Its campaigns shift conversations in real time. #DetoxYourFeed took direct aim at social media’s beauty toxicity, “These Legs” used Super Bowl airtime to highlight why nearly half of girls quit sports due to body shame, and the Self-Esteem Project for Women tackled the pressures that don’t disappear with age.

What makes Dove different: its social media brand strategy is as tactical as it is culture-driven. It knows exactly when and how to spark engagement. A well-timed campaign taps into emotions, data, and global discourse—and the results speak for themselves. 

So how does Dove keep evolving while staying true to its message? Let’s break it down.

Dove’s Social Media Presence

Current platform reach:

• Instagram: 1M followers
• Facebook: 27M followers 
• TikTok: 382K followers
• X: 177K followers
• YouTube: 171K subscribers

Dove’s largest audience is still on Facebook, but its most impactful conversations happen elsewhere. Instagram drives campaign storytelling, TikTok is where Gen Z engages with bite-sized, relatable content, and X functions more as a customer advocacy and response hub rather than a space for viral brand moments.

Note: Analysis covers data from November 2024 through February 2025.

Inside Dove’s Social Media Brand Strategy

Dove challenges beauty norms. Where most brands focus on aspirational aesthetics, Dove zeroes in on cultural shifts, tackling everything from the mental health effects of social media to the pressures placed on young female athletes. Their success is more than what they say; it’s about when and how they say it.

Dove’s social strategy is built on five core elements:

The Self-Esteem Imperative

The Dove Self-Esteem Project—now reaching millions globally—transformed a marketing initiative into a social movement. Beyond selling body care, Dove actively works to reshape how people see themselves, a brand strategy that continues to outperform traditional beauty campaigns.

Real-Time Cultural Response

Dove shows up in the moments that matter. From #DetoxYourFeed confronting toxic beauty standards on social media to #KeepHerConfident exposing how body shaming forces young girls out of sports during the Super Bowl, Dove meets cultural flashpoints head-on.

Beyond Industry Comfort Zones

Dove takes on issues most beauty brands avoid: the rise in teenage cosmetic procedures, the psychological impact of filters, and the pressures of unrealistic beauty standards. Their direct approach drives meaningful engagement because it speaks to real concerns rather than just product benefits.

Raw Over Polished

Dove’s most successful content doesn’t come from professional shoots or celebrity endorsements—it comes from real people. Whether through unfiltered stories, personal testimonials, or UGC-style content, Dove makes sure its message feels authentic rather than manufactured.

Platform-Specific Execution

A Super Bowl ad plays differently than a TikTok trend. Dove knows that each platform demands a different approach, tailoring its message to fit the medium while ensuring its core values remain intact.

Dove’s brand strategy works because it’s about resonance. Each campaign is designed to change the conversation.

Dove on Instagram: Where Beauty Meets Bold Strategy 

With 213K engagements and an average of 4,650 per post across 46 posts, Dove doesn’t just show up on Instagram—it makes statements.

While other beauty brands fill their feeds with perfectly lit product shots and influencer endorsements, Dove starts conversations that demand attention. Every campaign is designed for more than just engagement—it’s built to shift perceptions and spark real change.

Take #KeepHerConfident, Dove’s Super Bowl campaign that was impossible to scroll past. Rather than just airing a high-budget ad and calling it a day, Dove extended the moment across social, making sure its message—1 in 2 girls quit sports due to body criticism—didn’t fade after game night.

Source

The campaign landed with impact, and Instagram was its natural home. A high-impact Reel set to a reimagined version of Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run, performed by GRAMMY-winning artist H.E.R., put real young athletes at the center.

Partnering with Sports Illustrated, Dove launched Sports reIllustrated, a special issue featuring ten young female athletes rewriting the rules of sports. The message? Girls belong on the field, the court, the track—without body judgment holding them back.

Source

And the campaign didn’t just ask people to care. It pushed them to act. A direct call-to-action led audiences to the Body Confident Sport program in collaboration with Nike, a research-backed initiative equipping parents and coaches with tools to keep girls in the game.

The response? A flood of engagement. The campaign moved beyond Dove’s own content—coaches, athletes, and advocates took it further, resharing, discussing, and amplifying the message far beyond Dove’s own channels.

But Dove doesn’t just know how to spark movements—it also knows how to make a product drop feel like an event.

Just weeks before, a completely different kind of post went viral: a Dove x Crumbl collab announcement that sent Instagram into a sugar-fueled frenzy.

A cookie-scented body wash? It was unexpected, indulgent, and nostalgic—and people wanted in. The post racked up 42K engagements, making it Dove’s most successful in this period.

And it wasn’t by accident. Dove knew exactly how to play into social media’s obsession with limited drops, sensory experiences, and pop culture crossovers.

Between cultural advocacy and viral product moments, Dove’s Instagram strategy works because it’s more than beauty—it’s about how beauty fits into real life.

Dove on TikTok: Where Beauty Meets the Scroll

If Instagram is Dove’s stage for cultural conversations, TikTok is where it gets up close, unfiltered, and in sync with the platform’s rhythm. Beauty on TikTok isn’t polished perfection—it’s about textures, sounds, humor, and hyper-relatable moments. Dove understands that, and instead of forcing its message, it lets the content speak in TikTok’s native language racking up 16M views, 535K engagements and an average of 11K per post across 50 videos.

