According to Sprout Social, social listening is “the process of tracking conversations around specific phrases, words or brands, and then leveraging them to discover opportunities or create content for those audiences.” Companies and brands listen to conversations on social platforms and use what they find to engage fans.

Taco Bell established their brand personality on social media and has an audience that’s quick to interact. Through social listening on Twitter, Taco Bell is showing us all how it’s done.

Content Engagement

One of the main ways Taco Bell uses social listening is with followers’ content. Whether simply retweeting a follower or quoting the tweet and including a message, a lot of Taco Bell’s content on Twitter is follower-generated. Not only does this make the Taco Bell brand more personable, but it also gives other followers a reason to engage and interact with the company – so their content might be featured.

Support on Demand

Another useful facet of social listening is the opportunity to maintain almost immediate customer support. Have a question about the latest deal on Doritos Locos Tacos? Social Listening allows Taco Bell to see who’s talking about their brand and directly answer user questions. Businesses able to quickly answer questions via users’ favorite social media channels appear helpful and connected.

Setting up alerts in Google or using a tool like If This Then That allows you to receive notifications when someone mentions your brand. Customer service is crucial in retention, and paying attention to what people are saying about you will set you apart.

A Case for Higher Ed

Though higher education brands might not be tweeting about Baja Blasts, following Taco Bell’s lead in social media interaction with users could greatly improve brand personality and community retention.

One school with a good social listening strategy is Belmont University. Belmont responds quickly to questions students tweet and replies calmly to issues they might be having. Quick responses on social media allow Belmont to diffuse potential problems almost immediately before they become larger issues.

Belmont is even able to do this without the user directly tweeting at them. They use social listening tools that send an alert when someone posts about Belmont on the web or on social channels.

Don’t want to clog your generic school account with mentions answering followers’ questions? Taco Bell retweets a few exceptional users on their main account, but answers the majority of questions they receive on their @TacoBellTeam account. This way followers’ timelines aren’t bombarded with Taco Bell mentions, and people’s questions still get answered. It’s the best of both worlds.

Ready to create a social media strategy that gives your brand a relatable personality? Get in touch with us about our Content Strategy services.