Why You Need Listening Stations

I’ve talked before about how you can use social media platforms, like Twitter, to watch your back, but social media monitoring doesn’t end there.

An effective social media campaign will also include the implementation of listening stations, which are essentially, a microphone placed in a crowded room that you can use to see how your brand is being talked about.

Sites like Twitter make it easy because you can use custom searches and RSS feeds to have the data delivered to an RSS reader or an inbox, but places like Facebook and YouTube are a bit tougher to monitor. You can hire a company to manage this for you, or simply set up a system of alerts to keep you informed on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.

The best way you can do this is with Google alerts, which can be customized to include blogs, social media platforms, and news information. What this does is provide you with a detailed list, based on your search string, of every single time that string is mentioned. I use this for all of my information products, as well as mentions of my name and company names.

This is just the beginning

There are other, more elaborate ways that you can do this, but that’s advanced stuff for serious users only. The message isn’t really the tactics, but the necessity of using them. If you aren’t listening to your prospects and to your customers, then you are missing out on a huge opportunity.

When you set up listening stations, you can respond to customer service issues almost instantly, and get the pulse of your industry, all in one easy system. Good marketing requires a proper understanding of your customer…what better way to learn about your customers than by listening to their conversations using social media? It’s not dirty, and it’s not unethical…it’s what they want. Can you deliver it?

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