People are talking about you and your business in social media - wouldn't it be great to find out what they're saying? I take a look at how to use basic social listening techniques to inform your social media and content marketing strategy, based on some of the work I've done for the City & Guilds Group. This is an edited version of my presentation from the social media measurement and management stage at Technology for Marketing and Advertising 2014 (25-26 February 2014, Earls Court, London).

1. LISTEN UP!
SOCIAL LISTENING
FOR SMARTER BUSINESS
JENNY LYCETT
CONTENT MARKETING MANAGER, CITY & GUILDS
FIND ME ON TWITTER: @JENNYLYCETT

2. LISTEN UP!
SOCIAL LISTENING FOR SMARTER BUSINESS
Small
amount of
social listening
Significant
changes
to social strategy
Big impact
@CITYANDGUILDS
@JENNYLYCETT

3. LISTEN UP!
SOCIAL LISTENING FOR SMARTER BUSINESS
What do you mean by social listening, Jenny?
@CITYANDGUILDS
@JENNYLYCETT

4. LISTEN UP!
SOCIAL LISTENING FOR SMARTER BUSINESS
What is social listening?
• Use software to trawl
social media for specific
terms
• Be alerted whenever terms,
brand names or hashtags
important to you are used
• Find out who talks about
your brand, services or
content the most – and
what they say
@CITYANDGUILDS
@JENNYLYCETT

5. LISTEN UP!
SOCIAL LISTENING FOR SMARTER BUSINESS
And how does that actually work?
LISTEN
Social media
@CITYANDGUILDS
ANALYSE
• Influencers
• Sentiment
• Volume
• Results
ENGAGE
Social
channels
@JENNYLYCETT

6. LISTEN UP!
SOCIAL LISTENING FOR SMARTER BUSINESS
Getting started: what are people saying about you?
@CITYANDGUILDS
@JENNYLYCETT

7. LISTEN UP!
SOCIAL LISTENING FOR SMARTER BUSINESS
What can you do about what they’re saying?
• Identify trends and work out how you can capitalise (for City
& Guilds, congratulating people on qualifications)
• What have you learnt about how people perceive you? Do you
need to take action?
• Does your listening tell you anything about what your
customers want or need? (for City & Guilds, can we offer
careers advice to qualified tradespeople who advertise on
Facebook or Twitter?)
@CITYANDGUILDS
@JENNYLYCETT

8. LISTEN UP!
SOCIAL LISTENING FOR SMARTER BUSINESS
Brand impressions – how much people are
talking about us
Social listening
introduced
Aug
Sept
@CITYANDGUILDS
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
@JENNYLYCETT

9. LISTEN UP!
SOCIAL LISTENING FOR SMARTER BUSINESS
Who are your followers?
@CITYANDGUILDS
@JENNYLYCETT

10. LISTEN UP!
SOCIAL LISTENING FOR SMARTER BUSINESS
Now you know who your followers are …
• Use tags to group followers together according to their
interests and areas of influence
• How can this information inform your strategy for content?
• What don’t you already provide that your followers want or
need?
• Work out how you can service your existing, organic followers
• Will you need to rethink how to approach a specific campaign
now you have a better idea of who follows you and how they
behave online?
@CITYANDGUILDS
@JENNYLYCETT

11. LISTEN UP!
SOCIAL LISTENING FOR SMARTER BUSINESS
Use listening to build on a marketing campaign
@CITYANDGUILDS
@JENNYLYCETT

12. LISTEN UP!
SOCIAL LISTENING FOR SMARTER BUSINESS
Listen to the terms you’ll be using in your campaign:
• Start to build and increase your audience – follow and engage
with people you’d like to reach
• Identify the influencers in your area and use them as brand
ambassadors
• Consider offering brand ambassadors exclusive access to your
content in exchange for a blog post or retweet
• Work out which hashtags and terms are most popular in your
area and copy them when tweeting your own content
@CITYANDGUILDS
@JENNYLYCETT

13. LISTEN UP!
SOCIAL LISTENING FOR SMARTER BUSINESS
To sum up - top tips for social listening
• Start by listening to what people are saying about you
• Pick 2-3 trends and work out how you can capitalise or
respond – even small things can make a difference
• Find out who follows you naturally and use it to inform your
strategy – not the other way around
• Be specific and focused with the terms you use for listening
• Explore your stats and work out what they’re telling you – don’t
get hung up on followers.
@CITYANDGUILDS
@JENNYLYCETT

14. THANK YOU
JENNY LYCETT
CONTENT MARKETING MANAGER, CITY & GUILDS
FIND ME ON TWITTER: @JENNYLYCETT