The best-performing post of the season? Not an ad. Not a campaign. Just the rich, creamy swirls of Peppermint Scrub.

With 7M views and 37K engagements, this simple, sensory-driven clip turned a shower routine into a TikTok-worthy escape. No script, no face, no voiceover—just the deeply satisfying visuals of a sugar-infused scrub being scooped, swirled, and smoothed. Proof that sometimes, the best brand play is simply understanding how people consume content.

Dove isn’t just here for satisfying the crowd. It knows how to time content to culture.

Its Gingerbread Delight dreamhouse post (59K views, 4.3K engagements) was a seasonal masterstroke, tapping into TikTok’s obsession with holiday nostalgia and aesthetic-driven storytelling. With cozy lighting, soft textures, and a playful hook, it wasn’t just another beauty post—it was a mood.

The Dove x Crumbl collab (3M views, 312K engagements) hit the sweet spot—literally. A limited-edition, dessert-inspired body care drop was the kind of unexpected, sensory-driven launch that thrives on TikTok, turning a product drop into an event.

And then there’s the humor. A deadpan post about ”the year of the scoop” (2M views, 60K engagements) proved that Dove appreciates inside jokes of beauty culture, too.

Dove’s TikTok success isn’t accidental. It listens, adapts, and lets the content lead. Whether it’s hitting the nostalgia factor, making a launch feel exclusive, or simply leaning into sensory-driven escapism, Dove proves that sometimes, less branding and more feeling is the way to win.

Dove on X: Turning Conversations Into a Movement

Dove’s X—it uses it to move the conversation forward. Where Instagram is built for visual storytelling and TikTok fuels virality, X is where Dove meets people in real dialogue.

5K impressions over 120 tweets: this is where Dove’s brand meets conversation. Dove’s replies make up most of its content, proving that its presence here isn’t about broadcasting—it’s about listening, engaging, and reinforcing its mission in the moment.

Dove lives the message through constant interactions, responding to customer love, product feedback, and cultural conversations. Whether it’s amplifying voices that align with its mission or personally engaging with its audience, Dove makes sure its presence on X isn’t just felt—it’s heard.

And that’s the strategy: talking back, not just talking at.

While other brands chase viral tweets, Dove’s X presence is a steady, ongoing dialogue—proving that advocacy is about showing up, every day, in the places where real conversations happen.

Dove on YouTube: A Platform for Meaningful Impact

For Dove, YouTube is about building lasting impact. Unlike fast-paced TikTok trends or quick-hit Instagram Reels, YouTube allows the brand to expand its storytelling, turning a single campaign into a movement. Just a handful of videos generated 374K views.

This season, Dove’s most powerful video? A Super Bowl moment that refused to fade. These Legs: A Dove Big Game Film brought #KeepHerConfident to YouTube, amplifying the message that 1 in 2 girls quit sports due to body criticism. With 323K views and counting, the video didn’t just replay a commercial—it’s helping reignite an important conversation, ensuring its impact stretched beyond game night.

Dove doesn’t just use YouTube for advocacy—it knows how to make a product launch feel like an event. A fresh, playful campaign for Dove Whole Body Deo, pulled in 30,535 views. With its catchy “Let Your Body Body” tagline, the ad leaned into humor and relatability—proving that personal care can be marketed with both confidence and fun.

On YouTube, Dove’s strategy is clear: big stories, deep engagement, and cultural staying power.

Why Dove’s Social Media Strategy Works

Dove is shaping conversations. From calling out the beauty industry’s obsession with filters to challenging how we uplift young athletes, Dove’s approach isn’t about fleeting trends. It’s about impact.

Its platform brand strategy is unmistakable across every platform:

• Instagram is a stage for bold storytelling, from #KeepHerConfident to viral product drops like Dove x Crumbl.
• TikTok turns self-care into a moment, blending playful, relatable content with effortless virality.
• X thrives on real-time engagement, making every reply an extension of the brand’s mission.
• YouTube deepens the narrative, transforming campaigns into cultural conversations that last.

Dove doesn’t just post—it provokes thought, challenges norms, and ensures its message resonates across every channel.

Final Thoughts

Dove shows up. While most brands use social media as a promotional tool, Dove treats it as a platform for advocacy. Every campaign serves a bigger mission, every post reinforces the brand’s values, and every interaction builds trust.

For brands looking to build a social presence that actually resonates, Dove is proof that staying true to your message is the most powerful strategy there is.

The post Brand Strategy: Dove doesn’t sell soap. It sells self-worth. appeared first on Keyhole.

Your audience and customers may interact actively with your brand, products, or services. But you may not be listening to what they say. The lack of attention may result in low engagement and conversion.

Social listening is integral to your business because it lets you tune into audience conversation across platforms. However, many undervalue its potential. But what’s social listening in marketing, and why is it essential to your small business?

This guide will address those queries, outline practical tips for maximizing social media listening, and provide the top social media listing tools.

What is Social Listening in Marketing?

Social listening, or social media listening, is a marketing strategy that lets you listen to your audience/customers’ online discussions about your business or related topics to gain valuable insights.

Attention to your followers’ conversations can help you predict market shifts and adjust your marketing strategy accordingly.

It gives you information about your audience’s needs and where they hang out the most. Moreover, note that social listening differs from social media monitoring. They may appear similar but vary in their functions.Please click the following link for a more detailed definition of social listening and the difference between social media monitoring.

