The Social Prof, Social Media Marketing Blog

Social Media Content Creation

10/26/2017

How does a business decide what content to post in what social media platform? This is a good question and needs to be answered before a business starts marketing within social media to help with consistency and consumer awareness. The best way that I have found is through what has been called social listening. This is taking the time to observe consumers on different social media platforms. Also, completing key word searches in google and analytical tools like hootsuite. (Social media listening, also known as social media monitoring, is the process of identifying and assessing what is being said about a company, individual, product or brand on the Internet.) How would you go about social listening?

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52 Comments

Jay Starling

11/1/2017 10:37:09 am

If you do a simple search of social listening, you find websites that claim they will social listen for you. Now I don't know how true that is but it made me think about how I would be listening on social media and I thought it would be actually fairly easy. I would post on social media's and see what kind of feed back I receive and I would make sure when customers are commenting back I would be sure to interact with them. Mostly everything that we here about at this point comes through social media that's why this is so important. So I would basically be present and interactive with my customers. I would make sure that any and all complaints I received from my customers are taken very serious and made right so I don't lose a customer. The thing with a business is simple if you lose a customer you lose someone who could recommend you to someone else and if you lose that who knows how much profit you lost. So remember its not just one customer you can lose way more than that. Social listening is hard when you talk about the keyword searching but if were talking about social media I think most everyone in this class uses social media and has at least the experience. I also wouldn't pick just one social media I would be on many. The more social platforms the more publicity.

Glenn Kindel

11/1/2017 04:16:04 pm

Jay, I like the idea of monitoring different social networks for discussions regarding your business. However, this seems to be a reactive approach. Sometimes it may be necessary to put a message out on different platforms so that it can be consumed and maybe influence people to consider your company. It would definitely be a great way to quickly test the reaction of your potential customers to different messages. I do agree that reacting quickly to customer questions and concerns is very important.

Nathan Lee

11/3/2017 02:52:44 pm

Jay, I completely agree with your idea of monitoring other business that are similar to your company and almost doing a social media audit on them. By seeing what works for them you will have a better understanding to the target audience. Being present and interactive can be reward for both you and your customers. There will be a trust from customers for their comments and complaints that they will be taken seriously. The more information out there the better.

Glenn Kindel

11/1/2017 04:29:21 pm

If I were creating a social networking strategy for my business, I would take a multi-phased approach. First, I would monitor my competitors' social networks. I would see what types of interactions they have and how much traffic each form of social media attracts. Second, I would interact with my competitors and a variety of other businesses on social media to see what type of responses I get, how quickly they respond, and how other users react to my posts. Finally, I would take the data that I collected in the first two steps and base the effort I put into each social media platform on it.

Once I establish myself on the different social media platforms, I would interact and react to customer posts, and remove negative posts. I would also use tools to gain metrics around usage. Using a dashboard like hootsuite would definitely make managing the sites a lot easier.

Jay Starling

11/2/2017 05:20:01 pm

I agree with the approaches you took. I thought it was great that you said you would monitor your competitors social networks. That is smart because you will pick up what works for them so you can contribute that to your own social media platform. I also thought it was good that you would remove any negativity that is important in every aspect of life these days.

Yuliya Hryniv

11/3/2017 06:41:07 pm

I think monitoring the competitor's social networks is a good idea. Although, interacting with them would be a smart option. You'll be able to learn a lot of useful information for yourself, exploit their errors and not repeat their mistakes.

Matt Hitch

11/7/2017 09:03:26 pm

Very strong point with your idea to interact with your competitors and other types of businesses on social media. I didn't think of that one. Being familiar with how your competitors operate on social media would give you a great understanding of how they do it, and how you can be better than them. You can also capitalize on their weaknesses that way.

John Gross

11/2/2017 08:48:33 am

I would begin social listening by giving people chances to interact with me. One way I would go about this is posing a question related to my business. Hearing what people have to say about your business will help to identify strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities. The more the merrier; add those potential consumers to your network.

Staying active within my network would be a key part of social listening. People will not invest in your social community unless you let them know you are listening. Therefore, I would do my best to respond to people’s comments and questions as quickly as possible. This may require hiring people for larger companies. Hootsuite is the easiest way I have seen to help with this.

