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Today, PR teams aren’t just tracking media coverage and share of voice. They’re also measuring how their brand shows up in AI-generated answers, search summaries, and large language models (LLMs). This new LLM visibility layer is quickly becoming a critical part of PR performance.

15 Must-Have PR KPIs and How to Track Them

Influencer marketing is evolving, and so is the way brands measure success. That’s why Meltwater is proud to announce a new partnership with YouTube, integrating YouTube’s Creator Partnerships API directly into our Influencer Marketing platform.

Introducing Verified YouTube Data in Meltwater Influencer Marketing

See how one platform can power every decision across PR, communications, and marketing.

The Meltwater Blog

Blog Topics: Generative Engine Optimization, Media Intelligence, Media Relations, Social Listening, Consumer Intelligence, Influencer Marketing

Find out how you can leverage Facebook to boost your brand's online presence and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

Facebook Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage Instagram to boost your brand's visual appeal and gain a competitive edge. Explore our category page today!

Instagram Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage LinkedIN to grow your professional network and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

LinkedIn Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage TikTok to elevate your brand with creative content and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

TikTok Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage X / Twitter to engage your audience effectively and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

X / Twitter Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage YouTube to create engaging video content and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

YouTube Blog | Meltwater

Every day billions of conversations take place on social media: tweets, posts, comments, blogs, reviews, podcasts, and much more.
Learn how to use social listening to make sense of all of that data.

On our social listening category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around social listening and social media monitoring. Read more.

Social Listening Blogs | Category

Business Reputation Management: What does it take to add reputation management to your marketing strategy? More importantly, how do you keep your reputation sparkly and shiny? Here’s your all-access guide to online reputation management for the long term.

On our reputation management category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around business reputation management. Read more.

Reputation Management Blogs | Category

From your brand's logo to your website, your social media presence to your customer support—these elements combined are what constitutes a brand in the minds of customers. But, there are thousands of other businesses that have a logo, website, social media presence, and website. So, how can you position your business on the market and make it stand out from the competition?
The key to success is branding & brand management!

On our brand management category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around brand management. Build your strategy and reach your goals!

Brand Management Blogs | Category

Competitive intelligence and the act of collecting competitive data can be seen as growth drivers for a company. Our guide will help you understand the concept of competitive intelligence (CI) by answering questions such as: What is the definition of competitive intelligence? How is competitive intelligence useful to organizations? What is the goal of competitive intelligence? And more.

On our competitive intelligence category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around competitive intelligence. Learn how to stay ahead.

Competitive Intelligence Blogs | Category

Let’s dive into the customer journey framework and how to optimize the process by creating a customer journey map and using metrics that matter when analyzing the customer journey.

On our customer journey category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around mapping and understanding the customer journey.

Customer Journey Blogs | Category

What Is Data Analytics? [Beginner’s Guide 2023]
How can I grow my business? 
How do customers interact with my newly launched product?
How do I increase the productivity of my employees?
How do I know if my marketing efforts are working?
We have just two words for you...Data analytics!

On our data analytics category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around AI and data analytics. Technical and still easy to understand.

AI & Data Analytics Blogs | Category

Public relations and media relations can add impact to any marketing strategy. It’s an opportunity for brands to grow their reach beyond traditional sales messages. PR helps to shape the image you want people to have of your brand.
So, what is PR and how do you use it? This guide shows you everything you need to know to build a strong public relations foundation.

On our public relations (PR) category page, you find all our blogs covering public relations and communications topics. Step up your PR game.

Public Relations (PR) Blogs | Category

We all know exactly what the roles of sales or accounting are in a company, right? We might even have a slight idea of what the IT guys are doing.
But there is another business discipline, that plays a crucial role in organizations, even more so during the pandemic – internal communications!
But what exactly do we mean by that, what purpose does it serve and what steps can you take to ensure you and your employees will communicate effectively?

On our internal communications category page, you find all our blogs about internal comms topics. Learn about the intranet, internal newsletters, and more.

Internal Communications Blogs | Category

As the internet has taken root in more areas of our lives — everything from entertainment to shopping to paying bills and more — traditional marketing is becoming less impactful. As any marketer knows, you need to focus on where your audience is if you want to reach them. Since the average person spends about seven hours a day online, it’s no surprise that content has maintained its hold on marketers.

