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How to use social listening to evaluate your marketing campaign

by | Jun 21, 2022 | Analysis, Public Relations

Have you ever wondered how well your marketing campaigns are really doing? Are people engaging with your content? Do they like it? If not, what can you do to change that? Social listening can help you answer all of these questions and more.

By tracking conversations online about your brand, products, or services, you can get a good idea of how people perceive your marketing efforts. You can also use social listening to find new leads and market opportunities.

Read on to learn more about what social listening is and how you can use it to evaluate your marketing campaigns.

What is social listening?

Social listening is the process of tracking conversations online to get insights into what people are saying about a particular topic. This can be done through social media platforms, forums, blogs, email marketing, and other online channels.

Using social listening, you can track both positive and negative sentiments around your brand. You can also get an idea of the topics that people are talking about in relation to your brand. This information can be used to improve your marketing campaigns.

How to use social listening to evaluate your marketing campaign

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Quality and quantity: Evaluating marketing campaigns with social listening

When evaluating the success of a marketing campaign, it’s important to consider both the quality and quantity of engagement that it’s generating.

For example, if you have a lot of likes on your Facebook post but few comments, that could be a sign that your post isn’t resonating with people.

Alternatively, if you have a small number of likes but people are sharing your post and leaving comments, that could be a sign that you’re reaching the right audience and generating quality engagement.

The best way to evaluate the success of your marketing campaign is to track both the quantity and quality of engagement using social listening. This will give you a well-rounded view of how people are responding to your campaign.

How to use social listening to evaluate your marketing campaign

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How to use social listening to evaluate your marketing campaigns

Now that you know what social listening is and why it’s important let’s take a look at how you can use it to improve your marketing campaigns.

  • Monitoring campaign hashtags

When you create a marketing campaign, you should always create a corresponding hashtag to help track its success. By monitoring this hashtag, you can get a good idea of how people are reacting to your campaign.

You can use social listening tools to track conversations about your hashtag. This will give you a good idea of which topics people are discussing in relation to your campaign. You can also see the positive and negative sentiment around your campaign.

If you see that people are not engaging with your campaign, you can make changes to try and improve its success. If people are talking negatively about your campaign, you can address these concerns and try to correct them.

  • Listening for keywords

When creating a marketing campaign, it’s important to choose the right keywords to target. By tracking conversations about these keywords, you can get a good idea of how people are reacting to your campaign.

By tracking mentions of your brand, products, or services, you can get an idea of how well your campaigns are performing.

This is where the best SEO tools come in handy. You can use keyword tracking tools like Google Analytics or Moz to track mentions of your brand online.

  • Analyzing sentiment

Sentiment analysis is another way to use social listening for campaign evaluation. This involves tracking the emotions expressed in online conversations. This can be done manually or with the help of sentiment analysis tools.

Manually analyzing sentiment can be time-consuming. However, it’s a good way to get a detailed understanding of how people feel about your brand.

For example, if you are an Etsy seller, you might want to manually analyze sentiment around Etsy-related hashtags. This can give you an idea of how people feel about the platform and whether they’re likely to buy from you.

  • Tracking landing page views

If you’re running a digital marketing campaign, you can use social listening to track the number of views your landing pages are getting.

This is a good way to see how effective your campaigns are at driving traffic to your website. If you’re not getting as many views as you’d like, you can make changes to your campaigns to try and improve their effectiveness by optimizing your CTR (click through rate).

  • Finding new leads

Social listening can also be used to find new leads for your business. You can do this by tracking mentions of keywords related to your products or services.

For example, if you sell eco-friendly cleaning products, you might want to track mentions of “eco-friendly cleaning products” or “sustainable cleaning products.” This can help you find people who are interested in what you have to offer.

You can also use social listening to find out which of your competitors’ customers are most likely to switch to your brand. This can be done by tracking negative sentiment around their brand.

How to manage unexpected social media crises

It’s not uncommon for companies to face social media crises. These can be caused by anything from a negative review to an offensive tweet.

When faced with a social media crisis, it’s important to take quick and decisive action. Here are some tips on how to manage a social media crisis:

  • Apologize quickly

If you’ve made a mistake, it’s important to apologize quickly. This will show your customers that you are taking responsibility for your actions and that you are sorry for any inconvenience caused.

It’s also important to take action to fix the problem. For example, if you’ve made an error in a social media campaign, you should take steps to correct it.

How to use social listening to evaluate your marketing campaign

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  • Be transparent

When dealing with a social media crisis, it’s important to be transparent. This means being open and honest about what has happened and what you are doing to fix the problem.

It’s also important to keep your customers updated on the situation. This can be done by posting updates on social media or sending out email newsletters.

  • Don’t delete negative comments

Negative comments aren’t always easy to deal with, but it’s important to resist the urge to delete them. This will only make your customers angrier and less likely to trust you in the future.

It’s better to respond to negative comments in a positive way. This shows your customers that you are willing to listen to their concerns and that you are taking steps to fix the problem.

Final thoughts

Social listening is an underrated but powerful marketing tool. It can be used for a variety of purposes, from evaluating marketing campaigns to finding new leads.

If you’re not using social listening, now is the time to start. It could be the key to taking your marketing efforts to the next level.

Alan S Lui
Alan S Lui is a seasoned executive. He was previously CMO, Fusion Bank, a digital bank based in Hong Kong; and also COO, Asia Miles, a 12-million-member mileage program of Cathay Pacific Airways. He is currently Director, Strategy and Transformation, i-CABLE Communications, a media-telco group listed in Hong Kong. He shares his views on trends in marketing, operations, and investment on his blog and can be connected through his LinkedIn and email.

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