Abstract

Using social intelligence acquired through social media monitoring and incorporating this intelligence to strategically change the approach to evolve and attain a business objective empirically, is a challenge. IKEA embraced social media by making its presence felt on popular websites like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google+. For IKEA, unique in its corporate structure, embracing social media was a turning point. IKEA formally set up its “Listening Hub” in 2014, acknowledging the importance of social media listening. Prior to setting up the “Listening Hub”, IKEA encountered situations that underlined the need to set up a formal Social Listening Hub. This case attempts to understand the importance of social media monitoring and the advantages associated with it, specific to IKEA, illustrated through situations identified and confronted by IKEA in different countries, prior to the setting up of “The Listening Hub”. It also helps to understand the various objectives of social media monitoring that IKEA tried to achieve, and the challenges faced by the furniture retailer in implementing its social media strategy.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Understand the emergence and growing importance of social media listening within organizations.
• Understand the issues and challenges in social media listening and social media monitoring
• Analyze the challenges faced by organizations in social media monitoring.
• Discuss and debate the need for online reputation management for brands, and how small conversations can lead to situations demanding crisis management.
• Explore how IKEA could overcome the challenges related to social media monitoring.

Keywords

Social Media Listening, Social Media Monitoring, Business Intelligence, Marketing research, Social intelligence, Social media strategy, Online reputation management, Crisis Management, Influencer Identification, Creative Feedback and Ad targeting: Competitive monitoring, Customer satisfaction, Trend Analysis, "Listening Hub"