Have you ever wanted to understand what people think about your brand or product? One way to do it is by using social media listening.
Social media listening is a way of using social media management software to monitor what people are saying about your company, products, competitors, or industry on social platforms.
If that sounds useful, you’re right. For marketers, social media listening can be a way to tap in to what is and isn’t working - and build loyal customer advocates along the way.
Want to learn how social media listening increases customer advocacy? We’ll who you and provide real examples of companies who’ve used it to their advantage.
5 Ways Social Media Can Increase Customer Advocacy
Social media listening can help you gain priceless insights to strengthen relationships by tuning in to relevant conversations. Monitoring platforms not only helps you deliver better experiences, but also allows you to identify and empower your biggest supporters.
Here are some ways social media listening can create customer advocates - and some examples of companies who used social media to successfully increase advocacy.
1. Improve the Customer Experience
At the heart of customer advocacy is an exceptional customer experience. That means every interaction a person has with your company, from browsing the website to unboxing a purchase, should be stellar. Crafting phenomenal experiences at each touchpoint leads to happy and loyal customers. In turn, they promote your brand to their networks.
So, how does listening on social media relate? Simple, you get unfiltered opinions and feedback. People openly discuss frustrations, ask questions, and rave about what they love. Tuning in lets you "hear" exactly what your audience thinks about your brand, products, content, and more.
Specific ways you can use these insights are:
- Enhance website experiences based on feedback.
- Add features users request.
- Create content and products addressing pain points.
- Shift marketing strategies to align with trends.
Example: How Casual Comments Led to a Major Reputation Boost
An Australian marketing agency was looking to improve a local hotel's reputation. They used Brandwatch to track mentions about the company across Facebook, X, and travel forums.
What they uncovered were constant complaints about slow WiFi that did not appear in the company's official feedback forms. Instead, they popped up on late night rants on social media posts and offhand comments on TripAdvisor.
At the same time, people were posting about how much they loved the hotel's pool - an asset that hadn't been given much space in the hotel's marketing.
As a result of what they'd learned, the hotel upgraded the WiFi and began promoting the pool as as premium feature, inlcuding posting more visual content of the pool across Instagram.
The results? Within three months, online complaints about the WiFi dropped by 60%, and engagement on pool-related posts more than doubled.
"Insights like this don't come from a standard dashboard. They come from listening to the stuff people say off the cuff, in comments, replies, and passing mentions," said Sean Clancy, the managing director at SEO Gold Coast who led the campaign. "Those are the conversations that tell you what's really going on.
2. Humanize Your Brand Through Engagement
Social listening allows you to identify opportunities to interact with customers. You can join existing conversations that relate to your industry or brand and offer expertise, assistance, or entertainment value rather than always pushing products.
Responding in public forums humanizes your brand. It puts a helpful human face behind your logo, not just a faceless corporation. Likewise, being proactive about assisting customers demonstrates your responsiveness to their needs. This level of care and attention nurtures lasting relationships with vocal supporters.
You can also use social listening to monitor brand mentions or tags, addressing questions or feedback quickly and transparently.
The goal is to facilitate meaningful exchanges that make supporters feel valued instead of targeted with ads. Building genuine connections earns you goodwill with audiences most likely to endorse you later.
A few best practices to engage with advocates:
- Monitor hashtags related to your industry to contribute insights.
- Set alerts for your brand name and handle to promptly assist followers.
- Thank supporters when they share UGC or positive reviews.
- Ask followers questions to spark a dialogue.
- Spot customer pain points and offer helpful solutions in a public manner.
Example: Responding and Rewarding UGC Creators
Katerina Bojkov, Head of Growth at EmbedSocial, uses social media listening to both engage customers and drive referrals. Their team tracks mentions on platforms like Google Reviews, X, and Instagram in real time to find user-generated content (UGC) and connect directly with people who are already excited about their product.
Through this kind of listening, they’ve uncovered loyal customers who naturally talk about EmbedSocial and started conversations with them to encourage referrals.
For them, it’s not just about managing reputation. It’s about finding fans, learning from real conversations, and turning those insights into community-driven growth.
3. Reward Customers Easily
Building real relationships is a two-way street. So, after identifying top fans through social listening, you have to show some love back. Spotlight their contributions to make supporters feel special.
