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Listening is a valuable and important attribute that is still often overlooked by marketers and brands. If the needs, wants, and current pain points of consumers were considered, brands would understand how to best allocate their digital marketing resources. Brands have the incredible advantage of accessing the conversations consumers are engaging with in real-time across social media platforms.

According to a 2022 article by Hootsuite, social listening provides valuable insights into “how customers feel about a brand and its products, what challenges they are experiencing, and what they would like to see from them in the future” (Newberry & Macready, 2022).

Monitoring social conversations is one way to learn about any issues or pain points impacting consumers. Having a funnel to learn directly from consumers can be beneficial for the beauty industry as explained by PopSugar “Consumers having power is something that will continue to drive the industry towards a more transparent future” (Harrington, 2021).

L’Oréal Understands the Value of Social Listening 

However, there are some beauty brands such as L’Oréal that understand the vast importance of social listening. L’Oréal is utilizing social listening to stay on top of emerging trends and implement immediate strategies. L’Oréal’s chief digital and marketing officer Han Wen said that as the company identifies the trends happening on social media, it is important for them to then figure out which of their many brands is best suited to partake in such trends.”Our goal within L’Oréal is really focusing on how to move at the speed of culture driven by algorithms, driven by content platforms, driven by changes around consumption behavior” (Monllos, 2023). According to a 2023 article by Glossy, L’Oréal uses both paid and organic approaches when creating content around emerging trends which they often learn from their social listening efforts. 

Utilizing Social Listening Tools

There are various social listening tools available for marketers and brands such as Audiense, Sprinklr, HootSuite, Mentionlytics, and Talkwalker, (just to name a few). Choosing the right tool will require research to ensure it fits with a brand’s objective(s) and overall purpose.

Regardless of the social listening tool that is implemented, understanding the value that social listening provides is fundamental. Social listening matters, and incorporating it as an integral part of a brand’s marketing strategy can transform the insights found. Such is the case of L’Oreal which has been successful in identifying the preferences and needs of its online consumers. Through social listening, the brand has identified that Gen Z consumers are not looking for “polished, perfect or overly produced content” (Monllos, 2023). 

While social listening tools call out metrics such as brand mentions, “engagement”, reach, number of likes, comments and shares, all of this does not matter if a brand does not take the time to implement any of the qualitative feedback provided by consumers.

Social listening should be less about quantifying “success” and more about striving to make consumers feel heard and cared for.

💡 Tell Me What You Think

What beauty brand(s) do you think are doing a great job at listening to their online community?

References:

Monllos, Kristina, (2023). L’Oréal uses social listening, in-house teams to tap into beauty trends ‘at the speed of culture’ Glossy. https://www.glossy.co/beauty/loreal-uses-social-listening-in-house-teams-to-tap-into-beauty-trends-at-the-speed-of-culture/

Newberry, Christina, (2023a). What is Social Listening, Why it Matters + 14 Tools to Help. Social Media Marketing & Management Dashboard. https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-listening-business/