Here's a closer look at what content marketing is and why it matters more than ever in our digital-first economy.

On our content marketing category page, you find blogs about content marketing topics. Learn about strategies, KPIs, tips, and more. Make your content king!

Content Marketing Blogs | Category

The rise of the influencer marketing space – today a $10 billion industry, growing 50% per year – is one of the clearest examples of how social media is transforming traditional marketing. These days having a business website, presence on social, PR coverage, and your own content isn’t enough to compete.
We'll dive into the intricacies of influencer marketing to help ensure that you're equipped with the insights needed to be successful in this space.

On our influencer marketing category page, you find blogs about influencer marketing topics. Build your strategy, find influencers, and measure results.

Influencer Marketing Blogs | Category

Have you just launched a new product or service that you want to get the word out about? Maybe you want to share with consumers why it is awesome and how it is so much better than the one your competitors offer.

Well, then, there is one thing you can't do without...Marketing!

On our marketing category page, you find blogs about marketing topics. Learn about all the different angles and types of marketing and improve your results.

Marketing Blogs | Category

In this guide, we want to give you a peek into the definition of social media management, the daily schedule of a social media manager, social media platforms to promote your business, and the do’s & don’ts of social media management.
Are you ready to begin the journey of becoming a social media superstar?

On our social media management category page, you find blogs about social media management topics. Build and manage your online community.

Social Media Management Blogs | Category

Building a following and using social media platforms to reach a wider audience requires a well-planned social media marketing strategy. In this guide, we’ll be looking at why social media marketing is so essential and how you can make it work for your business.

On our social media marketing category page, you find blogs about social media marketing topics. Learn how to get the highest paid social ROI!

Social Media Marketing Blogs | Category

In the fast-evolving realm of digital marketing and public relations, utilizing the right tools is crucial for success. Our interdisciplinary category showcases all the pertinent tools for digital marketing & PR. These tools help in enhancing your online presence and effectively reaching target groups, whether through reputation management, influencer marketing, or social media management.

On our digital marketing and PR tools category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around mapping and understanding the customer journey.

Digital Marketing & PR Tools Blogs | Category

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is transforming how brands show up in AI-powered search. Explore insights, strategies, and best practices to help your content rank and resonate across conversational engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot.

Explore insights and strategies for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) to help your brand stay visible and discoverable in AI-powered search.

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) Blog Collection | Meltwater

Two brands can spend equal amounts on marketing and get very different results. One keeps showing up in search results, industry coverage, and social conversations, while the other barely registers.

That gap is often a share-of-voice problem.

Share of voice helps you measure how visible your brand is compared to competitors across the channels your audience already pays attention to. It gives marketing and insights teams a clearer view of who is dominating attention, where visibility is slipping, and which channels deserve more investment.

This guide breaks down how to measure share of voice, why it matters, and how to build a scalable measurement process to consistently track and improve your brand's competitive standing

Why Does Share of Voice Matter for Marketing Teams?

What is the Formula for Calculating Share of Voice?

How to Measure Share of Voice Step-by-Step

Best Practices and Strategies for Increasing Share of Voice

How to Choose the Right Share of Voice Tool For Your Team

Using Meltwater For End-to-End Share of Voice Measurement

Build a Repeatable Share of Voice Measurement Process

Share of voice (SOV) measures the attention your brand receives relative to competitors. For example, say your brand is mentioned 200 times in a month across news coverage, blogs, and social media platforms. That number means very little on its own. But if your three main competitors were mentioned 800 times in the same period, your brand is only getting a small share of the category conversation.

That’s why marketing teams track SOV instead of just raw mentions, impressions, or reach. It helps justify budget allocation, measure campaign success, and identify where competitors are gaining ground before it shows up in sales data. At a strategic level, SOV directly aligns with long-term business outcomes. Brands with higher SOV tend to build stronger brand awareness, which influences consideration and purchase decisions.

Share of voice and share of market are related terms that measure different things:

Share of voice: Tracks your brand presence and visibility across conversations, including media coverage, social mentions, search impressions, and ad spend.

Share of market: Measures actual business performance through metrics like revenue, customer base, or units sold within your industry.

For marketing teams, tracking both metrics provides a more complete picture of a brand's standing. If your share of voice is growing but market share isn't following, it may signal a disconnect between awareness and conversion. If market share is strong but share of voice is declining, competitors may be gaining momentum that could erode your position over time.

