Analyse and answer the question based on lesson notes I am a student and don’t use   any AI language or AI content. No  plagiarism.    Use only UK English style. No USA English style. 

Question:   Answers could include: Meta (Facebook), X (Twitter), Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Snapchat and TikTok.
Q2 Outline the main features of four social media channels for business use. (1.1)



Welcome to Unit 1: Social Media for Business
This unit has three sections. These are:

•	Section 1: Understanding the range of social media platforms available for use by business
•	Section 2: Knowing how to use social media platforms to engage an audience
•	Section 3: Understanding the role of social media in building brand reputation.


Introduction to Section 1: Understanding the range of social media platforms available for use by businesses
Upon completion of this section, you will be able to:
Outline the main features of a range of social media channels used by businesses (1.1)
Give examples of when each social media platform is the most suitable to use (1.2)
Describe how to publish content on a range of social media channels. (1.3)

Introduction
Over the past two generations, social media has changed how businesses communicate with each other. Social media are the group of technologies which allow us to share or exchange information on a variety of platforms using virtual communities, and in today’s current climate it is essential that businesses understand strategies used on social media to grow their business. More businesses now than ever are using digital marketing to market or promote their businesses.


The benefits of digital marketing
From the old to the new
By using the various methods encompassed within digital marketing, businesses can reach larger audiences and not just the local customers that traditional marketing strategies allow. Traditional marketing strategies include newspaper adverts, leaflets or posters being distributed and, as such, may not be able to reach the audience required.

Money matters
Digital marketing (the audiences reached online) can be local, regional, national and global. It is a cost-effective way of reaching your target audience. No printing costs or postage are needed in digital marketing, so saving money is an enormous factor in this type of marketing.


Getting to know your customers
Another benefit of digital marketing is that you can measure your audiences and see who engages with your marketing strategy. You can build up relationships with your customers by engaging with them, perhaps via e-mail, Facebook or other strategies. This can help you create brand loyalty as you interact with customers and get to know them and what they want from your business.


Other benefits of digital marketing
Other benefits include:

•	You can reach many customers and connect with people online and around the world.
•	Market research – using social media for online marketing produces a wealth of information about the customers who are using the sites. It is vital that businesses capture this information, via an analytics package or traditional research and data collection.
•	Brand awareness.
•	Building relationships.
•	Generating sales leads.

Disadvantages of digital marketing
Here are some of the disadvantages of digital marketing:

Time matters
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A lot of time is required to plan, monitor and evaluate the content of a social media marketing campaign.

Expertise is required
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A social media expert must be hired to do the job. This person must understand how to create effective media content.

It's costly
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It can be expensive, depending on the campaign.

It's all for the taking
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Everyone can see your complaints. All comments, positive and negative, can be seen by everyone who uses that site. How a business deals with the comments says a lot about them.

Beware of the trolls
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Trolls may take issue with something posted. While this may seem farfetched, it has been known for trolls to close a business down by leaving nasty comments on social media sites about a company.

Keeping up the creative momentum
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Interesting content must be created continually, as no one will read boring content!


Social media channels
There are many examples of online platforms that are currently in the market. You can research into these if you want to.
The platforms we are focusing on for this course are:
•	X, formerly known as Twitter
•	Facebook
•	Instagram
•	YouTube
•	Snapchat
•	LinkedIn
•	TikTok.

Features of social media platforms
Every social media platform has something unique that it offers users. These are called features. Every product or service has its own features that will benefit its customers. Using the features of a product is something that will benefit a business. Click on the arrows to learn more.
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X/Twitter
X/Twitter is an online microblogging site for social and news items. Communication is made via ‘tweets’, which are limited to 280 characters per tweet. Registration with X/Twitter is needed if interaction with tweets is required. Posting, liking and re-tweeting tweets are available to registered users, however, unregistered users can only read tweets made available to the public, with no interaction available.
Facebook
This is the biggest media platform in the world with 90% of its users living outside of America. Its vast audiences make it an ideal forum for business users, but make sure to set up a business account if you’re using it for business. Many people forget to do this.
Instagram
This is a photo and video sharing social networking platform. As of 2020, 44% of its active users used the platform to research and find new brands. This makes Instagram an extremely useful networking system if you’re marketing a new brand.
YouTube
This an online video sharing platform. Four billion YouTube videos are watched daily around the world by its users, so it is a great opportunity to reach potential subscribers.
LinkedIn
This is a professional network where people can develop their career or simply network with other professionals. One in three professionals are currently using LinkedIn to increase their professional reputation.
Snapchat
This app allows users to take photos and videos and upload them. They are only visible until they are viewed and then they will disappear.
TikTok
This app is predominantly used by younger people and allows them to create and share short videos of singing, dancing, lip-syncing, and performing comedy routines.