Hootsuite helps one monitor their business by providing a way to monitor all of your social media pages on one platform. This saves valuable time and guesswork about what works and what does not. Hootsuite provides a way to know which markets you may be effective in. Additionally, it may provide insight on consumer’s habits. Google keyword searches may allow me to see if I am attracting more interest in my brand over time. They may also allow me to be smarter about which tags I include on YouTube videos.
Something that should be noted is that word of mouth is a form of social listening. Having a direct interaction with somebody often creates a stronger impact than through social media. Seeing people’s actual reactions to ideas or product testing really may tell you all you need to know about that issue. Face-to-face interactions allow for the largest volume of information to be exchanged over the shortest period of time. It’s tiresome and time consuming to type long responses. :)

Some goals of social listening should be: finding who your consumers are, increasing their investment to your brand, and growing your network. Always look for new business opportunities that arise from questions and ideas shared by people. Whenever possible, use social listening to predict future trends. Hootsuite, Google, and other analytical tools, help us to do these things and more in an organized manner.

Links to articles that helped

https://sysomos.com/2017/01/24/5-social-listening-strategies-havent-considered-yet/

https://hootsuite.com/platform/analytics#

Glenn Kindel

11/3/2017 05:29:24 am

John, I appreciate your personal approach to listening. In some of the social media interactions that I have witnessed, both negative and positive comments have gone unanswered, which seems like a missed opportunity. Worse yet, many times there are very negative discussion threads that include many people, but don't have a reaction from the business.

I struggle with the amount of diligence that this approach takes. It's not that I think it's a bad thing, but I am not that disciplined. As a more introverted person, I would probably need someone else to handle this.

John Gross

11/3/2017 11:00:35 am

Hootsuite seems like a great tool for anyone running a business with a strong social influence. Remember that their are different packages for sole-proprietors, small teams, and larger entities. If you want someone to handle this, you are talking about hiring. The small team option would seem like a good way to bring someone on while still being in control.

Candice

11/3/2017 12:50:57 pm

I do believe that there is a lot of discipline that would be involved because you have to stay on top of comments. The best thing is to be sure to respond, then you look more professional. If you completely ignore your customers about a complaint, then it doesn't reflect well on the company. Hootsuite does have options for every budget, and I plan on utilizing them as much as possible. Even the more pricey ones once you start growing, it's definitely worth the money. There also should be some way to automatically respond to basic issues, with a generic response, to at least let the customer know that you are working on the issue.

Nathan Lee

11/3/2017 02:47:50 pm

You have some great information on your post. especially about the word of mouth for social media sites. I have had friends recommend different sites before and it feels validated because of my friends explanation of the site. I completely agree with you on if a company doesn't invest in its followers then they wont invest in their site. It can be frustrating wanting more information about something but leaving your questions unanswered. Listening involves so much more than that gathering information.

Candice

11/3/2017 12:43:10 pm

I believe social media is such a distraction, so if possible, I would use social listening via Hootsuite. So far, I have not used this platform, but the fact that it connects to various platforms at once gives me a sense of accomplishing a lot at one time. Social media can be time consuming. I also notice that twitter has been giving me info on who is looking at my tweets, which is nothing I've gotten from Facebook or Instagram, but I'm sure it's something that I could get from it if I registered as a business. When listening, I believe that for my case, I don't have a business just yet, but following the competition does give an idea of how things should be done. I know that a carefully placed, clever, and relevant hashtag can get you in front of a lot of people on Instagram and Twitter, and Facebook has enough users to be it's own continent. I've also seen businesses on Facebook with ratings that couldn't be found on Google. Depending on the type of business, different outlets should be used for different types of postings, such as offers, ads, and info, according to the audience and type of platform. Then the listening really comes in here, because you can see which ones people respond to the most.

John Gross

11/5/2017 07:03:35 pm

One point that really resonated with me is the value of following your competition before you start your business. For myself, this has helped me create a large list of venues, record labels, and other people to contact when I get everything together.

Another part that stuck out to me was that you mentioned putting offers and ads on your social media sites. This is something I have not considered for my social media presence. If you don't mind me asking, what are some ways that you would consider using ads?

