Measure & Improve Your Share Of Voice

Tracking your Share of Voice is one of the best ways to accurately measure how your business is performing on social media. It gives you the overall positioning of your brand at a high level and gives you the opportunity to track which campaigns, products, and launches perform well across all of your social channels.

This report will teach you how to measure your market share effectively, understand your competition’s position (and what is and isn’t working well for them), and use this information to inform your social strategy moving forward.

Using Competitive Information to Plan Seasonal Campaigns Webinar

The combination of your historical campaign performance, competitor intel, and what consumers are saying can provide 360-degree insight into what elements of a social campaign have been successes and failures in the past.

Collecting these insights allows your campaign to be data-backed and sets you up for success in the following areas:

Measuring your own successes/failures from prior years
The industry leaders from prior years – what worked/didn’t
What general consumers are talking about
Potential influencer partnerships

Measuring the Brand Impact of Influencers Webinar

Influencer marketing has moved from the latest social media trend to a key budget item in advertisers’ social media plans. While the need to effectively analyze the full impact of this investment has never been greater, measuring success is a challenge. Is the impact of influencers for product placements, public appearances and sponsorships working?

5 Social Insights Marketers Need To Know About Holiday Movie Season

With Wonder Woman 1984 the only major new release with a possibility of being released into theaters in 2020, it’s safe to say that the holiday movie season is looking unrecognizable compared to past years. Almost every big budget film has either been pushed into next year or is debuting on a streaming service, and the social media conversation around movies is evolving as well. To help film marketers navigate the new normal, here are 5 social media facts you need to know.

Insight #1. There Is More Social Media Interest Around Film During The Pandemic

Even with most scheduled new releases delayed, the social media conversation around movies has actually increased during the Fall. There have been 69,152,194 Tweets mentioning Movie or Film between September 1- November 15, 2020, a 31% increase from the 52,680,727 Tweets that mentioned Movie or Film during September 1- November 15, 2019. Just because the audience has been dealing with the pandemic, the elections, and isn’t currently comfortable physically going into movie theaters, doesn’t mean they’re any less interested in watching or talking about movies.

Insight #2. The Real Time Conversation Around Movies On Streamers Is Way Up This Fall  

Between September 1 – November 15, 2020, there were 1,471,989 Tweets that mentioned Netflix and either the word Movie or Film, a 160% increase from the volume of such Tweets between September 1 – November 15, 2019. Similarly in the same time period, there were 111,449 Tweets mentioning Hulu and the word either Movie or Film, a 361% increase; while there were 85,394 Tweets mentioning Amazon Prime Video and either Movie or Film, a 160% increase compared to September 1 – November 15, 2019.  With people’s entertainment options more limited during the pandemic, movies on major streaming services are getting a lot more social media attention. 

Insight #3. Gently Used Content On Netflix A Conversation Starter On Social 

Between November 1-15, 2020, Knock Knock had a ListenFirst Interest score of 655,997 (Wikipedia page views and hashtag & handle mentions on Twitter), the most of any movie during that time period. Knock Knock is a low budget Keanu Reeves horror movie that originally was released in 2015 but is finding a new audience after being released on Netflix. With major new releases, either in theaters or on streaming, few and far between during the pandemic, “new to me on Netflix” is as big a conversation driver on social media as anything else. 

Insight #4. Netflix Is The Streaming Platform With The Most Rewatch Conversation On Social… But With A Catch

There were 22,978 Tweets that mentioned both Netflix and a Rewatch between September 1- November 15, 2020; which by far was the most Rewatch social media conversation around a streaming site. In comparison during the same time period, Disney+ was mentioned in 3,282 Rewatch related Tweets and HBO Max was mentioned in 2,877 Rewatch related Tweets.  However, the Rewatch conversation around streamers is primarily on the television side. For example of the 50 Netflix Tweets mentioning a Rewatch that generated the most responses, only 9 of them mentioned movies, with far more often the Tweet being about a TV series.  

Insight #5. Streaming Movies Can Still Provide Moments That Go Viral On Social Media 

https://twitter.com/SeanPenn/status/1320911354203570179

While films that debut on streaming platforms don’t traditionally have the marketing budget of tentpole theatrical releases, streaming first movies are still creating water cooler discussions on social media. For example, between October 21-27, 2020, there were 294,584 Tweets mentioning both Borat and Rudy Giuliani around the climatic scene in Amazon Prime Video’s movie, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm; including celebrities such as as Mark Hamill, Ice T, and Sean Penn weighing in. As more high profile projects begin to debut on streaming services, expect the social media conversation around film to increase as well.

Want more insights into how ListenFirst can help navigate the social media conversation around movies? Request a demo today! 

5 Social Media Takeaways Around Brands Posting About #BlackLivesMatter

If talking about systemic racism was easy it wouldn’t be so necessary, and unfortunately what the murder of George Floyd illustrated, is that these problems will remain life and death for people of color if they continue to be swept under the rug. For brands, that creates a balancing act. It’s imperative that brands speak up about social injustice, but there’s still apprehension about not adequately being able to convey empathy, often because brands have fallen short in the past.  

