{"id":28147,"date":"2022-11-11T16:17:16","date_gmt":"2022-11-11T21:17:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.forsta.com\/resources\/blog\/key-benefits-of-social-listening-and-why-is-it-important\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T13:16:03","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T17:16:03","slug":"key-benefits-of-social-listening-and-why-is-it-important","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.forsta.com\/resources\/blog\/key-benefits-of-social-listening-and-why-is-it-important\/","title":{"rendered":"8 key benefits of social listening tools"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">How many conversations do you have online every day?&nbsp;What about your opinions on a favourite product \u2013 do you share those&nbsp;with your networks&nbsp;far and wide? And when&nbsp;a brand has got you on the back foot, are you quick to write a review, or share your grumbles in a post?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Most of us take to social media in a heartbeat. It\u2019s our outlet for just about every human experience \u2013 good or bad.&nbsp;As a brand then, being able to&nbsp;stay on top of conversations, opinions and reviews&nbsp;is&nbsp;pretty crucial&nbsp;for winning trust, inspiring loyalty, and keeping one step ahead of your competition.&nbsp;By understanding your customers\u2019 human experience, you\u2019re already doing better than most companies out there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forsta.com\/what-is-social-listening-and-why-is-it-important\/\">social listening<\/a> tools are how you do it.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-h-3-font-size\">What are social listening tools?&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Social listening&nbsp;allows you to&nbsp;track social media channels&nbsp;for&nbsp;mentions of your brand, competitors, industry, topics,&nbsp;keywords and hashtags.&nbsp;Through social listening, you can keep&nbsp;up with&nbsp;any conversations relevant to your brand. By listening to what customer are really saying, you\u2019ll get&nbsp;a true picture of what&nbsp;they&nbsp;actually think&nbsp;about you,&nbsp;your products,&nbsp;and your competitors.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, most of us mere mortals can\u2019t possibly&nbsp;trawl through reams of social media posts, videos, tweets and reviews to&nbsp;find, organise and analyse everything the world&nbsp;has to say about us. Which is where social listening tools&nbsp;come into play.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Social listening tools allow you to research social media content in real time, view historical data, and analyse&nbsp;threads for specific keywords. You can set any topic&nbsp;or metadata you choose, and&nbsp;this&nbsp;clever&nbsp;software&nbsp;will set to work for you \u2013 collecting lots of lovely rich data&nbsp;for you to use in shaping your approach to market,&nbsp;tweaking advertising campaigns,&nbsp;improving customer service, and&nbsp;making product iterations.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here&#8217;s why you should&nbsp;definitely use&nbsp;them.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-h-3-font-size\">What are the benefits of social listening tools?&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Social listening&nbsp;is an incredibly powerful&nbsp;step in your brand development journey: it allows you to&nbsp;monitor&nbsp;consumer sentiment, tailor content and advertising campaigns,&nbsp;stay ahead of emerging market trends,&nbsp;shape your reputation, and connect with&nbsp;influencers.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And social listening tools make the whole thing possible.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is why&nbsp;it matters.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Social listening tools give you valuable\u00a0customer\u00a0insight\u00a0<\/strong>Understanding your customers is\u00a0a\u00a0crucial\u00a0component\u00a0of\u00a0growing your brand, and social listening tools are\u00a0also\u00a0crucial\u00a0components\u00a0of understanding your customers.\u00a0By continually\u00a0monitoring\u00a0social media,\u00a0these tools\u00a0allow you to discover market trends and consumer insights,\u00a0understand what\u2019s driving\u00a0purchasing decisions and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.forsta.com\/what-is-brand-perception-and-how-to-measure-it\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">brand loyalty<\/a>\u00a0amongst your\u00a0customers, and\u00a0see what\u00a0changes people are rooting for\u00a0you to make\u00a0across your entire brand experience.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Social listening tools\u00a0allow you\u00a0to\u00a0target\u00a0your campaigns\u00a0<\/strong>If\u00a0you\u2019ve\u00a0ever seen an ad pop up when you&#8217;re browsing Facebook that&#8217;s totally out of whack\u00a0with who you are,\u00a0you\u2019ll\u00a0understand the importance of\u00a0personalised, relevant, and engaging content.\u00a0Social listening tools make reaching\u00a0\u2013 and really connecting with \u2013 a targeted group of consumers\u00a0so\u00a0much easier, as\u00a0you\u2019ll\u00a0know exactly who\u00a0you\u2019re\u00a0talking to, how they behave, what they want to see, and what they\u00a0really hate. By\u00a0identifying\u00a0the latest\u00a0trends, social listening also allows you to incorporate\u00a0what\u2019s\u00a0hot into your marketing and advertising campaigns.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Social listening tools\u00a0help you track brand awareness\u00a0<\/strong>How well do people know your brand? What do they think about it? Does it stack up against\u00a0competitor\u00a0brands?\u00a0What do\u00a0your\u00a0customers think of your complaint-handling processes?\u00a0Don\u2019t\u00a0know? You will with social\u00a0listening.\u00a0Social listening\u00a0allows you to measure <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forsta.com\/how-to-measure-brand-awareness\/\">brand awareness <\/a>and keep a handle on brand reputation.