Ever feel like you’re missing out on what people are really saying about your brand online?
C'est là que écoute sociale metrics come in. These aren’t just vanity numbers—they reveal the tone, reach, and influence of every online mention that matters.
Whether you’re tracking a product launch, monitoring a crisis, or just staying ahead of your competitors, knowing what to measure is key.
Let’s break down the most important metrics you need to track—and how they help you turn conversations into strategy.
Why track listening metrics in 2025?
First of all, “What are social listening metrics?”, you might ask.
Well, they are data points that help you track and analyze online conversations about your brand, including mentions, sentiment, reach, and trends.
Tracking the right social media listening metrics gives you a competitive edge:
- Understand brand perception—see how your audience truly feels about your business;
- Spot potential crises early—detect sentiment dips or spikes in mentions before they escalate;
- Measure campaign effectiveness—track how people respond to your marketing in real time;
- Benchmark against competitors—compare your share of voice across the industry;
- Identify influencers and advocates—find the voices that shape your brand reputation;
- Uncover content opportunities—tap into trending topics and customer pain points for better engagement.
These are all the metrics you need to track to gain the insights needed to shape smarter strategies and drive better results for your brand today.
7 core social media listening metrics to track right away
EmbedSocial provides a complete set of listening metrics that help you turn raw mentions into real-time insights. Here’s what you can track right away—no setup required:
| Metric | Why it matters | Supported in EmbedSocial |
|---|---|---|
| 📈 Volume of mentions | Tracks how often your brand is mentioned across platforms | ✅ |
| 😊 Sentiment analysis | Understands how people feel—positive, neutral, or negative | ✅ |
| 🧑 Top influencers | Identifies the key voices driving conversations | ✅ |
| 🔥 Trending topics | Reveals what hashtags or themes dominate your mentions | ✅ |
| 🖼️ Content breakdown | Shows what content types and platforms perform best | ✅ |
| 🥇 Share of Voice (SOV) | Compares your visibility against competitors | ✅ |
| 📊 Post timeline trends | Maps spikes in activity to events, campaigns, or mentions | ✅ |
1. Volume of mentions
This metric shows how often your brand or campaign is mentioned across social channels.
Inside EmbedSocial, you’ll see total post counts, new mentions per week, and daily activity trends—all visualized in one clear timeline chart:
Mini-case example: When a fictional brand, “GlowRush Skincare,” launched its spring line, they noticed a sharp spike in volume on April 14th. Using EmbedSocial’s post timeline chart, they traced it back to an untagged influencer reel that went viral—helping them replicate the content format in future launches.
Conseil de pro : Use volume spikes to pinpoint when a campaign, hashtag, or influencer partnership generated unexpected buzz.
2. Sentiment analysis
This metric helps you understand how people feel about your brand—positive, negative, or neutral.
With EmbedSocial, every data set automatically includes a sentiment breakdown, so you can track brand mood over time or identify shifts after campaigns:
Mini-case example: When “BoltBites Energy Bars” ran a controversial ad, they noticed a sudden spike in negative sentiment. By isolating that week in EmbedSocial’s sentiment tracker, they reworked their messaging and saw sentiment swing back to positive two weeks later.
Conseil de pro : Track sentiment weekly to catch early signs of PR trouble or validate campaign success in real-time.
3. Top influencers & sources
This metric reveals who’s driving the most impactful conversations about your brand.
EmbedSocial highlights the most active authors and content creators across platforms, allowing you to filter by post count and source for deeper insights:
Mini-case example: “TrailShift Apparel” found that a niche outdoor photographer posted about their gear three times in one week. By spotting her in the Top Authors chart, they partnered with her for a giveaway—doubling engagement on their next launch.
Conseil de pro : Find the most prolific authors by volume to uncover influencer partnerships you didn’t know existed.
4. Trending topics & hashtags
This metric shows the most commonly used words and hashtags in your brand’s mentions.
EmbedSocial visualizes popular hashtags and most used keywords as bar charts and tag clouds, helping you stay on top of what’s trending:
Mini-case example: “Pawfect Treats,” a fictional pet snack brand, spotted the tag #dogsoftiktok rising in their mentions. They created a content series around the trend and doubled their Instagram saves in 3 days.