Why Listen? The Value of Social Listening for Growth?

Many marketers and brands underestimate the value of listening to your audience on social media. Social listening can help you find leads, stay ahead of industry trends and competition, and drive business growth.

To run a thriving business, you must listen to your audience and know what they say about your product/service, or brand. You need to grasp how they feel about your offerings.

This social media strategy helps you understand their needs and preferences, which can help you create compelling content that speaks to your customers.

This undertaking makes social media listening a vital component of your online marketing strategy.

Social Listening Examples to Inspire Your Marketing Campaigns

The following examples highlight how companies and businesses use social listening to drive campaign success. They use this social media marketing strategy to boost consumer satisfaction and build a loyal customer base around their brand.

1. Australian Lamb

Intelligent marketers and brands use trending topics to drive results by engaging with the themes.

To do so, they use social listening to determine trends their target audiences and prospects are discussing across social platforms. This approach enables you to create marketing content that engages and connects with your readers.

A noteworthy example of such a brand is Australian Lamb, a platform that provides its readers with valuable recipes and cooking tips for making nutritious and tasty food.

The company saw an opportunity in social media discussions where users mentioned the “Generation gap” multiple times. 

They identified the discussion and joined in with a fun ad campaign that contains the generation gap and generational stereotypes. 

The content connects with viewers so much that it has gathered over 3.2 million views and 5,000 likes, increasing brand awareness and leads.

These outcomes indicate that gaining an edge over the competition involves listening to your audience to understand what connects with them. It helps you create content that fills their needs.

2. Google

Social listening’s sentiment analysis tools enables you to monitor and measure how your followers and target audiences feel about your business.

It helps brands understand customer opinions and thoughts about your products or services. Further, you can use this tool to find influencers and brand ambassadors for collaboration, and identify opportunities to improve customer service and user satisfaction..

Search engine giant, Google, is an inspiring example of top brands using social listening’s sentiment analysis to optimize its products and services.

Google study user remarks across social media to determine users’ problems such as spam content in SERPs. 

This finding moved the company to make a significant core update, introducing the’Google Search Spam Policy’ that took effect in May 2024.

Source

The core update and new spam policy allows Google bots to boost users’ search quality by displaying less spam content in search results.

3. Cava

The food brand is another excellent example of top brands driving business growth with social media listening.

Cava established a new location in West Loop, Chicago, generating much buzz with consumers applauding the food quality.

Source: X (Twitter)

Given the thrill, a first-time, satisfied customer tweeted that he was addicted to their food and requested the company to create a new store in his location.

Source: X (Twitter)

The company replied to the customer’s request, showing they actively listen. It demonstrates Cava’s dedication to attention to customers’ emotions and needs.

It also reveals how the brand snoops on social media conversations and uses consumers’ local choices to spark interest and increase user engagement.

Click the following link for more examples of social media listening from top businesses and organizations to stir your social listening campaign.

Social Listening Tips and Best Practices 

There are various techniques that you can use to implement social listening. Here are five practical social listening tips and best practices to use today.

1. Use the best social media listening tools

The best social listening tool offers keyword-tracking capabilities to help you create tracking systems to determine user sentiments and interaction trends.

While the focus is on social media sites, the best paid or free social listening tools can also activate email alerts for specified keywords and brand mentions. 

These software applications simplify workflow between multiple social media platforms, boost productivity, and attentively signal for mentions.

How to set up social listening using Keyhole

Here’s how:

• Set up a data collection process (monitoring streams) for your business name, competitor brand names, relevant industry keywords, and more.

Using a tool like Keyhole will help you start listening to your audience’s interactions. For example, you can use Keyhole’s social listening feature for TikTok to follow conversation trends on the platform.

The tool allows you to evaluate audience engagement through search terms and phrases to understand user sentiment about your product, service, or business.

2. Select critical phrases, search terms, and topics to track

Setting up social media listening campaigns may seem overwhelming. But it’s relatively simple to watch particular relevant topics and keywords and keep updating your preferences for vital outcomes.

This practice involves engaging with your followers practically and monitoring their conversations to gather valuable data and create impactful social media posts.

How to track these variables

Create a tracking system with a robust social listening tool to monitor industry topics, keywords, and mentions.

Once set up, track the following elements:

• Direct brand mentions: Business/company name, including name variations, quotes, common misspellings, etc. Also, monitor your offer, competitors’ product or service tags and their competitor mentions. Further, watch out for mentions of your name, employees, or competitors.
• Industry/niche keywords and phrases: Track keywords and phrases related to your niche and industry, such as common terminology and jargon. Monitor competitors’ names, products, and services to understand what people say about your competitors. Besides, look for discussions about common issues in your industry and mentions of potential flaws of competitors’ products or services.
• Customer feedback and sentiments: Pinpoint phrases like “love,” “hate,” “recommend,” or “suggest” to understand user sentiments. Also, watch out for complaints or praises about your products/services, and look into business directories and listing platforms to find reviews and customer feedback about your brand.
• Hashtags and keywords: Track relevant hashtags and keywords in social media posts and marketing campaigns. Also, look for specific slogans or taglines related to ongoing promotions around your niche.
• Emerging trends and topics: Use social listening tools to find relevant hashtags, phrases, and topics that suddenly gain traction. Besides, look into emerging competitors or new market entrants and use the data to fine-tune your marketing strategy for better results.

