Social Listening

Systematically monitor social media and online conversations to track brand sentiment, identify emerging issues, and spot opportunities.

When to Use This Skill

• Brand health monitoring

• Crisis early warning

• Competitor tracking

• Campaign performance

• Customer insight gathering

Methodology Foundation

Based on Sprout Social methodology and Brandwatch analytics, combining:

• Keyword monitoring

• Sentiment analysis

• Trend identification

• Influencer tracking

What Claude Does vs What You Decide

Claude Does You Decide

Designs monitoring strategy Tool selection

Creates keyword lists Alert thresholds

Analyzes sentiment patterns Response strategy

Identifies trends Resource allocation

Suggests response approaches Escalation calls

Instructions

Step 1: Define Monitoring Scope

Monitoring Categories:

Category What to Track Examples

Brand Company name, products "@CompanyName", "CompanyProduct"

People Executives, spokespeople CEO name, founder

Industry Sector terms, trends Industry keywords

Competitors Competitor mentions Competitor names

Issues Potential crises Product issues, service complaints

Step 2: Build Keyword Matrix

Keyword Types:

Type Purpose Examples

Primary Direct brand mentions Brand name, product names

Secondary Related conversations Industry terms, use cases

Negative Crisis indicators "problem", "issue", "broken"

Competitor Competitive intelligence Competitor names, comparison

Step 3: Set Up Alerts

Alert Levels:

Level Trigger Response Time

Green Normal volume, positive/neutral Daily review

Yellow Elevated volume, mixed sentiment Same-day review

Orange High volume spike, negative trend Hours

Red Viral negative, crisis indicators Immediate

Step 4: Analyze Findings

Analysis Framework:

• Volume trends (up/down/stable)

• Sentiment distribution (positive/neutral/negative)

• Key themes and topics

• Influential voices

• Geographic patterns

Step 5: Report and Act

Reporting Cadence:

Report Frequency Audience

Real-time alerts As triggered Crisis team

Daily digest Daily Marketing

Weekly summary Weekly Leadership

Monthly deep dive Monthly Strategy

Examples

Example 1: Social Listening Strategy

Input:

Create a social listening strategy for:

• B2B SaaS company (project management)
• Main competitors: Asana, Monday, Notion
• Recent product launch: AI features

Output:

Social Listening Strategy: Project Management SaaS

Monitoring Objectives

Keyword Matrix

Brand Keywords

Product Keywords

Competitive Keywords

Crisis Keywords

Platform Strategy

Alert Configuration

Red Alerts (Immediate Response)

Triggers:

• Volume spike >300% normal
• Sentiment shift >50% negative
• Viral post (>1000 engagements)
• Keywords: "outage", "down", "breach", "hack"

Response:

• Slack #crisis-alerts channel
• SMS to on-call team
• Auto-pause scheduled posts

Orange Alerts (Same-Day Response)

Triggers:

• Volume spike >100% normal
• Negative sentiment >30%
• Trending competitor comparison
• Keywords: "expensive", "worse", "frustrated"

Response:

• Slack #social-alerts
• Email to marketing lead
• Review within 4 hours

Yellow Alerts (Next-Day Review)

Triggers:

• Volume spike >50% normal
• Notable influencer mention
• Competitor activity spike
• Keywords: "considering", "alternative", "switching"

Response:

• Daily digest inclusion
• Assign for monitoring
• Review within 24 hours

Analysis Template

Daily Report

Social Listening Daily Digest

Date: [Date]

Volume Summary

Metric Today vs. Yesterday vs. 7-Day Avg

Total Mentions X +/-Y% +/-Z%

Brand Mentions X +/-Y% +/-Z%

Sentiment Score X +/-Y +/-Z

Sentiment Breakdown

• Positive: X%

• Neutral: Y%

• Negative: Z%

Top Conversations

• [Summary + Link]

• [Summary + Link]

• [Summary + Link]

Competitor Activity

• Asana: [Notable activity]

• Monday: [Notable activity]

• Notion: [Notable activity]

Action Items

• [Action if needed]

Alert Status: GREEN/YELLOW/ORANGE/RED

AI Feature Launch Monitoring

Specific Keywords:

• "[Company] AI"
• "AI project management"
• "[Company] automation"
• "AI features PM tool"

What to Track:

Competitor Response Monitoring:

• Are competitors announcing similar features?
• How is our positioning being compared?
• What gaps are users identifying?

Example 2: Quick Sentiment Analysis

Input:

Analyze this week's social mentions:

• Total mentions: 450 (up 30%)
• Positive: 40%
• Neutral: 35%
• Negative: 25%
• Top negative theme: "pricing"
• One viral tweet (15K RT): "Just discovered [Company] raised prices 40%"

Output:

Quick Sentiment Analysis

Alert Level: ORANGE

Summary

Key Finding

Pricing is dominating the conversation

The viral tweet about 40% price increase is:

• Driving 30% volume spike
• Shifting sentiment negative
• Spreading misinformation (if price increase was different)

Immediate Actions

Response Options

If price increase was less than 40%:

Hi [Name], thanks for the feedback. Just to clarify—our recent update increased [specific] pricing by [X%], not 40%. Here's what changed and why: [link]

Happy to discuss if you have questions.

If price increase was accurate:

Hi [Name], we hear you. We know pricing changes are never easy to absorb. Here's why we made this decision and what you're getting in return: [link]

Our team is available if you'd like to discuss your account.

Escalation Watch

Monitor for:

• Influencer pile-on
• Media pickup
• Support ticket spike
• Churn mentions

Skill Boundaries

What This Skill Does Well

• Designing monitoring strategies

• Creating keyword frameworks

• Analyzing sentiment patterns

• Structuring alert systems

What This Skill Cannot Do

• Access social platforms

• Monitor in real-time

• Automatically respond

• Know your specific tools

Iteration Guide

Follow-up Prompts:

• "Create response templates for [scenario]"

• "How should we handle [specific mention]?"

• "Design a competitor monitoring dashboard"

• "What should we track for [campaign]?"

References

• Sprout Social Listening Guide

• Brandwatch Analytics Methodology

• Hootsuite Social Listening

• Meltwater Media Intelligence

Related Skills

• crisis-detector

• Early warning escalation

• response-coordinator

• Crisis response

• reputation-recovery

• Post-crisis rebuild

Skill Metadata

• Domain: Crisis / Marketing

• Complexity: Intermediate

• Mode: cyborg

• Time to Value: 1-2 hours for strategy

• Prerequisites: Platform access, brand context