Can You Hear Me Now? Social Listening as a Strategy for Understanding User Needs

Maintaining regular engagement with audiences through various forms of social media is becoming more important as library users and the general public increasingly rely on social media for news, updates, and feedback. While large corporations have been monitoring social media for more than a decade, libraries have recently begun to use social listening to stay abreast of trends and assess user needs as voiced directly by their communities. This column will explain what social listening is, explore concerns over its widespread application, consider examples of social media listening software currently available, and offer an overview of its application in library settings.