Amanda Stokes

11/5/2017 07:18:49 pm

I agree that social media is very distracting, I could myself now, going on there to look for a specific something and totally getting distracted and realizing later what I was supposed to be doing. I also agree that looking at a competitor’s page could make a few ideas pop in your head. I also have seen some hashtags that cause a lot of attention and could potentially get the right viewers or re-tweets to become more popular.

Tara

11/5/2017 08:29:36 pm

Candice,

I completely agree. I call Facebook "the time eater" because one notification can lead to hours of scrolling through useless information, animal videos and recipes. I am all about doing things as efficiently as possible, so I plan to check into Hootsuite and similar services so that content can be scheduled months ahead in one sitting.

You are correct though, that content may need to be catered to each platform, but I think (I have never used it personally) this can also be done with Hootsuite is some manner.

Nathan Lee

11/3/2017 02:41:46 pm

When gathering information on social listening there a number a different factors that should be taken into effect. What platform are you using most, should be one of the key questions you would have to ask yourself. With many different social media outlets, the content can be very different from one to the other. Social listening is all about feedback from your followers and how to gain more in the process. If I was using Twitter, I could ask poll questions that are relative to my product and any events happening are the time of year. Answering any questions brought up by followers on any platform is a way to directly gather information in our social listening. If comments are about specific information from an upcoming event I made a post about, then maybe in the future I can add those details to a post. Not only does this help build your followers or customers, but when others check out your site they see your responses. Social listening is important, but adapting to and improving your social media marketing strategy is what matters most.

Joe Hojnacki

11/5/2017 08:11:02 am

I agree with you on your take on social listening. Gathering information on social media platforms is important for any modern business. Feedback is mostly found on the internet and now, social media platforms. Being able to identify a customers concern and then addressing it can make customers continue business with you. If customers see that a business takes the time to respond on social media, it is more likely you will have higher ratings or reviews.

Jay Starling

11/5/2017 01:25:08 pm

I agree with what you said twitter would be a good choice because of the polls but also you can read the comments and than interact with your customers. You are also right about the different platforms they do all have different content shared.

Yuliya Hryniv

11/3/2017 07:42:49 pm

Social listening is a very important tool. It helps marketing teams to prioritize and evaluate feedback from the public, that could help to differentiate their brand, product, or service. Although, it allows to provide direct consumer response to questions, complaints, and comments. There are many free monitoring tools available, such as: Hootsuite, Tweetreach, Klout, Buzzsumo, Twazzuo, etc. They track multiple social networks, including Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, LinkedIn, and Google+. All of them help to engage more effectively with the customers and respond when necessary. They help to save time and effort by making it pretty easy to monitor your brand's performance.

Kristen Edie

11/4/2017 10:30:15 am

I also believe that is very important tool for every business to use. It helps there business grow with there customers. It can help them relate to there customers. Also to find out what there strong suits and where they need to work on there business.

Matt Hitch

11/7/2017 09:33:04 pm

I didn't know about Hootsuite before this blog, let alone all these other monitoring tools you listed. I'd love to find out more about all of these and see which ones are best and how they differ. After learning about social listening in this blog and by doing a bit of research, its very important to a business's social media presence. With social media becoming more and more popular, businesses that don't utilize these tools are sure to fall behind to their competitors.

Kristen Edie

11/4/2017 10:19:56 am

A business that wants to decide on what content to share on there social media sites should be something that there potential customers would like to see. I would start by having a suggestion box at your business. Ask people to leave comments about there business and what they want to see more of. Then they can decided what they would like to post by factoring in what the customers want to see out of the business. When owning a business the number one thing should be customers needs first always if you want the business to strive. Also another way to social listen is go online to your business on google and type your business name in to see what comments are said there. I think that is a great way to find out what is said about your business.

Quinzena Black

11/5/2017 01:17:22 am

I think that is a really good idea to set up a suggestion box for your customers. If a person really likes the establishment they will be willing to try and help improve the business. I wish the company that I order supplies from would have done something like that to be able to stay in business but they just disappeared over night and now I have to order from this other supplier that charges way to much.

