Why Businesses Should NOT Use Social Listening

The result? That one seemingly simple response earned Arby's 84 million organic impressions that can cost $11,000 today. They listened and reaped real benefits.

So, what is Social Listening?

Simply put, it is the process of monitoring social media conversations, analyzing the data, and taking action. Many fortune 500s such as Unilever, P&G, GSK, and JP Morgan use social data to influence new product development, market evaluation and fine-tune brand messaging. They spend millions listening to customers and making strategic investments to create a richer experience. This carves out a value niche to cement a competitive advantage.

Social listening thereby gives direction and leaves conjecture behind by involving customers in the decision making process.

Interestingly though, here's why your business should NOT use Social Listening:

1. If you are NOT strategic

Don't invest in social listening without a clear objective. Basic volumes and sentiment offer little value without direction. Hence, subscribing to half a dozen tools and looking at standard dashboards is like buying a Ferrari and never taking it for a spin! If you ask the right questions, social listening can offer actionable evidence that helps save time and make money.

2. If you do NOT want to explore opportunities

For those willing to take action, social listening is a gold mine of ideas. Brainstorming with potential customers, imagine the value of that! There are tremendous amounts of data and insights available for those looking for opportunities that can set them apart.

3. It's NOT a good to have

If you think social listening is a “good to have” for your business, it’s likely that its true potential isn’t yet unlocked for you. In today’s dynamic data-driven world, social listening is not just a good to have, it’s a must have. Unless you are willing to listen and act, it’s a dead investment.

4. It is NOT a ‘plug and play’ tool

Listening, and listening well, takes time and method. Subscribing to a tool is the easy part, but extracting value from social data is an art. Social listening is a high-cost low-value expenditure for anyone who can’t put their back into it.

5. If you are NOT competitive

Social listening sheds light on business performance and consumer perception, making it a rich source for competitive intelligence. You can learn a lot about the strengths and weaknesses of your competition and build strategies that create unique business advantages. It's also a great tool to learn the do’s and don'ts that enable spend optimization.

6. If you are NOT customer-obsessed

In a hyper-competitive market, being customer-obsessed is what sets a business apart. Did you know? 7 out of 10 consumers change their opinion about a brand after the company replies to a negative review. Hence, opening up a dialogue, listening to what the customer wants and giving them exactly what they’re looking for is what social listening unlocks.

Social listening, when implemented the right way with time, method and defined objectives can unearth insights that matter.

2020 sees approximately 3.8 billion people using social media actively. This number is conservatively projected to increase to 4.41 billion by 2025. The current pandemic is likely to push these numbers there much faster. Remember the focus group in traditional research? Today, social media is THE biggest focus group there is.

At Cogent, we value the impact of listening and have built solutions that help businesses extract the most for every dollar spent. Not only do we lower setup cost for our clients, we work with our partners to unlock business-relevant insights that help accelerate growth.

Drop us an email at connect@cogentinfo.com, to learn how you can unlock the value of social intelligence for your business.