When Facebook first launched over a decade ago, it was all about helping college students connect with each other. Then as the platform grew, people outside of college campuses were allowed to join. This transformed the platform into a place where friends and families could interact with each other. Eventually, Facebook allowed large companies to establish a presence on the platform. This was later expanded to businesses of all sizes. If you look at the other major social platforms, most have followed a similar strategy of initially focusing on individuals and then bringing in businesses.

When businesses first got on board with social media, a large percentage made the mistake of only using these platforms as a means for self-promotion. Since that strategy is almost always doomed to fail, businesses moved on to looking for a better way to engage with social media users.

The Importance of Listening First

The search for a better approach to social engagement led many businesses to the same conclusion. That conclusion is listening needs to come first. Because social media is all about conversations, listening is a must for finding opportunities to engage in an authentic and meaningful way. Although this approach may initially seem backwards to the way businesses normally approach marketing, those that stick to this method realize it’s actually very powerful. Businesses can establish a strong connection by taking the time to understand customers and then letting them know the business understands what they’re saying.

How Agencies Can Help Clients with Social Listening

If you run an agency that does social media marketing for clients, they may want you to take the lead on social listening. And in many cases, a client may not fully understand the value of this type of activity until you’re able to show them real examples and successful outcomes.

In the past, social listening across multiple platforms could be quite challenging for a single brand, let alone multiple client brands. But thanks to Send Social Media, you can pull all this information into a centralized dashboard. This efficiency means you’ll be able to make the most of monitoring client brands and engaging in social listening.

Thanks to the features of Send Social Media, it’s possible to take full advantage of activities like listening to industry conversations to get a better sense of your client’s niche, identifying customer pain points to create better content, and finding potential brand advocates for your client. Being able to easily manage these kinds of activities will have a noticeable impact on clients’ customer’s experiences and brand images, which in turn will allow your agency to charge a premium for the value you’re delivering. If you’re looking for the simplest way to stay on top of your company’s social media efforts, be sure to take a look at the Send Social Media Dashboard 7-day trial!