James Wilson

11/5/2017 10:29:30 am

I really like the fact of the suggestion box i actually forgot to put that. It is a good idea that shows what the customers want from you, and in addition makes your business better and better for customers needs.

Aaron Bielinski

11/5/2017 03:14:42 pm

Very well put! A lot of times I feel that companies and individuals spend a lot of time worrying on how they should post their social media and how to react to their customers. Also, many people spend all this time following trends and what's cool believing they can find the best way to entertain or provide service to their customers by finding a "perfect strategy". In reality, sometimes being open and being able to accept feedback from your customers is the best way. Not many smaller companies do this and I believe it's because they are somewhat afraid to hear negative attributes about their company/business.

Amanda R Adkins

11/5/2017 05:11:24 pm

The suggestion box is a great way for customers to let you know what they want. The customers are the top priority.

Quinzena Black

11/5/2017 01:09:01 am

If I were to start social listening for my business, I would post weekly surveys on my company’s social media page to see what the customer’s responses would be. From the responses I would change the content of the surveys to try and get a more in-depth information and from those surveys I would be able to better my business. With these surveys I would be able to see where my business strengths and weaknesses are through the customers eyes. I’m not saying that the customers are always right because someone could just be having a bad day but if a lot of them are saying the same things then a change is necessary.

Camille Anderson

11/5/2017 11:37:05 am

That is a great idea to post surveys weekly and monitor the responses. Getting more in depth as the weeks go on is great too because as they answer questions you can take a step further to see what made them come to that conclusion. Some businesses do not try and see where there weakness are and that can really hinder the growth of a business and potentially lose customers.

Amanda R Adkins

11/5/2017 05:09:52 pm

I like your idea about putting weekly surveys, thats a great way to see what is and isn't working for your customers!

Joe Hojnacki

11/5/2017 08:08:27 am

I think a business decides what to post based on their social media marketing employees. They must follow trends and customers wants and needs. Posting information that doesn't relate to the product or service will probably turn customers away and they won't follow that companies page. As far as social listening is concerned, I would go through and read posts by customers. Reading their likes or dislikes about a product or service I provide is important feedback.

James Wilson

11/5/2017 10:00:50 am

Business’s usually decide on what content to post through the views and comment’s given by the social media users. The customers that’s happy and loyal to the business will usually bring friends and family to you. Before that actually happens, you have to figure out your target market. By figuring out the target market through social monitoring, a business will know what the target wants, needs, and care about. That will make the business more successful and they will not be in the percentage of failed businesses.
When it comes to social monitoring as an up and coming business, I would post a digital survey to see what people reactions are. The survey would have question such as, how do you like our service. How do you like our product? Do we satisfy your needs? With the customers knowing that we are all them they will become a usual customer. Because social media is a big trend now, I would also ask my friend on social media to advertise my business. Once I get my business off the ground, I can figure who my target and focus it is on getting.

Andrew T.

11/5/2017 11:29:12 am

The variety of social media platforms can be daunting from a business marketing standpoint. And when looking for the right way to market on each of them separately can be an equally daunting process. Good for businesses there are tools available to help with content distribution across social media platforms. These tools help a business gauge across multiple platforms what is being said or what is working at grabbing attention. This can also help by personalizing the customers experience. Just by Google searching social media listening. I found many blogs reviewing the different social media listening tools. Whether it be free tools, or some that were for a fee. There are tools out there for a business to utilize to increase their social media influence.
If I were to utilize social media as part of my marketing plan. I would definitely use listening tools to help improve the consistency of what I was doing. These tools would help me to control my consumer awareness by allowing me to know what works and what does not. Based on each social media platform. With social media being the best way for a business to market itself. Utilizing the many platforms, and correctly is very important to marketing the business.

Camille Anderson

11/5/2017 11:32:12 am

I would go about social listening by monitoring the social media platforms I plan to use. For instance if I want to find what keywords will drive traffic to my site or social media I can use google analytics. This is very helpful because you can actually see what the age, location, and gender is of the person searching. I think this has been a great innovation for marketing because it takes away a lot of the guess work and can really target your prospective customers. Being able to find out what people think about your company is always a good thing because it helps you to come up with new ideas.
There are options to pay companies to do the work for you which is helpful because not everyone knows how to monitor what is being said over the internet.