Hashtags
A hashtag is a tag which is used to connect individuals with the same interests. The hashtag '#' is used mainly on Instagram and X/Twitter, but is also sometimes used on Facebook. Adding # before a subject will enable the user to see what others’ views are on a particular subject. For example, entering #bakingbread in a post will bring up all the public posts about baking bread. In addition, tagging is a good way of ensuring that an audience is already interested in a topic/product/service before they are reached.


Factors to consider
There are factors that should be considered when choosing the most appropriate social media platform for your business.
These factors include:
•	Location
•	Gender
•	Specialist interest
•	The type of brand you have.

Examples of when each social media platform is most suitable to use
Over the next couple of pages you will find examples of each social media platform that have already been listed and when they are most suitable to use due to the features they offer.

X/Twitter
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This is most suitable to use if you wish to create compact but compelling advertisements due to X/Twitter's character limit on posts. An example would be if you were advertising an event. Additionally, if a customer mentions your brand, you can ‘like’ or ‘retweet’ their post, which adds to customer relationships. Likewise, you can quickly rectify a situation if someone has a complaint about your business.

Facebook
________________________________________
Facebook is most suitable to use when building brand engagement and interacting with customers and fans. This can be done through live videos. Alternatively, businesses can also post content, photos and information that customers can ‘react’ to, as well as comment and share to their own personal profiles. It also allows businesses to attract customers, both locally
and globally.

Instagram
________________________________________
Businesses can post photographs and short videos onto their feeds that can be liked and shared by their customer base. They can also post user-generated content (photos taken by customers wearing their brand, for example) for further advertisement. Additionally, businesses can post ‘stories’ that can give customers further insight into the brand.

Examples of when each social media platform is most suitable to use (continued)

YouTube
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On this platform, you can create video content that can be watched by anyone. Businesses need to create videos with engaging titles and enticing thumbnails to capture an audience’s attention. It is also suitable for capturing what your audience wants and needs by allowing customers to comment on videos and like/dislike them.

LinkedIn
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Arguably, LinkedIn is most suitable for posting jobs and career information to prospective employees. It is also a great platform for businesses to promote their more professional information and network with other businesses for future collaborations.

Snapchat
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This platform would be suitable to use for quick promotions and offering discounts or promotion codes to customers. There is also the opportunity to feature user-generated content and allow social influencers to take over the account. This would be ideal for younger audiences who, historically, are the main users of this platform.

TikTok
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This platform would be most suitable for marketing content within a short time period. TikTok allows users to post videos ranging from 30 seconds to 3 minutes in length. TikTok is known for being used by a younger fan base, so would be great to use if a business wanted to market towards this demographic. Businesses can also ‘reply’ to comments on videos they have shared by creating a video response or commenting via text.

Demographics and target audiences
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Deciding on the demographic and target audience of your brand will decide whether you use features such as videos, images, hashtags, etc. It is also important to consider which social media platforms your target audience is predominantly the demographic of. For example, you may not create a TikTok account if your target audience is not a younger demographic, as TikTok is marketed towards younger people.

Timing is everything!
________________________________________
Another aspect to take into consideration is the time of day when a business can maximise customer viewings. Some companies may choose to publish content on weekends because this is when most people will have free time to scroll through social media. This may also prompt higher Click-Through Rates (CTR), which you will learn more about later in the course.

