Social Media: Not Even Waiting For Your Turn to Talk

Digital communications is a crowded environment, that’s no secret. It tends to also be chaotic because most digital marketers are focused exclusively on getting their message heard.  This can make a shared environment like social media seem like a competitive shouting match. Everyone speaking at once is as ineffective digitally as it is in person.  Do you want to differentiate yourself from other digital marketing messages on social media? Make listening key to your strategy.

Social media listening is not about spreading a wide net over as many contacts as you can and then trying to keep up on all those posts and topics.  It means selectively targeting some content or users to interact with on a more one-to-one basis.  You can target content based on insightful subjects for your audience, product or service, or industry news.  You can target individuals based on shared connections, industry influence, or ideal prospects.

Really listen to those finely selected channels.  Chances are that you can glean a lot of insight into their needs and wants which can be leveraged toward your targeted network.

Once you engage with that audience it’s important to continue listening.  As an example, we reviewed a client profile where he had dozens of unanswered comments to his posts.  One comment in particular was from a prominent industry influencer with an insightful comment and a follow-up question. Listening to that question and providing an individualized response would have been a much better strategy than ignoring it and blasting out more content to the masses.

Listening is always important and social media is not an exception.  Most digital marketers don’t even wait for their turn to speak and opt to try and speak over everyone else.  Engage your audience in a more meaningful way and you’ll find that you don’t have to yell nearly as loud as everyone else to get profitable attention.