SOCIAL LISTENING ON LINKEDIN

LinkedIn is not just one of the oldest social media platforms around; it is also one of the most critical channels for businesses to promote their brand. It may have started in 2002 as a job search portal, but the social media giant has moved way beyond its original idea. 

It has emerged as a professional networking platform with over 830 million members in over 200 countries and territories across the globe. What makes LinkedIn a force to reckon with is the high-quality users that it attracts.

Almost 4 out of 5 B2B leads generated from social media come from LinkedIn. Unlike Facebook and Instagram, which may have a mix of serious and casual users, LinkedIn is considered a serious professional networking platform that can act as a strong pillar in creating, managing, and establishing a positive perception about a business.

Over 2 million posts, articles, and videos are published on LinkedIn every day, followed by countless interactions and comments. With such a high number of interactive audiences that are discussing brands, businesses, trends, and competition, it is important to have an ear to the wall to understand the current perception of your business, the trends in the industry, what your competition is up to and what can be done to improve your perception.

Understanding social signals and making sense of several interactions taking place on the professional social media platform is easier said than done. To stay on top of this activity, you need a proper social listening strategy on LinkedIn.

Here is all you need to know about social listening on LinkedIn and how you can make the most of it:

What is social listening on LinkedIn?

The process of social listening is all about understanding what the target audience is saying about your brand and what can be done to improve the brand perception. The simple definition can be better understood with the help of an example.

For instance, you are the CEO, and you overhear your three team members talking about you near the water cooler. The first one appreciates your leadership style and how your experience has helped the team members on various occasions.

 The second colleague agrees with the first, while the third one says that maybe the style is too controlling and more independence should be given to executives and managers handling the project. 

You would like to introspect and question if you get too controlling at times. You can ask more team members to get a comprehensive view and take corrective action if required.

This is a real-world example of listening to conversations, understanding the feedback shared, and taking corrective action, if required, to improve the overall brand perception. When this activity is performed on a social media platform like LinkedIn, it is known as social listening.

Why is social listening on LinkedIn important?

LinkedIn may not be the largest social media platform among giants like Facebook and Instagram. Still, you need to understand that LinkedIn is among the most important platforms that can't be ignored. The conversations on LinkedIn are more formal and serious than the casual interactions on other social media platforms.

LinkedIn is also one of the few global social media platforms with a strong base in China and counts the US as its largest market in terms of users. The social media platform plays an integral role in setting the perception of your organization and the various brands that you may have.

It is critical to have a social listening strategy on LinkedIn so that a proactive approach can be followed to establish a positive perception of your business and handle any negative feedback or challenges that the business may face. At the same time, an effective social listening strategy on LinkedIn can help you derive insights into the activities of your competitors and how you can get ahead in the race.

How to form a social listening strategy on LinkedIn?

There are broadly two ways to establish a social listening strategy on LinkedIn.

One way is to find out the profiles that match your target customers and track these accounts on the kind of content they are posting and interacting with. You should also follow the hashtags related to your brand, your competition, and industry trends. It doesn't end here. The important bit is to derive actionable insights that will help you mold your brand strategy to improve the perception of the business.

The second and preferred route to go about it is to get a social listening tool in place that will help you execute all steps mentioned in the first part and more with ease. It would consistently track the set parameters and derive insights for your business to create an actionable branding strategy. While each tool has its mechanism, you need to identify the keywords you need to track along with the user and company, and you are good to go.

Here are some steps that you can follow to implement the social listening strategy on LinkedIn:

Step 1: Outline your goals

Once you are clear on what you want to achieve with social listening, you will be able to identify the right set of data that you want to gather.

Step 2: Select the right keywords

Once the goals are identified, you should identify the right keywords and profiles that you want to track. It can include your brand keywords, industry groups, customer profiles, competition, etc.

Step 3: Set up a listening tool

Once you have the right foundation, it is time to set up the social listening tool and let the magic begin. 

Step 4: Use insights offered by the tool to achieve improved results

Only listening to the insights won't take you far. It would help if you used the insights to achieve improved results for your business.

To sum up

No one wants to be caught napping when the change is underway. Therefore, it is important to have an active social listening strategy on LinkedIn for better overall performance.

You can use social listening strategy as per your goals like improving perception, tracking competition, analyzing industry trends, etc., or a mix of all. Depending on what you want to achieve, you should set up a social listening strategy. 

Here are some more relevant resources that can help you learn more about social listening.