\u00a0And because\u00a0you\u2019ll\u00a0be alerted to any bad press, you can jump in there straight away, ready to diffuse the whole situation and restore faith in your rep.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Social listening tools give you an edge on the competition\u00a0<\/strong>Because social listening makes it possible to\u00a0monitor\u00a0mentions of your competitors, as well as your own brand,\u00a0you can easily see when one of their customers\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0happy \u2013 meaning\u00a0there\u2019s\u00a0an opening for them to become\u00a0your\u00a0customer, instead. If you\u00a0get wind of a competitor complaint,\u00a0you have\u00a0a golden opportunity\u00a0to step in,\u00a0find out\u00a0what\u2019s\u00a0gone\u00a0wrong and\u00a0show them how\u00a0you\u2019re\u00a0different. Customer, converted.\u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Social listening tools\u00a0mean a more personalised brand experience\u00a0<\/strong>We\u2019ve\u00a0already talked about using social listening to target and tailor\u00a0your\u00a0marketing and advertising campaigns, but by doing that,\u00a0you\u2019re\u00a0also creating a more authentic, personalised brand experience for your customers.\u00a0Discovering what makes your customer base tick means you can speak directly to them: factoring in behavioural trends and cultural nuances to\u00a0connect with consumers. This level of personalisation makes a\u00a0real impact on brand loyalty!\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Social listening tools\u00a0lead to better customer service\u00a0<\/strong>Nothing puts people off a brand quicker than when\u00a0a complaint or sub-par encounter is ignored. Unfortunately\u00a0for some brands, they simply never catch sight of that compliant, or hear the\u00a0conversation they should be jumping in on. Social listening tools make sure you never miss a chance to make amends,\u00a0build your reputation,\u00a0or\u00a0give excellent customer service.\u00a0When people complain, they want to be supported through a problem, not ignored \u2013 and hearing the negatives gives your company a very clear direction of\u00a0what to work on.\u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Social listening tools\u00a0help you to spot gaps in the market\u00a0<\/strong>As well as being great for understanding how customers feel about your current products or services, employing social listening software puts you in a prime position for\u00a0identifying\u00a0new opportunities, and spotting gaps to be filled.\u00a0By keeping an ear to the ground for all relevant keywords and topics within your industry,\u00a0you\u2019re\u00a0always part of the conversation, and always party to consumer sentiment.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Social listening tools\u00a0unlock influencer marketing\u00a0<\/strong>Social media influencers and brand ambassadors are big business in\u00a0marketing, advertising, and brand promotion. One of the many benefits of social listening tools is\u00a0that\u00a0they give you\u00a0very clear data\u00a0on\u00a0who is sharing your content,\u00a0what sort of people follow and engage with them, and\u00a0exactly how much influence they have on their networks. Brand partnership, anyone?\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-h-3-font-size\">Difference between social listening and social&nbsp;monitoring&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Social listening and social monitoring&nbsp;sound confusingly alike, but they really do&nbsp;differ in some&nbsp;pretty meaningful&nbsp;ways.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While&nbsp;social monitoring focuses on rather specific campaigns and targeted keywords, social listening&nbsp;has a far broader scope \u2013 including brand mentions, industry trends, and the tracking of customer feedback.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Social&nbsp;monitoring&nbsp;is great because&nbsp;it\u2019s&nbsp;highly data-driven&nbsp;and allows you to see what conversations have taken place&nbsp;\u2013 but social listening goes much further than simply&nbsp;monitoring&nbsp;social media mentions.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Social listening&nbsp;takes things one step further&nbsp;by&nbsp;analysing findings,&nbsp;looking at root causes, and&nbsp;figuring out the sentiment behind the cold, hard data.&nbsp;And&nbsp;that\u2019s&nbsp;the most significant difference between the two.&nbsp;Through <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forsta.com\/what-is-social-listening-and-why-is-it-important\/\">social listening<\/a>,&nbsp;you can better understand what your customers&nbsp;actually want, create&nbsp;well-informed&nbsp;changes to your brand strategy, and&nbsp;influence&nbsp;the future of your products and services&nbsp;with the backing of&nbsp;accurate&nbsp;insight and customer feeling.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-h-3-font-size\">Examples of social listening tools being used&nbsp;effectively&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Right&nbsp;then, which industry stalwarts are using social listening tools to full effect, and really capitalising on the action?&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Telsa&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When&nbsp;Telsa owner&nbsp;Jaehwan&nbsp;Cho was unable to connect to his car, CEO&nbsp;Elon Musk was notified&nbsp;immediately&nbsp;\u2013 allowing him to fix the&nbsp;issue and&nbsp;respond personally. How&nbsp;did he know?&nbsp;Through the use of&nbsp;social listening tools, of course.&nbsp;Being made aware of an issue, and taking the time to engage&nbsp;with a customer, shows just how much a brand values&nbsp;the people it serves.&nbsp;It also gives confidence to potential customers who are yet to buy into a brand!