Everyone and everything is online! Literally. You can find social media groups/accounts/fan pages for things like Corgis, potatoes, and finance memes.
On a professional note, the increase in the use of social media allows you to stay on top of industry conversation at the push of a button. And in the fast-paced world of event planning, it’s important to keep updated on how and where your brand is being discussed. This means being aware of brand mentions on Twitter, reviews/feedback on Facebook or industry trends and competitor updates. Collecting this data allows you to create a strategy for brand success!
This is where social listening comes in. Social listening is about monitoring and assessing what people are saying online about your brand and the industry as a whole. Whether it’s before, during, or after your event, it’s imperative to have an event management team member assigned to social media monitoring. They are the ones that prevent others from defining your brand.
Have a Plan
Whether you’re new to social monitoring or an expert, I’m sure we can all agree it’s important to have a plan. With all of the social media platforms and notifications that come with them, social media can get overwhelming fast. Decide from the start what platforms your brand should be and where they currently are before moving forward.
Keywords
Keyword monitoring lets you sort through endless conversations by choosing which relevant, industry-related buzzwords you want to follow. Once you narrow down the keywords, you can begin to see where your brand ranks. The better your brand ranks in terms of keywords means the better your SEO is.
Depending on what platform you are using, you can also monitor hashtags. For example, when Netflix releases a new season of a show, they track hashtags to see the dislikes and likes of it. Utilizing hashtag monitoring, especially if you attach one to your latest product release, you will be able to collect valuable and honest feedback on a continual basis.
Information Sorting
What do you want to see? Your brand mentions? Discussion about your competitors? Comments on your content? Like I said, social media can become overwhelming FAST. Make sure you pre-plan what information matters to your ROI before diving in, then turn on your notification settings.
Reaction Time Matters
Unless your goal is to have your brand come off as a spam bot, you need to respond and interact! Having prompt customer service is good for your brand image. It makes customers feel heard thus creating loyal customers.
Alerts
Different social media monitoring tools and platforms allow you to choose the frequency at which they update you on notifications. Be smart about how often you want to know when someone follows you, mentions you, etc.
Humanize your brand — Since you will be actively monitoring your social media, you can engage with your followers. Responding to both negative and positive feedback shows you care about your customer's experience. This also shows you how your brand is perceived by others.
Thought leaders — Sharing your knowledge will highlight your expertise and build your credibility. The better your content is, the more traffic you will draw in creating new customer leads.
Identify FAQ — You will drive innovation by paying attention to what customers are actually asking for within the industry.
Competitive advantage — Keeping an eye on industry conversation lets you know what your competition is up to. This could lead to you identifying weak spots within your brand that can now be focused on for improvement.
People are talking. It’s time to start listening.
