Learning to listen on social media sites

Social media sites are more than places for teenagers and young adults to interact. Social media sites provide a great avenue to interact with customers and to share insight for them. With social media sites you can brand your company and also focus on strengthening your relationships with your customers. How can you do this? It all comes down to your ability to listen to your customers. What are you doing to show your customers that you are paying attention to them and that you are trying to find a way to satisfy them and meet their needs?

Listening on social media sites means you need to engage yourself in conversations. You don't just want to set up a facebook page or twitter account and sit back. You have to monitor these sites and read what your customers are saying. Watch their conversations they are having and look for a way in which you can involve yourself in the conversations. Since it is pertaining to your industry, you should have some insightful information to share with your customers that will help to establish your company in your industry.

Listening is about engaging with your customers. Engaging means you are here to build relationships with your customers. You need to focus on being the company that is interested in satisfying the needs of your customers. You want to engage in the conversations without being pushy or making the customers feel that you are trying too hard. Instead watch the discussion boards, tweets, and other things and jump in when it is appropriate to do so.

Listening means you are constantly on the lookout for an opportunity to interact with your customers in some way.Watch for mentions of your brand or products, this is a conversation you have to join so you can make sure the right information is being talked about. Ignoring these posts will leave you with a missed opportunity and you won't be able to strengthen your image and build up the reputation of your company. Never ignore anything that is related to your company in any type of way.

Pay attention to information that is posted about your competitors. You want to focus on your competition as well in order to be the company that can answer questions and sway customers away from your competition. This helps you to build your reputation and to show others that you are the company "in the know" when it comes to this subject matter.

Here are some of the main things that you need to be listening for:
1. Mention of your products, brand, or services
2. Keywords that are related to your industry
3. Targeted keywords for your products
4. Abbreviations used for your industry
5. Mention of competitors or leaders in your industry

Proper listening on social media sites is vital to keeping your company alive. You have to know what your customers need and what they are looking for when it comes to providing them with the right information.Google Alerts can help you with social media sites and you can also acquire free applications from other services that provide you with opportunities to strengthen your reputation.

Conduct surveys to find out how you are doing in the eyes of your customers. This is the best way to learn about your customers and to find out if they are truly satisfied with your company and your products. It also helps you to see where you need to improve if your customers are unhappy with your industry or with your company in general. Take the time to listen to others so you can focus on relationship building.