Talkwalker is a social listening platform that allows brands to monitor public social conversations. The key word here is public, as Talkwalker can only monitor what the platforms allow it to. These permissions and the connection to the social media channels are by using an API (application programming interface). Think of an API as a two-way street; data is exchanged from one end to the next. Talkwalker and similar platforms are commonly used by large brands, government agencies, and advertising agencies to hone in on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, blogs, etc., and figure out what conversations are happening that might impact or influence public opinion. The Talkwalker IQ apps below are the easiest way to dive into Talkwalker and start monitoring. If you want a more custom experience, continue reading below.
Talkwalker offers a suite of IQ Tools with pre-built data layouts to simplify monitoring.
Talkwalker Brand Tools
One of the best ways to use Talkwalker is by building dashboards. These custom dashboards allow you to organize and customize what data you want to monitor and how it should be displayed. Here are some of my favorites I later mix and match on dashboards.
Talkwalker Public Channel Analytics
Channel Analytics
The channel analytics tools monitor your owned channels and competitors. In the image above, I am comparing Florida universities on Instagram. How much are they posting? How does their user engagement compare? The best part is clicking on each and seeing the actual posts. Now beware of how you use this information, be careful not to fall into the trap of trying to match and do whatever your competitor is doing. Look at the other data presented and find out if their efforts are truly paying off or not.
Talkwalker Share of Voice, Share of Engagement, and Sentiment
Share of Voice, Share of Engagement, and Sentiment
Share of Voice, Engagement, and Sentiment provide rich data on how you measure up against competitors in content and engagement and what sentiment these provoke in your audiences. Knowing this information lets you preview how your audience might react to content and better plan your social strategy.
Talkwalker IQ Tools Brand Listening – Influencers
IQ Tools Brand Listening – Influencers
This widget tells you what authors and websites impact your conversation most. It goes beyond social platforms and scans the web for relevant websites mentioning your brand. Keeping a close eye on these authors is crucial for brand health, as opinions come in various flavors and can lift your brand or cause damage.
Beware
Social listening has its downsides as well. Most of the data coming into Talkwalker is through Twitter, whose platform has a very open API, allowing Talkwalker to scan easily since most users are public. Platforms like Instagram and Facebook are more challenging to listen to because their API is not as open as Twitter, and a higher percentage of users are set to private. Additionally, LinkedIn does not come through often on Talkwalker, so in the end, you will not get a full picture of the whole conversation but will get a fairly large piece of the larger conversation across other platforms. I recommend this platform, but it’s crucial to set expectations early.