Before getting into channel-specific methods, it helps to understand the universal share of voice formula that applies across every measurement context:

Share of Voice = Your Brand's Metrics ÷ Total Market Metrics × 100

Your brand's metrics = Your ad spend, social media mentions, search engine impressions, or website traffic

Total market metrics = The combined total of your metrics and all your competitors' metrics in the same category

The result is a percentage that represents your slice of the overall conversation. Here's how this looks in practice across a few scenarios:

Social media: Your brand earns 800 mentions in a month. Your three main competitors earn 600, 400, and 200 mentions, respectively. The total market is 2,000 mentions. Your SOV = 800 ÷ 2,000 × 100 = 40%.

Paid search: Your ads received 12,000 impressions. The total available impressions across all competitors bidding on the same keywords were 60,000. Your SOV = 12,000 ÷ 60,000 × 100 = 20%.

Advertising: Your brand invested $50,000 in advertising across channels last quarter. Combined spending from your four main competitors totaled $150,000. The total market ad spend is $200,000. Your SOV = 50,000 ÷ 200,000 × 100 = 25%.

The formula remains consistent across channels. What changes is the metric you plug in: mentions, impressions, clicks, backlinks, or keyword rankings, depending on what you want to measure.

Once you understand the formula, you can start tracking SOV consistently across the channels that matter most to your brand. The goal is to establish a repeatable process that lets you compare your brand's visibility against competitors over time.

Step 1: Identify your competitors and relevant keywords

Start by deciding which competitors actually matter for this analysis. Do not just pull a random brand list from your category.

A simple way to do this is to split competitors into three groups:

Direct competitors: Brands that buyers compare you with because of similar offerings

Search competitors: Brands or sites that rank for the keywords you want to own

Conversation competitors: Brands in your same category that appear alongside yours in media coverage, social posts, or industry discussions

To find them quickly, pay attention to competitor names that your sales team hears on calls, brands ranking for your priority keywords, and brands mentioned repeatedly in industry coverage and social conversations.

If you’re doing this at scale, AI-powered media intelligence platforms like Meltwater can help by showing trends by brand, total mentions, and sources over a set time period. That makes it easier to see which brands are appearing most often in the conversation and whether a competitor is gaining momentum on a topic.

Next, define the keywords, hashtags, or topics that represent your brand and category.

For SEO and paid search (PPC), select search terms your audience uses.

For social media, include branded hashtags, campaign tags, and industry terms. 

For earned media, track mentions of your brand name, products, or key executives alongside competitor mentions.

Focus on terms and competitors that directly impact your business outcomes for the highest impact.

Step 2: Collect data across selected marketing channels

With competitors and keywords defined, gather data from channels where your audience is active. The metrics you collect depend on the channel:

Social media: Track mentions, hashtag usage, post reach, engagement, and sentiment across platforms like Instagram, LinkedIn, X, and TikTok. Social listening tools aggregate this data and monitor conversations in real time.

Organic search (SEO): Measure impressions, clicks, and keyword rankings in search results. Tools like Google Search Console show how often your site appears for target keywords compared to competitors.

Paid search (PPC): Track impressions, clicks, and ad spend. Platforms like Google Ads offer built-in competitor metrics showing how your ads perform relative to others bidding on the same keywords.

Earned media: Monitor brand mentions, article placements, and backlinks across news sites, blogs, podcasts, and publications. Media intelligence platforms like Meltwater track this coverage at scale and provide sentiment analysis, so brands can understand where and how they’re being discussed. 

Collect comparable data for your brand and competitors across the same time period to keep results consistent.

Tip: Learn more in the Social Listening for Benchmarking Guide

Step 3: Calculate and analyze your share of voice results

Apply the SOV formula to each channel, then analyze results to identify patterns and opportunities. Are you outperforming competitors on social but lagging in search? Is your share of voice growing or shrinking? Are there specific keywords or topics where you're underrepresented?

Use this analysis to inform next steps, whether that means increasing content output, adjusting paid media budget, or refining messaging. 

The real value of share of voice isn't the number itself, but what it tells you about where to focus your efforts.

Increasing your share of voice is about showing up more strategically, more consistently, and in more places that matter to your audience. The tactics that drive SOV growth are rooted in visibility, engagement, and content quality across every channel you measure.

