Francis Bacon once said that “knowledge is power” and today, in the era of the Internet and advanced technology, I think this phrase is more on the money than ever.

Before joining SentiOne, I’ve been considering social media channels as a way to express myself and stay in touch with my friends and family. However, things have changed over the past few months – now I can clearly see that there’s much more to it. So much more.

Everything comes down to asking the right question – what exactly do we need to know. Defining this step is crucial and will allow us to focus on the given topic. Imagine being just a few minutes away from answering such questions as:

1. “Who’s more popular – my brand or our competition?“

Nowadays you can’t rely on old-fashioned research anymore. In order to stay on top of everything, you need a continuous view on your competition. One of the ways of doing it is to analyse all of their activities in real time.

Let’s have a look at one of my favourite industries – musical instruments. If we look at two guitar brands and Ibanez in the last 30 days, we can see that there was a massive peak in mentions on September 30.

So, what happened on that day?

Just by looking at the activity on that day, we can see that two things happened:

* Ola Englund (famous Youtuber) released his new video that focused on Chapman Guitars, and his audience was engaging in the discussion.
* Chapman Guitars announced that they would be endorsing Perfecto de Castro, a multi-awarded guitarist.

Conclusion: Although Chapman Guitars is relatively new to the business, they know that thanks to social media and influencer marketing they can reach out to a huge audience. The power lies in being closer to people, being very active, and engage with the community.

2. “Where do people talk about my brand online?”

We tend to believe that all online conversations are being published on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. This is why it’s important to make sure that not only social media channels are being monitored – other sources, such as forums, blog posts, review sites etc. are just as important in understanding where your audience is active.

Just by looking at the chart above, we can see that Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are the most popular channels. But there are also other sources that generate significant activity – in this case, BMW was often mentioned on such sites as VK.com, Motor-Talk.de, rapupdate.de.

Conclusion: Knowing this, I’m able to determine whether I should include future activities on those channels as well. What’s worth remembering – not everyone leaves opinions on social media. Forums and other sites should also be monitored.

3. “Who’s talking about my brand?”

Influencers today are becoming an inseparable part of any major marketing strategy. However, it comes with a certain cost – the more popular an influencer is, the bigger the cost for the promotion. That is why being open to alternative possibilities is always important – so why not look at Opinion Leaders?

Conclusion: Keeping an eye on authors who have the highest reach and are the most active may help in targeting potential micro-influencers. It also goes for influencers who are supposed to publish promoted content – always worth checking how active they are.

4. “How do people perceive my brand online?”

As a brand, it’s necessary to keep a global view on your online activity. That is why it’s important to track what kind of sentiment do the mentions of your brand have and what other words are associated with you. We need to see how healthy our brand actually is.

Looking at the phrases associated with BMW, we can determine that their M5 model is still one of the most popular models available. The overall perception of the brand itself is quite good – the majority of mentions are in favour of the brand (however there’s always room for improvement).

Conclusion: Knowing what kind of phrases are aligned with the brand, we can proceed with increasing our product range using the right words or new concepts to those that still praise your product.

5. “How can I tell which mentions are most popular?”

Knowing which posts are more popular is crucial when it comes to working on increasing our brand awareness – it’s good to know which mention has the highest reach and, hopefully, is it positive.

Conclusion: Analysing mentions with the highest reach lets us focus on a few key factors – whether the most popular post can help us or cause any harm, who has the highest reach, and what we can do in order to draw more attention to our brand.

These are just a few ideas on how social listening can support your actions – I’ve barely scratched the surface of what you can do with SentiOne Listen. If you wish to learn more, read our beginner’s guide to social listening. What’s great is that social media data isn’t the only source you have to rely on – you can keep track of what people are saying from different kinds of channels(from forums to digital newspapers, blogs, review sites, and more). Try Us for Free. This can give you a better understanding of what people think about your brand online.