Social Listening 101: How To Understand Consumers

Understanding consumer preferences and behaviors is the backbone of all good go-to-market, brand, and innovation strategies. It’s the foundation for attracting and retaining customers, and delivering experiences and products that exceed expectations – especially important now that empowered consumers have more choices, greater knowledge, and higher demands. But today’s pace of change and the explosion of digital channels have made it difficult for marketing and insights pros to keep up. 

As more and more consumers turn to social platforms like Instagram and Reddit to research, buy, review, and share their experiences and products, social listening has become a mission-critical initiative. Social insights reveal what consumers are saying and thinking in real-time – and how they’re likely to behave in the future. For marketing and insights pros, this means being able to quickly detect and respond to changing consumer needs. 

Harnessing these insights – and turning them into better business decisions – requires a social listening strategy. In our latest report, Social Listening 101, we share everything you need to know to get started with social listening: what it is, what you can expect from social listening software, and how you can use it to achieve your business goals, including:

• Identifying market needs. Social insights are a strategic advantage for teams developing new products and services; they reveal unmet consumer demand and market white space – enabling brands to take advantage of first-mover opportunities. 
• Refining your go-to-market strategy. Surveys and customer interviews are key tools for capturing and quantifying market changes that impact your business, but incorporating social insights can alert you of these changes in real-time – and detect emerging themes and topics before they materialize.
  
• Growing and protecting your brand. Consumers can make or break your brand on social platforms. Social listening uncovers key insights about your brand’s health, performance, and competitive landscape by tracking online conversations. 

To learn more about how you can make better, faster business decisions with social insights, download the report here. And, tune in to our webinar, 5 Steps to Social Listening Success, for actionable social listening tips. We’ll show you how to get started with a social listening strategy and share how the leading brands are staying ahead of consumers. Register today!