How Social Media Listening Can Improve Your Marketing Strategy

According to Statista, a business data platform, social media is still among the top popular Internet activities. Five years ago, over 2.86 billion people were using social media all over the world, and this number will rise to nearly 4.41 billion in 3 years. For marketers it means unlimited access to big data and consumer insights from social media.

While conducting market research takes a minimum of 1 month, social media analysis tools provide consumer insights immediately. As soon as a new product hits the stores, marketers can monitor online reviews and make improvements. Awareness is the first step to removing all the defects before the company faces a large drop in sales.

Customers who have had a negative experience are twice to three times more likely to leave an angry review than customers who have had a positive experience. At first glance, posts on social media seem to be non-objective. At the same time, this knowledge helps to see the brand’s weaknesses and improve marketing strategy based on this information.

This article will cover the pro-tips that help boost your marketing efforts with social media analysis.

Marketers used to create a snapshot of their ideal customer. For example, a brand like KFC could describe its buyer persona in the USA as a middle-aged mom of two kids living in a suburb, looking for an opportunity to spend less time on cooking. This type of client is often used in brand adverts.

Social media listening helps to check if this image matches reality. 

Based on social media data, almost 75% of users discussing KFC online are young men less than 35 years old. 

In this case, social media listening helps define other types of buyer personas and target them with a new marketing strategy. 

This type of research also helps look deeper into the audience's interests. For instance, those users who leave reviews on KFC meals often discuss computer games, football, health, and tourism.

With this data, it’s easy to create another type of buyer persona: a young man 18-34 years old, who is a big fan of football, or a gamer. 

It’s always useful to get more insights into customers’ feelings about different products’ aspects. With YouScan, an AI-based social intelligence platform, this process can be automated. The software recognizes the tone of posts and their meaning as well. As a result, marketers get a chart showing what can be improved and what is good enough.

Buyers, for example, enjoy the taste of Pringles chips, but lots of them think that this product is overpriced. Moreover, some customers say they usually wait for discounts to buy their favorite snacks.

How can marketers change this product to meet the consumers’ expectations?

The main claim for Pringles is a package. Clients used to think that if the box were cheaper, they wouldn’t need to pay a lot for the can of chips.

Another way to satisfy clients is creating a low-cost series of products. If it runs the main idea of the brand, marketers can at least improve the communication by highlighting all the benefits of the product and explaining more clearly why it is worth its price.

Brands don’t exist in a vacuum. Different external forces influence the way consumers interact with your products. In this case, social intelligence helps analyze and predict the demand of a specific industry.

Imagine that you produce vegan food and your customers are interested in all new waves of a healthy lifestyle. You may wonder if it’s the right time to launch a gluten-free product line. Social media listening helps to find out the answer.

In the chart below, you can see the dynamics of the discussion of gluten-free products on social media.

The biggest spike in mentions was 2 years ago, and now the trend is on the decline. It means that the demand for gluten-free food wouldn’t grow rapidly.

In 2022, an effective marketing strategy is hard to imagine without influencers. A study by Convince & Convert shows that the ROI of blog posts leads to 11 times better results than banner ads.

With social listening tools, it's easy to discover popular bloggers in various niches. Marketers from the beauty industry used to invest budgets in collaborations with Instagram bloggers. It seems like this trend belongs to the past. Social media analysis of the cosmetics field shows that TikTok bloggers get more engagement.

Developing a 5-star online reputation should be one of the main priorities for brands. All efforts, whether it is an online advert or offline, such as TV, radio, or even promo leaflets, will lead the customer to learn more about the product or service. A negative or non-existent online reputation will drive them away. 

For lots of businesses, it’s not easy to realize that consumers want to make sure they’re buying the best product in their niche. Nowadays, this confidence comes from online reviews reflecting the experience of other clients. 

Social media monitoring tools such as YouScan help marketers instantly control the situation by keeping an eye on all brand-related discussions. Monitoring the spikes in mentions, it’s easy to detect the main concerns of the audience. The example below shows that FedEx, a world-famous delivery service, receives lots of complaints that bring up the problem of lost packages. 

The review about a lost parcel can become a red flag for potential customers. At the same time, no one is immune to making mistakes. That's why a timely response to clients' feedback is vital for brands. In the case of FedEx, the company could promise to investigate an accident and propose compensation for the lost parcel. These steps should be included in its marketing strategy to avoid similar problems in the future. 

While clients and industries change, so has to do brands’ strategies. Social media listening helps to keep up with the latest trends and be aware of all crucial shifts in customers' behavior. Making timely improvements to marketing strategies is essential to be relevant to new and existing clients.