How To Setup A Social Listening Campaign

This guide outlines how to set up a social listening campaign to effectively manage your company’s online presence.

Why Listen?

Social listening empowers you to:

• Deliver exceptional customer service: By actively monitoring social media, you can identify customer concerns and address them promptly, fostering positive brand experiences.
• Make smarter business decisions: Gain valuable insights from what your audience, potential customers, and industry leaders are saying about your company. This knowledge can inform product development, marketing strategies, and overall business direction.

Getting Started:

There are two main options to consider when launching your social listening campaign, depending on your budget:

• Free Tools: Utilize Google Alerts to track mentions of your brand name and relevant keywords.
• Paid Tools: Invest in platforms like Hootsuite for more advanced features such as competitor analysis, sentiment tracking, and in-depth reporting.

The Time is Now:

The sooner you implement a social listening strategy, the sooner you can start reaping the rewards. By proactively engaging with online conversations, you can build stronger customer relationships and make data-driven decisions that fuel your success.

Who Takes the Wheel?

The responsibility for managing your social listening campaign can fall on you, your dedicated Social Media Manager, or a Virtual Assistant, depending on your team structure and resource allocation.

Setting Up Your Social Listening Environment

This section outlines the initial steps for launching your social listening campaign.

1. Secure Social Media Access

Begin by acquiring access to your company’s social media accounts. These will be used to connect your chosen monitoring tools and allow you to respond directly to social mentions.

2. Choosing Your Tool: Free vs. Paid

There are two main options to consider for your social listening setup, each with its own advantages and drawbacks:

• Free Option: Google Alerts
  • Pros: Easy on the wallet and straightforward to set up. Ideal for smaller businesses venturing into digital marketing.
  • Cons: Limited reach, focusing primarily on platforms indexed by Google (like Twitter).
• Paid Option: Hootsuite
  • Pros: User-friendly setup, comprehensive social media coverage, streamlined response management from a central hub, efficient team collaboration features, and valuable scheduling and metrics capabilities.
  • Cons: Requires a paid subscription (although a free version with limited features exists) and may not be fully scalable for very large organizations.

The choice ultimately depends on your budget and specific needs.

Getting Started:

Head over to Google Alerts and prepare to unleash a wave of valuable insights!

Crafting Your Alerts:

• Variety is Key: Don’t be shy – create multiple alerts to capture a comprehensive view. Consider the following options for your business:
  • Brand Name + Industry/Category
  • Brand Name + Common Complaint
  • Brand Name + Review
  • Standalone Brand Name
  • Founder/CEO Name (e.g., “Tommy Griffith”)
  • Product Name(s)
  • Competitor Names
• Setting Up an Alert:
  1. Enter your chosen search term in the box.
  2. Click “Show options” for further customization.
  • Finding the Right Balance: For initial setup, avoid overly restrictive options. Start broad and refine based on the results you receive.
  • Frequency: Choose “as it happens” for a fast-paced team, or daily/weekly for smaller teams.
  • Sources: “Automatic” is ideal for a broad spectrum of results.
  • Language & Region: Select options relevant to your audience.
  • Results & Delivery: Choose “all results” for initial setup and designate your preferred email address.
  3. Click “Create Alert” and repeat for all your chosen search terms.

Refine Your Results (Optional):

Google Alerts offers special operators to fine-tune your alerts:

• Exact Phrases: Use quotations (“search term”) for mentions containing the entire phrase (e.g., “Tommy Griffith”).
• Exclude Unwanted Topics: Employ the minus operator (“search term” – “topic to exclude”). For instance, “Tommy Griffith” – “baseball” filters out baseball-related mentions.
• Identify Synonyms: Use the OR operator (“term 1” OR “term 2”) to capture mentions with similar terms
• Positive Mentions: Utilize the plus operator (“term 1” + “term 2”) to target results containing both terms

While Google Alerts is a great free option, Hootsuite offers a more robust social media management experience. Here’s how to leverage Hootsuite for comprehensive social listening:

1. Sign Up and Connect:

• Head over to Hootsuite and create an account. There’s a free plan to get you started, or explore their paid plans with free trials.
• Once logged in, navigate to the Dashboard (the green button in the top right corner).
• Click “Add Social Network” and connect your desired social media platforms by following the on-screen prompts. You’ll likely need to log in with your company’s credentials for each network.
• Repeat this step to connect all the social networks you want to monitor.

