By George Schildge, Matrix Marketing Group
For the past two years or so, the social media trend has delighted, baffled, and concerned marketers and advertisers all around the world. They have had to learn quickly that the different ways consumers access the internet across multiple time zones, networks, and devices is forcing them to change the way they do business.
For the past 100 years companies have had the luxury of deciding what they will produce and sell, what their brand message will be and how they will deliver it to their audience. The Internet changed that. We’re in the age of social media marketing. Strategy in this new business environment is just as vital as it has ever been. Don’t get distracted by the slew of new social media tools or lured into spending resources just because “everyone is on Twitter.”
In social media, listening acts as a guide through the dynamic and interesting world of the Web, social media chatter, and blogosphere.
But why? Because listening is a constant practice that is necessary to keep a strategy fresh and ready for action. It enables decision-makers to find and better understand opportunities and stakeholders.
So where do you start? Here are four bullet points before you start. We will explore these further in upcoming posts.
- Determine your target audience
- Identify the influencers
- Know the keywords and trends
- Create a social business strategy
Many organizations just want to jump into a conversation. They often chose blogs, but we recommend that these organizations first test the climate of conversations before actually jump in. While there are dozens of free tools that can help measure the conversation, many of these tools are not designed for in-depth analysis, benchmarking, or to show the impact of traditional media on businesses and their markets.
So even “listening” to the conversation is not as simple as it might seem, whether that listening is part of a preliminary process to understand the environment or an active monitoring program to measure the impact of some event on a corporation’s reputation or strategy. And to back up even further, merely making the decision to engage in, and measure, consumer-generated media is just the first step, given that the influence of social media itself is often difficult to pin down. But don’t fret.
Social media offers you the opportunity of doing in-depth research at virtually no cost. It is possible to set goals and get ROI, but you have to know where you’re going and what you want to achieve. Tap into the online conversations (just like with press clipping before the Web) to find out:
- who is talking about you
- what they are saying
- is it positive or negative
- where are the conversations taking place
- what communities talk about you
- what are your competitors doing in social media
- what’s the buzz about them
- what content resonates with your audience
- are there subjects of interest you could provide content for
- what social sites have the most conversation
- who are the “fire-starters” you need to connect with
- who are the influencers in these blogs or communities
- where are the opportunities and threats
Social media strategies starts with listening. The future is all about hearing and understanding what your business ecosystem (key stakeholders, customers, business partners, constituencies, employees, competitors, etc.) has to say and collaborating internally and externally to meet their expectations.
Listening is not just a discipline. It is an philosophy of a social business strategy to address the mass volume of data every company faces today and offer a means for evaluating this information to drive business results.
Once you have this information you can allocate your resources wisely. You’ll know where to start and what social sites you should be concentrating on. Once you understand what being said it’s much easier to plot a path to your destination. A social media marketing strategy is your road-map.
What do you think? What is your company using for a listening strategy? Leave your questions and comments in the box below.
