Social Listening is a form of market research based on social media discussions, helping to analyze brand health, campaigns, special events, and more...
Along with the development of social networks, Social Listening is also growing in application capabilities. If in the past, Social Listening was only about collecting social media data, today data collection is only a part of Social Listening. Measuring buzz volume or sentiment is no longer the only function of Social Listening. In the context of this article, let's look at old questions through a new lens: What is social listening and what role does it play in social media marketing?
Social Listening is a form of market research that analyzes online user discussions across social media platforms. It involves the collection and analysis of conversations from various online platforms, including social media, forums, blogs, news sites, and review websites. Unlike traditional research methods, Social Listening works primarily with unstructured data, offering businesses real-time feedback from diverse users across different online platforms.
Typically, a Social Listening process follows these steps:
- Step 1: Build an analysis plan
Researchers begin by defining the context and research objectives, then set the key questions to be addressed.
- Step 2: Data collection
Using Social Listening tools, researchers gather data based on keywords from all social platforms, ensuring an accurate and comprehensive understanding of trends and industry data.
- Step 3: Data filtering and analysis
After collecting data, researchers filter out irrelevant or misleading information to ensure accuracy. Data is processed through AI systems and human verification to find potential insights.
- Step 4: Data visualization and reporting
Finally, the results are compiled into a complete report with visualized data for easier understanding and decision-making.
Social Listening data sources are not limited to major social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or Threads. They also cover any medium that allows multi-way interaction, including forums, e-newspapers (comment sections), blogs, and e-commerce review sections.
(A) API Data Collection
This method connects Social Listening tools to the APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) of social networks to retrieve posts containing specific keywords.
- Advantages: Allows access to all data from the network, including personal pages.
- Disadvantages: API reliability may fluctuate, leading to incomplete or inconsistent data over time.
(B) Site Data Collection
This method involves accessing listed sites to collect data without disrupting the websites, either by manual or automatic data gathering processes.
- Advantages: Ensures 100% of data on the site is collected.
- Disadvantages: Certain issues, like site changes or blocking, may cause temporary data shortages.
When conducting research via Social Listening, marketers should focus on key metrics to gain a comprehensive view of the research landscape and measure the effectiveness of their Social Media Marketing strategies:
- Buzz Volume: The number of discussions (posts, comments, or shares) about a specific topic.
- Share of Voice (SOV): Compares the discussion volume of a brand against competitors.
- Audience Scale: The number of individuals participating in discussions about a topic.
- Sentiment Score: Indicates users' emotions toward a topic, calculated by comparing positive and negative discussions.
Initially, Social Listening was seen by many marketers as a purely measurement tool, providing basic metrics about campaigns or brands in comparison with competitors (such as discussion volume, participant count, sentiment scores, etc.). However, over time, social media has expanded significantly in scale. Users have become more familiar with Digital Transformation, sharing more than ever, and social media trends are emerging increasingly. As a result, the scope of social media data has broadened, offering a wealth of potential information to support Social Media Marketing strategies. Consequently, Social Listening has also evolved to gather data across various platforms and meet diverse research needs from marketers.
For each research focus, marketers can apply Social Listening to a range of different areas. Typically, marketers can use Social Listening for three main research directions: (1) Insight Understanding, (2) Campaign Tracking, (3) Crisis Management.
This research can provide a comprehensive overview of a specific industry, including e-commerce performance, brand image identification, and opportunities for differentiation. It also outlines the target audience's profile, capturing public attitudes and usage toward products/brands/industries.
a. Industry Competitive Landscape:
For instance, the chart below shows the most-discussed functional food brands over a certain period. From this, brands can identify their competitors, understand their position in the competitive landscape, and aim for top-of-mind awareness among consumers. Moreover, by quoting user discussions, researchers can pinpoint issues regarding public perception of both the brand and its competitors. This allows the brand to compare, recognize problems, and take corrective action if needed.
→ Read more: Exploring Insights in the Functional Food Industry: Challenges and Opportunities in the Digital Era
b. Brand Image and Differentiation:
An example of Buzzmetrics research on leading diaper brands paints a detailed picture of brand differentiation. Compared to other brands, Molfix’s product performs exceptionally well in absorbency. However, aspects like softness and thinness received negative feedback. Molfix’s branding team can also monitor current customer perceptions of competitors and identify areas for improvement.
c. Usage and Attitude Research (UnA):
UnA research focuses on consumer discussions and plays a key role in unveiling the consumer landscape of an industry. It addresses key questions like:
- Users' interest levels in the product/brand on social media
- Awareness, usage, and consumer behavior displayed on social platforms
- Motivations and barriers to product/brand consumption
- General satisfaction/dissatisfaction with current products/services
- Users’ needs, unmet demands, or general expectations
d. Target Audience Segmentation:
In some cases, brands aim to understand consumers not just from a product buyer perspective but from a broader context that includes their lifestyle and habits. Social Listening can support brands in achieving this.