Social media posting
When working with social media, you should know and understand how to publish content on the platform itself. Posts on all social media should be shared several times a day but should be spaced out so as not to overload followers. A strategy here could be to set particular times to post. Publishing content for the various platforms should be considered carefully. Click on the arrows to learn more about social media posting.
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X/Twitter is great for posting photos, text, shareable content and videos. You can either ‘share’ a post using the share button, or you can write a status update ('Tweet') to post content.
Facebook is ideal for posting photos, text, shareable content, videos and ‘stories’ (content that lasts for 24 hours). You can either ‘share’ a post using the share button, or you can write a status update to post content.
With Instagram, you can post photos, text, videos and ‘stories’, as well as sharing other people’s photos and videos. You post by simply clicking the plus sign in the top right of your profile. You then choose where you want to post. There is the option to post on Facebook at the same time, as they are both owned by the same company.
YouTube hosts videos of any length. You can upload a video to your profile by exporting a file that you have created yourself.
On LinkedIn, you can share photos, videos and ‘stories’ (content that lasts 24 hours). You can either ‘share’ a post using the share button, or you can write a status update to post content.
Snapchat is suitable for sharing photos that last for up to 10 seconds, photos with no limit of time and ‘stories’ (content that lasts 24 hours). You can ‘create a snap’ then select friends, groups and stories that you want to send the post to.
TikTok videos can be up to three minutes long. You can also use existing videos to comment on other people’s comments and ‘duet’ with someone else’s video. To upload a video, simply click the plus sign at the bottom of the screen. Once you’ve recorded the video, click the upload button in the bottom right corner.

The Importance of Hashtags


Hashtags play a key role in social media identity growth and are used on a variety of social media sites, most notably Twitter and Instagram. Including your posts with a hashtag helps to categorize material for your audience. From a user perspective, hashtags allow people to find posts related to their interests and to connect with other social media users who share those interests by joining the hashtag XY conversation. It is your chance to be heard in such a conversation from a business perspective and to develop your company as a voice for certain topics.

What is a Hashtag
A hashtag is a term followed by a hash word or acronym, often known as the pound (#) symbol. In a social media post, it is used to help anyone who might be interested in your subject find it while looking for a keyword or a specific hashtag. It helps to put the articles to the fore and promote conversation. If you use a word as a hashtag, you must type it out without spaces, like #usinghashtags. It may include numbers but does not include symbols or punctuation.
Why should you hashtag?
Hashtags are working. We help to expand your visibility on social media as we make your content available to those interested in your hashtag as it goes beyond only your fans. Hashtags will help you create a reputation for your company or yourself by communicating with customers and entering the trend conversation. By finding the biggest trending topics, if you engage in high-traffic conversations, you are more likely to gain great exposure for your brand. The more exposure you receive, the more likely you will be able to attract a wider audience, and a larger audience would increase the probability of fresh leads for your company exponentially.
why are hashtags so important?
1. Competition
Like in any company, it’s important to find out who your competition is, what they’re selling, and how they’re advertising so you know what makes the better choice for your company. Instagram hashtags may be used for studying competitor profiles, their latest posts, and their most-used hashtags. Knowing this information will help you gauge the reaction of an audience to the post(s) of your competitor, giving you the awareness of what works best and what does not work for your own marketing on social media.
2. Branding and Visibility
Branding and accessibility are basically Instagram’s most powerful use of hashtags. If you’re a new company, you can use hashtags to expand your audience and increase awareness of the brand. When users search your brand, they will see the related hashtags that you are using; or they will see your advertised posts in the results while searching for similar hashtags. This normally leads to new followers and potential customers being acquired.
3.Promotion
One of the key reasons why hashtags have developed such a reputation on social media is their potential to help advertisers and companies develop targeted promotions. “When it comes to promotion, think of hashtags as the’ word-of-mouth’ system,” according to Tweetangels. In other words, when you tweet about a promotion, your followers will use the same hashtag, then their followers will use it, and so on. Hashtags create great exposure for a campaign and help you hit your target market by using specific hashtags that are already being followed by your market.
How to use hashtags on Twitter
Twitter hashtags allow people to participate in discussions about the same subject, and people even if they don’t follow each other. While hashtagging on Twitter will certainly boost your social media presence, using long and wordy hashtags, such as #leadgeneration platform, will harm your presence in a Tweet because hashtags are meant to make it easier to find and communicate with others. Using too many hashtags in one post can also harm your social media presence, in addition to long hashtags. You can increase your interaction by using related hashtags on Twitter, as long as you don’t go overboard. One or two hashtags should be enough on a tweet. If you use a few hashtags and explicitly ask your followers to retweet it will lead to even further interaction. When people search for your name, the use of hashtags on Twitter will make your post available.


