Imagine you’re trying to understand a bustling crowd at a festival. The noise is deafening, and it’s impossible to talk to them all.
But what if you had a pair of super-powered headphones that could tune into every conversation? That’s exactly what social listening does.
Every post, tweet, or comment is a potential goldmine of insights.
Social listening allows you to analyze these conversations to find new content opportunities, understand your audience, stay on top of trends, fill industry gaps, and more.
Read on to learn how social listening for PR and marketing facilitates data-driven decision-making.
1) Understanding Your Audience
Social listening isn’t just about tracking brand mentions but your industry in general.
That includes what your audience loves and hates the most, how they perceive your competitors, and the emotional drivers behind their behavior.
By proactively listening to your audience’s conversations, you can:
- Identify (and act on) their pain points—biggest frustrations, problems, and unmet needs.
- Analyze different opinions to gain a deeper understanding of the values or beliefs your audience holds.
- Collaborate with the right people to reach a wider audience and leave a significant impact on them.
“Real Beauty” Campaign by Dove
The Real Beauty campaign was launched in 2004 by Dove to redefine the notion of beauty.
While this didn’t take place on social media, the brand set an example by tapping into the ongoing conversations around beauty standards and understanding the collective audience sentiment.
They were able to craft targeted messages that evoked the right emotions and drove deeper engagement by keeping up with the changing opinions.
As a result, they doubled the sales of the Dove soap from $2 billion to $4 billion in just three years.
2) Identifying Trends and Topics
You’re more likely to find relevant topics and keep up with emerging trends when actively listening to all the online buzz.
As per Semrush, social listening tools can help identify new trends three times faster than traditional monitoring methods.
You can scour different social media platforms within minutes to understand your audience’s changing interests, trending hashtags, hot topics, etc. This allows you to create relevant content and campaigns.
Let’s see two cases where brands have leveraged social listening to create content that resonates with the audience and drives engagement:
Duolingo’s tweet about Cillian Murphy learning Dutch
Duolingo’s 2023 tweet around the chatter that Cillian Murphy had to learn Dutch for the movie Oppenheimer is a remarkable example of using social listening for PR.
The brand sprang into action and tweeted, “when a sexy actor does it, he gets an Oscar. when i do it i’m annoying. double standards smh.”
Even if the conversation isn’t directly about the brand, Duolingo taps into a broader cultural conversation and contributes to it cleverly.
Oreo’s “Dunk in the Dark” Tweet
The 2013 Super Bowl blackout proved to be a great opportunity for Oreo.
During the blackout, Oreo put up a tweet saying, “You can still dunk in the dark.” This sharp, crisp, and real-time response helped Oreo garner 8000 followers on Twitter and 34,000 on Instagram!
As The Huffington Post puts it, the brand created, “one of the most buzz-worthy ads of the [2013] Super Bowl…wasn’t even a commercial—it was a mere tweet from Oreo during the blackout.”
3) Monitoring Brand Reputation
Social listening tells you what people are saying about your brand—whether it’s positive, negative, or neutral. Most importantly, it not only monitors the thing said but also the “why” behind such an opinion.
Proactively tracking your brand image through social listening helps you respond to feedback in real-time, spot potential crises, and nip them in the bud.
For instance, if you’re a web development company, monitoring your brand’s reputation online is crucial for maintaining trust and credibility. You can ensure your brand remains in good standing by keeping an ear to the ground.
Here’s how social listening tools assist you in monitoring your brand reputation:
- Track particular keywords, brand mentions, product names, etc., across various social media platforms.
- Analyze the sentiment or the emotional tone behind the mentions to understand if it’s a positive shoutout or a crisis.
- Understand the past performance of your brand image against certain trends, issues, and cultural events.
- See if the brand perception aligns with the desired brand image.
4) Analyzing Competitors
Have you ever come across counter-campaigns that directly or indirectly address a brand’s competitor?
Like McDonalds vs Burger King? Or Pepsi vs Coca-Cola?
If yes, then that’s a result of competitive landscape analysis done through social listening.
Brands use social listening platforms to go beyond their brand mentions and get a detailed view of the consumer market, especially the competitors. This includes:
- How the consumers perceive your competitors
- Areas where your competitors underperform
- New features, services, and competition in the market
- Marketing strategies adopted by your competition
- The volume of your brand mentions vs the competition in the industry market.
Let’s understand this with a hypothetical example:
Say your brand’s primary competitor recently got backlash for poor customer service. By consistently monitoring what people say about your competitors, you can capitalize on this opportunity and present your brand as one with excellent customer service.
5) Improving Customer Engagement
‘’Leveraging social listening isn’t just about monitoring what customers say—it’s about understanding the nuances of their feedback and using those insights to drive personalized and meaningful engagement’’.
— [ Ian Nicholls, Founder – AutomobilGarage.com]
Social listening opens doors for personalized customer engagement.
That means you can track specific conversations, even down to individual posts or comments, directly respond to them, and provide solutions.
In addition, brands can analyze the context of numerous online discussions to identify if it’s a complaint, praise, or request.
Responding to feedback in this way shows how truly you care for your customers, thus building stronger relationships.
Spotify fills service gaps with spot-on social listening.
In May 2023, Spotify extended its AI DJ feature for UK and Ireland users.
This was possible because Spotify was able to track recurring customer demand for the feature repeatedly on social media, which was rapidly gaining traction.
In fact, when they rolled out this feature, the brand included snippets of the original posts/comments that ignited the conversation, showcasing they’re actively listening to their audience.
6) Measuring Campaign Success
You’ve taken months to create the perfect campaign with the hope of driving sales and being the talk of the town.
But how do you know if your campaign is making buzz? And for what reasons?
That’s where social listening comes in (once again). It’s a game-changer for tracking the impact of your PR and marketing efforts across all platforms—Instagram, Twitter, TikTok Shop, etc.
Here’s how:
- Analyze campaign impressions, engagements, and mentions—or the volume of conversation around the campaign launch.
- Understand the sentiments of these conversations.
- Identify the demographics of people engaging with your campaign.
- See which influencers are talking about your campaign and why.
- Get immediate insight into what’s working and what’s not.
With such insights at your disposal, you can then adjust your strategy in real time.
This includes refining the tone of your message, changing the timing of a post, tweaking your message, or even pulling back a campaign in case of severe backlash.
McDonald’s “Grimace’s Birthday” Campaign
McDonalds recently celebrated Grimace’s (one of their mascots) birthday.
What started as a limited-time Grimace birthday meal soon turned into the “Grimace Shake Trend” where TikTokers posted videos of them trying the Grimace shake and then pretending to be poisoned from drinking.
The best part is that McDonald’s acknowledged the campaign’s obsession through a post with a photo of Grimace and text that read, “mee pretending i don’t see the grimace shake trendd.”
By understanding how their campaign was received, McDonald’s successfully shifted more of its focus to TikTok to keep the momentum going.
Conclusion
Adopting social listening for PR and marketing empowers your brand on a deeper level.
By tuning into the online buzz around your brand, you can connect with your audience meaningfully, spot trends as they emerge (or fade away), and maintain a strong brand reputation.
Wish to harness real-time insights into your audience, market, competition, and campaigns?
With our AI-powered Media Monitoring tool, you can monitor media coverage across all channels—online, print, and broadcasts. Our intuitive interface reduces the learning curve, while our AI-forward approach equips you with intelligent insights within seconds.
So, what are you waiting for? Book a demo and experience intelligent social listening at its finest.
