Social media listening gets talked about almost exclusively as a marketing tool. Brand sentiment, share of voice, campaign performance. And yes, it does all of that. But one of the most underutilized applications for a strong social listening program is product development. If your social and product teams aren't talking to each other, you're leaving real intelligence on the table.

A good listening program can tell you a lot about how users actually feel about your product. Pain points they haven't submitted a support ticket for because it didn't feel urgent enough, features they'd like to see built out, or workarounds your super fans have figured out that could make for a genuinely great future feature.

It's also one of the best tools for understanding your product and brand in the context of your industry. How do you stack up against competitors, both in terms of features and brand perception? How are you addressing what people are actually frustrated about?

Social listening is also incredibly useful for understanding the state of the industry you're working within. When I was working with an insurance tech company, I used listening queries to understand the actual reality of the housing market in the service areas we were covering. If you're working with a software company, you can track the industry your clients are operating in so you can build features, content, and strategy around what's actually happening in real time. Depending on the tool you're using, those conversations update almost instantly. You can also build out weekly and quarterly reports to fold that intelligence into your broader strategy.

It's time to get the product team and the social team in the same room.