For instance, analyzing the most-discussed topics within Gen Alpha revealed that "love" was the top theme, surpassing even "education" and "games." This insight shows that to engage Gen Alpha, brands should consider using "love" as a central theme to attract attention and foster interaction.
→ Read more: Gen Alpha: What Sets the Next Generation of Consumers Apart?
Notably, social media is segmented by interests. Therefore, identifying user groups and their main concerns is crucial in segmenting the social media audience. Pinpointing key interests and insights will help brands align their marketing tactics with user interests. As a result, branded content and messaging are more likely to appear in users' feeds, capturing attention, generating engagement, fostering recall and affinity, or even leading to user-generated content (UGC) related to the brand.
Social Listening supports marketers in planning, creating content, and adjusting strategies in real time throughout all phases of a campaign. It helps track brand sentiment and ensures campaigns align with audience expectations.
Today, even a small complaint on Facebook can cause significant damage to a brand. As consumers become increasingly familiar with social media, the likelihood of crises occurring rises. Our Social Listening data shows that while the number of crises has decreased as brands take a more proactive role in crisis management, the average scale of a crisis has grown significantly.
Crises may seem to occur randomly and can impact any brand for seemingly arbitrary reasons. This makes social media crises difficult to track and challenging for brands to respond to. However, through Social Listening, not only can crises be monitored, but their patterns can also be identified, allowing brands to develop strategic response plans.
By analyzing user discussions on social media and providing actionable insights to brands, Social Listening plays a critical role in shaping communication strategies. The most common applications of Social Listening include gathering insights, tracking campaign performance, and managing crises.
To learn more about metrics, marketers can refer to here
Market research, an integral part of any marketing campaign, is divided into two main types: Syndicated Research and Custom Research. Syndicated Research is especially important for new brands entering the merchandise industry. What is Syndicated Research?
Market research is a process of gathering information to gain a deeper understanding of users as well as the relationship between users and brands. Therefore, market research is an integral part of any marketing campaign. Basically, market research is divided into two main types: Syndicated Research and Custom Research. Each type has its own advantages, which will solve different problems of the brand. In the framework of this article, three questions will be answered: (1) What is Syndicated Research? (2) What is Customized Research? (3) Syndicated Research or Customized Research for the Brand Problem?
Syndicated research is a type of research conducted independently, whose findings can meet the needs of many brands. The subject of Syndicated Research is usually Major Topics, which is inclusive of an industry or a community of users. Syndicated Research does not follow the requirements of a specific customer, so the research results can be suitable for the entire market. Syndicated research will be more cost-effective compared to Customized Research, which only serves the needs of one customer. The results of Syndicated Research are often presented in the form of reports, which can be served as a valuable reference source to any brand, especially those looking to enter new markets. In addition, for brands that have not studied the industry in a long time, Syndicated Research is also a way to quickly update knowledge.
For example:The overview study of the washing machine market shows: More discounts do not mean higher purchase intention. A discount of 50% or more will cause users to begin to doubt the quality of the product. Instead, a discount that does not exceed 15% will promote the best purchase intention. Any brand belonging to the washing machine industry can take advantage of the results of this research for its promotional campaign, as this is the general trend of the market.
See also: Online distribution activities - What can social networks help?
Unlike Syndicated Research, Customized Research is the type of research that is done at the request of a specific customer. Research Topics and Questions are designed based on the brand's own concerns.The results of the research are in the ownership of the client. In the case of Syndicated Research, the results of the research will be owned by the entity conducting the research. Due to its focus on addressing the needs of a given brand, Customized Research has deeper analysis, and higher applicability, but the scope of application is also narrower than Syndicated Research.
For example: One brand of washing machines is aimed at older, married women. The brand's message is to save water. After a while, the brand noticed that the above message was not responded to by the user group. At this time, a study can be conducted to find out the cause and make recommendations for the brand. The results show: With the older group of women with families, they are often interested in the anti-wrinkle feature of the washing machine to save time on housework. This result should help improve the problem of this brand, but cannot be applied to other brands, due to the difference in the target user group.
See also: Washing Machine Goods Industry - Interesting Psychological Contradictions of Users
Syndicated Research and Customized Research both have their own strengths. With the ability to provide a comprehensive view of the market, Syndicated Research contributes to building the foundation of a campaign. Next, Customized Research can be conducted to provide an in-depth perspective based on the brand's situation, thereby making appropriate adjustments to the marketing plan. However, there are certain differences between Customized Research and Syndicated Research that make it difficult to replace each other. Brands will not be able to achieve the desired results if they use Syndicated Research to address narrow or specific topics. Conversely, brands waste resources if they use Customized Research for overviews that can be solved with Syndicated Research.
The Syndicated Report Hub online reporting library aggregates research proactively conducted by Buzzmetrics based on observations of common market needs. These studies do not serve a specific customer but will provide a panoramic view of users and the goods industry on the social network.