Share of voice usually grows when your brand shows up on a reliable cadence, not in random bursts. For most B2B teams, that means publishing on social media channels regularly and maintaining a steady content rhythm on owned channels. The cadence will vary from brand to brand, and there’s no one-size-fits-all rule; however, fewer, high-quality posts a week trump lower-quality content more often.   

If your blog is still growing, HubSpot recommends publishing 6–8 posts a month for newer blogs. For LinkedIn, platform guidance based on Buffer’s analysis of 4.8 million posts found that engagement tends to be strongest in the late afternoon and evening on weekdays, especially on Wednesday around 4 PM and on Friday between 3–4 PM.

Brands that lead conversations tend to dominate them. Instead of waiting for your audience to mention you, create moments worth mentioning. Launch campaigns that invite participation, ask questions that spark debate, or take a position on industry trends.

Starting conversations also means engaging with what's already happening. Join relevant discussions on social platforms, respond to industry news, and contribute to trending topics where your perspective adds value. Publishing original research, taking a clear stance on a topical subject, or offering practical frameworks that others can apply positions your brand as a thought leader and builds credibility. 

Generic content rarely moves the needle. Original research, unique perspectives, and standout formats earn attention and mentions. Whether it's a data-driven report, a bold opinion piece, or a creative campaign that breaks through the noise, originality separates brands that lead the conversation from those that follow it.

Engaging content performs better across channels. It earns backlinks, gets shared on social, and attracts media coverage, contributing to a higher share of voice. Track which content types and formats drive the most engagement and mentions for your brand— lean into experimentation and double down on what works.

Regularly reviewing your share of voice data helps you understand what's working and what's not, so you can decide where to adjust. Be sure to track data at least monthly to balance strategic insight with manageable action. This cadence can help you identify trend shifts without overreacting to daily noise.

Use your SOV data to inform budget allocation, content planning, and campaign prioritization and to facilitate consistent, data-driven adjustments to competitive positioning and marketing strategies.  

Brands that increase share of voice most effectively treat it as a dynamic metric rather than a static benchmark.

Purpose-built marketing tools make SOV measurement significantly more manageable. While manual tracking might work for small-scale media monitoring, most marketing teams need platforms that can aggregate data across channels, benchmark against competitors, and deliver insights at the speed of decision-making.

Start by identifying your primary use case:

PR and media relations teams need robust coverage across news outlets, blogs, and broadcast media.

Social-first teams need social platform integrations and social listening analytics to track mentions, hashtags, and engagement across channels.

SEO-focused teams need keyword ranking data and search visibility metrics.

Cross-functional teams usually need one platform that brings these views together instead of checking separate tools for PR, social, and search.

Beyond channel coverage, look for features that make the data easier to use. Competitive benchmarking lets you see your visibility next to competitors, while customizable dashboards help each team focus on the metrics that matter to them. Sentiment analysis shows whether coverage is positive or negative, and real-time alerts help you catch spikes, drops, or competitor movement as they happen.

If your team already relies on other reporting tools, prioritize compatible integrations that make it easier to share SOV data with other departments and ensure everyone is on the same page.

Your brand may be mentioned in news coverage, social posts, podcasts, and forums, but that doesn't help much if the data is scattered across different platforms and hard to compare.

Meltwater Media Intelligence brings earned and social media tracking into one place, making it easier to compare your visibility with competitors. The platform tracks mentions, sentiment, and reach across news sites, blogs, forums, podcasts, broadcast, and social platforms, giving you a complete picture of how your brand shows up compared to competitors.

Cross-channel SOV measurement (earned + social): Meltwater captures mentions across a wide range of sources, so instead of stitching together data from multiple tools, you can measure share of voice holistically and identify which channels drive the most visibility.

Competitive benchmarking at scale: Track your SOV against competitors across industries, regions, and topics. AI-powered analytics surface trends and shifts in competitive positioning, helping you understand not just where you stand today, but how your share of voice is evolving over time.

AI-powered insights and alerts: Meltwater's GenAI Lens analyzes patterns in your share of voice data and surfaces actionable insights, like emerging topics, sentiment shifts, or competitor activity spikes. Real-time alerts ensure your team can respond quickly when your SOV changes or a competitor gains ground.

