Social media monitoring is basically listening.  So, if you haven’t figured out how to start the conversation or join the conversation, start by listening.

Now, of those Best-in-Class companies who have done the listening, here’s what the Aberdeen Group research found:

1. for Best-in-Class companies, 82% experienced an average 9% improvement in identifying & reducing risk and Laggards experienced no change;
2. for Best-in-Class companies, 75% improved customer advocacy by an average 9% and for Laggards, advocacy decreased 2%
3. for Best-in-Class companies, 93% improved their ability to gain customer insights to improve product / service development and for Laggards, reduced correlation to gain insights;
4. for Best-in-Class companies, 63% were able to decrease customer service costs on average by 7% and for Laggards, service costs increased an average 4%;

Listening or social media monitoring can have a significant impact on the company’s performance.  And, soon after, it became almost imperative for these companies to join in the conversation after what they were hearing. 

A need to ask questions or even gain feedback can be a key motivator in participating in the conversation not only to improve the delivery of products & services but increase other key indicators. 

For instance, here are some key benefits for those with a feedback process from social media monitoring:

1. 68% of companies with customer insight process improved customer acquisition; and only 32% without were able to improve customer acquisition;
2. 63% of companies with a customer insight process improved customer referrals; and only 38% without were able to improve customer referals;
3. 62% of companies with a customer insight process increased the customers’ likelihood to recommend their company product or service; and only 32% without were able to increase the likelihood that customers would recommend;

Our ability to be successful is in our ability to act on what we convert what we hear into improvements of our business products, services & processes.