&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Reebok&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When one twitter user took to the social media site to ask where he could pick up a pair of&nbsp;pictured trainers, Reebok was very quick to respond \u2013 and hand over to Adidas. The innocent tweeter hadn\u2019t realised he was shouting out a&nbsp;competitor&nbsp;brand, but by finding humour in the mix up, Reebok might well have bagged themselves a few new customers. The lesson here is that, when you have social listening tools on your side, you have endless&nbsp;opportunities to build your brand rep.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Starbucks&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ah, the giant of the coffee world. Despite&nbsp;its&nbsp;global domination, Starbucks is not&nbsp;willing to sit back and rest on its laurels; instead, it employs social listening tools to ensure the customer experience is&nbsp;on point at every turn \u2013 and if it\u2019s not? They\u2019ll jump right in!&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.repustate.com\/blog\/images\/startbucks-social-listening-example.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">When this disgruntled customer posted about&nbsp;how quickly brand loyalty can be ruined with one poor interaction<\/a>, the official Starbuck\u2019s account was quick to step in, ask for more info, and try to resolve the incident.&nbsp;This is where social listening really comes into its own: for a brand to be successful, being able to engage with customers is&nbsp;absolutely key; particularly when they\u2019re not happy.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-h-3-font-size\">How&nbsp;can&nbsp;Forsta&nbsp;help?&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now that we\u2019ve convinced you of the wonders of social&nbsp;listening&nbsp;tools (we&nbsp;have&nbsp;convinced you, right?), it\u2019s time to introduce&nbsp;our all-singing, all-dancing&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.forsta.com\/platform\/social-listening-social-behavioural-analytics\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">social listening&nbsp;software<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Social media can be&nbsp;absolutely chaotic! People are tweeting and posting and snapping and sharing all the livelong day \u2013 and honestly, who has the time (or the patience) to&nbsp;sift through the masses?&nbsp;As a brand wanting to strengthen its reputation,&nbsp;grow its market share, and create a truly contented customer base, you&nbsp;just&nbsp;need insights. Targeted, analysed, actionable insights.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And that\u2019s&nbsp;where we come in.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Through&nbsp;Forsta\u2019s&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.forsta.com\/platform\/social-listening-social-behavioural-analytics\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">social listening tools<\/a>, we&nbsp;can&nbsp;make&nbsp;the constant noise&nbsp;of&nbsp;social media work&nbsp;for you.&nbsp;You\u2019ll&nbsp;receive instant alerts to any negative reviews (allowing you to swoop in and sweep up),&nbsp;be kept&nbsp;up-to-date&nbsp;on what your customers are saying about you (and why) and&nbsp;see all comments in their proper context&nbsp;(our platform uses analytics tools to break down the data, meaning you can easily spot trends).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ready to&nbsp;start your own social listening journey?&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.forsta.com\/platform\/social-listening-social-behavioural-analytics\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Let\u2019s get going<\/a>!&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-h-3-font-size\">Listen to what people are saying&nbsp;\u2013 before they stop talking about you&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With 3.5b people using social media, and 90% of people&nbsp;relying&nbsp;on online reviews to inform their purchasing decisions,&nbsp;you need to get it right.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Social listening tools&nbsp;put you back in the driving seat. They&nbsp;clue you in to what people are saying, why they\u2019re saying it, what you\u2019re doing well, and what you need to change.&nbsp;That level of brand insight is phenomenal.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Don\u2019t waste it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>benefits of social listening tools, benefits of social listening tools, social listening tools<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":26631,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","disable_featured_image":false,"temp_reference":0,"temp_parent":0,"pathfactory_url":"","webinar_link":"","webinar_link_text":"","start_date":"","start_time":"","end_date":"","end_time":"","pressganey_person_subtitle":"","pressganey_person_linkedin":"","pressganey_person_articles":"","pressganey_person_available":false,"url":"","menu_icon":"","is_mobile":false,"breadcrumb_base":"","author":42531,"co_author":0},"categories":[501],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-customer-experience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.forsta.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.forsta.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.forsta.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.forsta.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.forsta.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28147"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.forsta.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42929,"href":"https:\/\/www.forsta.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28147\/revisions\/42929"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.forsta.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.forsta.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.forsta.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.forsta.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}