Speaker 1: Hi there. Today we're going to talk about social listening tools. So we will explain what social listening means and how you can benefit from that as a business. We will also go through some of the most popular social media tools and mention the pros and cons of each one of them. So let's start by clarifying what social listening is. Social listening is the process of tracking conversations around specific topics on social media platforms and then using those insights to discover opportunities or create content for your audiences. Social media listening tools help you achieve that. Social media listening tools are software applications designed to track, gather, and interpret data from social media platforms. These tools are used by businesses and organizations to monitor and understand what's being said about their brands, products, or services on various social media channels. These tools allow you as a business to track mentions of your brand, respond to comments or questions in real time, maybe analyze sentiment and identify trends or insights that can help you understand your audience better. Any business can benefit from having social listening tools. However, they're more ideal for digital marketing agencies or companies with an intensive social media presence. That often includes managing multiple brands across many social media platforms. So let's dive deeper into what social listening tools can actually do for your business. And the first thing is brand monitoring. These tools track and alert you whenever your brand, product, or service is mentioned. This helps you manage your online reputation, respond to customers promptly, and handle any potential crisis in real time. These tools also allow you to conduct competitive analysis. They allow you to monitor your competitors' social media activities, helping you understand their strategies, track their product launches, and measure their customer reactions. Their third benefit is trend spotting. These tools help you identify popular trends or topics in your industry or among your target audience. This can inform your content strategy and help you engage with your audience more effectively. By analyzing the tone and emotion behind social media posts, social listening tools can help you conduct a sentiment analysis. And that helps you understand public sentiment or public feeling towards your brand, or a particular product that you've launched, or even a marketing campaign that you're running. Social media listening tools can also help you identify influential social media users or influencers in your own industry who may be beneficial for marketing collaborations. They also provide analytics and reports to help you measure the effectiveness of your social media strategies and campaigns. So what are the available social media listening tools out there? There's Brandwatch, Hootsuite, Sprout Social, and Buzzsumo. These tools provide businesses with valuable insights that can inform marketing strategies, improve customer service, and enhance overall brand performance. Now let's go through some of the pros and cons of each of these tools. First tool is Brandwatch. And Brandwatch is one of the most powerful social listening tools in the market. It offers deep analytics and highly detailed data visualization. It helps you track mentions across the web, discover influencers, analyze sentiment, and keep an eye on your competition. However, the platform's advanced features might be overwhelming for beginners, and it's more expensive than some other options out there. Its capabilities extend far beyond just social media, and it includes blogs, forums, news, and other online sources too. And that's why it's ideal for large businesses and digital marketing agencies who are willing to invest in a costly solution that offers huge benefits. Next is Hootsuite. And although known for its social media management features, Hootsuite also offers strong social listening capabilities. It allows you to monitor multiple social platforms and keywords in real time and respond directly within the platform. It's user-friendly, and it integrates with a wide variety of platforms. However, its analytics and reporting features aren't as robust as some other tools out there. The third social listening tool we have for today is Sprout Social. This tool is known for its excellent engagement features alongside its social listening capabilities. Sprout Social allows brands to monitor and respond to social conversations, track competitors, and measure performance too. Its interface is clean and intuitive, and it provides detailed reporting capabilities. However, it can be expensive for smaller businesses, and it may not have the wide coverage of some other tools. Last but not least, we have Buzzsumo. Buzzsumo excels in content analysis and influencer identification. It allows you to see what content is most shared across social media and who's sharing it, which can help you make database decisions about your content and influencer marketing strategies. That's why it's great for content creation ideas and understanding what content resonates with your audience. However, Buzzsumo's social listening features may not be as comprehensive as those offered by other dedicated social listening tools. If you're a small business who may not be ready at this point to invest in one of these tools, we have some good tips for you. The first tip is to make use of native platform features. Many social media platforms have built-in features that can be used for social listening. For example, Twitter's Advanced Search allows you to look up keywords related to your brand, and Facebook has a Pages to Watch feature that allows you to keep an eye on competitors. You can also set up Google Alerts for free to monitor the web for new content with mentions of your brand, competitors, or keywords relevant to your business. There are free or low-cost social listening tools available, like Mention, Social Mention, or TweetDeck. And while these tools may not offer the same level of functionality as premium tools, they can be a good starting point for small businesses. Another tip is to join online communities, and this is my own personal favorite. You should become active in online communities where your target audience hangs out. This could be Reddit, Quora, LinkedIn groups, or niche forums. By becoming a part of these communities, you can understand the needs, preferences, and pain points of your audience and be part of the conversation. And finally, you should monitor hashtags. Hashtags are used widely on social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and even LinkedIn. Following hashtags relevant to your business or industry helps you keep up with trends and be part of the conversation. Now, thank you very much for watching this video. And if you need any help with choosing your social listening tool, we're happy to help you. Just drop us a comment and we'll get back to you.