Listen, Learn, Leverage : How Social Listening Enhance Organizations’ Marketing Strategies

Abstract: Background Social media has increased tremendously in users during the last years, which consequently has transformed the way people create, collaborate and communicate information. Given the wide usage, the opportunity for businesses to listen and analyze consumers' opinions online has increased. The technique of analyzing user-generated content from various social media channels is a tactic where companies can utilize their capacity and improve future business. Social listening is an active process where companies can attend, observe, interpret and respond to a variety of stimuli created by consumers on social media platforms.   Purpose The purpose of this research is to understand how organizations manage social listening and how the activities in the process can be implemented to leverage impacts for organizations’ marketing strategies. The purpose is refined by addressing the research questions:      -       How do organizations manage the social listening process?   -       How can the activities in the social listening process be implemented to enhance the leverage of impacts on the organization’s marketing strategy? Method To carry out the research purpose, a qualitative research through a descriptive multiple case study design was performed. Empirical data was collected through eight semi-structured interviews with professionals within the field. The primary data was reviewed in relation to previously conducted research by thematic analysis to answer the research questions.   Conclusion              The research finds that organizations’ intention of integrating social listening is to deepen the understanding of the market to incorporate the results in their marketing strategy. Empirical findings explain the social listening process by emphasizing on the importance of establishing intentions to facilitate the choice of process, separating qualitative and quantitative data, and to carefully chosen dissemination strategy, to leverage the impacts on marketing strategies as a result of social listening.