2. Create Streams for Focused Listening:

• Select the social network you want to monitor (e.g., Twitter).
• Click “Search” and enter a term to create a custom stream.
• We recommend starting with dedicated streams for:
  • Brand Name + Industry/Category
  • Brand Name + Common Complaint
  • Brand Name + Review
  • Standalone Brand Name
  • Founder/CEO Name (e.g., “Tommy Griffith”)
  • Product Name(s)
  • Competitor Names
• After entering your search term, click “Add Stream” and repeat for all your chosen terms.

3. Refine Your Streams (Optional):

Similar to Google Alerts, Hootsuite allows you to utilize search operators for precise results:

• Exact Phrases: Use quotations (“search term”) for mentions containing the entire phrase (e.g., “Tommy Griffith”).
• Exclude Unwanted Topics: Employ the minus operator (“search term” – “topic to exclude”). For instance, “Tommy Griffith” – “baseball” filters out baseball-related mentions.
• Identify Synonyms: Use the OR operator (“term 1” OR “term 2”) to capture mentions with similar terms
• Positive Mentions: Utilize the plus operator (“term 1” + “term 2”) to target results containing both terms

With Hootsuite’s powerful dashboard and stream customization, you can gain a centralized view of online conversations surrounding your brand, allowing you to effectively respond, analyze, and strategize your social media presence.

Art of Social Mention Management

Responding to social media mentions is crucial for building strong customer relationships and a positive brand image. Here’s how to effectively manage your mentions and keep your team on the same page:

Categorize and Conquer:

• Sorting for Success: Group your mentions into designated buckets based on their nature. This allows for efficient task delegation based on expertise. Here are some common buckets to consider:
  • Complaints/Customer Service: Address user issues promptly.
  • Praise: Celebrate positive feedback and amplify it to build social proof.
  • General Questions/Sales Inquiries: Respond quickly and accurately to nurture potential leads.
  • Content Opportunities: Identify user-generated content that could enhance your marketing efforts.

Streamlined Workflows:

• Define Response Times: Establish clear response timeframes for each bucket. Prioritize addressing urgent issues like complaints, while allowing more flexibility for praise or inquiries.
• Develop Procedures: Create step-by-step guidelines for handling each bucket type. These can be customized to fit your specific team structure and resources.

Example Bucket Procedures:

• Complaints:
  • Recommended Response Time: Under 30 minutes.
  • Procedure: Privately address the issue (direct message, email, etc.) and work towards a swift resolution. Assign complaints to your social media team if they can provide support, or escalate complex issues to customer service specialists.
• Praise:
  • Recommended Response Time: Under 12 hours.
  • Procedure: Express gratitude and publicly acknowledge positive feedback (retweets, shares, etc.) to build trust and community. The social media/community manager can typically handle this.

Building a Knowledge Base:

• Internal FAQ: Compile a list of frequently asked questions (FAQs) for each bucket. Craft clear and comprehensive answers for each. If needed, develop website resources or support documentation users can be directed to via links. Continuously update the FAQ with new questions encountered through social listening.

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work:

• Assign Responsibilities: Delegate tasks based on expertise. In Hootsuite, you can assign specific social mentions (e.g., negative tweets, customer complaints) to team members like your Customer Service Specialist. Simply click the “+” sign under the mention and select the appropriate team member.

Centralized Communication:

• Streamlined Response: Leverage Hootsuite’s platform for direct replies to social mentions. Click “Reply” under the relevant mention to engage with your audience efficiently.