What is social listening?

Social listening is like being a fly on the wall, but instead of buzzing and getting swatted, you're gathering insights into what people say about your brand on social media. It involves monitoring and analyzing social media platforms to understand customer feedback, sentiment, and emerging trends.

Do you want to eavesdrop on your customers' conversations without guilt? Then this is the social media strategy for you.

Think of it as a superpower that allows you to read people's minds (kind of). With social listening, you can track mentions of your brand, competitors, industry keywords, and even your CEO's latest interview. It's an excellent way to understand your customers' needs, improve your products or services, and make informed decisions about your digital marketing strategy.

Ready to supercharge your social media marketing strategy? Let's dive in.

How social listening helps your ROI

Ah, the million-dollar question!

Keeping tabs on what people say about your brand and industry helps you gain valuable insights into customer preferences, pain points, and behavior. This information can help you optimize your digital marketing efforts and product offerings to meet their needs better, which ultimately translates to better ROI.

Social listening can also help you spot potential crises before they blow up into full-blown PR disasters. By being aware of any negative sentiment or issues related to your brand, you can quickly address them and prevent any damage to your reputation with existing and potential customers.

Finally, social listening can help you identify and engage with influencers who can help amplify your brand message and reach a wider audience. Building relationships with these influential voices can expand your reach and increase your ROI on your social media strategy. Your content creation will be more finely attuned to what your audience wants to hear.

Adding a social media listening freelancer to your current marketing team is an excellent way to get more strategic about your digital marketing efforts.

How does social media listening work?

Social media listening is all about keeping an ear to the ground and tuning in to what people are saying about your brand, industry, or competitors on social media.

A social media marketing expert specializing in social listening uses software and various tactics to monitor social media platforms for relevant keywords, hashtags, and mentions. You can then analyze this data to gain insights into customer sentiment, trends, and preferences. This information can help you make data-driven decisions and adjust your digital marketing strategy to better meet your audience's needs.

If you've never considered social listening a part of your social media marketing strategy, now's a great time to start.

What does a social listening expert do?

A social listening expert is like a modern-day Sherlock Holmes, but instead of solving crimes, they gather insights and data from online conversations about your brand, industry, and competitors. They use sophisticated tools to monitor and analyze social media platforms, blogs, forums, and other online sources to find trends, sentiments, and opportunities to engage with your audience.

In short, a social listening expert helps you understand what your target audience is saying about your brand, how they feel about it, and what you can do to improve your reputation, customer experience, and ultimately, your bottom line.

They also help you identify influencers, track competitors, and stay ahead of the curve with real-time insights that inform your marketing strategy. So, if you want to know what people are saying about you, and how to leverage that information to grow your business, a marketing and communication focusing on social listening will help you out. 

Cost of hiring a social listening specialist

The cost of hiring a social listening specialist varies depending on a few factors, such as their level of experience, the scope of the project, and the time commitment required.

Depending on the size of your brand and your business goals, it is worth every penny.

Not only can they help you stay on top of your brand's online reputation, but they can also provide valuable insights into your target audience, industry trends, and competitor activity. Your current marketing team will love this new addition, as it will enable them to build effective social media marketing plans. 

If you plan to hire a social media marketing freelancer to help monitor your social networks to respond to a PR crisis, account for the fact that they might have to charge you more, as these situations require more time to fix than normal, day-to-day social listening. 

Skills top social listening freelancers have

Already decided on hiring a marketing manager to handle your social listening? Since this person's skillset has to be at the confluence between multiple marketing disciplines, general marketing skills are a must. Aside from that, look for someone with the following aptitudes: 

Social media marketing

A social media listening freelancer with skills in social media marketing understands how to apply insights from social media listening to optimize social media marketing campaigns. They can use the information gathered from social listening to target customers with effective campaigns.

This can result in improved engagement, increased followers, and ultimately, higher ROI for the business in question. Therefore, having skills in social media marketing can complement a social media listening freelancer's work and add more value to their clients.