Executive-ready dashboards and reports: Build custom dashboards that visualize share of voice trends, competitive benchmarks, and channel performance. Meltwater's reporting tools make it straightforward to communicate SOV results to leadership, linking media visibility to broader business outcomes such as brand awareness and market positioning.

See your share of voice in action — book a demo with Meltwater today.

Measuring share of voice is only valuable when it's consistent, comparable, and tied to decisions. A one-time SOV snapshot tells you where you stand today, but a repeatable measurement process tells you whether you're moving in the right direction over time and why.

Define your competitors and keywords, collect data across the channels that matter to your audience, apply the SOV formula consistently, and review your data regularly. Over time, that consistency compounds into a clearer picture of your competitive position and a stronger foundation for strategic decisions.

Book a demo to see how Meltwater Media Intelligence helps marketing teams measure SOV across channels, benchmark competitors, and turn insights into confident decisions.

How often should you measure share of voice?

How to Measure Share of Voice to Improve Brand Visibility

Businesses don’t need to solicit reviews and survey answers to learn more about their customers. The goldmine of insight they’re searching for is on social media, where consumers unleash their most unfiltered opinions and ideas. According to Meltwater's Global State of Social Media Report, 87% of marketers cite monitoring brand reputation as their top priority for social listening (2026).

This is especially true for fashion consumers and Twitter. That’s why Twitter and Meltwater teamed up to analyze millions of fashion community Tweets and learn more about evolving consumer attitudes and rising trends. Some of the questions we wanted to answer were:

What subtopics are most prevalent in the global fashion conversation?

What macro and micro fashion trends are emerging?

Who are the Twitter authors leading those conversations? 

What opportunities exist for fashion brands?

We gained insights into these topics and more using Explore, our social listening platform, in conjunction with other Meltwater solutions. Beginning with more than a dozen complex Boolean queries created by the insights services team at Linkfluence, a Meltwater offering, we narrowed our searches down to English-language Tweets posted between March 2021 and February 2022. 

The team identified the macrotrends and microtrends taking over fashion Twitter conversations by comparing the volume of Tweets about specific fashion subjects published in the first six months to those published in the second six months. Our resulting report, The Fashion Industry’s New Era, offers insight into the fashion industry, but its main question — what do consumers want — is universal. “The insights shared within the report provide fashion marketers and advertisers with a solid foundation they can use to build out their future marketing strategies," says Lauren Jenkins, Head of the Twitter Official Partner Program. Here’s a closer look at how we did it.

To create innovative and impactful marketing strategies, you must have a comprehensive understanding of your target audience. 'The Fashion Industry's New Era,' developed in partnership with Meltwater, taps into the hundreds of millions of conversations Twitter users had around fashion the past year to identify meaningful insights and emerging trends within the industry. 

Lauren Jenkins, Head of the Twitter Official Partner Program

How can social listening be used for market research?

How can keyword searches and trendspotting uncover insights?

How do you identify conversation leaders?

How can social listening power sales and consumer insights?

The Fashion Industry's New Era is the forward-thinking marketer's guide to the fashion industry. Read on to learn more about how we created the report and used social listening for market research. But first, here's a brief look at our methodology:

<div style="background-color: #c4f4f4; padding: 20px;">
• <b>310,548,010</b> English-language fashion community Tweets posted between March 2021 and February 2022<br><br>
• <b>8.7%</b> growth in the global fashion conversation in that time<br><br>
• <b>5</b> macrotrends and <b>10</b> microtrends identified </div>

The Fashion Industry's New Era was created using Twitter data sourced through Explore, our social listening platform. We also used two of Meltwater's consumer insights offerings: Linkfluence and Audiense.

The Fashion Industry's New Era is based on data sourced from Boolean queries, conducted on Explore, of English-language Tweets published between March 1, 2021 and February 28, 2022.

The macrotrends and microtrends discussed in the report were discovered via an analysis of mentions volume via Explore, the Twitter explore feature, additional desk research, as well as other fashion-related studies currently underway at Linkfluence. We compared keyword mention volume evolutions between the first half and second half of the 12 months measured (i.e. 3/21 to 8/21 compared to 9/21 to 2/22).	

Our analysis led us to a number of rising fashion trends, including meta fashion and inclusive fashion. See the full list of trends by downloading the report.