3. Analyze competitors’ marketing strategies

Analyzing competitors’ marketing strategies is an acceptable way to find robust marketing nuggets for your social listening campaigns.

They provide valuable knowledge of what works and what doesn’t. You will also find gaps that you can fill to drive significant results.

In other words, you will understand your competition’s strengths and weaknesses and use the details to optimize your campaigns. Social listening reveals the insights you need, giving you a competitive edge.

How to analyze competitors’ marketing strategies

Here’s a step-by-step method:

• Be attentive to social media conversations involving your competition using listening tools. Join in the discussions and sift through to glean invaluable information.
• Use social listening for competitor monitoring with the strategic intent to understand their customer engagement tactics better. This approach gives insights into their timing method and response duration for improving sales interaction channels.
• Use the best social listening tool to evaluate audience sentiment and compare how customers perceive your brand to competitors.

You will be able to make informed decisions based on the data collected. This article shows you how to use social listening to analyze your competitors.

4. Spot user pain points and gaps in products/services

While these tools can do the tasks mentioned above, you can also use social media listening to study conversations across social media sites to find the following:

• Audience reach
• Demographics
• Audience behavior and sentiments
• Popular marketing trends

The best listening tool will help you understand each audience segment and spot gaps in your product/services or industry. It will also assist you in discovering your audience’s struggles by listening to their discussions.

The information will help you rectify the issues and improve user satisfaction.

How to spot customers’ problems with social listening

• Track and study dialogues related to your niche and industry to find frequent issues your audience complains about.

For example, an audience member expressed confusion about disconnecting future activities in the screenshot below of an Instagram post.

Source

• Once you identify repeat queries, list the questions and carefully study them.
• Next, provide a helpful answer to address the queries

This technique lets you create content that drives engagement and boosts your marketing campaigns.

5. Use social listening to drive leads

Can you generate leads with social media listening? Yes, you can! By paying attention, you will encounter relevant accounts and profiles and invite them to participate in meaningful discussions.

Once you engage them in conversations, you can offer your skills and demonstrate your expertise by providing valuable tips to applicable topics or questions.

Then, you can offer your product or service where it’s fitting as the solution to their problems.

This hack helps you:

• Boost brand awareness
• Increase audience interaction
• Establish your business as a valuable resource for practical information
• Drive quality leads to your small business

How to generate leads using social listening

Here’s a step-by-step process:

1. Find and engage with appropriate social media posts with lots of comments.
2. Scan the comments to find questions participants are asking (such as “How to do XYZ)
3. Display your skills by providing helpful information through comments that answer those questions.
4. Present your offer as the solution.

How Does Social Listening Works?

Social listening eavesdrops or snoops into relevant social media conversations around your industry or company to understand the audience’s group and their choices.

This practice requires using social listening automation tools to:

• Track social media discussions to glean helpful information.
• Study audience interactions and brand mentions and segment them based on customers’ views
• Examine clients’ feedback to understand your brand image and customer perception.
• Watch sentiment trends in due course to identify shifts in customers’ attitudes.
• Evaluate competitors’ social media presence and audience reactions to gain strategic insights for better positioning.

The purpose is to track applicable social media conversations on various channels to determine followers’ sentiments about your product/service.

This technique allows you to respond effectively by creating marketing campaigns that positively impact their emotions.

5 Top Social Listening Platforms

You must listen to your audience and clients’ conversations to acquire valuable data to tailor your marketing campaigns effectively.

Here are some of the top social listening platforms in the industry:

1. Keyhole

The Keyhole social listening and reporting tool offers robust listening features for identifying existing and emerging trends. Keyhole listening tool also helps you find marketing opportunities to gain an edge over the competition.

Furthermore, the software allows you to monitor competitor mentions and audience discussions to understand your audience and their preferences better.

You can use Keyhole to increase audience sentiment about your business or products. This tactic helps you to understand what customers and your followers want, such as what topics or content types resonate with them.

Moreover, you can use the social listening platform to monitor and identify relevant influencers for your social media marketing campaigns.

2. Brandwatch

Brandwatch helps you understand and engage with your audience and customers across social media platforms. 

The platform enables you to maximize information that gives you an edge by gathering tons of data from relevant social media posts, user comments, and interactions.

You can search applicable keywords, segment and analyze them, and execute based on informed insights. The software also examines historical discussions from 2010 and provides real-time data with over 500 new conversations added daily.

This measure lets you discover trends and how they evolve, providing invaluable insights into your industry, popular topics, and audience priorities.

3. Exolyt

Exolyt listening tool allows you to research various TikTok content and topics to obtain insight into the posts and their target audience.

It helps you understand trends, consumer preferences, and their struggles. You can search for related hashtags and topics to gain more knowledge about your niche.

Exolyt also gives you comprehensive data on your TikTok audience sentiment and how they feel about your product, service, or brand.

You can use Exolyt to monitor distinct TikTok accounts, hashtags, and videos and gauge performance against your competitors. This step gives insights into who mentioned you or your business in their posts. You will also find valuable data about audience demographics, influencers, and relevant creators.

You will collect helpful real-time information to amplify your brand strategy and create marketing content that resonates and drives traction.

4. Later

Later software offers a solid social media listening feature that lets you find actionable information about what your audience and customers want.

