Be all ears on social media

You’ve set up social media accounts—perfect! All business owners should have them. Now, please say you’re posting, updating and paying attention to them. Underline that last part. Monitoring social media accounts is key to gaining customer understanding, and all you need to do is listen. Social media is the place customers go to rant, rave and review products and businesses—even business owners. It’s like small business surveillance to get the inside story about what people say and think about your brand, as well as identify leads and build relationships. Most small business owners use multiple social media platforms, and while we don’t recommend trolling sites all day in lieu of getting actual work done, there are a myriad of ways to keep up with what’s happening. Some options include: Google Alerts: Easy and free, you’ll get emails in your inbox anytime your company’s name is mentioned online. Perch: An app that monitors reviews and social posts about you (and your competition). Hootsuite: A dashboard to manage all of your social sites. Take advantage of what you hear to improve and grow, respond to customers, build relationships, find yourinfluencers and create a well-oiled social media marketing machine