<table class="table-primary"> 
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Technique</th>
<th>What it involves</th>
<th>Insight gained</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>Keyword Searches</strong></td>
<td>Using Boolean queries to capture relevant fashion conversations at scale</td>
<td>Built a large, relevant dataset of social media discussions</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>Trendspotting</strong></td>
<td>Monitoring changes in conversation volume and patterns over time</td>
<td>Identified emerging trends and spikes in interest</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>Conversation Analysis</strong></td>
<td>Grouping discussions into themes and recurring topics</td>
<td>Revealed key topics and consumer interests</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>Influencer Identification</strong></td>
<td>Tracking high-engagement accounts and frequently mentioned voices</td>
<td>Highlighted key influencers shaping conversations</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>Data Refinement</strong></td>
<td>Iteratively improving queries to remove irrelevant data</td>
<td>Increased accuracy and relevance of insights</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>Insight Synthesis</strong></td>
<td>Combining trends, themes, and influencer data into findings</td>
<td>Generated actionable insights for strategy and reporting</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

With keyword searches in place, we at Meltwater dug into the data using Explore’s analytic charts. Keyword clouds and bar graphs of the top hashtags revealed the most-talked-about subjects and entities for each trend, showing us where we needed to dig further.

Keyword searches and mention tracking are straightforward ways marketers can use social listening to tap into consumer conversations and industry trends. Social listening doesn’t just tell you who’s in on conversations about your brand and market, it also shows you the topics catching their attention. From there, top social listening platforms surface the words and phrases showing up most often in their social media posts, reposts, and comments. 

At times, the same keywords popping up across different conversation topics can point you to commonalities and trends across audiences, helping you find and define the different communities and personas that make up your general audience. For example, the phrase “out this listing” popped up in keyword clouds across multiple queries. They pointed us to valuable Twitter conversations about fashion resale where users were encouraging people to check out their listings. 

While manually combing through individual social media posts might slowly clue you into current hot topics, social listening provides a bird’s-eye view that lets you tap into rising trends without much lift.

While making The Fashion Industry’s New Era, we sought to understand the people and entities driving conversations around emerging fashion trends. Using Explore’s analytic dashboard widgets, we looked at the most retweeted Tweets, the most-followed Tweet authors, shares of voice by keyword mentions, and the top professions of Tweet authors in each conversation. High-level insights like these revealed the different communities driving fashion conversations on Twitter, as well as the influencers those different groups trust for recommendations, commentary, and inspiration. 

We also used the platform’s timeline visualizations to pinpoint conversation spikes. Because they are dynamic, we were able to click on specific data points to see more in-depth analytics for specific days and times. That’s how we learned more about how the inclusive fashion communities rally around Twitter authors and Tweets that highlight plus-size, modest, non-Western, and accessible fashion.

Combined with geographic and topic filters and narrowed-down search terms, social listening saves essential time when it comes to scouting ideal marketing partners and influencers. By letting data — sourced directly from your audience — drive partnerships and collaborations, marketers can increase overall engagement and better align with company goals.

Social listening plays a key role in understanding the customer journey. 50.4% of internet users research brands online before purchasing, meaning brand perception is increasingly shaped by what people see and say online (Meltwater, 2026). Social listening takes the mystery out of website traffic and sales surges. Spikes in relevant keywords and conversations that match up with sales rises and dips offer valuable context that just may reveal untapped marketing opportunities. This goes double for marketers analyzing their own brands and competitive ones. The data insights social listening reveals help marketing professionals invest in and maximize ROI-generating projects and programs. 

Outside of insights on sales trends, social listening extracts invaluable data for consumer insights research and compatible tools. Social media users tell the world about themselves in two places: their published posts and their profile bios; social listening picks up information from each area. Done manually, researching social media users’ bios is a time-consuming, data analysis nightmare. However, social listening platforms that are part of all-in-one suites eliminate the legwork. 

We used our social listening platform, Explore, in conjunction with our consumer insights platform to learn more about the audiences of five macrotrends. The compatible platforms use easy-to-use download and upload functions to simplify the process of transferring data from tool to tool. Along with giving us a closer look at their online habits and most-followed influencers, Audiense (powered by IBM Watson) generated a deep dive on each community’s personality traits and purchase influence factors. For example, we learned that meta fashion enthusiasts are more likely to be influenced by a product’s utility than the general public when it comes to purchasing decisions. 

