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

| Objective | Priority | Key Questions |
|-----------|----------|---------------|
| Brand health | High | How are we perceived? |
| Product feedback | High | What do users say about AI features? |
| Competitive intel | Medium | What are competitors doing? |
| Industry trends | Medium | Where is PM software heading? |
| Crisis detection | High | Any emerging issues? |

---

### Keyword Matrix

#### Brand Keywords

| Category | Keywords | Platforms |
|----------|----------|-----------|
| Company Name | "[Company]", "@company" | All |
| Product Name | "[Product]", "[Product] app" | All |
| Misspellings | Common variants | All |
| Hashtags | #[Company], #[Product] | Twitter, LinkedIn |

#### Product Keywords

| Category | Keywords | Why Monitor |
|----------|----------|-------------|
| AI Features | "[Company] AI", "AI project management" | Launch feedback |
| Core Features | "[Company] tasks", "[Company] boards" | Product sentiment |
| Integrations | "[Company] Slack", "[Company] integration" | Partnership health |

#### Competitive Keywords

| Competitor | Keywords | What to Track |
|------------|----------|---------------|
| Asana | "Asana vs [Company]", "switching from Asana" | Win/loss signals |
| Monday | "Monday.com", "Monday vs [Company]" | Competitive positioning |
| Notion | "Notion for projects", "Notion PM" | Category overlap |
| General | "best project management", "PM tool 2026" | Category conversations |

#### Crisis Keywords

| Category | Keywords | Alert Level |
|----------|----------|-------------|
| Outage | "[Company] down", "[Company] not working" | Red |
| Security | "[Company] hack", "[Company] breach" | Red |
| Pricing | "[Company] expensive", "[Company] price increase" | Orange |
| Churn | "leaving [Company]", "cancelled [Company]" | Yellow |
| Bugs | "[Company] bug", "[Company] broken" | Yellow |

---

### Platform Strategy

| Platform | Focus | Keywords | Frequency |
|----------|-------|----------|-----------|
| Twitter/X | Real-time sentiment | All brand, crisis | Continuous |
| LinkedIn | B2B discussions | Industry, competitor | Daily |
| Reddit | Deep user feedback | r/projectmanagement, product | Daily |
| G2/Capterra | Review sentiment | Product reviews | Weekly |
| Hacker News | Tech community | Product, competitor | As trending |

---

### 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:**
| Metric | Target | Alert If |
|--------|--------|----------|
| Mention volume | 2x normal | <50% or >300% |
| Sentiment | >60% positive | <40% positive |
| Feature requests | Document all | - |
| Bug reports | <5/day | >10/day |

**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

| Metric | Value | Status |
|--------|-------|--------|
| Volume | 450 (+30%) | Elevated |
| Sentiment | 40% positive | Below target |
| Negative | 25% | Above normal |
| Viral Content | Yes | Action needed |

---

### 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

| Action | Owner | Timeline |
|--------|-------|----------|
| Verify price increase details | Product/Biz | Immediate |
| Draft response to viral tweet | Comms | 2 hours |
| Prepare pricing FAQ | Support | Today |
| Monitor for escalation | Social | Ongoing |

---

### 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

social-listening

NPX Install

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