Every brand has a customer base on social media, which means there will always be conversations around the brand. And if brands don’t measure these conversations, they are missing out on a big chunk of insights that could be helpful in overall decision making.

Social media listening is beyond customer service; it is direct feedback on the brand, product and customer satisfaction. If the sentiments are positive, there is no harm. However, in some instances, when the sentiments are negative, it can damage the brand’s reputation and impact the bottom line eventually.

Listening closely


How does social media listening help achieve business objectives? When you have customers keeping an eye on your brand, responding to almost everything that a business does, you need to stay connected with them at all times.

This is how a leading international car manufacturing company heard its customers: With the help of detailed social listening reports, the company concluded that people were not really happy with the seat style of its recently launched car. After much deliberation, it changed the design of the front seats of the car to enhance the long-journey travel experience. This led to a spike in sales numbers and satisfaction index.

Jollibee Foods Corporation, a leading fast food chain, is another example of how to do social listening the right way. The company gathered a lot of intelligence on multiple parameters benchmarked against McDonald’s, Burger King and other competitors. It learnt that breakfast conversations were mostly dominated by McDonald’s, and adding morning products in the menu would increase footfall. Jollibee also devised giveaway promotional campaigns for specific meal categories looking at the competitors, and saw a surge in conversion from 11% to 39%.

- by Raman Mittal, CMO & Co-founder, TO THE NEW

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