Marketing communicators across all verticals now have a new tool to assist their clients – social listening. Social listening is the process of tracking conversations around specific topics and leveraging your insights to discover opportunities or create content. Its helping shape the way organizations approach their business strategy.

For B2C brands, social listening is a valuable tool for uncovering insights from the conversations on social media platforms.

When it comes to B2B organizations, social listening poses additional challenges but also opens up a world of possibility for informing communications and business strategies.

Here are four ways your B2B strategy can benefit from social listening:

1.    Understand ongoing industry trends

The B2B industry often has significantly less social conversations than B2C verticals, but that doesn't mean the discussions aren't worth understanding. Social listening allows your brand to stay one step ahead of competitors by keeping a finger on the pulse of the issues and trends in your industry.

2.    Go beyond social monitoring

Everyone monitors their social media accounts for mentions or likes, but social listening can take it one step further. Listening goes beyond the conversations that just include your organization and allows you to understand what these discussions mean for the industry-at-large.

3.    Gain the full picture

If your organization has an understanding of ongoing conversations, your communications team can tailor content and generate campaigns that resonate with your target audience. This approach not only informs your content strategy but also allows your teams to serve customers more efficiently and effectively.

4.    Identify potential brand advocates

Do you know who the top influencers in your industry are? In B2B sectors, top influencers may not have a massive social following, but they are often guiding conversations with stakeholders in your industry.

Social listening uncovers these individuals and groups, which can lead to partnerships and the development of brand advocates.

While B2B companies may not generate a lot of social conversation, social listening is put to best use to generate prospects, watch the competition, identify brand advocates, collect feedback and much more!

Interested in learning more about implementing a social listening strategy for your B2B business? Contact us: aboutsage.com/connect.

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