Social listening doesn’t just provide visibility; it drives performance. Companies that effectively leverage customer data outperform competitors by up to 85% in sales growth, highlighting the value of turning social insights into actionable strategy (Forbes, 2025).

Combined, the benefits of social listening point marketers to new opportunities and stronger ways of connecting with consumers. Unfortunately, many businesses don’t have the time, tools, or resources to get started. Especially for global brands, there aren’t enough hours in the day to manually keep up with, contextualize, and draw insights from every social media mention of your name — let alone those of your competitors. This is where time- and money-saving platform features, like Explore’s unlimited keyword searches and dynamic data visualizations, take marketers the extra mile.

Despite the widely recognized value of data, 50% of business decisions are currently being made without consumer insights (GWI AI White Paper, 2025). This "execution gap" highlights a massive opportunity for brands that successfully embed social listening into their daily workflows. We used the power of social listening to analyze fashion, but the methods and tools we used are invaluable across industries. Download The Fashion Industry’s New Era for our full findings, methodologies, and more than a dozen new insights for marketers. 

Complete the form below to schedule a demo or take a self-guided Social Listening product tour to see how you can uncover trends, track conversations, and turn data into insights in minutes. Explore the platform at your own pace and discover how to make smarter, data-driven decisions.

FAQs about Using Social Listening for Market Research

How do you start a social listening project for market research?

It usually begins with defining what you want to learn, then building keyword queries around your industry, products, and trends. From there, you collect a large dataset of conversations and refine it over time to ensure relevance and quality.

How do you avoid irrelevant data when analyzing social conversations?

Noise is one of the biggest challenges in social listening. The key is continuously refining your Boolean queries by adding exclusions, testing variations, and narrowing your scope so you’re left with conversations that truly reflect your audience and topic.

How do you spot meaningful trends in large volumes of social data?

It’s less about total volume and more about movement over time. By tracking spikes, shifts, and recurring themes in conversations, you can identify trends as they emerge rather than after they’ve already peaked.

How can you tell which voices actually matter in a conversation?

Not all mentions carry the same weight, so it’s important to look at engagement, true reach, and consistency. Identifying the accounts that repeatedly drive conversation helps you understand who is shaping opinions in your space.

How do you turn social data into something your team can actually use?

The real value comes from synthesizing the data into clear themes and insights. This often means grouping conversations, identifying patterns, and translating findings into simple takeaways that marketing, product, or strategy teams can act on.

Can social listening really connect to business outcomes like sales?

Yes. When you compare conversation trends with real-world performance, useful patterns can emerge. For example, increased discussion around certain topics or products can often align with shifts in consumer demand or interest.

How quickly can you get insights from social listening?

Unlike traditional research, you don’t have to wait weeks for results. One of the biggest advantages of social listening for research is speed. Once your queries are set up, you can start seeing patterns and insights almost immediately, making it much faster than traditional research methods like surveys or focus groups.

Schedule a demo today to learn more about what Meltwater solutions can do for you:

Using Social Listening for Market Research: How We Made 'The Fashion Industry's New Era'

Media narratives can shift in hours. A small spike in negative sentiment, a recurring media theme, or an emerging audience concern can quickly become a larger reputation issue if you spot it too late.

AI in public relations helps you catch those signals earlier, understand what’s driving them, and turn them into strategic insight. Instead of reacting after a narrative has already taken shape, PR teams can use AI to detect change sooner and respond with more context and confidence.

The Meltwater Blog

How to Measure Share of Voice to Improve Brand Visibility

Using Social Listening for Market Research: How We Made 'The Fashion Industry's New Era'

AI in Public Relations: 4 Ways PR Teams Gain Strategic Insight

How to Track Influencers Instagram Stories

The Dos and Don’ts of AI and Luxury Marketing

Social Media Reputation Management Guide

The Complete Guide to Measuring Brand Awareness (2026)

Competitor Benchmarking: What It Is, Why It Is Important, and Tools to Succeed

Top 9 Online Reputation Management Companies in 2026

Social Media Statistics in the Philippines [Updated 2026]

BTS Comeback 2026: Insights on Global Fan Power

Generative AI in Market Research: Enhancing Insights and Decision-Making