Which Food And Beverage Brands Won July Fourth On Social

When a holiday’s biggest sporting event is literally a hot dog eating contest, that’s a pretty clear indication of how important food is to celebrating July Fourth. The National Retail Federation estimated $7.7 billion would be spent on food items around Independence Day this year. For CPG Food and Beverage brands, the holiday is an especially opportune time to connect with the social media audience. 

So which brands and tactics were most successful in their July Fourth related messaging? We looked at the social media analytics to identify the biggest winners around alcoholic beverages, non alcoholic beverages, and CPG Food.   

Non Alcoholic Beverage Winners 

Looking at the non-alcoholic beverage brands averaging the most engagements on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok for their posts mentioning either July Fourth or July 4th between June 28 – July 4, 2022. 

By The Numbers: Non alcoholic beverage brands averaged 475 engagements for the 90 Fourth of July related social media posts they shared between June 28- July 4, 2022. 

Preferred Format: Gallery posts stood out by averaging 1,959 engagements. Single Image posts by non alcoholic beverage brands with Fourth of July messaging averaged 494 engagements, while video posts averaged 129 engagements. 

Best Performing Channel: Instagram posts averaged 959 engagements. By comparison, Facebook posts averaged 323 engagements, TikTok posts averaged 90 engagements, and Twitter posts averaged 26 engagements. 

Timing Is Everything: July Fourth related post published by Non alcoholic beverages on July 1 performed the best, averaging 1,137 engagements. By comparison, their July Fourth related posts shared during the actual holiday only averaged 368 engagements. 

Most Noteworthy Post: Liquid Death got 11,289 engagements on an Instagram post sharing the Dehydration Detector 9000, essentially a picture of pee color for people to reference so they understand how dehydrated they are. This innovative approach, beat out an Instagram post by CELSIUS Energy Drink about sparklers, to become the most engaged Fourth of July related social post by a non alcoholic beverage brand.  

Alcoholic Beverage Winners 

Looking at the alcoholic beverage brands averaging the most engagements on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok for their posts mentioning either July Fourth or July 4th between June 28 – July 4, 2022. 

By The Numbers: Alcoholic beverage brands averaged 270 engagements for the 181 Fourth of July related social media posts they shared between June 28- July 4, 2022. 

Preferred Format: For Alcohol brands single images were most effective, with those July Fourth themed posts averaging 320 engagements. Gallery posts averaged 226 engagements with video posts averaging 131 engagements. Text posts averaged 292 engagements, with that primarily due to a Bug Light Facebook post about the sound of opening up the first beer. 

Best Performing Channel: Alcohol brands averaged 376 engagements on Facebook for their July Fourth related posts. That outperformed Instagram, where the brands averaged 223 engagements and Twitter where their holiday posts averaged 131 engagements. 

Timing Is Everything: Alcohol brands averaged 2,266 engagements for the July Fourth posts they share on June 29. The holiday themed posts they shared on July Fourth only averaged 131 engagements.  

Most Noteworthy Post: Evan Williams Bourbon had 14,581 engagements on a Facebook post promoting their American Made Heroes Foundation and wishing veterans a happy fourth of July. The American Made Heroes Foundation awards up to $75,000 in grant funding to qualified organizations that serve U.S. military veterans. This was the most popular Fourth of July post by an alcohol brand around the holiday this year.  

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CPG Food Winners 

Looking at the CPG Food brands averaging the most engagements on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok for their posts mentioning either July Fourth or July 4th between June 28 – July 4, 2022. 

By The Numbers: CPG Food brands averaged 425 engagements for the 425 Fourth of July related social media posts they shared between June 28- July 4, 2022 

Preferred Format: CPG Food brands averaged 643 engagements for their July Fourth related Gallery posts. In comparison, CPG Food brands averaged 314 engagements on their Video posts, averaged 189 engagements on their single image posts, and averaged 81 engagements on their Text posts. 

Best Performing Channel: TikTok was the most effective channel for CPG Food brands as they averaged 659 engagements for their July Fourth related posts there. The brands averaged 384 engagements on Instagram, 205 engagements on Facebook, 169 engagements on YouTube, and 48 engagements on Twitter. 

Timing Is Everything: For CPG Food brands, the most effective day to share their July Fourth related posts was July 1, when they averaged 518 engagements. The holiday posts they shared on July Fourth only averaged 174 engagements.  