Introduction to Section 2: Knowing how to use social media platforms to engage an audience
Upon completion of this section, you will be able to:

•	Identify the range of audiences that a business may seek to engage with (2.1)
•	Select the most appropriate social media platform to use when seeking to engage with a specified audience (2.2)
•	Explain the role of online brand identity in audience engagement (2.3)
•	Explain how to measure the success of audience engagement across a range of social media platforms. (2.4)

Targeted audience profiling
For a business to be successful online, it must have as many new customers as it can generate. With this in mind, many businesses try to share their message with as many people as possible, but this may not be the right strategy to use. A wide reach does not necessarily mean that the right people are being reached.

A target audience profile means that you are identifying a specific group of individuals, who will most likely become customers of your products and respond positively to your brand, promotions and services.

Targeting your market is the best way to make sure that a business is reaching potential customers who are interested in the product. Learning how to identify target audiences will make a marketing strategy more effective.

Examples of target audience demographics
The range of audience demographics that a company may wish to target include:
Age
Many companies break down customers into age ranges; 18-24, 25-50 and 50+, so it would serve no purpose, for example, to advertise a cruise for over 55s to the lower age groups.

Gender
________________________________________
Businesses sometimes provide items that are marketed specifically towards certain gender/s.

Income
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Businesses often target those people in the group with disposable income (money to spend after bills have been paid), as they know these people can afford to pay a little bit more for the item.

Class
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These demographics include working class, middle class and upper class.

Needs
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This includes videos or information that targets a particular set of needs. For example, cooking or baking sites will target people with these interests.

Attitudes
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This is a targeted audience based on how they feel about a particular subject. For example, climate change, animal welfare, etc.

Location
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This is where there is a focus on targeting audiences in local areas or specific areas.

Fans
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This is a targeted audience for fans of a particular topic, for example films, music or celebrities.

Targeting example
Businesses will choose one or more of these aforementioned groups to target their marketing campaign to.

For example, according to Marketing91, L’Oréal (in its retail sector) targets:

•	20-45 year olds
•	Upper middle income
•	Upper social class.

Selecting the best social media platform for your brand
There are several factors that companies and businesses should look at when selecting the best social media platform for their brand. These factors include:

Who the platform’s main demographic is
________________________________________
Some social media platforms may cater towards a certain demographic or be more popular within a certain demographic. An example of this would be TikTok, which is marketed to, and popular with, younger generations.

Whether the demographic uses this platform a lot
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Some demographics will use certain social media platforms more than others. It’s important that you understand this through market research.

The ability to post a variety of media/content
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There are some social media platforms, such as YouTube, where you can only post one particular sort of content. For variety purposes, you will want to be able to post a range of content/digital media.

The ability to interact with its audience on a personal level
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Some social media platforms will allow you to interact with your audience. There are even some that will allow you to ‘live stream’ videos and interact with people in real time.

Key Fact
It is important that all businesses carry out market research to ensure that their marketing strategies are successful and cost effective.

Brand identity
Click on the arrows to learn more about brand identity.
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What is brand identity?
Brand identity is a group of characteristics/elements that a business creates to portray the right and appropriate image to a customer. Like someone’s personal identity, brand identity is what makes a business recognisable, and this is often done with a logo. An example of this is the Google logo.
Awareness and understanding
The key to audience engagement is being aware of who your audience is and understanding their needs. The ability to appeal to an audience on a wider level is part of some of the most successful brands, such as Amazon and Apple. Companies like these promote a lifestyle to their consumers.