You can use Later’s listening tool to find influencers on Instagram and TikTok for collaboration and execute social media campaigns that deliver results.

The tool provides information about the best-performing posts and brand mentions. Like its alternatives above, Later allows you to monitor brand mentions, understand audience sentiment, and jump on trends.

The sentiment analysis feature helps you evaluate your brand reputation on Instagram and TikTok and adapt your social media strategy for better outcomes.

5. Ipsos Synthesio

Ipsos Synthesio is a robust social listening (Social Intelligence Suite) tool that provides crucial insights that enable you to make informed business decisions.

Synthesio allows you to scan and analyze users’ social media data across platforms. You can quickly research your industry and track evolving trends, social mentions, audience behavior, and competitors’ strategies.

Reacting to these events immediately helps you identify growth opportunities. You will understand your audience’s sentiments, needs, and preferences well. Given the data you gathered, you can create impactful content that resonates.

If you’re working for clients, you can give your clients actionable information that shapes their business decisions. 

Furthermore, the tool lets you monitor various social media metrics, such as posts:

• Likes
• Views
• Shares
• Reposts
• Favorites
• Bookmarks
• Audience remarks

What to Look for When Choosing The Best Social Listening Tool

When assessing the top social listening tools for your needs, you must consider many core features and capabilities. Evaluating the vital factors will guarantee you pick a reliable platform that aligns with your business needs.

Here’s what you should look for:

• Compatibility & integrated insights: Your social listening tool must cover all the top social media platforms, allow you to monitor audience discussions as they happen, and provide actionable data in real-time.
• Robust filtering & segmentation: The social listening tool must be able to monitor designated keywords and phrases, including hashtags of your business and competition. It should also be capable of segmenting and filtering data to enable you to understand various audience categories.
• Practical sentiment analysis: A top listening tool should offer a reliable, trustworthy sentiment analysis feature that can quickly recognize and categorize positive, negative, or neutral mentions. It should understand how people talk to get the right feeling behind audience discussions.
• Track & identify trends: A robust social media listening tool should help you track and identify existing and emerging trends in your industry. These trends include hot topics and conversations, viral posts, and trending hashtags.  
• Solid competitor insights: The software must be able to contrast your business performance against competitors in engagement, mentions, and sentiment. It needs to be able to gauge your brand share of voice (online conversations) compared to the competition to determine your market presence.
• Custom dashboards & reporting: Does the listening software offer a customizable dashboard that displays essential metrics in an easy-to-understand format? It must provide an intuitive dashboard that lets you export reports in various formats, such as CSV or PDF.
• Influencer & content analysis: Your social listening tool should help you identify top influencers who talk about your product or service, business, and relevant topics. It must also be able to monitor content performance and find what types of content work and what’s not.

Wrap Up

The competition to get noticed on social media is intense. You should determine what your target audience, followers, and customers need to gain traction. Find out what they say about your brand offerings.

The most reliable way to do this is to activate social listening tools on multiple social media platforms to track applicable online discussions.

The right tool will monitor and listen to:

• Relevant conversations about your business and competition
• Content performance
• Brand mentions
• User sentiment

This social media marketing strategy helps you find top influencers for collaboration and other pinpoint growth opportunities. The information would help you make critical adjustments and improve your marketing strategy.

Author

Mos Clement is a B2B content writer and marketer. Since 2018, he’s worked with top SaaS and digital marketing brands, helping them rank in Google with SEO content and ghostwriting services. He’s worked with brands like Semrush, SocialPilot, Serpstat, NealSchaffer, and others. You can find him reading top industry blogs when he’s not writing!

The post Social Listening: Your Customers Are Talking. Are You Listening? appeared first on Keyhole.

What Is Social Listening?

Social listening involves browsing through social networks and seeing what people are saying about your brand, products, and services. Some customers use social media to lay out how your company can improve and what products they would like to see.

Social media posts with high engagement numbers indicate that plenty of your customers agree with what the social media post says. Businesses will also monitor how people respond to social media content about their products and services.

How to Optimize Your Social Listening Strategy

A better social listening strategy allows you to serve your customers more effectively, thus increasing conversion rates in the process. These five tactics can give you a competitive edge and make your company a top resource for customers.

1. Determine Which Keywords You Will Monitor

The first step for any social listening strategy is to consider which keywords you will monitor. Even if you already have some keywords, it’s good to assess additional options for your social listening strategy.

You may include your company’s name, product names, and other keywords that are related to your company. Influencers should include their names as the list of keywords they will monitor.

As you craft your list of keywords and phrases, it’s important to establish the goals of your social listening strategy. These are some of the objectives you can consider for your social listening efforts:

• Strengthening your brand’s reputation
• Being able to capitalize on profitable trends quickly
• Enhancing your customer support team

As you continue to refine your social listening strategy, you may discover that some keywords are no longer relevant. Social media managers may also have to adjust their social listening keywords to include new products.

2. Engage with Customers

People regularly use social media to talk about products and services that they have used. Some people talk about how a product helped them, while others complain about how the product or service did not meet their expectations.

A good social listening strategy allows businesses to find posts from these customers and respond to them quickly. Interacting with customers can provide a better experience and increase retention, regardless of their experience with the product.

A customer who enjoyed your product and talks about it on social media will like it a lot if you engage with their social media post. They will feel as if your company has acknowledged them as a customer. Furthermore, you’ll show up on their social media feed for an additional time. The more frequently your business shows up on a customer’s social media feed, the more inclined they may feel to become a returning customer.