Most Noteworthy Post: The top performing July Fourth related CPG Food post came from a product that’s not actually food. Dubble Bubble Bubble Gum got 20,329 engagements for a Facebook post where their patriotic eagle wished everyone a happy 4th. 

Conclusion 

When looking at the top performing Food and Beverage posts around July Fourth, a couple of different templates emerged. Top posts were either clever, such as Liquid Death’s Dehydration Detector 9000 concept or Oreo sharing a gallery of firework themed Oreo creations, or patriotic, such as  Evan Williams Bourbon saluting veterans or Double Bubble and their bald eagle.  Additionally, when it came to timing, July Fourth posts shared 3-5 days ahead of the actual holiday performed the best. 

Holiday campaigns are challenging for brands because there’s a very limited amount of time the messaging is relevant, making in window optimization near impossible. By using a social media analytics solution to understand what worked for holiday posts across an entire cohort of competitors, brands have a much clearer understanding of the proper approach to take around the next holiday.  

 Want more holiday related social media insights? Request a ListenFirst demo today! 

6 Social Media Insights About The NBA Finals

The NBA Finals is one of the biggest sporting events of the year, not only on TV but on social media as well. How much social media engagement was there around the Finals this year compared to the past? Additionally, how much do players and paid partnerships around the games connect with the social audience? 

ListenFirst dug into the social media analytics and here 6 insights you should know about the NBA Finals.  

Insight #1. The Twitter Conversation Around The NBA Finals Peaked In 2016

Looking at the volume of Tweets using either the phrase “NBA Finals”, the hashtag #NBAFinals, or the hashtag #NBAFinals with the year (example: #NBAFinals2022) during the time period the finals occurred during that year.

During the NBA Finals this year, meaning between June 2-16, 2022, there 1,201,942 Tweets that mentioned the event. That’s a decrease of 70.25% from the volume of Tweets mentioning the NBA Finals between Jun 3, 2016 – Jun 19, 2016.   

There are a few reasons the volume of Tweets discussing the NBA Finals during the past 10 years peaked in 2016. It was the year the Golden State Warriors set the NBA regular season record for most wins, only to lose to LeBron James and The Cavaliers in the Finals, the franchise’s first title. Additionally, it was the last time a Finals series went to a Game 7.  

In 2017 and 2018, the Warriors and Cavaliers would play each other in the Finals again, but during those years the Warriors had Kevin Durant on their roster, and those series were much shorter.

The amount of Tweets discussing the NBA Finals was up 2.35% in 2022 from 2021, but the social media interest in having the Warriors back in the Finals still can’t compare to the audience interest in the Warriors facing off against a competitive LeBron James team in the Finals.   

Insight #2. Stephen Curry Was The Player Who Gained The Most New Followers During The Finals 

Looking at the Warriors and Celtics players with the most new social media followers on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok between June 2-16, 2022. 

The MVP on the court was also the MVP on social media. During the NBA Finals this year, Stephen Curry added 945,917 followers to his social media accounts, including 720K followers on Instagram and 100K followers on TikTok (he has 28.8 million total fans on social media). 

That’s 4.4X more followers than any other participant gained during the NBA Finals. Klay Thompson got 216,99 new followers during the Finals, while Jayson Tatum was the Celtic who got the most new followers, adding 133,216 followers in the same time period. 

Insight #3. Role Players Overperform On Wikipedia 

Looking at the number of page views on the official Wikipedia pages for the Warriors and Celtics players between June 2-16, 2022. 

During the NBA Finals, the Stephen Curry Wikipedia page was viewed 1.09 million times. However, other than Curry, the top performers on Wikipedia were somewhat unexpected. 

Andrew Wiggins, had the next highest total, with 437,000 views of his Wikipedia page. Wiggins is not exactly an obscure player, he was the number one overall pick of the 2014 Draft, but up until this season, his career was viewed as a disappointment, and he was recast as a role player. Wiggins was in the NBA Finals for the first time, and with casual NBA fans not hearing about him in a while, they were curious to learn more. 

Similarly, the Al Horford Wikipedia page got 392K page views during the NBA Finals, more than any other Celtic. He’s far from the biggest star on the team, but Horford’s career was considered all but over after disappointing stints playing for the 76ers and Thunder. With Horford getting national attention for the first time in a few years, people were visiting his Wikipedia page to catch up on what they missed from the University of Florida graduate. 

Unlike with other social media networks, the audience uses Wikipedia to learn about people they’re less familiar with, not necessarily the biggest stars. 

