Use AI-powered insights to protect your brand reputation, outsmart competitors, and craft a data-driven social media strategy that converts
With billions of active users worldwide, social media is a treasure trove of insights into what your audience is thinking and feeling.
But your organisation needs a fast and easy way to get those insights, make sense of them, and take action. And that’s where social listening comes in.
What is social listening?
Social listening is the process of actively tracking and analysing mentions of your organization, industry, and relevant topics on social media and the web. With the right tools, even small teams can listen across the entire digital universe, from social posts to videos to blogs, podcasts, news, and more.
Hootsuite, the world’s leading social media management tool, connects your brand to relevant conversations in 187 languages, across more than 150 million sources on social media and the web. This allows your social media team to jump on trends, monitor crises, and dive deep into competitor insights.
Why add social listening to your marketing stack in 2025?
- Never miss a conversation
Track mentions across millions of sources like video, memes, GIFs, audio, and more — and monitor references to your brand with AI visual recognition. - Know your audience better
Understand the emotion driving engagement and how people feel about your brand, competitors, or a specific topic with AI sentiment analysis. - Protect your brand’s reputation
Create real-time data alerts and investigate spikes to monitor key issues, identify fraudulent pages, and address negative chatter and misinformation. - Crush the competition
Set up triggered live alerts and custom reports that track the social media performance of your competitors. - Spot and pounce on trends first
Catch wind of the latest trends, hashtags, and topics — before they blow up — with predictive forecasting. - Take confident next steps
Use peak detection to instantly see what is driving the most mentions or engagement for your brand, products, or campaigns. - Find (the right) influencers
Identify and engage with social media influencers who align with your brand values and resonate with your target audience. - Track and prove ROI
Let Blue Silk™ AI — the most comprehensive consumer intelligence on the market — turn data and conversations into clear, actionable insights, reports, and alerts.
Success stories
Hootsuite Listening gives customers like Yves Rocher and HelloFresh the tools to collect product feedback. It also helps top brands analyse fan emotions and boost engagement — with one NBA team driving 4x video views and even justifying a new social media hire.
About Hootsuite
The industry leader in social listening, Hootsuite acquired Luxembourg-based Talkwalker in 2024. Today, the company — valued at an estimated $1 billion — services both small and enterprise-sized organisations. Since 2008, Hootsuite has provided over 25 million marketers and businesses with the most extensive social media performance products on the market.
Resources
To get started with social listening, download this free guide and checklist.
Attending the Digital Marketing World Forum in London? Stop by stand #195, or attend Scrolling for Gold: The Secret to Spotting Social Media Trends That Actually Matter, presented by Senior Creative Brand and PR Director Hassan Ali on June 24.
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