Why Social Monitoring is Critical for Brand Management

How can you supervise something you don’t know exists? Brand management begins with awareness. Understanding exactly what people are saying about your business, as well as the “where’s,” “when’s,” and “how’s.” It means paying attention and fixing things immediately.

There are over 500 million messages sent on Twitter every day and yet a recent survey discovered the average brand response on Twitter was less than 12% (Facebook was a bleak 9%). That means consumers are reaching out and 88% of the time, all they hear is crickets. That’s not good for online reputation and it certainly infers poor brand management. That’s where a little social monitoring goes a long way.

Social Monitoring and Social Listening

Depending on who you ask, these two methods can differ greatly or be one and the same. However, the outcomes are generally shared. Better brand management and a positive online reputation.

The two strategies differ by the following:

• Social Listening: Using different online tools to query your brand name or keyword across multiple social channels. A company can then reflect and draw analysis from the social data they collect. This includes concepts like sentiment analysis and topic affinity.
• Social Monitoring: This strategy is more inclined to brand management because social monitoring is about taking action. After you perform social listening, “liking,” “commenting,” and “sharing” on consumer content is the next step in active online branding.

Recording data, analyzing what consumers say, and engaging with people all contribute to stellar brand management. Some of the benefits of social monitoring can include:

Extracting Insights

The better you understand your audience, the better you can market to them. Social monitoring enhances brand management because it allows you to segment your audience for more personalized and targeted marketing. The more insights you extract, the better campaigning you can do. This leads to increased brand awareness, loyalty, and a positive ROI.

Becoming Approachable

Once you know people, your brand automatically becomes more approachable. 34% of consumers prefer to reach out to brands for customer care. Social monitoring allows you to address their needs immediately. This typically adds to customer retention through increased brand loyalty. The more consumers feel they “know you” the more they will approach and purchase.

Meeting Customer Needs

Brand management truly starts with understanding your consumer pain points and meeting their needs. Then they go “Ah ha!” when they hear your brand mentioned and consider you in a positive light. Customer service should always be at the forefront of a brand’s initiatives and social monitoring carves an easy path to achieving that goal.

95% of adults follow a brand they like on social media. It’s easier than ever for brands to meet customer needs. All the data is being offered by consumers for free.

Social monitoring helps a business meet customer requests by immediately identifying any issues or useful suggestions.

The Other Brands

Social monitoring assists with brand management by telling you what your competitors are up to. Being mindful of the competition can give your brand the extra edge. You can track a ton of social data for competitive analysis, considering touchpoints like:

• Customer reviews
• Successful marketing campaigns
• Branding and logo
• Complaints and negative comments
• Other unique tactics

The best way to compete is to know what you are up against and social monitoring gives you the data you need for a competitive advantage. This is the type of golden info that allows a brand more efficient management.

Social monitoring is critical for brand management because it’s a simple concept. Just listen and engage accordingly. The more you pay attention to what’s going on in the digital arena, the more you can steer your brand in a positive direction and make yourself memorable.