Communication

Social listening experts should be able to communicate their findings in a clear, concise, and compelling way. Someone who is available to communicate any emergencies in a timely manner has mastered the art of communicating effectively -- and that's exactly who you want on your tea for the social listening role. 

Social media tools

A social media listening freelancer should have a range of tools in their arsenal to effectively monitor and analyze social media conversations. Some essential tools include Hootsuite, Sprout Social, Mention, Brandwatch, and Google Alerts.

These tools allow the freelancer to track brand mentions, monitor social media conversations, and analyze social media data, providing valuable insights to businesses. 

Analytics and insights

Social media managers should have a knack for analyzing data and extracting insights from social media conversations to inform their clients' strategies. At a baseline level, a digital marketing specialist should have Google Analytics knowledge, to provide insight and report on key metrics. 

Collaboration

Sometimes, social listening can lead to unexpected findings or challenges, so these listening experts should have a creative and flexible mindset to adapt and find solutions.

How to hire a social listening specialist

Not sure how to find the best social listening expert for your business? Here's a hiring process you could use: 

Post on a job board

Posting on a job board is a great way to find a social media listening specialist. However, it can be time-consuming and may not guarantee that you will find the right candidate for your needs.

Additionally, you may receive a high volume of applications, which can be overwhelming to sort through. To make the most of your job posting, be clear about the skills and qualifications you are looking for, and be prepared to review resumes, cover letters, and social media profiles to assess each candidate's fit.

Post on social media

Posting on social media is another option for finding a social media listening specialist. This approach can be effective if you have a strong social media presence and an engaged audience. Consider posting about the job opening on your company's social media channels and asking your followers to share the post. This can help you reach a wider pool of potential candidates and may result in finding a candidate who is already familiar with your brand and industry.

Ask your peers
Asking your peers can be a great way to find a social media listening specialist. Reach out to other business owners, industry professionals, or even your personal network and ask if they know of anyone who specializes in social media listening. This can be an efficient way to find a candidate who comes recommended by someone you trust, and who may be a good fit for your business.

Hire on Mayple

Hiring on Mayple is another option to consider when looking for a social media listening specialist. Mayple is a platform that connects businesses with vetted marketing experts who specialize in various areas, including social media listening. When you hire on Mayple, you can be confident that you are working with an expert with a proven track record of success.

Plus, Mayple offers a streamlined hiring process and ongoing support to ensure you and your specialist work well together.

Questions to ask a social listening professional

When looking to hire a social listening professional, there are several kinds of questions business owners can ask to help determine if they are the right fit for your business:

1. What tools and technologies do you use for social listening?
2. Can you provide examples of past clients or projects and the results achieved through social listening?
3. How do you approach developing a social listening strategy for a new client?
4. How do you handle negative comments or feedback on social media?
5. How do you measure the success of a social listening campaign?
6. What social channels do you have expertise in?
7. Describe a basic social media marketing strategy.
8. Give some examples of emerging social media trends or general marketing trends.
9. What industry trends have you noticed for our niche?
10. What makes you an ideal candidate?
11. Give us an example of how you integrate social listening into different business systems? 
12. Have you ever collaborated with Business Development pros as a social listening expert? 
13. Can you give us some social media listening examples from businesses you appreciate? 
14. Have you ever worked with a crew of freelancers (e.g., have you ever collaborated with social media freelancers to bring social listening and content creation together, as part of a campaign?)
15. How does social listening help build a social media community? 
16. Have you ever done community management or community engagement as an additional service? 
17. How does social listening help build a loyal community? 
18. How do you find who your ideal audience is? 
19. What is your favorite social listening tool -- and why do you think it's the best? 
20. Aside from social listening tools, what other social media analytics tools or social media management tools do you use?

By asking these questions, you learn more about your candidate's professional's experience and expertise in social listening, as well as their approach to problem-solving and client management. This will help you select the best social listening professional for your business.