Are you Listening?
When we started LINC Detroit, we wanted to do things differently. In coming up with the name LINC, we decided it would stand for four principles: LISTEN, INTEGRATE, NETWORK, COMMUNICATE. We chose “LISTEN” as one of the principles because more often than not, we found the needs of small business owners weren’t being listened to.
As part of our commitment to our clients, we are focused on meeting you where you’re at, understanding where you want to go, and helping you achieve your goals on the way there.
No matter what stage of business you’re in, here are five ways you can incorporate listening into your marketing strategy.
Media Monitoring
Do you know what’s happening in your community and/or industry? Media monitoring is a great way to identify new opportunities for your business. Media monitoring is the act of reading, watching, and listening to print, online, and broadcast media.
If one of your goals is to be featured on the local television morning shows, then we recommend watching the segments every morning and following the anchors on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Many times you’ll find insights into what type of content people are interested in.
Google Alerts
Have you set up Google Alerts for your company name, executives, competitors, and industry terms? This is free to do and a great way to get notified if something comes up. If you’re worried about too many emails, you can set up a rule to send these alerts to a special folder.
Community Groups
If you own a small business make sure you’ve joined the Facebook community groups in your targeted locations. For example, if you’re opening up a retail business in Royal Oak, this is a great way to get to know the community and find out what’s going on.
Reviews
Have you claimed your Yelp and Google pages yet? You might be receiving reviews with no way to respond or see what people are saying about your business.
Social Listening
According to SproutSocial, social listening is the process of tracking conversations around specific topics, keywords, phrases, brands or industries, and leveraging your insights to discover opportunities or create content for those audiences.
Social listening is critical for customer service, competitive analysis, and for mining engagement opportunities. If you’re not ready to invest in a listening tool, there are a ton of tools that aggregate the information for free. At a basic level, we recommend spending time in your social networks to see what people are saying.
If you’re not sure how to get started, give us a call. We can figure out the right tools to help you incorporate listening into your marketing strategy.
