April 23, 2025
How Social Listening Tools Improve Brand’s Positioning
by Alyssa Briones
Have you ever searched for your brand name just to see what people are saying? Curious (and maybe a little nervous) to find out what the internet thinks?
Well, you may not literally read your customers’ minds, but you can know their compliments and complaints. You can even use these to change something your customer secretly wishes you to do to position your brand better.
How? It's all through social listening.
What is Social Listening?
Social listening is tracking and analyzing conversations about your brand, products, competitors, and industry across social media and online platforms.
From cottonbro studio on Pexels.
Understanding Customer Feedback Through Social Listening
Every post, review, or comment is a window into what the market truly feels about your brand. Do the customers see your brand as effective? Affordable?
Social listening tools collect conversations that help you:
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Learn how customers describe your brand.
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Spot common complaints.
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See how your brand differentiates against competitors.
Brand positioning is what people believe about your brand. Use the data you get from social listening to shape their perception of you.
Examples of Social Listening Tools
Here's a list of several tools that make social listening easier:
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Meltwater - Helps track and analyze online conversations to guide brand strategy.
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Brandwatch - Powerful AI-based analytics for enterprise-level monitoring.
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Hootsuite Insights - A combination of social listening and social media management.
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Sprout Social - Offers listening, engagement, and reporting on one platform.
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Mention - Real-time media monitoring.
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Talkwalker - Known for deep analytics and global language support.
But if you want to begin with a more traditional social listening, here's a list of general sites and platforms you can use:
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Social Media - A place for checking timely public conversations.
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Review Sites - These are helpful for deeper customer feedback and pain points. Samples include Google Reviews, Yelp, Amazon, App Store, and Google Play.
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Online Recruitment Platforms - It contains unfiltered company reviews that reveal employee’s experiences in workplace culture and management.
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Community and Forum Sites - Sources like Reddit, Quora, and Product Hunt give you unfiltered discussions about your customers’ thoughts.
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Search Engines - Advanced operators help track mentions across the web.
From Anna Nekrashevich on Pexels.
Setting Up a Social Listening Strategy for Your Brand
Make social listening work for your brand through:
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Protecting Your Reputation - Detect negative sentiment, respond quickly, and turn potential PR crises into opportunities. When you immediately address your customer concerns, you show that your brand truly cares.
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Refine Your Brand Messaging - When you know how your audience talks, you can mirror that in your content. It easily connects them to you.
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Build a Community - Social listening helps you spot your biggest fans. Listening to their feedback increases loyalty.
Conclusion
Know your audience better than anyone else. Social listening helps you adjust your brand's positioning to meet them where we are. The goal is not to be the loudest in the room, but to be what people resonate the most.
