Social media monitoring is a useful tool to monitor how your company or your company’s brand is being perceived by the public and to take action accordingly. Here are different places a business could use social media monitoring, what they should look for on each platform, and how they can use it to their advantage to help them reach their upper marketing goals.
1. LinkedIn for recruiting
LinkedIn is by far the most popular career networking site online. From 60 to 70 percent of job seekers use this site to find jobs, internships, and connections. Using your company’s Twitter account can help you monitor your company’s LinkedIn presence and end up with a much more effective and targeted social media campaign.
If you’re a recruiter, LinkedIn is, shockingly, where people look first for jobs in your industry. It will also give you a good idea of your key contacts in that industry. This can be useful if you want to know what people think of your company or brand.
You can find out which people are interested in your company’s products or services, what job openings they have on their LinkedIn profile, and who they follow on the site. You can then follow the people interested in your business and monitor what they post and when they post it.
2. Facebook for product reviews
If you’re selling a product or a service and you need to figure out how people are responding to it, monitoring your Facebook page can give you a good idea of what’s happening. You can go to your company’s Facebook page and look at the posts in the news feed, see which of the comments your company is replying to, and which posts your community likes or dislikes.
You can also monitor what people posting in Facebook groups related to your business are talking about and check out the activity level in these groups. Seeing which posts get the most likes and comments quickly determines what’s getting people excited about your company’s product.
3. Twitter for service reviews
Similarly, suppose you’re selling a service. In that case, monitoring Twitter can tell you how well you’re doing in terms of customer satisfaction and whether or not you need to improve your customer service.
Twitter can also help you determine what posts and timeline your followers are most interested in. Twitter is a conversation between people, not between companies. If your company is tweeting out messages all day long and people need to respond, you might be posting too much content on your page that doesn’t need to be there.
4. YouTube for promoting
YouTube is another place where people can share their opinions. If you’re promoting a product or service, YouTube allows you to post videos of your products being used or modified by your customers. This can be a great way to promote your products and show them off to the world.
You can also use the comments section on YouTube videos as an opportunity for responding to comments from your customers and prospective customers on what they like about your products or services.
5. Blogs for news and trends
While it’s not a social media site, blogs can be a good way to keep up with current events and industry trends. You can look at the type of content your preferred blogs are putting out, the comments other people leave on these blog posts, and even see which blog posts are most popular in your industry.
Doing this can show you what people feel passionate about and what kinds of topics are popular on blogs in your industry. Knowing the most popular blog and why people are talking about it can let you know how to approach future blog posts or where to find the best and most reliable sources of information.
6. Forums for customer questions and support
If you’re selling a product or service and looking for ways to improve customer satisfaction, forums like Quora can be a great place to start. This site is made up of a bunch of topic-focused discussion boards. Experts frequent the boards in that field, and they’ll be able to give you a lot of valuable information on how your product or service can be improved.
If you put up a question on the board, chances are good that someone with experience in that area will be able to give you the real scoop on what’s going on. Social media monitoring can help you see which questions are getting the most attention on these boards and view their comments. This can give you an idea of what people are asking your company about and whether or not they’re interested in your products or services.
Conclusion
If you’re a new business owner, you might feel overwhelmed by all the information available on social media. But understand that not every Facebook page, Twitter account, or YouTube channel is created equal. In most cases, it’s best to start small and work your way up to bigger and better things. Social media monitoring can help you make sure you’re keeping your business in the most effective, relevant, and profitable online conversations out there.
