What you might not know about Who is Listening on
Social Media
R. Sosby
So, after years of waiting, Maria our family
friend is finally getting married to a handsome man from across the border as
we call it here in Northeast Georgia, (meaning South Carolina). Mom called me up
this weekend to let me know and how did she discover the news; Facebook.
Since I do not have a Facebook account, I looked at the post when I visited Mom yesterday and something stood out. The announcement was made on Friday night and there were already congratulatory messages on Sunday afternoon from of all things, insurance agencies. The good news is one of the companies offers travelers insurance, so the honeymoon is certain to go off without a hitch!
Since I do not have a Facebook account, I looked at the post when I visited Mom yesterday and something stood out. The announcement was made on Friday night and there were already congratulatory messages on Sunday afternoon from of all things, insurance agencies. The good news is one of the companies offers travelers insurance, so the honeymoon is certain to go off without a hitch!
I have heard
about this phenomenon before. I think it is called Social Listening, and if I
were an insurance agent, I would want Maria and her new Fiancé in my office to
discuss the future. Why not? If they are getting married, they will need a home
and that means homeowner’s insurance. They will probably want to procreate at
some point, a perfect opportunity to sell life and accident or hospitalization
insurance. The kid(s) will at some point need a car, so I can keep selling
insurance products in an endless cycle. We could call it the Insurance Matrix!
Seems this new trend is becoming more common, but
just like those dreadful cookies lingering on websites, I am not too sure that
I get warm and fuzzy when it comes to social listening. Yes, I know and believe
me I hear everyone with a social media account screaming just set your privacy
settings and you can control who sees what you post. News Flash; Facebook is
ALWAYS listening and has not stopped since 2014! (that is, if you have
inadvertently given permission to access the microphone on your device). Oh Yeah….
yell privacy setting at me now!
On a serious note, Social Listening does not mean
that someone is listening to your Facebook account in a literal manner. A
better word might to use might be monitoring. You see, companies use platforms
that vary from online service tools to extensive and expensive software
programs to search social media pages for specific keywords or phrases, (like a
wedding announcement) to gather leads. As everyone knows, lead gathering leads
to potentially increased revenue, which leads to potentially more money for
sales people, which leads to; anyway, sales cures all, you get the picture.
Just like those same insurance companies can
contact you to solicit business, there is a little trick to their cleverness as
well. When I searched for a tidbit on insurance companies and social listening,
I discovered that these companies are not in the business of just trying to
sell insurance. I found an article written by William Comcowich, (2017) and learned
that insurance companies are also interested in eliminating insurance fraud.
When George and Margie, (fictitious characters) were skiing in Colorado, Margie dropped her 6-karat canary diamond worth over $60 thousand. Good thing they were insured, but wasn’t that what Margie was wearing on her finger in the picture her sister posted this weekend? The Insurance company really likes to know about these things. Can you say BUSTED?
When George and Margie, (fictitious characters) were skiing in Colorado, Margie dropped her 6-karat canary diamond worth over $60 thousand. Good thing they were insured, but wasn’t that what Margie was wearing on her finger in the picture her sister posted this weekend? The Insurance company really likes to know about these things. Can you say BUSTED?
Now for those of you getting these unsolicited
posts that seem to be just part of the social media experience, think about
what you have posted on your pages recently and see if there is a coincidence
in the how theses ads appear. You might be surprised to learn that there isn’t.
So, the next time you make a post on that page, remember; someone might be
listening to what you say. Now, can someone please tell me if Maria has to invite
these folks to the wedding? Hope I don’t have to cater it…
Comcowich, W., (2017) How Insurance Companies Can
Benefit from Social Media Listening. Glean.info. Retrieved from https://glean.info/insurance-companies-can-benefit-social-media-listening/ on April 29, 2018.
Photo courtesy of laomao.info images of people listening to music while studying.
Photo courtesy of laomao.info images of people listening to music while studying.
I think there can be some benefit in social listening, outside of selling your product. In a previous position at my institution, I would use hootsuite.com to track mentions of our department and our learning management systems. Normally, these mentions would be complaints on how the system is down, not working, or the student is having trouble. Our team would then reach out to the student to make sure that their issue was resolved. We were trying to help, but some students did not like the fact that we were tracking what they were saying on a public platform – I was told off a couple of times.
ReplyDelete- Wesley
I think social listening is a great tool with many purposes. I was especially pleased to learn that insurance companies use social listening to attack insurance fraud. At a previous job, we had a chef who had injured his back and could barely move resulting in a long term disability. He lost his job and had to deal with the insurance company on payments made to him after someone in the IT department harvested tagged photos of him and several girls at a bar. He had one girl straddling his shoulders and another with her legs wrapped around his hips and back dirty dancing, drinking and having a good time. I know this is not exactly social listening, but it proves how careless people get when it comes to broadcasting their life events.
DeleteI am a cheapskate. If I had a social media presence, I would want those listening to understand that I am always looking for a great deal that gives me a ton of value for as little money as possible. Yesterday I bought 8 tooth brushes regularly $6.25 each for .25 each. I spent $2.00 for $50 worth of toothbrushes and I won't have to buy any more for a couple of years. I would completely cover the pages with messages like these, (which really did happen , by the way) with the hopes of getting coupons and deals; again it can work both ways. You can glean a ton of information using social listening. Feedback as you stated is always a good way to improve or address issues identified. It's funny how we are so quick to complain things when they don't work as we think they should. Wouldn't it be nice if everyone shared when these experiences went as well or better than we expected?
To those students that told you off, someone should explain public domain to them and perhaps, they would be more careful in what and how they post.
Best!
Roy
Hey R. Sosby,
ReplyDeleteWith everything in this tech, fast paced world we live in right now, most things have good and bad. Social listening can be great for companies, they can track mentions, hear what their customers are saying and this information could be used to manage their brand and as a part of their marketing strategy.
Thanks,
Ngozi
Of course it can, as I discussed in the article. There are many things that are great for companies. Just because it works great for the company does not make it right. The company I work for gave pay raises last year that no one received until March of this year. That was great for the company, not so much for the people who earned the increase in pay. I am not saying companies should not use social listening, just that they should not be so obvious about it.
ReplyDeleteRoy
That's a very interesting perspective on the effect of social media and the data collected from social media platforms. If governments and businesses start to consider social media content as viable evidence, I believe this will open the doors for cyber identity theft. Social media platforms do not in anyway verify the owner of any user account on their platform and anyone could claim to be anyone. So using unverified data as evidence will lead to creating a whole new field of social media forensics.
ReplyDelete