Smart content marketers know that listening to their customers is crucial. That's why good listening tools are available online. A listening tool is a tool that helps you find out what your customers are saying online about you and your brand. For example, if someone mentions your brand in a tweet, you want to know about it. These tools help you find those mentions and comments.
Here are a few tools that will help you stay in touch with what your customers are talking about:
Social Mention
This is a great, free, real-time tool that monitors the web and social media. You type in your topic and you get back information on sentiment, top keywords, top users, top hashtags, and sources of content.
Google Alerts
This tool is very easy to use. Put in the names or product brands you are interested in, and you’ll be notified when they show up.
TweetReach
This tool helps you monitor everything happening on Twitter related to your search. It includes your topics, hashtags, competitors, and accounts.
IceRocket
This is a great free tool that you can use to monitor your topics on both blogs and Twitter in real time.
Quora
This is a different kind of listening tool. Use it to see what people are asking about your topic. It gives you a good perspective on how people approach a topic and what really concerns them. You will also find interesting answers to these questions from other users.