A simple retweet or share of their post can go a long way toward showing your appreciation. Repost positive reviews, stunning product photos, or case studies. Or shout out supporters when they proudly tag your brand. These mini-spotlights make fans feel good while exposing their content to new eyeballs.
Aim for UGC
To take it up a notch, incentivize user-generated content in the first place. Run advocacy campaigns asking your audience for reviews, testimonials, or product photos. Make it fun with social media giveaways and contests, or hashtag challenges focused on creativity. Then, re-share the best community submissions far and wide. You could even attach discounts or free products to spark excitement.
The goal here is to let advocates know you notice and value them. Social listening helps you easily spot the brand cheerleaders who are already talking about you. Use that intel to feature them prominently across channels – from email newsletters to website testimonials.
4. Gain Insight into Competitor Tactics
Social listening is also a way to spy on competitors. Tune into their branded hashtags and keywords. Learn what offerings, campaigns, or initiatives spark conversation among their audiences. See what fans ask them. This helps identify strengths and weaknesses to capitalize on.
You can also gauge sentiment towards competitor brands over time. Track whether new product launches generate excitement or fall flat. Monitor how crises play out in the court of public opinion and analyze ups and downs to sharpen your own approach.
Learn from competitor wins:
- What content formats or campaigns drive the most engagement?
- How are competitors positioning their brand identities?
- What unique value do they claim to offer?
- What partnerships or collaborations raise awareness?
Capitalize on competitor misses:
- What offerings do fans find underwhelming?
- Where do customers express frustration or confusion?
- How can you meet unmet needs that competitors ignore?
Optimizing against the present competition is one thing. But social listening also allows you to keep tabs on emerging brands before they disrupt your space.
Potential "category winners" first make waves online among early adopters. Tech startups may boast new capabilities that traditional vendors lack. Or direct-to-consumer upstarts undercut the pricing of established players.
Get ahead of such threats before they reach mainstream consciousness through social listening which helps you play both offense and defense regarding competitors.
5. Monitor New Trends
Today's viral content quickly becomes tomorrow's old news. Social listening helps your brand stay ahead of emerging trends before competitors catch on.
Monitor relevant hashtags and keywords to identify rising topics bubbling up. Recurring themes show what audiences are newly intrigued by. For example, a wave of TikTok recipes may spotlight a previously obscure cooking technique.
Such early signals allow you to lead the conversation. You can quickly craft content and products that cater to rising trends and be seen as innovative. Social listening is also critical for identifying potential viral moments worth harnessing.
Example: Using Social Listening to Uncover a Hidden Pain Point
Tracie Crites, Chief Marketing Officer at HEAVY Equipment Appraisal, used social media listening to identify a gap in the market - and turn it into revenue.
They noticed a recurring thread of concern in LinkedIn groups and niche industry forums for agricultural equipment. Farmers and dealers were openly worried about the future resale value of specialized machinery, especially as new technologies rapidly changed the market. This anxiety didn’t show up in traditional research or customer outreach - but it kept coming up in peer discussions.
Using a mix of Brandwatch and manual monitoring, the team tracked around 200 conversations over three weeks, setting alerts for keywords related to obsolescence, residual value, and specific machine models. What they found was clear: buyers were hesitant because they didn’t feel confident about how long their investment would hold value.
That insight led to a targeted content campaign designed to address long-term value and resale trends.
The result? Within two months, qualified leads in this sector rose by 40% - and three new appraisal contracts worth over $150,000 were directly linked to the content.
How Social Media Management Tools Can Help
We've covered the immense value of social listening for identifying and engaging potential advocates. But to implement a listening strategy, you need the right tools. With so many software platforms and strategies promising perfect solutions, choosing the best fit can get confusing. Here's how to get started.
Define SMART Goals
The best social listening strategies align with clear business objectives. Define SMART goals to track performance over time. Consider overarching targets to move metrics like brand awareness, sales revenue, or customer satisfaction.
Then, outline social listening outcomes that ladder up. For example:
- Increase share of voice by 15% within the next year.
- Improve negative sentiment by 30% by [date].
- Generate 500 new customer testimonials within the next 6 months.
