As a PR or marketer, you’ve probably come across social listening tools or you might have even delved into the world yourself. Social listening might sound like it’s just a social media tool – but it is much more powerful than that!
Social media listening analyses online conversations to identify what’s being said about a brand across various digital platforms. It measures data such as Tweets, editorial articles, podcasts, forums and much more – it can also provide some insight into your social media platforms, although this is limited due to data privacy.
As a result, it can help you to see conversations that are taking place about your brand and sector, measure brand sentiment and help with content ideation. So, when paired with PR activity, it takes your content to the next level!
Here we’re going to be sharing just a few of the ways you can use social listening tools for your PR campaigns.
Reactive PR
This means being reactive to what is trending in the media. Social listening tools help with this by allowing you to track industry trends and conversations as they happen in real time. You can then tap into these rends through your PR activity.
The power of this is that you can make your campaigns industry-specific and of interest to your audience, by noticing popular keyword or topics online and using them as a hook. This could be a quick-fire press release or an annual market report to use as a lead magnet.
Also with reactive PR, your are able to share topical content to the press – positioning your brand as a thought leader – by jumping on a breaking news story and adding your brands unique take on it.
Using social listening to inform reactive content is one of the best ways you can use the platform to create ‘viral’ PR content that will resonate with both the media and your target audiences.
Proactive PR
Proactive PR involves using social listening tools to spot trends around popular events ahead of time. So, for instance, as Valentine’s Day is coming up, you can use social listening to analyse what users are discussing online about the awareness date and tailor any relevant comms to add value to this conversation. The same can also apply for TV series that are returning or sporting events – whatever is relevant for your brand.
Social listening enables you to analyse consumer conversations around popular lifestyle topics – giving you clarity on the top mentions, hashtags and public perceptions so that you tap into them.
To take this further and build your brand, social listening can help you identify relevant spokespeople online that are already trusted by your target audience. You can then engage with them and consider working with them as part of an integrated campaign. This will build your awareness and also brand credibility.
Competitor analysis
Not only can you use social listening to track your brands sector, you can also use it to keep an eye on your competitors. This can include looking at how a competitor is perceived online, in terms of how customers talk about them to identify their brand reputation. This allows you to benchmark where you are as a brand in comparison.
By tracking competitors via social listening you can also identify the types of conversations they are involved in – in addition to how people talk about them. This will allow you to consider the topics and trends that you jump on for your next PR campaign.
Campaign analysis
Social listening can be a really powerful tool to report on key metrics for your campaign. It allows you to search for key words and terms in association with your brand and will show you the conversations that have taken place.
This will allow you to get a picture of how the campaign landed with consumers and help you to determine the success of it.
At Prohibition, we work with a range of brands across all sectors, B2B & B2C, to create insight-driven campaigns that help to achieve a business goals and objectives. Get in touch today to find out how we could help you.
For more interesting articles from us check out these posts:
- Five reasons why public relations is important for brands
- How brands can utilise TikTok to support PR strategies
- The best ways to respond to a PR disaster in the age of social media
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