Conseil de pro : Monitor hashtags weekly—jumping on a relevant trend can boost your reach with zero ad spend.
5. Content breakdown
This metric tells you what kind of content is most common—images, videos, carousels—and which platforms it’s being published on.
EmbedSocial splits data by content type and platform so you can quickly see where conversations happen and in what format:
Mini-case example: “FitVerse Gear” realized their carousel posts were underperforming. The EmbedSocial content chart showed videos drove 70% more posts—so they shifted budget toward reels and doubled conversions.
Conseil de pro : Use content type data to guide your creative marketing strategy—not all formats perform the same across platforms.
6. Share of Voice (SOV)
This metric compares your brand’s visibility to competitors across social platforms.
EmbedSocial offers a standalone La part de voix calculator that visualizes brand share, sentiment, top keywords, and more—all based on hashtag or mention data:
Mini-case example: “Lumo Sneakers” used the SOV Calculator to compare their visibility to Adidas and Puma during launch week. They saw they held 32% share—and used that insight in their investor pitch deck.
Conseil de pro : Track SOV before and after big launches to measure your campaign’s market penetration.
7. Post timeline trends
This metric shows how brand mentions fluctuate over time—daily or weekly.
EmbedSocial displays all mentions in a trendline format, making it easy to identify campaign surges, influencer impact, or PR spikes:
Mini-case example: “BriteBox LED” ran a giveaway on July 1st. Their timeline in EmbedSocial showed a sharp post spike for three days, then a drop. They re-engaged participants via Stories and sustained interest for another week.
Conseil de pro : Annotate spikes with campaign names so your team can link performance to specific actions.
Why track social listening metrics via EmbedSocial?
Whether you’re gathering commentaires des clients, keeping an eye on competitors, or informing sales and marketing efforts, having the right social monitoring tool matters. EmbedSocial offers a powerful, easy-to-use platform built for exactly that.
Here’s what makes EmbedSocial a smart choice for your brand:
- Monitor branded keywords in real time – track mentions, hashtags, and relevant conversations about your brand, products, or rivals across major social media platforms;
- Obtenir analyse des sentiments – get valuable insights into how people feel about your business, with mentions categorized by tone, topic, or source;
- Centralize your data across channels – pull contenu généré par l'utilisateur from Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Google, X (Twitter), and more into one dashboard;
- Customize tags and filters – group and label conversations based on campaigns, departments, or themes to streamline collaboration;
- Search and filter historical mentions – quickly surface relevant feedback using filters like keyword, date, content type, and platform;
- Let AI do the heavy lifting – leverage smart summaries and trend detection so you can spot what matters—without drowning in data;
- Keep teams informed effortlessly – generate easy-to-share reports or set up automated alerts to keep everyone on the same page.
In short, if you’re after a straightforward, scalable way to listen, track, and act on what your target audience is saying, EmbedSocial is ready when you are.
Learn how to set up your social media listening flow today!
How to do social listening properly: 6-step strategy
To get real business value, you need a strategy that turns listening into action, not just tracking engagement metrics. Here’s how a modern brand can set up such a strategy using EmbedSocial—one of the best social media listening tools dans le monde :
- Set goals & KPIs aligned with business objectives
- Choose your social media listening tools & data sources
- Configure listening topics, keywords, and filters
- Collect & visualize your data
- Analyze trends and extract actionable insights
- Report your findings and take action
1. Set goals & KPIs aligned with business objectives
When learning how to measure social listening, start by defining your goals. Do you seek to improve your brand reputation? Track campaign effectiveness? Monitor competitors?
Make sure your social listening KPIs—like mention volume or sentiment shifts—tie directly back to broader business goals.
BoldBean Coffee began their iced espresso launch by identifying key objectives: measure brand buzz, track changes in sentiment, and assess how well their hashtag #coldbrewenergy performed across platforms.
2. Choose your social media listening tools & data sources
Pick a tool that fits your goals. The best platforms pull data from social networks, news sites, blogs, and forums—not just one channel.
EmbedSocial lets you upload or connect your brand data from Instagram, X, and more—so your listening starts with a full picture.
