3 Questions Social Listening Can Answer

3 Questions Social Listening Can Answer:
This year at SxSW you could feel a tension running below the surface of almost every session we attended: the next generation is coming and brands had better be ready for them if they want to survive. This may be overstating things a bit, and yet it’s true that the demands Gen Y and Gen Z will place on brands will differ dramatically than previous generations.
These generations increasingly expect connectivity and immediacy to be a part of almost everything that they do. Adam Edmunds, CEO of Alliance and the speaker at a session called “Gen Y&Z Expectations to Transform Customer Experience” used the illustrative example of his own son: the idea of “live TV” simply does not make sense to his five-year-old. Despite multiple attempts to clarify, this little boy cannot wrap his mind around the fact that he is unable to fast forward through the commercials. Now, you may think that it will be some years yet before that child is the one with the wallet, but be prepared for an entire generation of them that expects to be able to manipulate experiences to suit them.
These generations are raised on technologies that enable, immediacy, connectivity, and input—and will expect to interact with brands in much the same way. An attendee of the same panel posed a question the speakers, along the lines of, “I work with a small team of Gen Y-ers, and I have to say… they are all just self-absorbed and entitled! What happens when we primarily need to sell to these people?”
Gen Y and even more so Gen Z suffer from- let’s be nice and call it “selective attention”. They are very good at filtering out messages that do not matter to them and you will need to know them very well to get their attention. Adam’s advice to her, both for working with and selling to these generations, is that you need to make them feel involved. They want to be active shapers of the world around them, and yes, they do feel that they are entitled to it. So what does this mean for brands?
Social Listening and Analytics will play a crucial role in keeping the heartbeat of your consumers. Three basic questions to frame up social listening efforts:

1. Who’s Doing the Talking?–Which of your consumers are online and who is actually talking about you?
2. What Are They Saying?—while not a replacement for market research, tracking sentiment will give you a quick pulse on how your consumers are feeling.
3. What Else Are They Talking About?—Looking beyond your own category will help you understand where your consumers are engaging in conversations and what is important to them.

That said, we also have to remember what will not change: consumers of all generations are looking for brands to provide meaning. A brand’s ability to create an emotional connection with the consumer is the single biggest driver of loyalty—and will likely remain true with following generations. For more on this, see our study Accelerating Loyalty.