Cristiana Vespucci

11/5/2017 06:38:48 pm

I agree some people could pay for someone to monitor their social media content and generations. Facebook does a good job generating when is a good time to post. It also breaks down the demographics of followers you have.This helps to know who is listening so you can generate content that they would like and comment on. I have used both Hootsuite and Facebook analytics, both are a good source to use.

Arlene Hamilton

11/12/2017 07:57:03 pm

I know someone who uses Google Analytics and they think it is the best platform. You make a good point by saying "it takes away a lot of the guess work". On the other hand as a new person in business starting out it is a plus to pay other companies like Hootsuite to gather/monitor what is being said.

Aaron Bielinski

11/5/2017 03:10:41 pm

With creating a website for a future business I would definitely take social media very seriously and become very strategic with what I post and how I post it. Most of the people I've talked have agreed that going the route of monitoring competitors websites and media would be a great start. I agree always keeping your friends close and your enemies closer mentality. However, I would put a pretty big emphasis on looking deep into my competitors social media and try to figure out what has caused some major back lash for them. Most social media and news that get shared from customers are usually from those who are angry or disappointed with a person or company. I remember taking my Small Business course and going over the numbers of people that leave reviews or react to a companies actions. Majority of people leave feedback about a company when they believe no one else should support them. If I can find a pattern from competitors on what NOT to do I think that would be a huge help in addition to just monitoring other websites.

Meghan Krzys

11/5/2017 04:07:05 pm

Social listening is super important to look at in regards to your own business and others. In my daily life I use Google Analytics so I would probably opt to always use it. Their services range in price from 0-150k and are extremely user friendly. You can monitor your own pageviews, users, pages per session, unique visitors, clicks, uniqiue qicks, and specific links. For our platform, that is just the basis of it. While its super important to track your analytics it's also important to study social interaction on all the main social media platforms.You can tell alot about a company based upon their interactions with their followers. I've noticed some companies that tend to have less than great customer service have separate twitter accounts just to reply to all of their bad review tweets. A company that can be relatable to their followers, quick, and helpful tend to be some of the better performing companies. There are many different platforms but between Google Analytics and doing indepth reporting on your own and your competitors social media would be my route for social listening.

Shannon Kawczynski

11/5/2017 04:11:20 pm

I would begin social listening by posting on social media websites and monitor the feedback I receive. By monitoring the different kinds of feedback from the different social media websites will be able to tell me which sites are most fit for the business. Also I would interact with customers and potential customers to keep the open line of communication with my clientele. Tool like hootsuite help you find this information, but by posting to social media on your own you can make it more personal for the customers. By listening to the clients feedback and complaints I would take them into serious consideration and compensate the clients if it was a serious complaint. I would want the clients to know that we take the complaints and feedback seriously.

Brett Boardwine

11/5/2017 04:46:45 pm

I agree Shannon. Listening to your customers/clients is the optimum means of knowing what content to post. They give you feedback in so many ways, and they don't all have to be direct. The lack of attention for content is just as important to notice as a negative reaction. In the end we all want our customer/client to be engaged, intrigued, and happy with our posts.

Brett Boardwine

11/5/2017 04:43:49 pm

I would approach social listening in more of a trial and error process per platform. Of course, I would begin with research into competitors' social media patterns and response as well as using analytical tools, but I would pay particular attention to the analytics offered on my pages and see what my customers are responding to. What works for one business, even a very similar competitor, may not work for you. Though I think it is important to spot trends and use other successful pages as benchmarks, I think everyone must realize that this is still human interaction and has a wide number of variables. You are not your competitor, there is a reason the customers that have chosen to follow you and use your product/services are doing so. I would never choose to simply mimic or jump in the bandwagon of a trend. I feel it may be even more rewarding to find your very own social media niche specific to your brand and company. Set yourself apart. Try content that is relevant to each platform and find the right voice for each platform by trying things and seeing what response you get. Listen to your consumer and adjust.

