Social listening is sometimes confused with social monitoring. They sound similar, but understanding the difference may help you build and strengthen your brand’s reputation online.
According to the social analytics firm
Netbase, 42 percent of business complaints lodged by customers in the U.S. are done so on a public website like social media sites and review-based websites. Additionally, 82 percent of customers say they’ve stopped doing business with a company due to a lack of response to a customer service complaint.
This is where social monitoring comes in. Real estate brands must be responding to questions, comments, reviews, and mentions specifically targeted at their business online. Customer engagement is essential.
While social monitoring involves immediate interactions and engagement, social listening takes a broader view at conversations happening online outside of your brand. It allows you to collect data on what your target audience (potential home buyers and sellers) are doing, saying, discussing, and taking an interest in online so that you can become a more relevant brand presence.
Social listening will help you find out who drives conversations happening on social media, blogs, and message boards. These are social influencers. Once you see who is driving certain conversations, you can decide whether it makes sense to engage with them—and if it makes sense, create partnerships. Examples might include a home flipper with a popular blog, a fellow real estate professional with a large Twitter following, or a local business in your community that is active on Facebook. It will also help to identify effective keywords and hashtags, especially on Twitter and Instagram, which are highly search-based and hashtag-driven. You’ll soon understand what type of content draws in your target audience.
Integrate social listening data with the analytics collected from your email marketing and other digital campaigns for a better picture of your clients’ preferences. From there, brokers and agents can run more meaningful social media accounts and be more impactful in their overall communications.
Source: “How Strategic Brands Protect Their Reputation,” Netbase Solutions (2018)
