Social Media Week — 10 Tips for Social Listening
MMC had the opportunity to attend another Social Media Week session this morning focused on Social Listening Done Right with executives from Pepsi, JWT, Radian 6 and Buddy Media.
This session was 100% geared towards marketers listening to conversations online about their company or brands. Here are 10 quick tips for successful social media listening.
1) Don’t wait until you have a large “following” to start social listening; start from day 1
2) Become an expert at separating insights from noise
3) Human interaction is key when filtering out volume – no algorithm or tool can pull insights with 100% accuracy
4) Most comments and conversation will only make sense in the context of other company and brand information
5) When a conversation topic arises, first answer the who, what, when, where why….then determine a response recommendation
6) Companies are doing a great job of listening to the conversations online about their brand, but marketers must seize the opportunity to listen, respond and act upon pop culture conversations
7) While it’s tempting to use Twitter as a focus group, you still need to have real life conversations with your target audience; Twitter is not an accurate population sample
8) Keep in mind that ‘normal’ people don’t leave footprints in Social Media, the people with strong opinions and feelings do
9) Don’t respond to any angry tweet about your brand unless you can do something about it
10) No one person has every skill needed to make a decision when an issue arises online – it’s important to bring in brand directors, digital folks and your PR team
