How to Create Your Social Listening Strategy in 5 Steps
Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2025 9:29 am
Jumping into social listening without a plan of attack is a surefire way to get lost. Maximize your time and energy and start creating your social listening strategy by following these 5 easy steps.
Step 1: Define your goals
We live in an ocean of data. If you don't define your goals from the start, you risk drowning in information. By defining your goals, you can put filters in place.
To do this, ask yourself the following questions:
Is it important to know where my brand stands in relation to the competition?
Do I know our market positioning?
Do people like our products? Could we improve them?
Do we know the feelings associated with our brand?
Do people know about our existence?
Do they know that our products or services can solve [this specific problem]?
The answers to these questions will tell you what you should focus on: brand awareness, czech republic phone number data competitive positioning, or improving your offering.
Step 2: Determine which search terms and competitors to monitor
Once you know what you're looking to accomplish, you'll have a better idea of what keywords to target.
Start by making a list of the keywords and search terms you should prioritize. These might include:
Keywords associated with your brand or industry
From the name of your competitors
Keywords associated with your products or services
Step 3: Choose a social listening tool
Choosing a tool is one of the most important steps when creating your social listening strategy. For obvious reasons, we love Hootsuite Streams and Talkwalker.
Here's how to easily create your social listening streams using Hootsuite:
Go to your Hootsuite dashboard.
Log in to your Hootsuite account and go to your dashboard. If you don't have an account yet, don't worry: it's very easy to sign up .
Request a free trial of Hootsuite
Add and customize your feeds
In the left menu, click on the Streams icon.
Streams icon in the Hootsuite dashboard to create streams
Next, click + New Board in the top left corner and follow the board type instructions on the right side of the screen ( Board type ).
add a new board and select the board type in Hootsuite
There are several options available to you:
Monitor your own content. Track all activity on your social media accounts.
Discover new content. Keep an eye on competition, trends, and social media discussions.
Follow personalized feeds. Create personalized feeds based on a topic or activity on your accounts or the accounts you follow.
The type of dashboard you choose depends on your goals. We recommend setting up separate feeds for monitoring your industry, competitors, accounts, and campaigns.
Step 1: Define your goals
We live in an ocean of data. If you don't define your goals from the start, you risk drowning in information. By defining your goals, you can put filters in place.
To do this, ask yourself the following questions:
Is it important to know where my brand stands in relation to the competition?
Do I know our market positioning?
Do people like our products? Could we improve them?
Do we know the feelings associated with our brand?
Do people know about our existence?
Do they know that our products or services can solve [this specific problem]?
The answers to these questions will tell you what you should focus on: brand awareness, czech republic phone number data competitive positioning, or improving your offering.
Step 2: Determine which search terms and competitors to monitor
Once you know what you're looking to accomplish, you'll have a better idea of what keywords to target.
Start by making a list of the keywords and search terms you should prioritize. These might include:
Keywords associated with your brand or industry
From the name of your competitors
Keywords associated with your products or services
Step 3: Choose a social listening tool
Choosing a tool is one of the most important steps when creating your social listening strategy. For obvious reasons, we love Hootsuite Streams and Talkwalker.
Here's how to easily create your social listening streams using Hootsuite:
Go to your Hootsuite dashboard.
Log in to your Hootsuite account and go to your dashboard. If you don't have an account yet, don't worry: it's very easy to sign up .
Request a free trial of Hootsuite
Add and customize your feeds
In the left menu, click on the Streams icon.
Streams icon in the Hootsuite dashboard to create streams
Next, click + New Board in the top left corner and follow the board type instructions on the right side of the screen ( Board type ).
add a new board and select the board type in Hootsuite
There are several options available to you:
Monitor your own content. Track all activity on your social media accounts.
Discover new content. Keep an eye on competition, trends, and social media discussions.
Follow personalized feeds. Create personalized feeds based on a topic or activity on your accounts or the accounts you follow.
The type of dashboard you choose depends on your goals. We recommend setting up separate feeds for monitoring your industry, competitors, accounts, and campaigns.