#4. Sponsored Content Had A Big Impact During The NBA Finals

Television ads weren’t the only valuable real estate for brands around the NBA Finals. The NBA shared 600 sponsored posts during the NBA Finals that averaged 28,703 engagements. The top performing sponsored post was an Instagram post sponsored by YouTube TV announcing the final score of Game 2 that got 912,385 engagements. 

During the finals The Warriors did 10 paid partnership posts on Facebook and YouTube, with those posts averaging 15,021 engagements. The top performing of those posts named Draymond Green player of the game, was sponsored by Google Cloud and got 43,545 engagements on Facebook.

Meanwhile, the Boston Celtics shared 36 sponsored posts on Facebook and YouTube during the finals that averaged 5,153 engagements. The top performing post, got 19,177 engagements, was sponsored by VistaPrint, and promoted Game 4 ahead of it happening.

Insight #5. NBA Finals Players Should Be Doing More Paid Promotion Posts  

Obviously players don’t have the time or energy during the NBA Finals to monetize their social media channels personally. That said, given the spotlight on these athletes during the Finals, someone should be posting paid promotion posts on their behalf which would increase engagement. 

For example, an Instagram post by Klay Thompson celebrating his 4 rings, with a Michelob Ultra banner prominently in the background got 688,864 engagements on Instagram. Meanwhile a Marcus Smart Instagram post promoting Uleva hemp products got 16,999 engagements. 

The engagement ceiling for social posts by players is even higher. The top performing post by an NBA Finals player during the series was by Stephen Curry saying “Night, Night” on Instagram after the final game, which got 4,202,706 engagements. That was not a paid promotion post, but 12,402,000 viewers watched that Game 6 on TV, and if the average engagement on Instagram posts is between 1%-5% this means exponentially more people saw that Curry post than watched the game.  

A sponsored post shared by an MVP is worth far more to brands than a TV spot at this point. 

Insight #6. The Audience Still Pays Attention to Post Game Comments  

There were 16,635 Tweets mentioning the term ‘Holy Cannoli’ between June 16- 20, 2022. Klay Thompson memorably used the phrase in a post game interview to express how he felt after just having won the NBA championship again. 

Conclusion 

Given the impact of NBA players as social media influencers, and how much engagement and follower growth they get during the Finals specifically, paid partnerships posts with both teams and individual participating players, is an ideal way for brands to stand out around the event. Understanding which of these players are connecting with the social media audience and how, will give brands the necessary context for optimizing this marketing strategy. This is a key missed opportunity for brands and should be built into the next large sporting event to maximize a brand’s reach and create ROI.

Carol Burnett to Appear in Final BETTER CALL SAUL Episodes

Six-time Emmy® Award-winner Carol Burnett will appear as a guest star in the sixth and final season of Better Call Saul, portraying a character named “Marion.”

In addition to Burnett, as previously announced, Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul, will appear reprising their BREAKING BAD roles of “Walter White” and “Jesse Pinkman,” respectively, as the show draws to its conclusion.

The series, produced by Sony Pictures Television, returns for its final six episodes beginning Monday, July 11 at 9:00 pm ET/PT on AMC and AMC+ with the series finale on August 15. The final episodes will conclude the complicated journey and transformation of its compromised hero, Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk), into criminal lawyer Saul Goodman.

Said Burnett: “I’m thrilled to be a part of my favorite show.”

Better Call Saul stars Bob Odenkirk, Jonathan Banks, Rhea Seehorn, Patrick Fabian, Michael Mando, Tony Dalton and Giancarlo Esposito and is executive produced by Peter Gould, Vince Gilligan, Mark Johnson, Melissa Bernstein, Thomas Schnauz, Gordon Smith, Alison Tatlock, Diane Mercer, and Michael Morris.

Burnett, an award-winning actress, and best-selling author is widely recognized by the public and her peers for her comedic and dramatic roles on television, film and Broadway, most notably “The Carol Burnett Show.” Named in 2007 by Time magazine as one of 100 Best Television Shows of All Time, “The Carol Burnett Show” ran for 11 years, averaged 30 million viewers per week and received 25 Emmy Awards, making it one of the most honored shows in television history.

Burnett has been seen on Broadway in Once Upon a Mattress, Fade Out – Fade In, Moon Over Buffalo, Putting It Together, and Love Letters. She is also known for playing Miss Hannigan in the original film adaption of Annie.

