Social listening is the process of using digital tools to monitor what people are saying about brands online.

Marketers who perform social listening are able to gather key insights about their target audiences, competitors, and any potential issues coming their way.

From Facebook to Twitter to Snapchat, brands now have more ways than ever before to connect with their target audiences. With hundreds of apps being launched everyday, determining the inherent business value of emergent social media platforms is not only difficult, but can also be time consuming for marketers.

However, before marketers begin to jump to the next new social media platform, they should do their research and have a clear understanding of their target audiences’ wants, needs, and preferred modes of communication to determine if the platform they want to adopt is the right fit for their business objectives. Given consumers’ growing demand for personal interaction with brands and influencers; and increased interest in real-time promotions and offers, marketers must look for new social apps that encourage consumers’ always connected lifestyles.

Today, many forward-looking marketers are shifting their focus from millennials to Generation Z. While experts disagree on what defines this next wave of young adult spenders, it’s easy to see how this “always connected” generation will have a huge influence on the market as it becomes increasingly digitized.

As technology continues to advance, more and more people around the world are becoming connected. Thanks to the widespread adoption of social media, apps and mobile technology, brands now have even greater opportunities to reach and engage their target audiences.

Making an impact on social media is harder for brands now than it ever has been before. Every social media channel is filled with people trying to make an impact and resonate with potential clients. A recent study from the Journal of Consumer Research has found that people who are active in social media are likely to be influenced by the opinions of those they follow on those social media channels. For marketers and business owners, this means that connecting with trend setters who have a large amount of followers is more important than ever.

These connections and the resulting endorsements can be much more profitable than conventional methods of advertising, which typically cost much more than advertising online. The potential reach of social media trend setters can also be much farther than a television commercial or newspaper ad. The right social media post can go viral, resulting in invaluable exposure for the brand.

Many public relations specialists are realizing that they need to update their skill set and services to remain competitive in an intense, crowded market. Here at 5WPR, we recognize the importance of maintaining a cutting edge, contemporary outlook towards the world of public relations. As a result, we’ve integrated numerous new strategies and techniques to ensure that we can offer our clients the most current, relevant services available on the market.

Here are just a few of the skills we’ve successfully integrated into our praxis and implore all PR Professional’s to think outside the traditional PR box to generate results for their clients!

In order to inform their buying decisions, modern consumers are interested in finding out what others are saying about specific brands and products. Social media offers a platform for them to do this as well as one where marketers and customers can interact. Social media listening is also called social media monitoring and is the process whereby your customers’ conversations about your company and product are assessed. Ways to use social media for customer insight range from paying attention to comments in customer support forums to the use of various software tools for gathering feedback from Twitter and Facebook.

Social media’s benefits include the fact that it allows access to a global audience and provides insight quickly enough for marketers to take effective action. Social media and the technology for listening have been in existence for some time, but many companies have failed to take advantage of it. Below is a look at how social media listening can be beneficial.

Social Media Marketing strategies assume a crucial role in any digital branding campaign. Many people use social networking sites to position themselves as thought leaders. The return on investment with Social Media is huge, because there is no cost associated with creating accounts. The only investment needed is time to monitor and deploy – and a solid social media strategy.

The notion that PR is the new SEO may seem strange, until you consider how drastically the search engine landscape has changed in recent years. Many website owners cringe in anticipation every time Google announces a new update to its search engine algorithm. In the last few years, the Panda, Penguin and Hummingbird updates hit many sites especially hard.

Google has just recently announced a new update to Penguin, which first launched in 2012. With the introduction of Penguin 3.0, even more websites that use outdated SEO tactics are likely to experience penalties and suffer drops in the rankings. How can businesses survive and even thrive in this environment? You may need to change your entire outlook when it comes to SEO and ranking your website. The fact is, the latest Google updates favor PR professionals over the traditional SEO approach.