BoldBean chose EmbedSocial to monitor Instagram and X, but they also added fashion and lifestyle blogs to their data mix, ensuring they wouldn’t miss user-generated mentions from niche communities.
3. Configure listening topics, keywords, and filters
Now it’s time to fine-tune. Choose your primary brand name, campaign hashtags, product terms, or competitor names.
EmbedSocial allows you to filter by keywords, platforms, and even author type to keep your feed focused and noise-free.
They set up keyword tracking for “iced espresso,” “BoldBean,” “#coldbrewenergy,” and competitor phrases. They excluded irrelevant terms like unrelated local cafes to focus only on actionable mentions.
4. Collect & visualize your data
Once mentions start flowing in, don’t get buried in raw text. Look at volume trends, sentiment breakdowns, top influencers, and topic clusters.
With EmbedSocial, this happens automatically. You get a visual dashboard that shows all the key trends in real time.
In the first few days, BoldBean saw a spike in mention volume and a sentiment shift from neutral to positive. The dashboard made it obvious the momentum came from a user-generated TikTok that wasn’t even part of their paid campaign.
5. Analyze trends and extract actionable insights
Look for spikes, dips, or recurring themes. Compare performance before and after launches or competitor activity.
EmbedSocial makes it easy to zoom into any day, sort by keyword or sentiment, and find what actually moved the needle.
BoldBean noticed that carousel posts underperformed while influencer Reels surged. They quickly identified @lattequeen as a top voice in the space—her videos were driving the positive trend.
6. Report your findings and take action
Turn insights into impact. Share clear reports with your team, adjust messaging mid-campaign, or spot future opportunities before your competitors do.
You can export charts directly from EmbedSocial and share them with stakeholders—no extra formatting needed.
Using EmbedSocial’s export tools, BoldBean pulled visuals into their weekly marketing report. They shifted budget toward content creators who had already posted organically and adjusted their ad messaging based on feedback trends.
Best practices for getting the most out of your social listening metrics
Tracking metrics is one thing—using them to drive smart decisions is another. Here are a few best practices to help you turn listening into long-term value:
- Start with clear goals – define what you’re trying to improve (sentiment d'appartenance à la marque, campaign performance, competitor insights);
- Avoid vanity metrics – focus on insights that lead to action, not just big numbers;
- Monitor consistently – check your dashboards regularly to catch trends before they fade or escalate;
- Use filters wisely – narrow your view by sentiment, topic, or channel to reveal focused insights faster;
- Keep stakeholders aligned – share key reports and trends with your team on a regular cadence;
- Combine metrics for context – look at sentiment + volume + influencer activity together for richer social media sentiment analysis.
By following these habits, your social listening metrics will help you lead!
Conclusion: Start tracking the social metrics that move your brand forward!
Social listening is a window into what your audience really thinks and feels.
After all, when you track the right metrics on the right social media channels, you spot opportunities, prevent crises, and stay ahead of the competition.
If you go with one of the top social listening tools, you get all the insights you need, from mentions to sentiment, which you can use to inform your social media strategy.
So, start tracking what matters and turn those metrics into action! There’s no surer way to assure customer satisfaction and get social listening insights.
Ready to turn conversations into strategy?
👉 Commencez votre essai gratuit with EmbedSocial and see your brand’s social metrics come to life—no setup hassle, just instant insights.
FAQs about social listening metrics
How do you measure social listening?
You measure social listening by tracking key metrics like brand mentions, customer sentiment, trending topics, and influencer activity across multiple platforms.
What social listening metrics typically include?
They typically include volume of mentions, sentiment breakdown, share of voice, top sources, trending hashtags, and engagement with specific social media posts or keywords.
How often should I review my social listening data?
Weekly reviews are ideal for spotting trends early, but high-volume brands may benefit from daily check-ins—especially during marketing campaigns or launches.
Can I track competitors using social listening tools?
Yes! Tools like EmbedSocial let you monitor competitor mentions, hashtags, and sentiment so you can benchmark performance and spot market opportunities.
How to set up the right social listening strategy?
Define clear goals, choose a reliable tool like EmbedSocial, set relevant keywords and filters, track core metrics, and regularly analyze insights to inform decisions.