The Hierarchy of Effects
Brands will affect customers in different ways. These include:
 

Audience engagement
Some businesses feel that having a large audience means that they are being successful with their online strategies. However, a large audience does not necessarily mean an engaged one. Audience engagement on social media is the number of times customers feel motivated enough by a post to act on it. It is a measure of success to have an engaged audience.

Online analytics software

Audience engagement is measured through various means across the variety of social media platforms available to businesses, but first and foremost across each social media platform is the analysis of reactions to the business’s posts. Using an online analytics software package to track metrics on social media will help you do this.


An online analytics software package will track all of the data (metrics), that will enable a business to see whether or not its social media marketing efforts are successful. If it is, a business’s income should increase, as its engaged audience will have bought into the strategy. While some packages will analyse some metrics, it will not give a full picture of how successful the social media strategy is.


Metrics
To determine a complete picture of how successful a social media strategy is, this page lists the metrics (data) that should be tracked. Click on the arrows to learn more.
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Average Engagement Rate (AER)
This is a primary method for determining how successful your strategy is. However, just counting the number of interactions does not provide enough information to provide a true picture. To calculate a true AER, add the total interactions on a post or several posts over a given period of time, divide by the number of followers and then multiply by 100.
Applause rate
An applause rate is the number of ways in which the audience can show that they approve of a post. The number of likes, shares and adding to favourites are all indicators that the post has an applause rate. For example, when you click ‘like’, you are letting the sender know that you like this post because it has value for you by making you laugh, showing you enjoyed it or that you are interested in it. To calculate the applause rate, use the same calculation as for the AER.
Conversion rate
This is important to a business as the analytics software packages, or even the business itself, tend to have them to the fore of online analysis. Not only does the conversion rate inform the business of how much money the social media strategy has brought in, but it determines how valuable the customer thinks you are. The conversion rate is the number of viewers who engage with the page divided by the page’s total number of visitors. Engagement can include clicking on the website link or subscribing to a newsletter. If a site is getting a lot of visitors but few conversions, then it is time to change the strategy.
Cost Per Click (CPC)
This is the number of times a visitor clicks on one of your adverts. For example, if you are paying Facebook to advertise your product/service, then you will pay for each time a visitor clicks on that ad.
Click Through Rate (CTR)
 
Click Through Rate (CTR) is the number of visitors to your site who will click on an action such as 'like', 'subscribe', 'share', or 'join an event'. To calculate the Click Through Rate, use the calculation above.


Introduction to Section 3: Understanding the role of social media in building brand reputation
Upon completion of this section, you will be able to:
•	Explain how the following can impact upon a business’ reputation:
o	No social media presence
o	Sporadic social media presence
o	Social media presence only to respond to negative brand sentiment
o	Social media presence only to respond to positive brand sentiment. (3.1)
•	Explain how receiving complaints on social media platforms can:
o	Negatively impact upon a business
o	Provide an opportunity to build a positive reputation. (3.2)
•	Explain the importance of monitoring social media activity across channels. (3.3)


The importance of an online presence
Nearly every business nowadays has an online presence. Thousands of potential customers are reached this way every day with information about products, services, sales, news sheets and events, and they will leave comments about what they think of the product/service. Those companies that don’t have a social media presence are missing out on some great opportunities.

For example, not having a social media site means that:
•	The company will not know what customers are saying about their product
•	The company will not be able to engage with its customers in an effective way
•	The company will miss out on the opportunity to build up their reputation.

Using social media for brand presence
With the help of social media, businesses can quickly identify customer issues and complaints and address them. In addition, these businesses can track comments and customers who mention their brands in posts. If these comments are favourable, this will help to build up brand reputation.

This is an effective method of building a brand reputation and for a business to sustain growth. This means that they continually reach thousands of customers every day via online platforms. Their visibility will be increased, as well as spreading awareness about their company. This, in turn, will hopefully positively impact on revenue or income for the business.

