Social listening, often known as social media listening, involves tracking and analyzing online conversations about a company, individual, product, or brand. This process helps organizations gauge public sentiment and understand their digital presence.

The vast amount of unstructured data generated from online interactions makes it crucial for organizations to define their objectives for a social listening initiative. Depending on these goals, the right tools could range from simple, free options like Google Alerts to more comprehensive and costly software solutions that integrate ad-hoc analysis with existing customer relationship management (CRM) systems.

Social media monitoring tools can extract specific keywords from various online platforms, including social networks, blogs, discussion forums, and more. This monitoring software transforms these keywords and phrases from unstructured data into quantifiable metrics that can be analyzed using traditional data mining techniques, providing valuable insights into consumer perceptions and trends.