Added September 2, 2011 by 323 Comments

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Use the Power of Social Listening to Tune in to Your Customers

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Social Listening

If you’re looking for marketing insight, the best way to go about it is via social listening. Your customers are the reason you exist. So why aren’t you listening to them more? The excuse that you don’t have time isn’t good enough. There is absolutely no excuse for a lack of ongoing relationship building with your past customers, especially given the free social listening tools available today. And especially not when virtually all of your customers are already online, actively engaging in conversations, making buying decisions, and influencing their network.

Why you can’t afford to not use social listening on your customers

They’re talking about you

Whether for good or bad, your customers are already talking about you both on- and offline. It’s up to you to find the conversation and listen to them.

They can teach you

They know firsthand what it’s like to be YOUR customer. Isn’t that worth something to you? Your customer can be your greatest teacher.

Happy customers buy again and tell their friends to buy

Your customer can be your greatest evangelist. Happy ones spread the word for you. If they’re telling other people how great you are, you can be assured they’ll be back to do business with you again too.

Small Business Tip

Use tools like search.twitter.com to find relevant conversations. Set up a Google Alerts account so conversations come to your inbox. Regardless of if the conversations reflect your business positively or negatively, go on Twitter and respond directly. Leave comments on blogs that are talking about you. The fact that you’re interested and engaging shows that you care and can sway future customers’ buying decisions.

How to use social listening on your customers

1. Listen first. Engage second.

You can learn a lot just by listening carefully to your customers. After listening, ask questions and engage. If you ask questions first, you may miss something very important.

2. Build community online

Where are your customers hanging out online? Figure that out and read what they have to say – not just about you, but about everything that matters to them. Is no one talking about your business? Create the conversation. Build a community with Facebook Pages and Twitter. Spend time there everyday listening to the conversations. Engage and ask questions to get them talking.

3. Blog, blog, blog

Open up the channels of communication by creating a blog that encourages your customers to interact with your business. Blog about topics that will help them. Invite them to talk to you by asking questions and leaving comments. Your blog should be both the voice of your company and the human face of your brand.

Small Business Tip

Listening to your customers is easy when you’ve laid the right groundwork. Make it a daily habit to find ways to listen. It doesn’t have to take a lot of time! Make a goal to spend 20 minutes a day to listen to them and see if it makes a difference in your business. It does for mine.

How do you use social listening to understand your customers? Let us know in the comments below!

Image source: Menage a Moi

About Kevin HaynesFollow Kevin on Twitter

Kevin Haynes is the founder of WebMaxed.com. His personal mission is to make internet marketing easy and fun to learn for small business entrepreneurs (trust him, it's possible!). Kevin is a creative entrepreneur who's into meditation, delicious wine and food, traveling, and sweatin' off calories wherever his workout takes him.

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