Here is a little known technique I use to find new customers, establish relationships and build trust through Twitter that works extremely well… I create a social media listening post and monitor any discussion in real-time about a particular topic of my choosing.
Used correctly, a social media listening post can assist you in learning what others are saying about the topic you are listening to and allow you to reach out to others to provide them with value and/or solutions to a particular problem or question they may have. It also allows you to create brand awareness through social relationships thus making others aware of your presence on the web which eventually leads to buying customers!
What is a Social Media Listening Post?
Simply put, a social media listening post is a way for you to listen too or monitor specific topics of discussion that may relate to your niche market. This is done through the use of freely available technologies that allow you to monitor social media discussions, usually on Twitter, by conducting a search for specific keywords that relate to the topic you wish to connect with other through.
For example, I use a social media listening post to find potential customers for my wordpress blog customization services. I conduct a search for the keywords, “blog customization” and respond to anyone who appears to be looking for these services. Whether they buy my services or not is not my main concern, but rather, I’m more concerned with establishing a relationship with the person I’m reaching out to which allows me to create brand awareness and may gain me a new reader to my blog, which in turn may become a customer at a later date.
How Do You Create a Social Media Listening Post?
The process of creating a social media listening post is fairly simple and easy through the use of freely available tools for use through the internet or on your desktop.
On The Internet
Use websites such as Twitter Search and TweetBeep to conduct searches using keywords for a particular topic you are interested in.
Twitter Search is Twitters official search engine which allows you to conduct a search on any topic and displays to you all the tweets that contain your keyword search.
TweetBeep is a site that allows you to conduct a search for a specific topic or discussion on Twitter which then sends you an email alert, similar to Google Alerts, of all the tweets that match your criteria.
Which ever method you use above, simply look for conversations that are relevant to your search topic or interests and engage in those conversation.
On The Desktop
I prefer to use desktop applications such as TweetDeck or Seesmic because they not only allow me to monitor Twitter but also Facebook and LinkedIn.
TweetDeck
In TweetDeck, you simply click the add column button and enter your keyword search term. TweetDeck then displays every tweet from Twitter that contains your keyword search. All you have to do is read through the results as you would when conducting a search on Google and determine whether or not you can provide value to the discussions displayed in the search results. If you can, then simply reply to someone and start up the conversation.
Seesmic
In Seesmic, simply conduct a search by typing your keywords in the search box displayed in the upper right-hand corner of the application. A column will then be displayed to you showing all the tweets in which your keywords appear. As with TweetDeck, all you need to do is read through the search results and reply to anyone whom you believe you can provide value too.
At some point, you will develop a rhythm to monitoring your social media listening post and will be able to quickly and easily pick out those who need your solution, product, service or whatever you are offering to satisfy their need. The best approach is to allow the conversation to simply flow as normal and NEVER hard sell to anyone.
This is also a fantastic way for you to offer up promotional discounts to others who are specifically looking for your services. I do this quite often with much success. I simply engage in the conversation after conducting a search and when the question comes up about my services, I let them know of a promotion I have running that will save them money if they conduct business with me.
Take advantage of the tools that are freely available to you and utilize this method to find potential customers that are actively engaging in conversation about a particular topic, discussion or service you provide and fill their need. In sales, customers who are actively engaging in product/service discussion are call “Red Hot Leads” and are more willing to buy right then and there than someone whom you have to encourage their participation in the topic of your services, if you catch my drift.
To understand how this is done and to better illustrate my point, Michael Martine of Remarkablogger.com illustrates how effective a social media listening post can be by sharing a recent experience in a blog posted entitled Social Media Marketing Done Right. There is a video accompanying his post where he shares how the process works. I highly recommend you take a look as this method is very powerful and can make you a lot of money if you dedicate a little time to it and do it right.
Thanks for reading! Please share your thoughts, comments, feedback and questions in the comments below. I’m always eager to engage in a healthy discussion 
To Your Success!
Sean Smith
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