Social Listening Plan

Social Listening Plan

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when you need to:

• Monitor brand mentions, competitor activity, and industry conversations
• Set up alerts and tracking for relevant keywords and hashtags
• Build a systematic listening framework for market intelligence
• Design a response workflow for mentions and conversations

DO NOT use this skill for social media posting or engagement strategies. This is for monitoring and intelligence gathering.

Core Principle

SOCIAL LISTENING IS NOT ABOUT SURVEILLANCE — IT IS ABOUT UNDERSTANDING WHAT YOUR CUSTOMERS NEED SO YOU CAN SERVE THEM BETTER.

Phase 1: Brief

Required Inputs

GATE: Confirm brief before building the plan.

Phase 2: Outline

1. Listening Categories — what to monitor
2. Keyword & Query Setup — search terms and alerts
3. Tool Recommendations — free and paid options
4. Monitoring Schedule — how often to check
5. Response Workflow — how to act on what you find
6. Reporting Template — how to track and share insights

GATE: Approve outline before full plan.

Phase 3: Write

1. Listening Categories

## What to Monitor

| Category | What to Listen For | Why It Matters |
|----------|-------------------|----------------|
| Brand mentions | Direct @mentions and untagged name references | Reputation management, customer feedback |
| Competitor mentions | Competitor names, products, launches | Competitive intelligence |
| Industry keywords | Topic terms, trending discussions | Content ideas, market trends |
| Customer pain points | Questions, complaints, "how do I..." posts | Product improvement, content opportunities |
| Purchase signals | "Looking for," "recommend," "best tool for" | Direct lead opportunities |
| Sentiment shifts | Positive/negative trends in mentions | Early warning system |

2. Keyword & Query Setup

## Monitoring Keywords

### Brand Keywords
- "[Brand Name]" (exact match)
- Common misspellings of brand name
- Product names
- Founder name (if personal brand)

### Competitor Keywords
- "[Competitor 1 Name]"
- "[Competitor 2 Name]"
- "[Competitor 3 Name]"
- "[Competitor product names]"

### Industry Keywords
- "[Core topic 1]"
- "[Core topic 2]"
- "[Problem your product solves]"
- "[Industry trend term]"

### Purchase Signal Keywords
- "looking for [product category]"
- "recommend a [product category]"
- "best [product category] for [audience]"
- "alternative to [competitor]"
- "[competitor] vs"

### Google Alert Queries (set up for email notifications)
1. "[Brand Name]" -site:yourdomain.com
2. "[Competitor Name]" + [industry keyword]
3. "best [product category]" + [year]
4. "[Your product type]" + "recommend"

3. Tool Recommendations

## Recommended Tools

### Free
| Tool | What It Does | Best For |
|------|-------------|---------|
| Google Alerts | Email notifications for keyword mentions | Blog and news monitoring |
| Twitter/X Search | Real-time keyword search with filters | Twitter conversation monitoring |
| Reddit Search | Subreddit and keyword monitoring | Community discussion monitoring |
| Social media native search | Platform-specific keyword search | Quick manual checks |

### Paid (if budget allows)
| Tool | What It Does | Starting Price |
|------|-------------|---------------|
| Brand24 | Cross-platform mention monitoring | ~$79/mo |
| Mention | Real-time media monitoring | ~$41/mo |
| SparkToro | Audience research and listening | ~$50/mo |

4. Monitoring Schedule

## Listening Cadence

| Activity | Frequency | Time Required |
|----------|-----------|--------------|
| Check brand mentions | Daily | 10 minutes |
| Review competitor mentions | 2-3x per week | 15 minutes |
| Scan industry keywords | Weekly | 20 minutes |
| Monitor purchase signals | Daily | 10 minutes |
| Full listening report | Monthly | 1 hour |

5. Response Workflow

## What to Do With What You Find

| Finding | Action | Timeline |
|---------|--------|----------|
| Positive brand mention | Like, thank, and repost (with permission) | Same day |
| Negative brand mention | Assess validity, respond empathetically, resolve in DMs | Within 2 hours |
| Customer question about your brand | Answer directly with helpful information | Same day |
| Purchase signal ("looking for...") | Provide a helpful, non-salesy recommendation | Same day |
| Competitor weakness mentioned | Note for positioning; do not trash-talk | Log for strategy |
| Industry trend gaining traction | Consider creating content on the topic | Within the week |
| Content idea from audience question | Add to content backlog with the original question | Log immediately |

Phase 4: Polish

1. Listening Plan Checklist

## Social Listening Checklist

- [ ] Brand keywords defined (including misspellings)
- [ ] Competitor keywords set up
- [ ] Industry and purchase signal keywords listed
- [ ] Google Alerts configured for all priority keywords
- [ ] Monitoring tools selected and set up
- [ ] Daily/weekly monitoring schedule defined
- [ ] Response workflow documented for each finding type
- [ ] Monthly reporting template created

2. Monthly Report Template

## Monthly Social Listening Report — [Month]

**Brand mentions:** [N] total ([+/-]% vs last month)
**Sentiment:** [Positive/Neutral/Negative breakdown]
**Top positive mention:** [Quote + source]
**Top negative mention:** [Quote + source + response taken]
**Competitor highlights:** [Key moves or mentions]
**Purchase signals identified:** [N]
**Content ideas captured:** [List]
**Action items for next month:** [List]

Example: Listening Plan for a SaaS Product

Brand keywords: "ProductName," "Product Name," common misspelling
Competitors: "Competitor1," "Competitor2," "Competitor3"
Industry: "project management tool," "team collaboration software"
Purchase signals: "looking for project management," "alternative to Asana"
Tools: Google Alerts (free) + Twitter Search (free)
Cadence: 10 min/day brand mentions, 15 min 3x/week competitors, monthly report

Anti-Patterns

• Monitoring without acting — listening that never leads to action is wasted time. Always have a response workflow.
• Only monitoring your brand — competitor and industry monitoring provides context that brand-only monitoring misses.
• Responding to every mention — not every mention needs a response. Prioritize negative mentions, direct questions, and purchase signals.
• Using listening to argue — do not engage with every critic. Respond calmly to legitimate concerns, ignore trolls.
• Checking too infrequently — a negative mention that festers for a week is harder to address than one caught the same day.

Recovery

• No mentions found: Your brand may be too new for monitoring. Focus on industry and competitor keywords until brand awareness grows.
• Overwhelmed by volume: Narrow your keyword list. Focus on the 5 most important terms and expand later.
• Negative sentiment trending: Identify the root cause. Address it publicly with transparency and a plan to fix it.
• No budget for tools: Google Alerts + manual platform searches cover 80% of listening needs at zero cost.
• Not sure what keywords to use: Start with your brand name, top competitor names, and 3-5 terms your customers use to describe their problem.