In social media, listening is key... but only if you act on it

In social media, listening is key... but only if you act on it

So social media isn't about broadcast. OK, yes.

Social media is all about listening? Ummm, well yes but…

It's not just about listening, it's about acting on it too, isn't it?

Think I'm being facetious? (I am, of course, but bear with me).

You can use social listening to work out what the overall sentiment is about your brand, to understand what customers want and to see where your industry is headed etc. But all of that hard “listening” work is for nothing if you're sticking those learnings in a folder marked “insight” somewhere instead of acting on them promptly.

If you see a flurry of customers report on consumer forums that they're unhappy with your new product because it's developing a common fault. Do you:

a) Act quickly to turn their perceptions around with apologies, fixes, refunds and/or replacements, as appropriate

b) Quickly put in place a procedure to make the fix/returns policy much simpler for customers, so they rarely feel the need to vent online

c) Head off any potential (social) media storm by preparing a statement on what went wrong, that you're sorry and all that you're doing to fix it

d) Feed your learnings from customer comments back into the product cycle, to improve the product itself as quickly as possible

e) Collate all your learnings from the whole experience, and use that to do better business in future?

The answer, in my humble opinion, is a, b, c, d and e. 

I could say this about any form of research/insight, really. Listen, and be ready to act. 

Emily Leary (formerly Cagle) is an expert contributor to Marketing Donut and a communications consultant and blogger.

• Top of page