Social listening refers to tracking and analyzing conversation and trends related to your brand.

Step 1: involves monitoring social media platforms for mentions of your brand, product services, competitors and any related keywords.

Step 2, is when you analyze the information you've collected and plan actions based on what you've learned.

Social listening also provides an opportunity for you to engage with your customers and followers about your brand.

Social media sentiment is the attitude and feelings people have about your brand on social media. Learning how people feel about your brand helps you identify what's working with your social media marketing strategy and where you need to make changes.

When there is negative social media sentiment being expressed about your brand, social listening can help you pinpoint its cause and address the issue.

For instance, you might learn that your competitors' customers are unhappy with a particular product. Then you could strategize ways to improve upon a similar product.

Social media provides many opportunities for reaching potential new customers.

Hashtags are the kind of digital label that help people find content across social media platforms.

A hashtag is a word or phrase preceded by the pound symbol that indicates that a piece of content relates to a specific topic or category.

HubSpot Social Media Management Software

Sprout Social

Falcon.io + Brandwatch (Falcon.io is now part of Brandwatch)

Hootsuite

Social media engagement measures how people are interacting with your social media accounts and content.

A report by Sprout Social found that when customers feel connected to a brand, more than half of them will increase their spending on that brand. More than three-quarters will continue to buy from them rather than from a competitor.

=> do those things to understand what types of stories that resonates this platform <its bold sentence is really important>

Identify themes that are important to your business

If you are responding to internet trolls, the short answer is: don’t. An internet troll is a person who intentionally antagonizes others online by posting inflammatory, unnecessary, or offensive comments or other disruptive content that shouldn’t necessarily be replied to. This is typically the only time you’re encouraged not to reply to users on social media. Unfortunately, trolling is a reality of social media, and a common one at that. The more your brand grows, the more trolls you will get. If you know your brand didn’t do anything wrong, simply don’t reply. If the trolling gets worse, consider deleting the comments or hiding the replies.

thank them for the kind words, and consider reposting or Retweeting their feedback.

Engaging with customers should be fun and informative for both parties, and your customers should be able to tell you’re having fun based on the type of responses you give.

Don’t be afraid to use creative language and exclamation marks, if it aligns with your brand voice.

It’s best to remain calm and use helpful, polite, and approachable language.

If there is a clear issue that has the potential to become something larger, you may have to offer refunds or promotional codes to make things right. In these situations, encourage them to send you a direct message so the issue can be resolved quickly and privately.

If the response could be helpful to other people who may have the same concerns or thoughts as the original poster, you may choose to answer it publicly so everyone can benefit from the interaction.

Mobile marketing is a digital marketing strategy aimed at reaching your target audience on their smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices.

Opportunities to make personal connections with customers

Therefore, be sure to highlight important points or product features at the beginning of videos, and keep your videos short—no more than 15 to 30 seconds.

Live video is another engaging option for mobile marketing. You can broadcast live from your business on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram Live, or another platform to generate interest and engagement.

Asking customers to “check in” at your business on social media is a great way to gain earned media. Checking in lets customers’ friends and followers on social media know that they are patronizing your business. Offering incentives like discounts, coupons, and rewards programs can encourage customers to check in.

Review your company's current and past content.

While voice is an expression of your brand's personality, tone is how your brand's voice is applied.

The tone of your content can differ based on factors like audience, situation, and platform.

Brand voice guidelines describe the way your brand should be presented in writing.

Use simple graphics. Graphics that have too many details aren’t fully understood or appreciated in a few seconds. Keeping graphics simple and elegant helps your message remain clear.

Use colors that drive more engagement. Even if your organization or agency has a recommended color palette, you can sometimes include a contrasting color or tint to grab people’s attention. However, make sure you get approval when you veer away from a brand’s approved colors. For help choosing colors that look good together, consult a resource that provides recommendations on color combinations. For example, try the

Use contrast to help put the focus on key elements. It doesn’t always have to be acolorcontrast. You can also use variations in size, texture, shape, layout, and font.

Use text that is easy to read. Text should be easy to read so it doesn’t distract users from the full impact of visuals..

Use a variety of styles. Although certain styles clearly make a company or brand recognizable, using the same style for all social media content gets boring. Shake it up and surprise users with a variety of styles. Be playful and adjust text sizes, colors, and weights for full effect.

Use smart branding. Users should know what brand you’re highlighting without your brand being mentioned repeatedly, or your logo visible at all times. Place branding in or near key images for users to find when they want it.

Use principles of visual hierarchy. Visual hierarchy enables users to observe overall meaning before they gather details from individual elements. A structured hierarchy of visual components can group elements together, place elements in a natural or predictable pattern (such as reading from left to right), or lead to the most important elements to click on.

Use a call to action. A call to action is an instruction that tells the customer what to do next. Whether it’s liking, sharing, or commenting, include a call to action in your social media content to reach more users.

Use visuals across multiple platforms. Design, optimize, and re-use graphics, photos, and videos across multiple social media platforms. For example, a photo on Instagram can be reused on Facebook.

Use and create templates. Use and create templates for social media content that is successful. Doing so enables you to create similar content with a high likelihood of success.

Repurposing content is a process of recreating and republishing content in different formats.

reach audiences who missed the post the first time you published it

allows you to create something completely new and original from your existing images, videos, and text.

evergreen content is relevant over a long period of time or time constrained.

For example, event-specific content would not be ideal to repurpose.

Eg: Maybe you've posted a how-to-guide with bullet points or a list of suggestions. You can break that list up into a series of posts.