Using Social Media to Propel your Marketing

social media voice and strategy for effective communication

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.

How Social Media Provides New Insights to Marketers

• Unprecedented Access Two-thirds of Americans on the Internet are social media users and over half post updates to social media sites. When these people need information on products, they seek it from other social media users. This means that online reputation can determine success or failure even in a product’s earliest stages. • Real Time Feedback Companies that monitor social media have the means to learn what their customers really like about their brand as well as their competitors’ brands. The ability to monitor in real time allows them to adjust their strategies immediately and to take advantage of new opportunities. • Clearer Feedback Social media offers a deluge of consumer critiques, which far surpasses anything offered by older methods of getting feedback. Since these methods are more spontaneous than the older and more structured sources like surveys and polls, you get a clearer look at present trends and the true desires of their target audience.

Tools for Social Media Listening

• Google Alerts While Google Alerts does not cover most blog sites or even social media, it does provide a free and basic way to find out when a website has mentioned your company. You will get emails or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. • Facebook Insights This is also free and offers you the ability to set up alerts for mentions of your business. Facebook Insight is offered free by Facebook. • Social Mention Social Mention can show you aggregated social data across multiple platforms including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. It also provides information on the sentiment so that you can see whether the tone of the mentions is positive or negative.

Using Social Media to Fuel Marketing Strategy

The foundation of a useful marketing strategy is a clear picture of a business's perfect customer. Focused listening provides this clarity and tells marketers the general sentiment about their brand and products as well as which social media networks their customers prefer (i.e. where to listen). It also provides them with information on the strengths and weaknesses of the competition. They can learn how to create the ideal tone to take for their audience along with the topics to address and the frequency of posts. During the year's heaviest shopping seasons, savvy consumers are active online seeking suggestions from their friends and comparing products. You can use social media listening to help you to provide seasonal deals and coupons along with helpful information for your customers. As always, 5W is here to help you reach your 2015 Marketing goals; get in touch with us today!

Written by

Ronn Torossian

Ronn Torossian is Founder and Chairman of 5W , the AI Communications Firm. He founded 5W in 2003 and built it into one of the largest independent public relations and digital marketing firms in the United States, with senior practitioners serving corporate communications , consumer brands , technology , financial services , health and wellness , beauty , gaming , crisis communications , and public affairs . Under his leadership, 5W defined AI Communications, building brand authority across ChatGPT , Claude , Perplexity , Gemini , and Google AI Overviews, alongside earned media, digital, GEO, and influencer channels. Industry Recognition 5W has been recognized as a top U.S. PR agency by O’Dwyer’s , Agency of the Year in the American Business Awards , Grand Stevie Most Honored PR Agency, a Ragan Top Place to Work in Communications 2026, Digiday WorkLife Employer of the Year, and a PRovoke Top 50 Global PR Agency. Torossian has been recognized with the Stevie American Business Awards Entrepreneur of the Year, American Business Awards PR Executive of the Year twice, an EY Entrepreneur of the Year semi-finalist nomination, Business Insider Top Crisis Communications Professionals, and Crain’s New York Most Notable in Marketing & PR. Research Franchise 5W’s research franchise has become an industry reference for measuring brand visibility inside AI-generated answers, including the AI Visibility Index Series , The GEO Reckoning , The Missing Rung Report, and the 5W AI Power User Study , which identified a 99-point AI favorability gap. Crisis Communications Torossian is one of the world’s foremost crisis communications experts. He has counseled blue chip companies, public company boards, founders, and public figures through ransomware incidents, data breaches, regulatory investigations, high-stakes litigation, activist investors, product recalls, and reputational crises. He has taught crisis communications at Harvard University . Media & Commentary Torossian appears on CNN and CNBC . He is a contributing columnist for Forbes and the New York Observer , his writing on AI communications and brand reputation is published on his personal site, and his commentary has appeared in the Wall Street Journal , Entrepreneur , Adweek , PRWeek , and O’Dwyer’s . Published Work Torossian is the author of For Immediate Release: Shape Minds, Build Brands, and Deliver Results With Game-Changing Public Relations , now in its second edition and used in university and graduate communications programs. He continues that commentary on his own publishing platform , where he writes about reputation, crisis, and AI-mediated discovery. Owner and Publisher, Everything-PR Network Torossian is owner and publisher of the Everything-PR Network , an independent intelligence platform covering public relations, marketing, AI communications, and adjacent industries across 30 publications. Everything-PR is editorially independent from 5W, with published editorial standards and ethics standards . The network is one of the most-cited sources inside ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini for PR and marketing queries. He is also an active investor and advisor, a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) , and serves on nonprofit boards.

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