{"id":1492,"date":"2021-01-05T18:30:02","date_gmt":"2021-01-06T02:30:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.agiliron.com\/blog\/?p=1492"},"modified":"2025-11-23T21:20:57","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T05:20:57","slug":"a-small-business-owners-guide-to-social-listening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.agiliron.com\/blog\/a-small-business-owners-guide-to-social-listening\/","title":{"rendered":"A Small Business Owner’s Guide to Social Listening"},"content":{"rendered":"

How to use social media to improve your campaigns and understand your customers.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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\"HowSource<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

Not many business owners know this, but marketing is most effective when it\u2019s a conversation instead of a one-way street.<\/span><\/p>\n

Studies show that 68% of customers stop buying from a brand because they feel it\u2019s not listening to them.<\/span><\/p>\n

By taking the time to observe your audience where they\u2019re most engaged, you will uncover insights that will allow you to reach out to them with communications tailored to their needs or interests. Rather than pumping out sales messages, you will be able to speak their language.<\/span><\/p>\n

But how can you do that? <\/b>By embracing the art of social listening. In our hyper-connected digital age, more than half the world uses <\/span>social media<\/span><\/a> (that\u2019s a lot of potential customers). By tapping into the right conversations, you will uncover a wealth of business-boosting gold.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here, we explore how to use social listening and selling techniques to engage your audience and grow your business.<\/span><\/p>\n

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What is social listening & why do you need to start doing it?<\/b><\/h2>\n

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Before we dig any deeper, let\u2019s consider what social listening is:<\/span><\/p>\n

Social listening is the concept of monitoring social media channels for mentions of your brand, competitors, products, and relevant conversations related to your industry.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

By engaging in social listening, you will gain a deeper understanding of your target audience and industry, uncover potential leads, engage with your customers naturally, and build trust.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Social listening is a powerful promotional tool that empowers small business owners to grow their audience without taking up all their time or draining their budget.<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to connecting with your audience in a way that will boost engagement and build trust, social listening will also allow you to transform a negative into a positive. <\/span> Ninety-six percent of unhappy customers won\u2019t inform you directly but will tell 15 friends about a negative experience with your brand.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

By keeping your finger on the social pulse, you can tap into these negative comments, spark up a conversation, and demonstrate your value in the public arena. This, in turn, could help you gain new long-term customers.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Excellent examples of social listening<\/b><\/h2>\n

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Now that you understand the business-boosting power of social listening, we\u2019re going to look at two solid examples from two renowned American brands\u2014starting with Hilton Hotels.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hilton Hotels\u2014crisis management<\/b><\/h3>\n

Hilton Hotels receives an average of <\/span>1.5 thousand Tweets<\/span><\/a> every day. Twitter is one of its most engaged social media channels, and Hilton uses social monitoring tools to uncover any brand mentions and respond accordingly.<\/span><\/p>\n

As a brand that sees engagement from celebrity guests, Hilton is excellent at responding to negative comments in an approachable, conversational manner and nipping any potential issues in the bud before they reach a crisis point.<\/span><\/p>\n

Arby\u2019s\u2014brand insight<\/b><\/h3>\n

As one of America\u2019s most iconic sandwich chains, Arby\u2019s is a firm favorite across the nation. It\u2019s also an early innovator of social listening.<\/span><\/p>\n

To gather intelligence for its marketing campaigns, Arby\u2019s taps into relevant hashtags and conversations related to its industry.<\/span><\/p>\n

After discovering that one-third of Twitter comments linked to Arby\u2019s were about its sauce, the brand decided to shine a social light on it with its <\/span>#saucepocalypse<\/span><\/a> campaign.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"Screenshot<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

By creating messaging and visuals centered around its signature sauce and inviting customers to share their \u2018sauceless meal disaster stories,\u2019 Arby\u2019s earned droves of engagement and increased its brand reach significantly.<\/span><\/p>\n

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How to approach social listening as a small business owner<\/b><\/h2>\n

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Now that you know what social listening looks like in action, let\u2019s explore how you can approach social listening as a small business owner.<\/span><\/p>\n

Work with social listening tools<\/b><\/h3>\n

Rather than manually scouring through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and <\/span>TikTok<\/span><\/a>, you can work with tools that will help you schedule content while setting up alerts based on relevant brand mentions, hashtags, and industry conversations.<\/span><\/p>\n

The tools you decide to invest in will depend on your specific aims and goals, but here are some effective social listening and monitoring tools you should consider:<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n