Quick engagement also has its benefits when customers aren’t saying good things about your product or service. Someone on the social media team can respond to the customer and try to make the situation right. Offering immediate customer service, giving a refund, doing some troubleshooting, or presenting a discount code on their next purchase can lighten the mood.

Some customers will appreciate the gesture even if they didn’t have a good experience. Interacting with customers on social media turns good experiences into great ones. It can also turn bad experiences into not-as-bad customer experiences.

3. Analyze the Competition

Business owners and marketers can get plenty of good insights by paying attention to their customers and reading their social media posts. However, that’s not the only source of information that can lead to better business decisions.

Analyzing your competition will also bolster your social listening strategy. While listening to your customers allows you to focus on what your company can do better, analyzing the competition reveals their weaknesses. If a competitor regularly receives complaints about bad customer service, your company can invest more in customer support. Then, word may get out and you will win over some customers from your competitor.

Digital marketers can also see what competitors are doing right. While you don’t always want to copy the competition, you can incorporate some of their best ideas.

The Miracle on 34th Street highlights this concept. In the movie, Macy’s sales reps are trained to recommend Gimbels products if the product the customer wants isn’t in a Macy’s store. This business decision works well for Macy’s, and Gimbels decides to copy them after seeing the results. The company then trains Gimbels sales reps to recommend an appropriate Macy’s product if the product the customer wants isn’t in a Gimbels store.

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel, and with social media, it’s easier to see which wheels work the best. Agile businesses can quickly incorporate what’s working well for other companies into their strategy.

4. Know Which Social Networks to Prioritize

Businesses can establish themselves on numerous social networks, but some of those platforms are more valuable than others. The most important platforms for your company are the ones that have many of your regular customers.

For instance, LinkedIn is a top choice for many business professionals, and creating a good LinkedIn profile can result in plenty of new customers. However, you won’t see as many t-shirt companies shifting their focus toward LinkedIn. You don’t have to post on every social network, and you don’t need a social listening strategy for each platform.

Prioritize the platforms where you already invest the most time and resources. It’s better to focus most of your time on a platform where you post daily than a platform where you only post once per month. It’s okay to add and remove social networks from your social listening strategy based on changes in customer behavior and where your ideal customers spend their time online.

5. Review Your Metrics

It’s only possible to improve in something if you track it. Social listening offers many data points that can strengthen your business. You can see how often people mention your brand, plus the overall sentiment. Doing competitor analyses will also give you valuable insights.

However, metrics are only valuable if you act upon them. Making meaningful changes in your business based on what the majority of your customers say should lead to more sales. You can’t please everyone, but if many customers offer the same suggestion or have the same complaint, it’s probably something that you should address.

Social media management tools like Keyhole make it easy to review metrics and stay on top of your social listening strategy. You can book a free demo to see how Keyhole can enhance your social media strategy.

Author bio

Marc Guberti is a digital marketing freelance writer and Certified Personal Finance Counselor. He offers content marketing services for small businesses.

The post 5 Ways to Improve Your Social Listening Strategy appeared first on Keyhole.

For Keyhole users, this does not impact how we track and measure your performance. However, changes to TikTok usage will show up in your analytics: fewer mentions in Social Listening and lower engagement metrics in Profile Analytics as U.S.-based activity decreases on the platform.

Let’s break down what these changes mean and how you can navigate them effectively.

What’s happening with TikTok?

Here’s what we know for sure:

• TikTok will be removed from U.S. app stores. This is the first major step in the ban. New users won’t be able to download the app, and existing users won’t receive updates.
• TikTok updates will stop, making the app less reliable over time. Without bug fixes or new features, the app will likely work for now but will gradually degrade, leading to slower performance and potential glitches. As a result, fewer U.S.-based users will remain active, which will mean fewer posts and interactions on the platform.
• TikTok continues to operate in other regions. While U.S. access to TikTok is restricted, the platform remains active in other countries. If you have an international audience, you can still publish TikTok content and track performance in these markets using Keyhole.

Here’s what we don’t know yet:

• How quickly TikTok will stop working for existing users. The app may degrade gradually or become entirely unusable. It’s unclear how long existing users will retain access to its features.
• How long users will have access to their stored TikTok data. It’s uncertain if TikTok will fully disable access to stored data or how much time users will have to export their information.
• Whether VPNs will allow U.S.-based users to access TikTok. It’s unclear if VPNs or similar methods will provide a reliable way for U.S. users to continue using TikTok after restrictions are enforced.

What does this mean for Keyhole users?

Here’s what you are likely to see:

• In Social Listening, fewer mentions for tracked keywords will appear. This reflects the decline in U.S.-based TikTok activity and posts.
• In Profile Analytics, Keyhole will still track and report metrics. However, you’ll likely see declines in views, engagements, and comments as U.S. TikTok usage decreases over time.
• Your past data is secure. Everything you’ve already collected in Keyhole remains accessible. However, we recommend downloading your critical reports now, since we don’t yet know how TikTok changes might affect future access.
• Keyhole’s functionality is not impacted by the TikTok ban. If U.S.-based users view, comment, or engage with your TikTok posts, those interactions will still be captured accurately.Pull back the curtain on Canva’s social presence and you’ll find something fascinating. They’ve turned their feeds into daily proof of what their platform promises – that anyone can create something worth sharing.

