tools. Your brand will be the perfect fit if you use its audience manager to find and comprehend particular audiences.

Social listening tools are becoming more potent and accessible as more and more businesses use social media for market research, customer insights, competitor analysis, and even sales. Regardless of the social media listening tool you choose, remember that the monitoring itself is only worthwhile if you act on the information. Engage with those who are talking about you on social media, and use the analytics of your social listening tool to identify trends and alter your marketing, customer support, and product strategies before your rivals.

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