As a highly acclaimed actress, Burnett also has been honored with Emmys, People’s Choice Awards, the Horatio Alger Award, an Ace Award, the Peabody and a Grammy. A KENNEDY Center Honoree, the recipient of the KENNEDY Center Mark Twain Prize for Humor and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, she was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The City of Los Angeles named the intersection of Highland Avenue and Selma Avenue directly adjacent to Hollywood High School, Burnett’s alma mater, Carol Burnett Square and CBS Studios dedicated “The Carol Burnett Artist Entrance” in her honor. Burnett was celebrated by her colleagues and fellow actors with the Life Achievement Award at the 2016 SAG Awards.

The series ended the first half of its current sixth and final season as the #1 acquisition driver in the history of the AMC+ streaming service and the #3 cable drama for the current broadcast season in key demos. The mid-season finale on May 23 delivered more than 2.2 million viewers in Nielsen live+3 ratings, as fans tuned in to see the conclusion of Kim (Seehorn) and Jimmy’s elaborate plot against Howard (Fabian) and experienced a pulse-racing surprise in the episode’s final moments.

Since its season premiere, BETTER CALL SAUL has generated more than 17 million engagements across social platforms, ranking as the #1 drama on broadcast and cable for conversation and organic search and the #1 cable drama in owned social engagement and content shares, according to data from ListenFirst.

Social Media’s Verdict on The Johnny Depp / Amber Heard Trial

Why on social media, the trial was always rigged against Amber Heard.

For about 8 weeks, the Johnny Depp / Amber Heard defamation lawsuit was the most popular reality show in America. In fact, the topic was mentioned in 16,049,016 Tweets between April 11 – June 1, 2022. As a social analytics company, we’re not qualified to comment if the verdict, Depp getting awarded $10.4 million in damages and Heard getting awarded $2 million in compensatory damages, was correct.    

However, what we can illustrate through the data is that there was probably no way for Amber Heard to come out of the trial a winner from the perspective of the audience on social media, regardless of the verdict. 

As recently as 2015, Johnny Depp was named by IMDB as the biggest movie star in the world (based on page views). On the day the trial started he had 24.6M total followers on social media. Amber Heard had only 1.12M followers. Based on that power differential in their popularity, the social media audience is coming from a place where they want to give Depp the benefit of the doubt and distrust the motives of the less famous person. For Heard, that was always going to be a near impossible hill to climb. 

Depp Gains The Most New Followers, Win Or Lose 

Johnny Depp Follower Growth, April 11 – June 1, 2022

Johnny Depp gained 9.56 million followers during his trial against Amber Heard, meaning between April 11 – June 1, 2022. He had only gained 284,582 followers during the previous time period of February 18 – April 10, 2022. On the day of the verdict he gained 1,998,788 new followers on Instagram alone.

Meanwhile during the trial, Amber Heard gained 91,511 followers on social media, compared to 1,281 during the previous time period.

Amber Heard Follower Growth, April 11 – June 1, 2022

That huge disparity in new followers could be read as Johnny Depp now has his reputation back and the social media audience is now supporting him more as a result, but that really isn’t the case.  

On November 2 , 2020 Johnny Depp lost a defamation lawsuit in England against The Sun, around accusations he had abused Amber Heard. On that day, he got 20,605 new followers on social media with Amber Heard only getting 839 new followers on social media. That’s a pretty good indicator that regardless of what the outcome of the American trial ended up being, the social media audience was never going to embrace Amber Heard more than Johnny Depp. 

Social Media Sentiment Around Amber Heard Didn’t Turn More Negative During The Trial 

Amber Heard Twitter Sentiment

There’s been a lot of conversation online about what Amber Heard said on the stand and if it hurt her case, but proportionally on social media, negative sentiment around Heard actually peaked before the trial started. During the trial, Twitter sentiment around Amber Heard was 31% Negative and 13% Positive, with 18% of Tweets expressing the emotion of Anger. In the period immediately preceding the trial, February 18 – April 10, 2022, Twitter sentiment around Amber Heard was 32% Negative, 18% Positive, with 24% of the Tweets expressing Anger. 

Johnny Depp Twitter Sentiment

In contrast, the conversation around Johnny Depp became more negative during the trial. Twitter sentiment around Johnny Depp was 27% Negative, 17% Positive, with 15% of Tweets expressing Anger between April 11 – June 1, 2022. In the corresponding period before the trial, Twitter sentiment around Johnny Depp was 14% Negative, 29% Positive, with only 9% of Tweets expressing the emotion of Anger.

