Marketing Week this morning provided great learnings on using social media monitoring to understand consumers language and bring the love back.
This morning at Marketing Week (follow #Micon on Twitter), Roberto Cappuccio R&D director from Direction First spoke on the power of listening
So much of what he was saying really resonated with me, and how as marketers we need to offer more innovative solutions to our clients, and as businesses we really need to listen, but our listening needs to keep up with how consumers are speaking.
A big thank-you to Roberto (@robbycapp) for a fantastic session. The below are my top 5 favourite quotes from his presentation and my own words solidifying my thoughts.
Top 5 takeaways on why listening is gold
1. “You say that you love me but you’re not behaving like you love me”
Are you listening, marketers, businesses, everyone? We can’t just push out messages to our audience, without listening to their reaction, AND importantly, adapting our messaging accordingly.
2. “Social media is embedded in our behaviour”
Let’s stop sticking our heads in the sand and pretend that it’s just teenagers smoasting (social media boasting) on Facebook and Bieber lovers on Twitter. Consumers are out there, social media take up is growing and marketing behaviour needs to be adjusted accordingly.
3. “We’re moving from word of mouth to word of mouse.”
Okay, don’t be scared. This is a great thing for business. Word of mouth has limited reach, but word of mouse’s reach is far greater – and can reach into markets that we may not have had an introduction to previously. It’s not replacing one for the other, but it is acknowledging and acting upon this change.
4. “Listening looks easy, but it is not simple”
There are no ‘quick fix’ solutions out there to provide us with outcomes all wrapped up neatly with a bow. Manual analysis is required (certainly until computers can understand sarcasm – an unnerving thought itself). When done properly, the outcomes from the listening can be very powerful.
5. “If your consumers aren’t engaged, yes, there is still a reason to listen”
If your perception is that your consumers aren’t engaged in social media, there are still reasons to listen. Apart from listening for your own brand management reasons, listen to industry topics to discover trends, discovering influencers in your area, hear about technical developments and breakthroughs relevant to your business. All of these provide you with knowledge and knowledge is power.
If speaking is Silver, then listening is Gold.
Turkish proverb