5 Ways Companies Can Leverage Consumer Insights From Social Media

The rise of social media as a communication channel has enabled customers to share millions of opinions about brands every day. Companies with a strong social media monitoring strategy can access real-time consumer insights to increase customer engagement, brand loyalty, and ultimately, sales.

Learn how companies can use data from social media to leverage consumer insights to:

• Manage online reputation
• Improve customer experience
• Optimise product development
• Fine-tune marketing campaigns
• Benchmark against competitors

1. Manage Online Reputation

Earned media, which includes forum threads and non-sponsored posts on blogs and social media, is rich in consumer sentiment towards brands. This provides marketers with valuable insight into how customers perceive their brand.

How?

• Determine if majority of conversations about your brand are positive or negative  
• Analyse the impact on brand perception in times of crisis

Social listening chart showing the breakdown of customer sentiment for a brand.

Case Study

A national newspaper wanted to see how their acquisition by another company would affect their credibility among readers. After listening to online conversations during the acquisition, they tailored their communication strategy to address concerns raised, thus helping them maintain their reputation and market share.

2. Improve Customer Experience

Experiences are what customers remember and talk most about a brand, especially if it is extremely positive or negative. Through social media, customers have a louder and more powerful voice to share their experiences, and brands have another way to gather feedback to improve customer experience.

How?

• Analyse your customer's emotional response to your brand
• Highlight key areas for improvement by identifying key drivers of customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction
• Ensure a higher level of reactivity from customer care teams, by identifying which online channels receive the most enquiries and feedback and responding to feedback in a timely, empathetic manner

Case Study

A hotel chain analysed customer conversations on social media and found out a particular decorational feature in one of their properties was trending. They then made a special effort to customise this feature on a daily basis. Using this insight from social media, the hotel was able to demonstrate a high attention to detail, earning more positive mentions online as a result.

3. Optimise Product Development

Prioritising the product releases or feature updates are crucial for maximising sales. By taking consumer insights from social media into consideration, R&D teams can be sure that product developments and innovations are meeting customers wants and needs. 

Social listening chart showing breakdown of airlines customers' concerns by volume.

How?

• Understand which product features are at top of mind for customers, by calculating the share of voice
• Compare product performance across your brand’s product portfolio or geographical markets  

Case Study

A Southeast Asian transportation and logistics startup wanted to determine how they could improve user experience on their mobile app. Using social media monitoring, the product team detected trends in user behaviour and motivations for using the app, as well as which features were the most utilised. From there, they were able to understand the strengths and weaknesses of their user interface, as well as identify specific areas on the app to improve on.

4. Fine-Tune Marketing Strategy

Consumer insights from social media gives marketers tremendous opportunities to deliver content that not only differentiates them from competitors, but also resonates with their target audience.

How?

• Analyse key trends and issues discussed among customers
• Collect, analyse, and engage with user generated content   
• Detect influencers who can amplify your brand’s message
• Evaluate your content marketing strategy by benchmarking your top and worst performing content

Case Study

A global beauty brand needed to adapt an upcoming product for different geographical markets around Asia. Upon examining top trending product attributes on social media within each market, the marketing team adapted the content marketing strategy to the cultural nuances of their target audience, which in turn increased their brand recognition.

5. Benchmark Competitors

Social media insights are particularly useful for industry benchmarking. By knowing one’s standing in relation to the other players in the industry, companies can fine-tune their business strategies.

How?

• Compare your brand’s share of voice against your competitors
• Compare your brand’s product performance against similar products from your competitors
• Compare customer sentiment towards your brand and your competitors

Example of a social listening chart benchmarking customer sentiment towards delivery services by e-retailers.

Case Study

Before launching a new policy, a European insurance company listened to customer feedback around similar policies by their competitors. They identified common complaints shared via social media and used this knowledge to create a unique offer and attract more customers.

In summary

Consumer insights from social media are crucial for building strategies, executing campaigns, and evaluating ROI.

By focusing on the relevant metrics, companies can unlock the complete picture of their customer feedback, product analysis, and competitive analysis. Find out how you can capture the right data to better understand your customers with our free handbook and template!