Track Trending Topics and Stay Ahead of the Curve With Social Listening

As a multi-location marketer, wouldn’t it be helpful to understand which topics are trending in your industry? Similarly, don’t you want to know what tactics your competition utilizes to win sales? All of this is possible with social listening. Social listening allows your multi-location business to monitor your brand’s social media channels for any direct or indirect mentions of your brand, topics related to your industry, and your competitors. We’ll dive deeper into what social listening is and how your business can leverage it to capitalize on trending topics and stand out from the competition within this blog. 

Trending Topics and Social Listening 

One critical component of a solid localized marketing strategy is relevance. Your business’s marketing efforts should relate to your target audience, and staying on top of the latest trending topics can help. For instance, if your multi-location business is in the fitness industry and sees an increase in mentions around kickboxing classes or a specific type of pre-workout, this information can be helpful. This doesn’t mean that you need to add kick-boxing classes to your local gym right away, but it is worth keeping an eye on and seeing if it’s worth the investment. Your multi-location business could also share timely news on the benefits of pre-work and mention the brand that is gaining popularity. Staying relevant can help your multi-location business differentiate itself as an industry leader. 

When looking at trending and relevant industry topics, you may also discover frequent conversations around your business. Are there multiple conversations talking about your fitness center’s indoor heated pool? If so, promote this feature on your local social channels, and ensure it’s being highlighted on your local pages. On the other hand, if people talk about your business’s lack of parking, you can post tips for finding parking on social media and beyond. If consumers realize that your business is paying attention to what they’re saying online and make adjustments accordingly, they’ll be more likely to remember your business when the time comes to make a purchase.  

Tracking Competitors and Making Optimizations 

Keeping track of your competitors and their performance is no easy task, but social listening can get the job done. Similar to monitoring social media and other conversations for trending topics, it can also monitor mentions of your competition. For instance, if a potential consumer posts on social media about their experience doing business with a competitor, you can gain essential insights from the comment. Does the competitor have a friendly staff that goes above and beyond to help customers? Are people raving about a specific food dish at a competing restaurant? What are consumers saying about a competitor’s prices compared to yours? 

While you don’t want to make drastic changes based on one positive mention about a competitor’s quality of customer service, it’s something to keep in mind. If there are patterns in conversations about the competition that reveals an area where your multi-location business may be lacking, that’s something to consider. Social listening allows your business to work smarter, not harder. 

Keeping An Eye Out For User-Generated Content (UGC)

User-generated content (UGC) is another excellent way to optimize your marketing efforts. Some UGC might not mention your brand directly or could get lost in the noise without the help of social listening. You can discover, save, and reshare local UGC with the help of social listening. Resharing consumers’ content is a great way to engage and continue a conversation about your multi-location business. When looking for UGC, it’s always important to request permission from the consumer before resharing the content, which conveniently provides another opportunity to engage. The more you engage with UGC, the more people will see that your multi-location business cares about and engages with its consumers, which will create more meaningful connections. Consumers who feel connected to brands buy from their locations. Check out our Localized Social Content Guide for more insight into incorporating UGC into your local social strategy. 

Start Building a Winning Social Listening Solution 

Once you have uncovered trending topics, UGC, and tactics competitors are using, what do you do with it? It’s important not to let this insight go to waste! Incorporating your findings into your comprehensive localized marketing strategy is a must. For instance, as previously mentioned, your multi-location business can include trending and timely topics in your local social plan. Similarly, if you find great UGC, you can promote that content on your local website pages or local social. When thinking about competitors, if your business discovers a tactic that the competition is using that’s working that your company hasn’t already leveraged, it’s worth testing. With 100s or 1,000s of business locations, the thought of having to manage social listening and optimize your marketing efforts accordingly can seem daunting, but SOCi is here to help. 

SOCi is the marketing platform for multi-location brands. From local search to local social to local pages and beyond, SOCi has you covered. For instance, SOCi uses natural language processing and machine learning to interpret and classify emotions throughout social pages. This allows businesses to organize positive, negative, or neutral customer engagements, providing better insight into the customer experience. 

 Request a demo today for more information on how SOCi can help you take your listening strategies to the next level and create a winning localized marketing strategy!