listening

Social data: bright idea

Brands are increasingly using social media monitoring for Customer Service, and this is radically changing the industry. Monitoring was once heavily research-focused and data-heavy, but is evolving towards combining social media listening with customer engagement and social CRM.[read more]

Beck's new album successfully merges music with social media. Rather than simply tweeting about the release of his new album, posting information on Facebook or uploading song samples to his website, Beck has taken social media sharing to a new level.[read more]

This week I was reminded what social behavior is really all about — inviting participation, creating community, generating content, and enhancing the user's experience with a brand in a way that yields a mutually rewarding experience. All thanks to the Getty Museum.[read more]

Many companies deploy social media listening platforms to gain executive gain mind share, when instead they should be focused on solving business problems.[read more]

Frank Cotignola

As part of Kraft Foods' Consumer Insight and Strategy Group, Frank Cotignola leads the group's Community Management/Knowledge Management and social media listening/consulting efforts. In this conversation, we explore how social media listening can offer new understanding through sentiment analysis and access to broader topics that you've not had the funds to tap. True listening is not data on a spreadsheet acquired by applying legacy "asking" methodology. It requires putting an ear to a wide spectrum of conversations, thoughtful interpretation and judgment of the data, then applying what's discovered to improve listening activities. And listening research is not limited to social channels.[read more]

 jorgen mcleman/shutterstock

Kony 2012 is s a well crafted and effective campaign, and thus worthy of thoughtful analysis and reflection. Let's identify some key learnings that you can take away from their strategies and tactics.[read more]

Photo by Ramesh NG via Flickr, Creative Commons

Find out what "netizens" commonly discuss in social media conversations. Listening to the 8 common types of conversations is practically the first step to building relationships with the consumers, managing the brand’s reputation, generating leads, or engaging potential product ambassadors.[read more]

Practically speaking, social media platforms are designed to be online communication channels.[read more]

"This is the first part in a short series to introduce The End of Business as Usual...The reality is that we live and compete in a perpetual era of Digital Darwinism, the evolution of consumer behavior when society and technology evolve faster than our ability to adapt."[read more]

Recently, Belgium-based Leads United (part of Lewis PR), released the results of a social media marketing survey among communication and marketing “professionals”. Although the respondents were Belgians, the report shows some shocking numbers that lead to conclusions that are valid in many countries! The fourth edition of the survey...[read more]

Among many other insights communicated in this interview, this one may be the most important: "Start with a pilot program where you set out to accomplish something and see how much time and resources it takes to make that happen. We see so many companies bypassing that step and they find it difficult to measure success because they’re not sure what they’re doing, or what customers are getting out of the experience."[read more]

It is not really known who said it first, but that ‘we always teach what we need to learn most’ adage has some merit. In the Social Media Marketing (SMM) realm, this means that becoming the thought makers and leaders in your given industry is a must. This is achieved by identifying what your audience wants to know and what people are discussing right now. This article will delve deeper into how to figure this out and how, when and where to deliver the quality information that your current and potential customers seek.[read more]

The grandmotherly maxim, “The good Lord gave you two ears but only one mouth for a reason” applies to social interactions in general, but is nowhere more critical than in social media marketing. A common mistake in social media is that companies will dive right in, setting up a Twitter account or Facebook page and blasting out tweets...[read more]

Brands have realized that social networks offer an opportunity to interact directly with consumers. They create pockets of communities where like-minded people share information and seek advice. But many marketers are too quick to create a Twitter or Facebook account and proclaim “Mission Accomplished.” Beyond just trying to interact a...[read more]

I recently talked about ”B2B marketing in the Real Time Web” at the #140conf in San Francisco, organized by Jeff Pulver. One point that resonated the most with the audience is that “listening” has become the most overused and abused word in social media. Some people actually think that “listening” is  a brand-new...[read more]

Social media is growing at phenomenal rate.  The popularity of social media such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogs, Video and Photo platforms together with the ease of use of technology is now making social media a great tool for companies and their marketers to get closer to their customers.  So many companies are taking...[read more]

One of the things I hear a great deal of when in conversation with businesses about communication is how important it is to listen to what people are saying. I couldn’t agree more – you need to listen before you can engage in a conversation.  ‘Engage’ is the operative word here because if you’re really interested in connecting with...[read more]

Listening as a blogger is just as crucial to growth as listening out in your every day, away-from-the-computer life. We have to learn to listen as children, as parents, as students, as teachers, as friends, as spouses, and in every other role we play throughout life. When we listen, we grow. When we listen to our readers, our blogs...[read more]

  Listening in social media is more than jumping online, setting up a Twitter or Facebook and reading the instructions and then pumping out updates. Listening in social media is monitoring, reading and comprehending the conversations online. You have to know about the conversation through monitoring, read what is being said and...[read more]

We talk about listening to the social media conversation, so how good are we at listening?For anyone explaining or advising on how best to operate in a social media enabled world, it is a commonplace now to emphasize the crucial importance of “listening to the conversation”. As just one example among many, Paul Chaney in his book The...[read more]