Social media listening

Your potential customer is chattering away. Are you taking the time to listen?

It’s always so great when you have a wonderful social media experience.

And I just had one I’d like to share with you because it shows what is possible.

This one happened to me on Twitter.

Backstory

So I’m fortunate to live in a flat in a grade II listed Georgian former ammunitions factory (part of the old Royal Woolwich Arsenal where they made cannon balls that helped Britain to rule the Seven Seas). It’s a wonderful place to live and as a boy from Red Deer, Alberta, where the oldest building probably dates from 1925, I never expected to live in a warehouse that dates from 1806.

BUT

As lovely as it is, those big Georgian arched windows are single-paned glass. And the frames let quite a lot of air through.

Which means when the weather starts to turn cold, so does my home.

Since I work from home several days per week, this is really felt when I’m trying to type on the computer and my fingers are stiffening up from the cold (and this is with the central heating on).

Anyway, this is the backstory to the twitter incident I wish to discuss.

Social Media listening in action

So today I was freezing and I decided to tweet about it. I thought it might be something that would amuse my readers (and as I preach in my ebook about social media – get your copy here – that it’s important to share about yourself in social media and not just promote your upcoming gigs) but I never thought anyone else would pay attention.

So imagine my surprise when I received a message from a glass shop!

See the thread below.

Analysis

This is a perfect example of someone listening for conversations on Twitter with potential customers. Padiham Glass sells double glazing. I’m complaining about cold windows. It’s a marriage made in heaven.

So they took a punt.

Now it turns out I can’t change my windows because they are listed. But if I was in a position to change them, I might have responded positively to Padiham Glass and asked for a quote.

Even though I can’t take them up on their windows, I was impressed at their mastery of social media listening.

See they listened and when they saw an opportunity, they took it. In a way that was polite, helpful and appropriate.

Your turn

What might your potential customers be complaining about on social media? And how could your creative goods or service help them?

They don’t need to be someone you already know. The beauty of Twitter is you can send an @message to anyone. You can use the search function to find people who are saying things relevant to what you do and you can engage with them.

A customer base for your work is built one customer at a time and by taking the time to engage with your customers on a one-to-one basis you will find the ones who want or need what you have to offer.

Examples

If you are a visual artist look for someone moving into a new house or flat. Maybe they need some artwork for their new walls?

If you sell crafts you could look for people who mention shopping for someone’s birthday or wondering what to buy someone for christmas.

If you write mystery books and someone announces a big holiday coming up, maybe they haven’t sorted out their beach reading? You could always propose your latest novel with a link to where they can buy the Kindle download.

It might not work, but you never know who else might read their feed.

As long as you do it in a way that is polite and helpful you aren’t likely to offend anyone.

I realise this works better with people who sell a product instead of a service. But get creative. If someone tweets about having a dinner party maybe they would welcome having some live music or someone to deliver some poetry. You NEVER know.  But if you don’t try, you will never succeed.

Engaging in social media listening and putting yourself out there on Twitter is pretty easy and pretty low risk. So take some chances.

Set yourself a goal to use the search function everyday to find ONE person you could engage in a conversation where your creative good or service could solve their problem. See what happens.

Report back here and let me know what you discover from your social media listening.