Tara

11/5/2017 08:22:42 pm

Brett,

You make an EXCELLENT point! "You are not your competitor", however, I would be watching my competitors, not only to see what works for them, but to learn from their mistakes, I agree you should absolutely set yourself apart and being more creative than your competitors can accomplish that, but by keeping an eye on them, you can sidestep the same pitfalls they may fall into, or they may beat you the punch with a similar idea that flops. Then, you gain the knowledge that your efforts would be better focused in another direction without taking a risk yourself.

AMANDA RENEE ADKINS

11/5/2017 05:08:39 pm

I would first look at what similar businesses are doing. I would look at their social media and see what is working and what isn't so I know what to use on my own. I would also make sure every customer is getting a response whether it be to a question or a negative comment on the business. If you ignore the criticism it doesn't change anything you have to take action so the customer feels heard.

Cristiana Vespucci

11/5/2017 06:34:48 pm

A business should post content that pertains to what is relatable to their product or service. Looking at posts from businesses in the same or similar field will help decide what content to post. If a post was successful for them than it could be successful for you too. I know when I post for the produce company I work for we look at similar posts from other distributors to get ideas on what to post. Since I want to start my own restaurant I would look up similar restaurants and what they post. Also what followers they have and follow could be good people to follow since they look similar things. I would also utilize Hootsuite to help find out good times to post as well as great content to generate.

Cayla Szalkowski

11/5/2017 07:14:21 pm

I would begin social listening by posting questions related to my business to get input from the consumer. This input will help find out what works best for your business and what is not. Another thing that would help either social listening would be being active with the network. The consumer likes when they know that you are listening and posting. This entails responding to questions as fast as possible and posting frequently. Hootsuite is a good website to do these things. It helps a business by letting you monitor the social media pages on one platform. This can also help provide insight on the consumer's habits, like what they are searching often. Goals of social listening should include finding out what consumers would be best for your business and growing your network. You should use social listening to predict future trends that may be an opportunity for your business.

Amanda Stokes

11/5/2017 07:32:12 pm

I think if someone wanted to know how well their business was doing, Hootsuite is the way to go because it does all your monitoring for you and even puts it all side by side. Businesses didn’t have the free marketing and advertising advantages that we get with social media these days. Businesses without social media accounts are not going to be very successful and why wouldn’t you take advantage of the free opportunity you’re getting? I think more people have Facebook accounts then twitter, especially the older generation, if they even have a Facebook. I do have a twitter, but I’ve never really been a big fan of it. I do see, as a business owner how seeing exactly who is looking at the tweets could be very beneficial for a business. They need to figure out who is their target audience first, then relate what they would be looking for or asking for to post any content. Social listening should always be done, because again it is another opportunity to see what people are saying their likes or dislikes about your business. Letting you know somethings you could change, keep or even add. It’s all about pleasing your target audience and giving them something to constantly come back for. Some people are just haters and looking for reasons to complain, so don’t take all the feedback to heart. Criticism is something that is offered only trying to help someone else on what they need to improve on, even though sometimes you don’t want to hear it.

Tara

11/5/2017 08:08:31 pm

As with most forms of communication, active listening is the first and most important step. In terms of social media, to me, this would begin with identifying your target market, listening to what they have to say and what they want and finding the best way to communicate to them how your business can fill that need or desire. A good place to begin is identifying your competitors and observing how they interact with the customer. From this, you may learn what strategies work and also what not to do.

Once you have listened to your target audience, you will need to determine the best platforms to communicate through,Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, etc. Experimenting with these and analyzing response can help you decide where to best focus your efforts to create the most value for your company.

Once you have determined who and how to communicate with, you can begin to shift focus to creating the best possible content to establish and grow your brand. Some business owners make the mistake of thinking the only way to make an impact is through offering discounts or coupons, but this can add up quickly to lots of lost revenue. If you think creatively, and use social media to truly engage your audience, you can create a buzz around your brand without losing a dime to discounts or perhaps very minimal. Just posting a related article, video or new product can put your company at your customer's top of mind. Rather than constant discounts offered to everyone, a contest for product, package or prize to one or a handful of clients you've called to action, can give you exposure and minimize lost revenue. However, hopefully you've engaged many social media users to spread your brand for you with likes, posts, or tweets.

