When it comes to online lead generation, social media listening is one of the most misunderstood and underutilized tools available to businesses of all sizes. The advantages of listening to your audience far outweighs the perils of ignoring what your customers are saying about your brand.
In 2006, when I first worked for the second largest teachers’ union in the country, their leadership was scared to death to use social media. “What if people say something bad about us?. “What if they spread negative publicity about our teachers?”
While it took the union a little bit to understand the importance of social media, they soon realized that they also could capture all the positive comments the community was saying about teachers and use them to share the remarkable stories at schools and get real feedback to what the community was thinking. Knowing this could help frame upcoming posts, articles and publicity.
Businesses can do the same campaigns to build their brand and understand their customers.
If you’re looking for a fresh way to bring in more leads and work with motivated customers, consider these five advantages for social media listening.
1. Guest Blogging Opportunities
First, social media listening is an excellent way to discover guest blog opportunities. Find out what blogs are operating in your industry and learn how you can access guest bloggers or blog as a guest to diversify your audience. Some platforms may be too large or too small to work with a company of your size, so you’ll need to carefully research and think creatively to tap into this resource.
2. New Product Development
If you’re hitting a wall in terms of new product development, consider using social listening to discover pain points in your customers’ daily lives. You may be surprised at the range of wishes, hopes, frustrations, and dreams on display across nearly every social media channel. Find your target audience and tap into the needs or wants of common members of this audience.
3. Protecting Your Content Strategy
Listening to your audience on social media platforms can also be an important tool for discovering content plagiarism. Unfortunately, plagiarism is a common occurrence online, particularly with engaging content. Don’t let your hard work and investment go to waste. Use plagiarism checkers to spot any published plagiarism of your best content pieces. This will allow you to continue as a thought leader in your industry and invest in your content without worrying about theft.
4. Build Links
Use your social monitoring tool to effectively find the best links, or find ways to insert your links into third-party content. Use a search tool to find your name in other content that hasn’t been properly linked. Then, you can contact the relevant website and provide them with the proper link to your page. This can benefit both of your companies and promote mutual growth of views and improved click-through rates. Some businesses and organizations can even team-up to share each others content to an even large audience,
5. Generate Effective Leads
Finally, perhaps the best way to use social listening is lead generation. While this strategy may take some time and investment, it’s an innovative way to connect with motivated buyers. Search through social media and online reviews of products for users who are looking for products or services similar to yours. There are lots of motivated buyers who just haven’t been connected with your brand. This direct lead generation is an excellent way to increase your following.
For an organization like a union or a non-profit, you can see what both friends and foes are saying. It is then possible to reach out or answer a comment and maybe bring a new “lead” into your camp. In return, they may share your organizations with many others. By using social media listening and understanding your audience, you will be on the right path to create an army of followers to share your brand.
