Business is in real-time today. Every 60 seconds, there are 350,000 new posts on Twitter, 290,000 status updates on Facebook and 100 hours of video uploaded on Youtube. (Source: The Social Skinny) People talk. They are mobile and they let the world know exactly how they feel at any given moment. Amused, frustrated or interested? Turn to Twitter or Facebook, share your opinion on LinkedIn. These comments, rants and likes are an opportunity to engage your customers effectively and make smarter business decisions. Companies and organizations the globe around are going through a digital transformation with social listening technology, whether in B2C, B2B or NPO. We see businesses that have thrived on traditional marketing for centuries rapidly re-envisioning their customer experience, operational processes and business models to be in line with the the rise of the digital. Did you know that CISCO claimed 281% ROI thanks to social listening via Salesforce.com and Radian6? By effectively listening to social media conversations about their products and brand, they were able to increase their quality, productivity and financial results in less than a year.
But how do you grasp all that content and sieve through what is relevant to your industry, business, sales force and customers? To harness the potential of this ocean of data, you need a relevant social listening solution that may become an agent of change within your organization. The catch is to find not only the right platform but also a competent partner who can help you map the desired features and outcomes and get return on investment by properly integrating social listening into your processes. Once you do that you can reap the rewards for your professional audacity.
Here is why you should make social listening a part of your marketing strategy:
Marketing Benefits
Pull valuable insights from relevant social conversation that can influence and optimize your communication, content and brand strategy. Your marketing department will be enabled to capture trends that are happening in real-time and allow you to insert your brand into the conversation. You will have stronger media relations and compile competitive intelligence and benchmarks. Take Starbucks or Dell for example, since 2009 both leaders have been listening to the collective feedback from their communities and responding by innovating their products and services.
Customer Service Benefits
Social listening will nurture customer intimacy, spot relationship challenges, tighten feedback loops, and resolve customer complaints faster. Companies can identify dissatisfied customers and draw them back in before their ties are cut, all the while building new customer relationships. Most social listening command centers today are manned by support agents with the sole responsibility of solving customer issues quickly and efficiently. Trend-setters in the marketplace incorporate this capability in their platforms. Many are following. Their customer services are being redefined as stress levels and long asynchronous email threads are brought to minimum.
Sales Benefits
You can expect significant ROI once your sales reps start getting the insights that your marketing team has sifted through social listening efforts. Your sales reps will be able to identify early funnel stage triggers, map buyer journeys, improv prospecting time and dispose of increased MQLs. What is more, social listening can impact your lead nurturing process because you will know when a potential customer is ready to switch from a competitor. Your sales team can be the first to know and act upon it.
Is your company undergoing this kind of digital transformation or are you considering an investment in social (media) listening? You can get an idea of how it could work for your specific needs. Get in touch with our expert team to talk Social ROI.
