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Social Listening 

and Monitoring Tools

COVID-19 Vaccine Confidence: Rapid Community Assessment Tool

U.S. Department of

Health and Human Services

Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention
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These tools can be used to collect data from social and traditional 

media platforms to track online discussions, trends, and sentiments 

about a topic. It is useful for understanding the information 

landscape (including misinformation) and concerns and attitudes of 

your community of focus. 

 Steps for Conducting Effective Social Listening

1. Identify existing monitoring tools:

Your organization may have existing tools available to conduct social listening. If your organization has social media 

accounts, platforms such as Twitter and Facebook have some level of built-in analytics that are quick and easy to gather. 

An organization’s website is another valuable resource that can provide insight about audience use and habits. If your 

organization has a hotline where people can submit questions, a quick scan of call logs could also help you understand 

concerns and questions of your community of focus.

2. Set up a social and traditional media monitoring system:

You can sign up for many free monitoring tools for tracking social and traditional media. Develop Boolean search queries, 

which are a type of search allowing users to combine key words with operators (or modifiers) such as AND, NOT, and OR 

to further produce more relevant results. Use these queries on each platform. For example, to understand questions about 

whether people know where to get vaccinated, you can search for “COVID vaccine” and “where.” The search queries 

should be informed by the assessment’s research questions and should be specific to your community or geographic 

location of interest (see below).

3. Check your monitoring tools regularly:

A dedicated team member should log into all monitoring tools at regularly scheduled time points (e.g., once a day) and 

gather social listening data. If available and needed, use the filtering feature in your monitoring tool to focus on a specific 

location or language. Use content themes provided below to keep track of what you are seeing on different platforms.

 4. Analyze and develop insights:

Answering the questions below can be a good start. Develop integrated insights by considering findings from other data 

collection activities. 

• What questions are people asking about COVID-19 vaccination?

• What are people’s attitudes and emotions that may be linked to vaccination behavior?

• What rumors or misinformation are circulating and how quickly are they spreading?

• What overarching themes and narratives--beyond individual pieces of content--emerge from widely circulated rumors

and misinformation?

• How are people responding to and interpreting vaccine-related communication from public health authorities?

6. Report out on a regular basis:

The insights you develop from social listening should be shared with your assessment team and other stakeholders. 

See the template you can use to report findings on the following page.
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MONITORING 

TOOL NAME

COST?

(AMOUNT $)

COVERED

PLATFORMS

COVERS 

TRADITIONAL 

MEDIA? (Y/N)

SEARCH 

CAPABILITIES

Google Alerts Free

Web content (e.g., 

web pages, forums, 

blogs, news sites, 

YouTube) but not 

social media content

Yes Key words

Hootesuite Insights Paid 

(free demo available)

Twitter, Facebook, 

Instagram, Reddit, 

Tumblr, and more

No Key words, hashtags

CrowdTangle

Free 

(with paid features)

Facebook, 

Instagram, Reddit Yes Key words, hashtags

TweetDeck Free Twitter Yes

Hashtag, key words, 

Boolean search 

capability

Social Mention Free

Twitter, Facebook, 

FriendFeed, YouTube, 

Digg, Google, etc.

No

Talkwalker Alerts Free

Blogs, websites, 

forums, and 

social media

No

Meltwater Paid 

(free demo available)

Online news, social 

media, print, 

broadcast, podcast

Yes Boolean 

search capability

7. Ensuring continuity and understanding trends:

 One of the strengths of social listening is being able to assess trends over time (e.g., how people’s concerns change, 

how misinformation mutates). Steps 3-5 should be repeated regularly throughout the course of COVID-19 vaccine 

distribution in your community, beyond the three-week assessment time frame if possible. Once you establish a sociallistening system and regular reporting rhythm, it should be less resource-intensive to continue these activities long term. 

If your organization hasn’t already incorporated social listening into its long-term activities or goals, this might be a useful 

strategy to adopt.

Social Media Monitoring Tools

A host of social media monitoring tools, both free and paid, are available to help organizations in conducting 

social listening. Some key benefits of using a social media monitoring tool or software include: 

Table 3

Social Listening Tools
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Platform Analytics

The insights you develop from social listening should be shared with your assessment team and other stakeholders. 

See below for a template you can use to report findings.

Twitter

Twitter is one of the easiest platforms to monitor but be sure the relevant conversations are happening there. Twitter is 

often used to identify breaking news. Twitter has an advanced search option, which gives an easy interface to make very 

specific queries, such as only searching for tweets from or to specific accounts, during certain time periods, or containing 

particular types of content, such as videos or links.

Facebook and Instagram

Facebook’s native search includes a host of filters, including the ability to search for public posts in public groups and 

pages, for example. You can also search by date and by tagged location, as well as by media type, such as videos, 

photos, or livestreams. 

TikTok

Tiktok allows you to easily see the current most popular hashtags simply by pressing the discover icon on the bottom of 

your screen. You can start searching for a key word at the top of the page. After you enter the key word, TikTok will give 

you different tabs.

WhatsApp

WhatsApp is the most popular messaging app globally, and its group chat function is well-suited to amplifying the impact 

of information, but closed chat groups are difficult to monitor. However, you can join some groups through publicly 

available invitation links, which you can find by searching for “chat.whatsapp.com” on Google. So

Google Trends

Google trends tracks the volume of searches for certain key words on several channels, including general web, image 

search, News search, and YouTube. It can compare results for different key words (up to 15). Results can be filtered by 

time, geography, or even related queries. It can help in signal detection and tracking of conversational shifts.

MONITORING 

TOOL NAME

COST?