The person whose social media reputation was likely improved the most by the trial, was Camille Vasquez, Johnny Depp’s lawyer. She was mentioned in 320,073 Tweets during the trial, with sentiment around those Tweets being 34% Positive, 16% Negative, and 23% of the Tweets expressing the emotion of Joy.  

A Significant Amount Of The Social Conversation Around Amber Heard Was Bullying 

Misogyny and cyberbullying was a huge issue in the Tweets discussing Amber Heard during the trial. Between April 11 – June 1, 2022 there were 614,431 Tweets using the hashtag  #Amberturd, which partially was a reference to an accusation from the trial. Additionally, 26,694 Tweets referred to Amber Heard as either being a gold digger, a euphemism for a female dog, or as being a British euphemism for female genitalia.

Social Data Indicates Heard Not Depp Was Most Hurt By The Accusations 

Johnny Depp’s lawsuit was built on the assertion that Amber Heard’s accusations against him were leading to the perception he was an abuser and this label hurt his career. Based on the social media data at least, there’s a much stronger case the opposite was true. Between 2016 and June 1, 2022 there were 847,179 Tweets using the hashtag #AmberheardIsAnAbuser compared to only 15,074 Tweets using the hashtag #JohnnyDeppIsAnAbuser. In no year was there more Tweets around Depp hashtag than the Heard one. That includes 2020, the year Depp lost a defamation lawsuit in England against The Sun, regarding accusations he had abused Amber Heard.  

#JusticeForJohnnyDepp Engagement Is Being Driven By Single Issue Social Accounts 

There were 1,046,570 unique Tweets using the hashtag #JusticeForJohnnyDepp between April 11 – June 1, 2022. Of the top 10 of those Tweets that generated the most engagement 6 of those Tweets were from handles that were explicitly Johnny Depp fan accounts, another account referenced Johnny Depp in their profile description, 2 of the Tweets were from a lawyer who calls himself the DUI Guy and said he was covering the trial as a reporter, with the last most engaged Tweet coming from a user who was complimenting the judge on the case. 

All of those Twitter accounts were created between January 2010  – October 2021; so none of those accounts were created during the trial. In fact, one of those Johnny Depp fan Twitter handles, emphatically stated in their account description that  “I AM NOT A BOT”.   

In comparison to another movement about getting justice for a celebrity, there were 974,321 unique Tweets using the hashtag #FreeBritney between June 1 – November 30, 2021 (the period that hashtag was most popular). Of the 10 Tweets that got the most engagement during that time using the #freebritney hashtag, only 2 were posted by explicit Britney Spears fan accounts. In other words, popular Tweets using the #FreeBritney hashtag were less likely to come from accounts specifically devoted to the celebrity than was the case with accounts using the #JusticeForJohnnyDepp hashtag. 

Milani Cosmetics Was The Big Brand Winner Around The Trial 

In this trial, Johnny Depp was alleging he was defamed in an op-ed by Heard in The Washington Post. Ironically, that op-ed technically didn’t mention him by name. Hence, it’s only fitting the brand that saw the biggest boost on social media from the trial wasn’t mentioned during the trial.

People on the internet became convinced that when Amber Heard and her lawyers said she had used a Correcting Kit to hide bruises on her face, she was referring to a Milani Cosmetics Kit. In response, Milani Cosmetics made a TikTok video pointing out that their Correcting Kit didn’t launch until after Heard and Depp broke up. As a result, that video got 1,219,400 engagements on TikTok and Milani Cosmetics got 204,919 new followers on social media, an increase of 168% compared to the period before the trial. 

Conclusion 

From a social media perspective, at no point did more people believe Amber Heard than Johnny Depp, going back years.  A 2013 English study of 111,891 domestic violence allegations found only 6 instances of false allegations.

In cases where there is not a clear legal winner and loser in a public trial, even one as visceral as abuse, the prevailing social media winner will always be the more popular party. In fact, this case has actually made Johnny Depp a more marketable figure from a celebrity standpoint according to social media engagement.

Given how vitriolic the response was on social media to Amber Heard making such an accusation against Depp, it seems even more onerous to make an abuse allegation against an uber popular celebrity. This should make us question whether we should be creating spectacles of our legal system at work.

