“We are constantly being watched” we hear people say, and we felt the same way. The right ads, the discount I was looking for, the platform for my venture. The question now is, who hears us, how do they hear us? On the one hand, we would say the algorithm, but on the other hand there is social listening, a technique for monitoring a brand on social networks. It is the search for opinions on related topics, competitors and more, to understand the market.

We are talking about a collection of data that facilitates understanding the perspective they have about a brand in order to find opportunities and generate strategies. Through both free and paid tools you can have all kinds of information about both a keyword and a market, thus giving a necessary context of what the customer is asking for. Social listening is the best way to know what your customers are saying without having to ask them.

Talkwalker, one of the tools for social listening tells us why it is important:

• 67% of users use social networks for customer service.
• 30% of tweets that mention a brand do not mention the brand’s user.
• 60% of users expect the brand to respond to their queries within an hour.
• 43% of consumers interact with brands on social networks.

In addition, seeing the people who comment on your brand opens the way to meet potential influencers and thus generate collaborations. Also, if it is the opposite case and it is someone who does not value your brand, you can intervene to give satisfaction to the user.

When we talk about social listening, we talk about a form of research closer to the consumer, which facilitates the understanding of their actions, current or future trends and also a context of the evolution of ideas and thoughts that they themselves express in their social networks. It is to understand what they relate my brand to and what impressions it generates. Even from demographic and geographic data to also know where to implement new strategies.

Sofía Isaza