Video Productions Company: Social Listening
Nike’s recent Super Bowl commercial, “So Win,” made a statement with its tagline, “You can’t win. So win.” After a 27-year hiatus, Nike returned to the Super Bowl with a commercial that highlighted the strength and resilience of female athletes like Jordan Chiles, Caitlin Clark, Sabrina Ionescu, Sha’Carri Richardson, A’ja Wilson, and Sophia Wilson. The ad focuses on defying societal limitations and empowering women in sports. It quickly became one of the most discussed commercials of the Super Bowl, generating 188,000 engagement actions and outpacing other advertisers. So, how did Nike land on such an impactful concept? The answer lies in social listening. By tuning into conversations surrounding women in sports, Nike was able to tap into the public’s ongoing discussions about representation and equality. This allowed them to create a video that directly aligned with what their audience was already passionate about. In this article, we will explore how social listening can inform the creation of video content that directly connects with your audience’s interests and concerns. If you are working with a video productions company, these insights can help ensure the content you create is relevant and in tune with what people are talking about.
What is Social Listening and Why Does it Matter?
Social listening is the process of tracking and analysing online conversations across social media platforms, blogs, news articles, and forums. It helps businesses gain an understanding of what people are saying about a brand, product, industry, or even general trends. By monitoring these conversations, businesses can gather insights into customer pain points, preferences, and even popular cultural trends.
While monitoring is a passive activity, social listening takes it a step further by interpreting the data in a way that provides actionable insights. For a video productions company, this means identifying not only what people are talking about but also how they feel about these topics. Are people frustrated? Excited? Curious? Understanding these nuances helps create content that addresses the right concerns and speaks to your audience’s emotions.
Ethical Considerations in Social Listening
It is important to approach social listening ethically. While there is a wealth of public information available across the internet, respecting privacy and adhering to legal guidelines should always be a priority. The data collected should come from publicly available sources, and businesses should refrain from engaging in practices that would make audiences feel like they are being unfairly monitored.
For a video productions company, this means using data from social media platforms, online forums, and public reviews, without intruding on private spaces or personal conversations. It is also important to be transparent in how information is gathered, ensuring that audience trust is maintained.
How Social Listening Helps Shape Video Content
Once social listening is in place, businesses can start drawing insights that directly influence their video content strategy. Here are several ways that social listening can inform the creation of video content:
1. Identifying What Your Audience Is Interested In
One of the first things social listening reveals is what your audience is talking about. Whether it is a new trend, a popular meme, or a specific problem they are facing, these conversations provide a clear direction for video production.
For instance, if people are expressing frustration over a common industry problem, creating a video that offers solutions or advice can position your brand as an expert in the field. Similarly, if you spot a trending topic or hashtag, a video that incorporates it can increase its chances of gaining attention. A video productions company can help you transform these insights into video content that speaks directly to what people care about.
2. Understanding Audience Pain Points
Social listening is also an excellent way to discover the challenges your audience faces. Monitoring what people are saying about your brand or industry will reveal common questions, frustrations, or obstacles. For example, if your audience is consistently asking for guidance on how to use a product or service, you can create how-to videos that address these concerns directly. Having a video productions company involved can ensure that these videos are informative and engaging, helping viewers find the answers they need quickly and effectively.
3. Assessing Competitor Conversations
By listening to what people are saying about your competitors, you can identify gaps in the content they are providing or areas where you can do things better. For example, if your competitors have made videos on a topic but their audience is dissatisfied with the quality or clarity, you can create a more informative and engaging video to fill that gap. In addition, analysing competitor videos can help a video productions company identify what works and what does not, refining video strategies to align with audience expectations.
How to Implement Social Listening for Video Content
Now that you understand the value of social listening, how can you start using it to inform your video content? Here are some steps to follow:
1. Choose the Right Tools for Social Listening
To get started with social listening, you will need to use tools that can track conversations across various platforms. Some popular tools include Hootsuite, Brandwatch, and Sprout Social. These platforms allow businesses to monitor brand mentions, industry keywords, and trending topics, providing them with real-time insights into what people are saying.
By setting up alerts for specific keywords and hashtags, you can stay updated on any discussions relevant to your industry or brand. These insights can guide your content creation process and help a video productions company stay ahead of trends.
2. Set Up Alerts and Track Conversations
Once your tools are set up, you can begin monitoring relevant conversations. Track mentions of your brand, competitors, industry terms, and popular cultural trends. You will begin to notice patterns—topics that generate a lot of engagement or specific pain points that are discussed repeatedly. These are the areas where your video content can make an impact.