(AMOUNT $)

COVERED

PLATFORMS

COVERS 

TRADITIONAL 

MEDIA? (Y/N)

SEARCH 

CAPABILITIES

Cision

Paid

(free demo available)

Online news, 

all social media, 

print, broadcast, 

podcast, radio

Yes Boolean 

search capability

Awario Paid

Facebook, Twitter, 

Instagram, YouTube, 

Reddit, news, blogs

Yes Boolean

search capability

TVEyes Paid 

(free trial available) Television and radio Yes
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Choosing Key Words, Building Boolean Search Queries

On many online platforms, Boolean search operators can be used to refine what you are looking for: 

• AND: return results with all specified terms

• OR: return results with any specified terms

• NOT: return results without specified terms

• “ ”: return results with the exact phrase contained in quotation marks

• ( ): group the terms in parentheses to clarify search strings with multiple operators

Example Search String for COVID-19 Vaccination:

• Vaccine AND (covid-19 OR covid OR coronavirus OR corona)

• (vaccine OR vaccination OR vaccines OR immunization OR immunizations OR immunize)

• AND (pfizer OR astrazeneca OR moderna OR oxford) AND (california OR cali OR ca)

Reporting Findings of Social Media Monitoring 

An important step in the social listening process is reporting the findings. Compile results of your organization’s 

social media listening activities into a report that is easy to read and comprehend. Reports should include key 

findings, emerging trends, and results-driven recommendations to improve your organization’s strategies. 

Reports should be compiled daily, weekly, and monthly depending on organizational need and can range from 

a simple one-pager of key highlights to multiple pages focused on each social platform. The template below for 

reporting findings of social listening activities is customizable and should be adjusted to organization need.

TITLE:

COVID-19 Social Listening Insights [LOCATION]: 

Weekly Update Report: [Insert MM.DD.YYYY] 

Introduction

Input information about your report’s intended goal, your target audience, methods used to conduct social and traditional 

media monitoring, and success metrics to provide context for your reader. 

Profiles Discussed in the Report

First, identify which social profiles you are tracking and measuring, as this will guide what report sections are included. 

Primary Cross-Channel Metrics

Begin the report with the primary takeaway or key findings, followed by overall metrics across channels to provide a 

snapshot of the social listening space. 
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Boolean Search Queries

*Standard metrics used to gauge engagement include likes,

comments, social shares, saved items, click-throughs, or retweets.

[Insert graphic from cross-channel report]

Include overall key findings from daily, weekly or monthly report.

KEY PERFORMANCE 

INDICATORS RESULTS

Total Engagement*

Total Posts

Total Audience

PLATFORM TOP THEMES FROM 

CURRENT WEEK

TOP THEMES FROM 

PREVIOUS WEEK

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

Top Social Media Themes, Week of [Insert MM.DD.YYYY] 
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Include one to three bullets summarizing emerging themes from each week to help readers see changes across time.

The themes highlighted will depend on programmatic goals and interest. Some example themes to screen for 

include, but are not limited to: 

• COVID-19 risk perception

• COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, demand, or uptake, motivation for and against vaccination (safety 

 issues, access, etc.

• Discussions on emotions about vaccination (e.g., anger, sadness, happiness, uncertainty, etc.)

• Prevailing social norms in target community

Facebook

[Description of Facebook strategy and high-level results]

Top 3 topics/comments/user questions on COVID-19 vaccination this week

• [Insert your audience’s top topic, comments, or questions asked on Facebook platform]

• [Insert your audience’s second topic, comments, or questions asked on Facebook platform]

• [Insert your audience’s third topic, comments, or questions on Facebook platform]

Audience Demographic

• [Insert breakdown of audience interacting with your content.]

TOTAL ENGAGEMENT RESULTS

TOTAL VIEWS

PAGE IMPRESSIONS

TOTAL REACH

Primary 

Facebook Metrics

 [DAY/WEEK/MONTH]: 

[Alternatively,	or	in	addition	to	the	table,	insert	graphic	showing	

total	engagement,	reach,	and	impressions	over	time]
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Top Users and Posts This Week [Insert MM.DD.YYYY] 

Top Users and Posts From Previous Week [Insert MM.DD.YYYY] 

POSTS RETWEETS CLICKS MENTIONS TOTAL 

ENGAGEMENT

MOST REACH

MOST SHARED

POSTS RETWEETS CLICKS MENTIONS TOTAL

ENGAGEMENT

MOST REACH

MOST SHARED

Traditional Media

Key Findings

Begin the report with the week’s overall key findings. This can include one of the week’s most impactful stories with high 

social engagement covered in your regional, state, and local print or broadcast media. 

Media Landscape

This section should display the breakdown of COVID-19-specific coverage against all other coverage in your region, 

state, or local community, if provided by your social listening tool. 

Most Shared Articles Published This Week

[Include a blurb summarizing the emerging themes of the most-shared articles.]

Discussion Boards, Forums, Blogs

[Include a blurb summarizing the emerging themes of discussion boards, forums, blogs.]
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[Accompany the graphics with a box 

showing any changes in coverage 

from a previous week. This will clearly 

identify what topics are dominating 

traditional media space]

(e.g., general vaccination, access to vaccination, social 

norms, hesitancy, cultural factors influencing vaccination, 

adverse effects, etc.) Include overall key findings from daily, 

weekly or monthly report.

Coverage Topics by Category This Week

Top Topics Covered in Discussion Boards, Forums, and Blogs 

[DAY/WEEK/MONTH] 

TOP TOPIC RELEVANT COMMENTS

[Insert discussion board 

tracked by your organization]

[Insert discussion board 

tracked by your organization]

[Insert discussion board 

tracked by your organization]