For myself, I plan to utilize Hootsuite or a similar platform to create and schedule content for my business. I have a close friend who works as an account manager for an independent Freelance Public Relations/Social Media/Marketing company, and she raves about how easy Hootsuite makes juggling many different profiles. I have lost a lot of interest in my personal Facebook page lately, mostly because it is a time eater and I just don't have the time to spare, so the idea of simplifying and streamlining content scheduling sounds highly valuable to me.

I hope that I can include a blog on my website, but I know it can be time consuming and somewhat of a big commitment. I see many websites where a blog page has been started but the owner has long since stopped updating the feed with new content. While the older posts can still be of value, I think it's so important to always continue to listen and ready and willing to change your content to remain on brand, but also relevant as the social environment evolves.

Juan Carlos Gamarra

11/8/2017 06:15:03 am

I agree with you in that identifying your target customer is an essential step when defining the tactics that will conform your social media strategy. Trying to create a wide-ranging strategy with the aim of pleasing as much people as possible may distract you from focusing on your core customer, and even have some of them lose interest in your business. Being yourself when managing a business its difficult, but at same time being able to show personality in an effective, professional way can be a great asset and a key step towards completing your goals.

Matt Hitch

11/7/2017 07:44:03 pm

Social listening is a new concept that was brought to my attention by this blog, but I think it is a great idea that should be utilized by all companies before establishing a social media presence. You need to interact and learn about your customers and potential customers. And even once you have done that, you need to stay on top of it and see how/if things are changing. You need to stay attentive to your customers to be able to know what they want and then find ways to cater to their needs and wants. I would survey my audience on the types of social media and try to get clearcut feedback from them.

I also did not know about Hootsuite. The fact that you can access all of your types of social media through Hootsuite makes it very valuable. To be able to go to one place and monitor your business or brand makes it convenient and easier for the business. For these reasons, all businesses should use Hootsuite.

Juan Carlos Gamarra

11/8/2017 05:54:54 am

Same here! It is the first time I hear of the Social ROI concept (SROI) featured in the HootSuite website (In fact, I had heard of Hootsuite before but had never looked into it to try to understand the tool better). Sometimes you are aware of the goals of a company (I.e. maintaining good PR, increasing marketing outreach, etc.) but do not know what kind of metrics/tools these same companies use to measure communication performance and set goals. I wonder if the SROI method is the reason for which so many companies are not using Picasa anymore or have reduced the frequency of posting in that site.

Juan Carlos Gamarra

11/8/2017 05:43:53 am

In regards to social listening, I think that even if I were to have a small shop/restaurant I would like to have a dedicated account in Twitter and Facebook for customers to communicate issues/complaints.
The goal of this would be to allow me to receive feedback from customers while at the same time trying to keep my main social media profiles “stain-free”. @SubwayListens is a good example of this.
While Subway has a strong, diversified online presence with well-managed profiles available in most social media platforms, the company still is pretty successful in its effort to keep its main social media profiles free of any negative posts/content (when considering the vast number of independently-managed Subway franchise restaurants established throughout the nation.)
While I don’t expect to face the same PR challenges a large organization like Subway faces when I set up my own business, I would make a good effort at establishing dedicated social media accounts and customer service channels so that customers can have grievances attended to while at the same time maintaining a good online image.

Arlene Hamilton

11/12/2017 07:52:10 pm

I checked out the HootSuite website to get a better understanding of exactly what it is. I had heard the name but never knew what it was. Since I don’t have a business yet I would utilize their free service for the individual plan first to get familiar with how everything works keep up with my own personal social media presence. After that I would definitely then take advantage of the professional plan for my business. It seems the right path to take since Social Media is always in a "right now" stage. With HootSuite you can do, read everything at once. Saves time from logging on to each individual social platform. Social listening is very important to a business as I've seen alot of comments where consumers have been positive and negative about how they feel about a product, etc. The voice of the consumer is important as the voice can make or break the business. Seems like most businesses have the "chat" feature built in their website and that is another form of social listening as it is in real time and matters and be resolved at the time of occurrence. In my business I would use the "chat" feature and the "contact us" email feature; definitely have the right dedicated team to reply to the consumer in addition to my own monitoring.

Social Media Content Creation

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