3. Analyse the Data and Draw Insights
The data you collect needs to be analysed in a meaningful way. Look for recurring themes or patterns in audience sentiment—whether positive, negative, or neutral. This will allow you to understand not only what people are saying but also how they are feeling about it. A video productions company can help you take these insights and translate them into video concepts that directly address these conversations.
Translating Insights into Video Content
Once you have gathered insights from social listening, it is time to start turning those insights into actual video content. Here are some tips for doing that:
1. Content Ideas Based on Trends and Conversations
Create videos that tap into the interests and trends you have identified through social listening. For example, if a new topic is gaining traction, develop a video that provides context or dives deeper into the subject. If a common question is being asked repeatedly, answer it in a video format. The goal is to create videos that are directly linked to what your audience is talking about.
2. Address Pain Points Directly
If social listening reveals significant challenges your audience is facing, a video productions company that specialises in marketing can analyse these insights and come up with creative concepts to address those pain points. For example, if the insights highlight a common issue, they can create instructional videos, product demos, or customer service tips that directly offer solutions. The production company will then structure and execute these videos with creative strategies to effectively communicate the message and provide value.
3. Experiment with Different Formats
Social listening can also inform the types of videos your audience prefers. Are they more likely to watch quick, snackable videos, or do they engage more with longer, in-depth content? By analysing your audience’s habits, you can experiment with different formats, such as tutorials, interviews, or explainer videos. This ensures your content aligns with audience expectations.
Case Studies: Social Listening in Action
1. Lays (PepsiCo): “Do Us a Flavor” Campaign
Social Listening Strategy:
Lays, the popular snack brand under PepsiCo, uses social listening to track trends, monitor consumer preferences, and identify cultural shifts across social media platforms. They pay close attention to what consumers are talking about in terms of flavour trends and unique preferences, which helps them shape their marketing strategies and product development.
Success Story:
A prime example of Lays successfully using social listening is the viral “Do Us a Flavor” campaign. By monitoring online conversations, Lays discovered an increased consumer interest in innovative and unusual chip flavours. This insight led to the creation of the “Do Us a Flavor” campaign, which invited fans to submit their own ideas for new chip flavours. The brand then produced videos showcasing some of the fan-submitted flavours, allowing the audience to feel directly involved in the campaign. The campaign became a huge success, going viral and boosting both engagement and brand loyalty. This social listening-driven approach not only resulted in engaging video content but also encouraged consumer participation in an authentic and fun way.
2. KFC – “11 Herbs and Spices” Campaign
Social Listening Strategy:
KFC is another example of a brand that excels at using social listening to monitor consumer preferences, trends, and cultural moments. The brand actively tracks online discussions, looking for opportunities to engage with consumers in real-time, especially around humour or current events.
Success Story:
One of KFC’s most successful social listening campaigns came from paying attention to the buzz around its “secret recipe” of 11 herbs and spices. People were frequently speculating about what those secret ingredients were. In a playful response, KFC launched a clever Twitter campaign in which they followed just 11 people—10 of them named Herb, and one named Spice. This witty and unexpected move tapped into an ongoing cultural conversation about the secret recipe, generating massive attention on social media. The campaign went viral, showcasing how KFC used social listening to create a fun, creative video series that capitalised on a trend already buzzing online. It garnered widespread media attention and was a perfect example of how social listening can be used to shape video content that both entertains and engages audiences.
Conclusion
Social listening is the secret ingredient behind some of the most memorable and impactful video campaigns. Take, for example, the fast-food chain Wendy’s. By closely monitoring social media conversations, Wendy’s was able to build a brand voice that is quick-witted and unapologetically bold, sparking playful banter with customers and competitors alike. Their Twitter roast sessions have become iconic, showing how social listening is not just about gathering data—it is about creating authentic connections with your audience through the right message at the right time.
For any brand looking to stand out, working with a video productions company to tap into social listening can lead to content that cuts through the noise and speaks directly to what people care about. By tuning into ongoing conversations and understanding what truly matters to your audience, you can create videos that spark engagement and drive real results.
Don’t just guess what your audience wants—listen to them! Sound Idea Digital can help turn real-time insights into videos that speak their language. Ready to make videos your audience will love? Reach out to us today.
We are a full-service Web Development and Content Production Agency in Gauteng specialising in Video Production, Animation, eLearning Content Development, Learning Management Systems, and Content Production.
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