Social Listening

1. Purpose

Every other skill in the kit optimizes what the account does with its own data. This one listens to what the market is saying about the brand — on Reddit, X, and G2 — and translates that into concrete moves for paid ads: hook material, objections to preempt, competitor angles, messaging pivots, and creatives to pause.

Run weekly (Mon is typical), or on‑demand before a new creative batch or in response to a sentiment spike flagged by anomaly-watch.

Every run answers two questions:

1. "How does the market feel about us right now?" — sentiment distribution + delta vs. last period.
2. "What should we change in our ads because of it?" — specific, quoted, actionable.

2. Sources & What to Pull

| Source     | Pull                                                                                                                    | Why it matters for ads                                                                                        |
| :--------- | :---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | :------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Reddit** | Brand mentions across relevant subreddits (last 30d) · threads where brand is compared or recommended · top‑voted comments | Unfiltered language. "Hot take" threads surface hooks no brand would write themselves.                        |
| **X**      | Brand handle mentions, replies, quote tweets · hashtags adjacent to the brand                                           | Speed of sentiment shift. Early detection of viral framings.                                                  |
| **G2**     | All reviews last 90d · star‑rating distribution · sorted by recency and helpfulness                                     | Structured feedback. Competitor comparisons are native to the format.                                         |

Minimum viable run: ≥ 30 mentions across all sources combined. If under threshold, output a single "Insufficient data — re‑run in 14 days" notice.

3. Sentiment Classification

Every mention gets one label:

| Label            | Definition                                                                   |
| :--------------- | :--------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 🟢 **Positive**  | Praise, recommendation, success story                                        |
| 🟡 **Neutral**   | Informational, feature‑asking, non‑judgmental                                |
| 🔴 **Negative**  | Complaint, warning others away, criticism                                    |
| 🆚 **Comparison**| Brand mentioned alongside a competitor (sentiment may tilt either way)       |

Track the distribution this period vs. the prior period — a ≥ 10pp shift in any direction is the signal, not the absolute number.

4. Theme Clustering

Group mentions into themes. Do not report a theme with fewer than 3 mentions — that's noise.

Per theme, capture:

• Cluster label — short phrase ("onboarding is slow", "love the reporting UI", "switched from Competitor X")
• Sentiment mix — % positive / neutral / negative within the cluster
• Representative quotes — 3 verbatim, one per source when possible
• Volume trend — this period vs. prior (↑ · ↓ · flat)

5. Paid‑Ads Insight Logic

Raw sentiment isn't the deliverable — the ad‑strategy move is. Translate each theme pattern:

| Theme pattern                                                         | Paid‑ads move                                                                                                                                             |
| :-------------------------------------------------------------------- | :-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **High‑volume positive praise on a specific feature or outcome**      | Lift the verbatim phrase into **hook material** via [creative-brief](creative-brief.md) and [copy-rotation](copy-rotation.md).                            |
| **Recurring objection or complaint**                                   | Add a **preempt line** to body copy (*"No spreadsheets required — it just works."*). Check ad/LP match via [ad-qa-checklist](ad-qa-checklist.md).        |
| **Competitor comparisons where you win**                               | Brief a **versus ad** — *"X vs. Y"* angle, quoting the market's actual comparison language. Target the competitor's audience.                             |
| **Competitor comparisons where you lose**                              | Pause any competitor‑targeting ads; rework positioning before re‑engaging. Escalate to brand/positioning.                                                 |
| **Feature‑request clusters (neutral)**                                 | Unmet desires in the audience. Test a *"coming soon"* angle only if legitimate; otherwise don't lead with the gap.                                        |
| **Negative sentiment spike (≥ −10pp WoW)**                             | 🚨 Pause any ads reinforcing the complained‑about theme. Alert via `anomaly-watch`. Consider a crisis‑response creative.                                  |

6. Operational Output: Weekly Sentiment Report

Social Listening — Week of Apr 20 · Acme Ads · 187 mentions (↑22% vs. prior week)

Sentiment distribution

• 🟢 Positive 61% (↑4pp) · 🟡 Neutral 22% · 🔴 Negative 11% (↓2pp) · 🆚 Comparison 6%

Per‑source breakdown

| Source | Mentions | Pos | Neu | Neg | Comp | | :----- | :------- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | | Reddit | 82 | 57% | 26% | 12% | 5% | | X | 74 | 68% | 18% | 9% | 5% | | G2 | 31 | 58% | 19% | 13% | 10% |

Top themes

🟢 "Reporting speed" — 28 mentions (↑) · 93% positive

• "Finally a tool that doesn't make me wait 40 seconds for a campaign report." (Reddit, 147 upvotes)
• "The reporting is honestly 3× faster than [Competitor]." (G2 review, 5 stars)
• "Acme reports so fast it feels illegal." (X, 112 likes)

→ Ads move: lift "3× faster than [Competitor]" into a 👑 Status hook via creative-brief → copy-rotation.

🔴 "Onboarding friction" — 11 mentions (↑ from 4 last week) · 82% negative

• "Took me 2 hours to connect all my ad accounts." (G2, 3 stars)
• "Onboarding felt like homework." (Reddit)

→ Ads move: add preempt line ("5‑minute setup, no engineer required") to body copy. Pause the "Launch in 60 seconds" hook — it over‑promises against current reality. Escalate to product/onboarding.

🆚 "Acme vs. [Competitor]" — 9 mentions · 78% tilt positive

• "Switched from [Competitor] to Acme last month, no regrets — reporting alone justifies it." (G2)
• "Acme gives you what [Competitor] charges 3× for." (Reddit, 342 upvotes)

→ Ads move: brief a Versus creative set — "Switched from [Competitor]? See what you've been missing." Target the Interest: [Competitor] audience.

🟡 "Dashboard customization" — 6 mentions · all feature requests

→ Ads move: don't lead with dashboard imagery until the feature ships; the gap is being noticed.

This week's ad‑strategy summary

1. New hook — lift "3× faster reporting" into the creative pipeline this sprint.
2. New versus creative set — target [Competitor] audiences with switcher‑framed copy.
3. One pause — the "Launch in 60 seconds" hook until onboarding friction is resolved.