Having distinct objectives allows you to measure impact and optimize approaches. But before you can measure some of these metrics, you need the right tools to track them. Therefore, make sure that your goals match the capabilities of your software.
Choose the Right Software
In most cases, it makes little sense to get software just for social listening alone. Since it's part of social media management, we recommend choosing a management software that offers the corresponding listening features to avoid paying separately for different platforms.
If you are already using a social media management software, first check if it offers any listening features and how they stack up with your plans.
In case they are not sufficient enough or you're open to switching software, we recommend going for Sprout Social and their Listening addon for the most premium features you could ask for.
If you're looking for basic listening features and an overall great value for money, check our list of best social media management tools. There you'll find our list of the top solutions on the market.
Monitor Brand Mentions
Once you have a social media listening tool, it's time to start monitoring conversations about your brand. But don't limit monitoring to tagged brand name drops only. That just reveals the tip of the advocacy iceberg. Listen for alternate spellings, shorthand versions, or even common misspellings of your company name, too.
Also, track industry terms and competitors, or the handles of rival brands. This captures a broader scope of conversations that you can track and tap into.
Set a rhythm to analyze the data as well, or you’ll risk getting overwhelmed by the volume. That could be every morning, weekly, or whatever cadence aligns with your operations tempo. The bottom line is to make listening an always-on initiative, not a one-off thing.
Engage with Your Target Audience
Instead of old-school "broadcast only" marketing, social listening is about two-way dialogue. Don't wait for followers to mention your brand. Jump into industry conversations proactively when you can provide value on related topics.
Think Tweets, Instagram Posts & Reels, Reddit threads, or Quora Q&As related to your niche. Share expertise without aggressive selling. Build goodwill and relationships with prospects already interested in your space.
A helpful and not predatory presence works magic. Just be sure to approach these interactions with authenticity. Customers can spot a canned response from a mile away. Take the time to craft thoughtful, personalized replies.
Address Negative Comments
The truth is, it won't be all sunshine and rainbows when you open the social floodgates. Brace yourself for some inevitable negatives. Don't panic and keep cool no matter how hot the water gets and move conversations from defensive to solution-focused. In delicate situations, limit wider damage before online wildfires rage out of control. The most advanced listening tools even help spot emerging issues early when sentiments start souring. It’s always better to course-correct earlier rather than make excuses later.
Importance of Customer Advocacy
Customer advocates provide tremendous value for companies of any size. Their authentic endorsements build trust and credibility more than any marketing campaign could. Plus, passionate supporters spread the word about your products through their own social channels.
Having vocal brand champions provides numerous benefits, including:
- Increased Brand Awareness: Customer advocates expand your reach by exposing new audiences to your products and services. Their organic mentions and recommendations help more potential customers discover your brand.
- Greater Organic Reach: Unpaid word-of-mouth referrals have higher conversion rates than paid advertising. Advocates multiply the impact of your marketing efforts through their networks.
- Differentiation From Competitors: Positive customer endorsements in a crowded market set you apart. User reviews and testimonials build trust in your offerings over others.
- Builds Trust and Credibility: People trust recommendations from friends and influencers more than corporate claims. Customer advocates provide credibility as unbiased endorsers.
- Higher Customer Lifetime Value: Loyal, vocal customers have much higher CLV. Their repeat business and referrals increase long-term profitability.
- Informs Content Creation: User-generated content like reviews, how-tos, and testimonials can inspire your own content efforts. You can also repurpose their social shares.
Conclusion
By paying attention to conversations across social media, brands can unlock insights for making customers feel heard and valued. It goes beyond tracking mentions to deeply understanding needs, addressing concerns, and highlighting the positives.
This process operates on two levels. Initially, it’s about acknowledgment, where customers feel their voices are recognized through the engagement of a brand. However, it becomes even more transformative when they see their feedback is sparking real changes and improvements. This progression from being heard to witnessing action deepens trust and loyalty significantly.
Acting on what people want from you showcases your commitment not just to sell but to serve and delight, building a genuine connection. This is how social media listening shifts casual conversations into deep customer advocacy, making it powerful for nurturing enthusiastic brand supporters eager to share their positive experiences.