What should you do now?

• Export your TikTok analytics. Download your TikTok analytics and performance reports. As Tiktok’s app’s functionality may degrade over time without updates, securing your historical data is essential. 
• Download every TikTok your brand has created. Your TikToks can be repurposed for other short-form platforms like Instagram Reels or YouTube Shorts.
• Explore other platforms. This is a good time to expand your presence on other platforms. Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts aren’t just backup plans – they’re growing platforms where your audience might already be. 
• Focus on international. If you have a global audience, focus on regions where TikTok will continue operating normally. While U.S. operations may be affected, TikTok remains fully functional in other markets. Our analytics tools can help you track performance across these regions.

Common Questions

When exactly would changes start? 

The first change is TikTok’s removal from U.S. app stores. Existing users will still have access to the TikTok app initially, but without updates, the app will gradually become less stable, leading to performance issues over time.

Will I lose access to my historical TikTok data? 

No – everything you’ve already collected stays in your Keyhole account. We recommend downloading any critical reports for future reference.

Can I still track TikTok international performance? 

Yes. Keyhole will continue to track TikTok performance in all regions.

Looking Ahead

The TikTok restrictions bring uncertainty, but they also create a chance to refocus and strengthen your social media strategy. Backing up your data, transitioning your content, and exploring other platforms like Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts will help you adapt and maintain momentum. 

Our support team is here to help with exporting your TikTok analytics, navigating these changes, and exploring new platforms. Click the chat icon to connect with us—we’re here to support you every step of the way.

The post TikTok U.S. Access: What It Means for Your Analytics appeared first on Keyhole.

In an era where every social post, presentation, and pitch deck needs to shine, Canva arrived at exactly the right moment. They saw a world where design skills were becoming as essential as email, but professional software remained stubbornly complex. Their solution? Make good design as intuitive as typing.

But here’s what’s fascinating: Canva didn’t stop at building a great tool. They turned their social media presence into a living example of what they teach. Scroll through their feeds and you’ll find more than product updates and corporate announcements. You’ll see a blueprint for how modern brands can turn users into advocates and casual creators into confident designers.

Let’s unpack how they built this playbook, and why it works so brilliantly.

Canva’s Social Media Presence: Where Numbers Tell Stories

When you’re teaching the world to create better content, your own social media had better be impressive. Canva delivers. With 220 million monthly active users across 190 countries, they’ve built a presence that doesn’t just market their platform – it showcases what’s possible with it.

Let’s look at where Canva shows up:

• Instagram: 2.1 million followers
• Facebook: 2.7 million followers
• X (formerly Twitter): 316.7K followers
• YouTube: 627K subscribers
• TikTok: 598.8K followers
• LinkedIn: 2 million followers

But these numbers only tell one part of Canva’s story. Their social media strategy goes deeper than maintaining a presence across platforms. Each channel becomes a unique space where Canva connects with different segments of their community, from design newcomers to creative professionals.

It’s not just about being everywhere – it’s about being everywhere with purpose. And that purpose changes depending on where their audience needs them most.

Note: We analyzed three months of data through mid-January 2025.

Decoding Canva’s Social Media Strategy

Pull back the curtain on Canva’s social presence and you’ll find something fascinating. They’ve turned their feeds into daily proof of what their platform promises – that anyone can create something worth sharing.

Show, Don’t Sell 

Canva lets their work do the talking. Their holiday campaign with Whiskers  Wondrous didn’t just rack up over 2,000 engagements because it was cute – it showed how anyone could create something delightful with their tools. Each post feels less like marketing and more like a friend showing you a cool trick.

Source

Community Takes the Spotlight 

Take their #Droptober challenge on TikTok. Instead of showcasing their features, they put their community’s creativity center stage. Users didn’t just post designs – they voted, commented, and built on each other’s ideas. That video hit 2.77M views not because of fancy production, but because it tapped into what creators actually want: recognition and inspiration.

Source

Read the Room 

When Pinterest wanted to spotlight 2025 design trends, Canva didn’t just jump on the bandwagon. They created content that helped their community understand and use those trends. It’s this kind of timely, useful content that turns casual users into daily creators.

Source

Let’s see how these strategies play out on each platform.

Canva on Facebook: Community-Driven Engagement and Education

With 2.7 million followers, Facebook is Canva’s largest channel and serves as a hub for creative inspiration, education, and user interaction. Canva’s posts predominantly feature short-form videos, which are consistently the most engaging format on the platform.

Key Themes Include:

• Tutorials and Tips: Canva frequently shares design tips and how-to posts, demonstrating the platform’s features while positioning itself as a trusted resource for creators.
• Seasonal Content: Timely campaigns, such as holiday-themed designs and Canva Pro promotions, keep the content relevant and engaging for its audience.
• Interactive Posts: Canva fosters conversations by asking questions like, “What project are you working on today?” These posts encourage community engagement and inspire users to share their creative journeys.

One standout post—a holiday-themed video featuring Whiskers the Wondrous—garnered 2,382 engagements, showcasing Canva’s knack for combining storytelling with design inspiration.

Canva on Instagram: A Visual Playground

Instagram, with its 2.1 million followers, feels like Canva’s natural home. Here, the platform thrives on visually striking content that inspires and educates. Canva balances Reels (59% of posts), carousels (30%), and images (11%) to create a dynamic feed that mirrors its brand’s creative essence.