This is not a topic that lends itself to easy answers but that said, two weeks after the tragic death of Floyd, ListenFirst has dug into both the brand response around the protests and insights about what’s connecting most with the audience.  

Here’s what we found. 

S&P 500 Brands That Generated The Most Social Media Responses Around Their #BlackLivesMatter Related Posts 

RankBrandAverage Responses# Of Posts
1Nike1,924,5373
2Netflix1,063,4742
3Franklin Templeton Investments74,8996
4Target67,9593
5Facebook63,30110
6Starbucks56,26610
7Ulta Beauty39,6166
8Harley-Davidson31,8193
9Amazon28,4357
10The Walt Disney Company27,9421
Methodology: Looks at the average numbers of social media content responses on posts by S&P 500 Brands that discussed #BlackLivesMatter, George Floyd, or racism in general between March 25 – June 7, 2020. ListenFirst Content Responses measure the Likes, Shares, Comments, and Retweets a post gets on Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter, and YouTube.

Insight #1. Brand Equity Around Social Justice Is Something Built Over Time  

Looking at the last two weeks, Nike shared 3 posts relating to #BlackLivesMatter on social, which averaged 1,924,537 responses, which by far was the highest average for any S&P 500 brand of their #BlackLivesMatter related social media posts during that time period. Their messaging emphasized that you shouldn’t turn your back on racism, and it was far from a coincidence their brand messaging is what resonated most on the topic. Nike had already had a campaign featuring Colin Kaepernick, who is the athlete most associated with the fight against police brutality back in 2018, and has long been a brand that has publicly advocated for social justice issues.

The audience isn’t looking for brand tourists around causes, and if you want your brand to connect on social media around social justice advocacy, that equity needs to be built up over time, and can’t be earned by a standalone Tweet or Facebook update. 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CAygJoHABcX/


Insight #2: Advertisers Were Participating In #BlackOutTuesday More Than You Might Think 


There’s been a robust debate over if  #BlackOutTuesday — where people and brands in solidarity with black people posted a black square on their social media accounts — was helpful or counter productive. ListenFirst data can confirm that brands were more involved with the initiative than just sharing black squares. Of 1,821 brands with Facebook ad accounts, only 1.4% ran a Facebook or Instagram ad on June 2, 2020 for a total of 240 ads on #BlackOutTuesday. That’s a decrease of -76.92%, compared to the average volume of Facebook and Instagram ads that have run during the previous Tuesdays in 2020. Additionally, there were 703 social media posts shared by S&P 500 brands on June 2, 2020; which is -51.52% less posts than S&P 500 shared on the previous 10 Tuesdays when S&P 500 brands shared on average 1,450 posts.

Both around paid and owned posts, most brands made a concerted effort to sit out June 2 on social media. 

Insight #3: The Audience Responds Positively To More Specific And Forceful Messaging 

While many brands shared messaging that had a general call to end racism, Ben & Jerry’s not only called out what had happened, but also what needed to be done in much more specific terms. The brand’s post about police brutality and dismantling white supremacy generated 355,246 responses across Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. To put that in perspective, of all the social media posts that CPG food brands posted between May 25–Jun 3, the three posts that generated the most responses during that time period were the George Floyd related posts by Ben & Jerry.

Ben & Jerry’s, which like Nike has built a multi-decade reputation as a leader on social justice issues, shows us that the audience wants brands to go beyond joining the conversation. They want brands to participate in what it will actually take to fix systemic racism. 


Insight #4: The Audience Wants Brands To Put Their Money Where Their Mouth Is 

The most popular Black Lives Matter related Tweet posted on #BlackOutTuesday (including non-brand Tweets) came from Ubisoft, who announced that it was donating $100,000 to the NAACP and Black Lives Matter. That Tweet generated 30,713 responses. Similarly, Glossier donated $500K across organizations focusing on racial injustice and the Instagram post announcing that generated 160,729 responses, making it the most popular Black Lives Matter related social media post by a beauty brand between Mar 25 –Jun 3.

Donating money to social justice organizations doesn’t make brands immune from criticism if they’ve historically made mistakes, but it does show your brand’s commitment to building a better future and is quantifiably appreciated by the audience.  


Insight #5: Representation Matters And Brands Need To Show That’s Occurring At The Leadership Level 

Ulta Beauty averaged 39,616 responses around its 6 social media posts touching on Black Lives Matter related topics between Mar 25–Jun 7, and one of the big reasons they stood is because of how directly they spoke to representation. In one Instagram post, Ulta Beauty itemized, by percentage, how many Black board members and executives it has, along with the number of black corporate associates, people of color and women employed by the company. Meanwhile in another Instagram post, Ulta Beauty shared its list of black owned Beauty brands.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CBEKukOnGWt/

How minorities are treated is directly related to the extent that they have a seat at the table, and the social media audience wants to hear both about how your brand is doing about representation and what the plans are to improve those numbers.