What The Onion Headline That Keeps Going Viral Means For Gun Control  

ListenFirst’s thoughts are with the people of Uvalde, Texas and everyone who was affected by the tragic mass shooting that occurred there. It is difficult to objectively analyze data around senseless violent events, but there are some insights we would like to share around the online social data which may be key indicators of the nation’s tolerance for this type of violence.


Around these senseless mass shootings, one way people on social media process the event is by sharing familiar headlines from various online news feeds. We will take a brief look at a reoccurring trending headline post from The Onion and see if the increased engagement around the tradition speaks to an increased public desire for gun control reform.

  • The Onion keeps republishing the headline “‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens” after mass shootings. The Onion shared posts using this headline 25 times since 2014 getting 957,041 total engagements on social media. As the article satirizes America’s unwillingness to change public policy to address a recurring problem, the more mass shootings, the more relevant the headline becomes to people. For example, The Onion’s most engaged version of that post was a May 16, 2022 Tweet that got 162,041 engagement and referred to a racist gunman killing 10 people at a Buffalo grocery store. Second most engaging was a May 25, 2022 Tweet, getting 145,458 engagements and sharing the headline in the context of the mass school shooting at Uvalde, Texas.
  • In comparison, The Onion first used the “‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens” headline on social media in their The Onion Review — Week Of May 30, 2014 video on YouTube getting just 636 engagements. 
  • There can be a high correlation on social media, between school shootings occurring and gun control being discussed. For example on May 25, 2022 , the day after the Uvalde Texas school mass shooting, there were 591,058 Tweets mentioning a School Shooting and 610,625 Tweets mentioning Gun Control. On February 15, 2018, the day after the Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting in Parkland, Florida there were 755,796 Tweets mentioning a School Shooting and 349,461 Tweets mentioning Gun Control. On December 14, 2012, the day of the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting there were 472,732 Tweets mentioning a School Shooting and 287,628 Tweets mentioning Gun Control.
2022 Tweets represent the time period of January through May, 2022. 
  • Not even halfway through 2022, there have already been more Tweets mentioning a school shooting this year than in any year since 2018. The Twitter conversation around both School Shooting and around Gun Control peaked in 2018, around the Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting most specifically.

Conclusion 

It does not appear the increased engagement around The Onion’s “‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens” represents a larger audience interest in legislative reform around gun control. While there does appear to be a significant correlation between school shootings and gun control being discussed on social media, there was the most social conversation around both topics in 2018. That’s despite Uvalde, Texas being the deadliest school shooting since Sandy Hook in 2012.   

Based on the social data at least, what happened in Uvalde, Texas is not going to be the tipping point for change, leading unfortunately to even more opportunities for The Onion to share the exact same headline in the future. If anything, the social media reaction to Uvalde indicates a new level of tolerance for violence in America.  

ListenFirst Announces Support For Google Data Studio

Google Data Studio Connector

Social media analytics data from ListenFirst, including proprietary metrics can now be accessed directly from the Google Data Studio dashboard. 

NEW YORK – March 24, 2022 –  ListenFirst, the premier enterprise social analytics solution, today announced the launch of Business Intelligence (BI) Connector for Google Data Studio (GDS), providing their customers with an interface to connect directly to the ListenFirst API and access data on-demand within their Google Data Studio dashboard. This new feature introduces codeless integration and enables ListenFirst customers to create a multitude of data visualizations by manipulating and layering different social media insights within Google Data Studio’s chart/control types and customizations. These visualizations help marketers gain a deeper understanding of their return on investment per project enabling them to make informed decisions about future investments.

Available as a Partner Connector within the Google Data Studio Connectors page, ListenFirst’s BI Connector for Google Data Studio creates a quicker, more seamless way to get bulk selection of data without needing frontend access. Reporting cycles are readily available in GDS by utilizing dynamic date ranges to automatically refresh the latest insights in the desired date range and parameters.

“For ListenFirst customers looking to use data for visual storytelling, we couldn’t be more excited about what the BI Connector for Google Data Studio unlocks,” explains Jonathan Farb, Chief Product Officer. “Not only will users be able to conduct cross data source analysis, ad hoc / on-demand reporting, advanced charting, and data visualization, but Google Data Studio is completely free, meaning everyone with ListenFirst API access can take advantage of it.”

Through the BI Connector for Google Data Studio, social analytics insights from ListenFirst can also be published side by side with critical business data points from other sources in GDS, turning complex, data driven intelligence into easy to understand visualizations.