Social media presence while responding to positive and negative comments
Click on the arrows to read more about retaining social media presence while responding to positive and negative comments.
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No social media presence
Not having a social media presence means that the audience will never know how great your products are. Those businesses that have no social media presence will not have the advantage of not only marketing their business, but also will not have the opportunity to build up their reputation to that audience. They will also not know about feedback from customers that usually can be left on an online platform.
Having a sporadic media presence
Sporadic social media presence is almost as problematic as having none. When social media posts are sporadic, customers cannot follow them properly. Sporadic presence may cause them to be unmemorable and be forgotten by customers, who will then use other brands.
Responding to negative statements
In addition, those businesses who have social media presence only to respond to negative brand statements are missing out on the opportunity of engaging regularly with customers, who may be leaving positive or even neutral comments and building up their reputation. The customer doesn’t know if the company is reading their positive comment, whereas getting a ‘thank you’ from a company shows that they value and appreciate their customers and would like to engage with them. Audiences can often focus on the negative and so will only read the negative comments and how the company is trying to resolve each issue.
Negative comments on review sites
You may see many negative comments on review sites such as Google, TripAdvisor, Yelp and Facebook. These are just a few examples of where dissatisfied customers can complain and give low ratings on a business. Not only can you see this, but so can all of your customers.

Again, it is how you use these sites that has an impact on your brand reputation. Only responding to the negative comments on these sites is not recommended, as it’s the same as only responding to negative comments on any site. A business must endeavour to engage with its customers and build up a good reputation. Should a company only respond to negative comments on any site, this can be viewed as firefighting. This is where a business is continually putting out small fires (complaints/negative comments) and not having time to respond to positive or neutral comments. Remember, negative comments should never be ignored. They won’t go away.
Responding to positive comments
If a business does not answer a positive comment for a period of time, it looks like they’re not interested and don’t care. Responding to it immediately shows that you care and appreciate your customer.

Social media can not only have a positive impact on brand reputations, but it also enables a business to keep an eye on competition.

Customer feedback
Customer feedback is information that is provided by customers about how they feel about the service/product they have experienced. This can either be positive or negative. The way that a business chooses to deal with the feedback can impact the reputation of the company.

Dealing with complaints
Click on the arrows to learn more about dealing with complaints.
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Damage limitation
While word-of-mouth negative remarks can be damaging to a business, social media negative comments are especially damaging as they can be seen by a wider audience. To engage in damage limitation, businesses must quickly identify customer complaints and provide feedback immediately.
Reputational damage
It’s the way that a complaint is dealt with which will determine whether the business keeps its reputation intact. For example, a customer may have had a negative experience and complained to the business. If this complaint is not dealt with, it may cause others to not want to buy products and services from the company. The customer may also call on others to join in with the complaining and try to ‘boycott’ the business. Furthermore, if a complaint is left unanswered, customers will not be willing to engage with this business, and the business can eventually collapse.
Opportunities to build a positive reputation
Alternatively, complaints that are dealt with quickly and effectively can enable the business to turn the negative into a positive engagement for the customer. It is a chance for companies to improve on their services and customer service, ensuring that it is a better experience for customers in the future. It is also a chance for businesses to show how customer-focused they are and show how they value the comments that they receive, whether they be positive or negative.

The importance of monitoring social media activity
Monitoring social media ensures that a business keeps an eye on how their audience is engaging with them. It also entails that the business is aware of its mentions online. It is a great way for businesses to actively, and be immediately able to, react any time their business name is mentioned.

Brand advocacy and loyalty
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Social media monitoring is very important as it can make customers feel like they are being listened to. It also helps you keep an eye out for brand advocates and loyal customers.

Monitoring activity
________________________________________
Maybe more importantly, it is crucial for a business to monitor its social media activity across the channels it uses so that it can determine which platforms are working for the business and those that are not. It’s a waste of time and money creating a media campaign for a particular platform if it is not attracting an audience or perhaps a targeted audience, and the only way to identify this is to monitor it.

Monitoring competitors
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There’s nothing more motivating than seeing one of your competitors doing better than you. Monitoring social media activity is a great way of monitoring your competitors. This will provide valuable information of what they are up to and allow you to evaluate your own practices.