Highlights Include:

• End-of-Year Wrapped Carousel: This visually rich post garnered 8,490 engagements, showing the power of relatable, trend-based content.
• Step-by-Step Tutorials: Canva simplifies design techniques in bite-sized carousels and Reels, making complex skills accessible to all.
• Behind-the-Scenes Content: Posts like “Behind the scenes with Whiskers” humanize the brand, showcasing the creativity behind Canva’s designs.

By combining trend-driven themes with educational tutorials, Canva creates a hub for design enthusiasts to learn, engage, and create.

Canva on TikTok: Playful Creativity Meets Design Education

TikTok is where Canva lets its playful side shine. With 598.6K followers and 8.22M views in the analyzed period, Canva’s short, engaging videos show how versatile and fun design can be.

Key Strategies Include:

• Interactive Challenges: Campaigns like #Droptober invite users to vote on designs, fostering a sense of community and participation.
• Educational Tutorials: Posts like “Your content Canva video library” provide practical tips in a visually engaging format.
• Collaborative Campaigns: A partnership with Pinterest to highlight 2025 design trends resulted in a video with 2.77M views, illustrating the impact of strategic collaborations.

Canva on YouTube: A Hub for Education and Inspiration

Canva’s YouTube channel, with 627K subscribers, is a treasure trove of design knowledge. From tutorials to success stories, the platform serves as a digital classroom for creators.

Top videos like “How Docusign saved $300K in design hours” offer real-world examples of Canva’s value, earning 125,152 views. Meanwhile, monthly feature updates, like “What’s New Wednesday,” keep users informed and engaged.

Canva on X (Twitter): Real-Time Connection

On X, Canva excels at real-time interaction, using its 316.7K followers as a direct line for support and engagement. With 3,241 tweets during the period, Canva ensures every query is met with a prompt, helpful response.

Key Themes Include:

• Support-Driven Replies: Addressing user issues and sharing resources builds trust and reinforces Canva’s user-first approach.
• Relatable Humor: Posts like “Don’t tap ‘G’ or ‘S’ while presenting!” garnered 128 engagements, highlighting Canva’s ability to balance professionalism with playfulness.
• Localized Engagement: Canva’s multilingual replies demonstrate its global commitment to inclusivity.

The Secret to Canva’s Success: A Community-Centric Strategy

At the heart of Canva’s social media success is its ability to foster a sense of community. By celebrating user creations, sharing educational content, and actively engaging with followers, Canva has turned its social platforms into vibrant hubs of creativity and collaboration.

What truly sets Canva apart is its authenticity. Every campaign, post, and reply feels like an extension of the brand’s mission: to empower creators. This authenticity, combined with an unwavering focus on user needs, ensures Canva’s place as a leader not just in design but in social media marketing.

Final Thoughts

Open any social media app and you’ll spot it – that unmistakable Canva touch. From the small business owner crafting their first Instagram post to the marketing team churning out content daily, Canva hasn’t just changed how we design. They’ve changed who gets to be a designer.

Their social media tells that story better than any mission statement could. No corporate buzzwords, no flashy campaigns – just a steady stream of “here’s how you do it” mixed with “look what our community made.” It’s simple, it works, and it’s turned millions of tentative creators into confident designers.

Other brands take note: sometimes the best marketing strategy is just showing up and actually helping your users win.

Ready to take your brand’s social media strategy to the next level? It’s time to learn from Canva.

The post [Brand Analysis] How Canva Shows Up on Social Media and Shows Everyone Else appeared first on Keyhole.

Why this matters

For years, Keyhole has been the go-to resource for brands needing real-time social listening and analytics, keeping you in tune with what people are saying about your brand. Now, by joining Muck Rack, we’re taking that mission to the next level. Muck Rack isn’t just another name—they’ve been doing this since 2009, just like us. They’ve built a reputation helping organizations build trust, tell their stories and demonstrate the unique value of earned media.

By teaming up with them, we’re bringing the best of both worlds to offer you even more tools to level up your communication strategies and turn those insights into actions. Get ready to zoom in on the conversations that matter, spot a crisis, inform earned media strategies, and prove, without a doubt, that your communications strategies are working.

“We couldn’t think of a better partner than Muck Rack to scale our technology and get it into the hands of the PR community,” added Saif Ajani, cofounder of Keyhole.

“Our social listening and monitoring tools integrated with Muck Rack’s earned media reporting will help communicators understand which conversations are impacting their reputation, enabling them to take timely and informed actions.”

What this means for you

For now, Keyhole will continue to operate independently, ensuring you get the same great experience you’ve always had. We’re closely collaborating with the Muck Rack team to ensure this transition is as smooth as possible, so you can look forward to even greater value in the months ahead.

Together, Muck Rack and Keyhole will be working on integrating Keyhole’s social listening capabilities within the Muck Rack platform, alongside their media monitoring tools. This means you’ll be able to see the full picture of how your brand is perceived across online, television, radio, newsletters, print, and now social media. Not a Muck Rack customer? Request a demo.

Thank you for being part of the Keyhole journey. We can’t wait to show you what’s next!

Want to learn more? Hear from Muck Rack’s CEO.

The post Big News: Keyhole is Now Part of Muck Rack! appeared first on Keyhole.