Listening to Your Audience on Social Media

A strong social media relationship is just as much about listening as it is about talking. It is therefore important that you listen in to what your target audience is talking about and joining in on the conversations by offering helpful tips and information.

Hashtags (#)
Hashtags are very helpful in finding conversations – especially those about a special event like a business summit, small business week, social media conference. Though Twitter popularized the use of hashtags, it is also used on other social networking platforms like Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and Vine. 

Sample of hashtags:

#MACsPerfectPitch
#SmallBizSaturday
#SocialMedia

In most cases, searching a keyword with a hashtag will give you all social media posts or updates that include that tag.

Why use hashtags?
They not only provide you with a convenient way to see what everyone is saying about a particular event or topic, hashtags also allow you to take part in the conversation.

Let’s use #MACsPerfectPitch as an example.

• Before the event: Say, you’ve signed up for a vendor table at the event and you see in a tweet when you search for the #MACsPerfectPitch hashtag that a potential customer will be joining the event. You can send her a DM letting her know that you too will be at the event as a vendor. Invite her to visit your table at the event. Your potential customer will surely remember your invitation during the event and she’ll be more likely to visit your table and connect with you at the event.

• During the event: Hours before the event, you see a tweet asking about some event info. If you know the answer, you can respond to the tweet with the information. You can then tell her that you’ll be at the event as a vendor. That will most likely visit your table because you just helped her out!

•  After the event: Search for the hashtag #MACsPerfectPitch again to find the attendees feedback. If you see that people are talking positively about it, you may want to tell the organizer in advance about joining the event again next time.

Hashtags Tools
Now that you know the importance of hashtags, how do you follow them as conversations happen in real time? Following are two helpful tools to help you do just that:

• Twubs. This tool specifically searches Twitter. You just type the hashtag into the search field and it will automatically give you the conversations you’re looking for. If you’re not sure what the hashtag is for a particular event, just make a good guess – Twub has an auto-complete feature and will suggest hashtags closest to your guess.  Twub also has additional useful features. 
• Tagboard. This tool allows you to follow a hashtag across different platforms including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Vine, Google+ and App.net. The user interface is very easy to navigate and it allows you to save your searches for future use. Tagboard makes it convenient to follow & join social media conversations no matter where they are happening. 

Final Thoughts..
Like any other relationship, your social media relationship with your audience requires thoughtful attention.  Learning about the behavior of your fans and followers is the first big step to building a strong social media relationship.