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A social listening report helps you analyze conversations happening around your brand, industry, or specific keywords across social media. With the Listener report, you can measure the overall results of a listener, its possible impressions, and the sentiment of the conversation around it.
How to run a listener report
Here's how to run the report and read each section.
- You can immediately see the overall performance of your listeners when you go to the Listening section.
- To run a report from the Reports section, go to Reports → Listener report.
- Choose a listener from the Select listener dropdown. The report loads right away.
- At the top right, you can select a custom template you’ve created for this report type, adjust the date range and date of comparison, refresh the report data, or export the report using different options. Learn more in Getting started with Reports.
Metrics provided in the listener report
Summary metrics
These appear at the top of the report as stat cards: Total signals, Mentions, Trends matched, News articles, Sources reporting, Peak day, and Alerts fired.
Each metric also shows a percentage change compared to the previous period.
Mention quality
Located on the right side of the summary section, this panel breaks down the reach and tone of mentions:
- Possible impressions: estimated reach of all mentions combined
- Unique authors: unique voices contributing to the conversation
- Positive sentiment: percentage of mentions with a positive tone
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Note Impressions are only available for X, YouTube, and Reddit. |
AI summary
Below the summary stats, Vista Social surfaces an AI-generated insight based on your data. This includes:
- A summary of what the data shows (e.g. low engagement across platforms, dominant source networks)
- Bullet-point highlights with key numbers
- Suggested actions: clickable next steps based on the insight (e.g. "Reassess keyword strategy", "Explore new platforms for outreach")
The insight is generated automatically and updates when you refresh the report.
Activity pulse
A bar chart showing daily mention activity over the selected period. It tracks these signals:
- Mentions: keyword mentions per day
- Trend matches: days where content aligned with trending topics
- News: news coverage hits
- Alerts fired: days when your listener alerts were triggered
Use this chart to identify spikes and correlate them with real-world events or campaign activity.
Sentiment trajectory
A stacked area chart that shows how conversation tone shifted day by day. Sentiment categories:
- Positive: favorable mentions
- Neutral: factual or non-expressive mentions
- Mixed: mentions with both positive and negative signals
- Negative: unfavorable mentions
This helps you spot sentiment shifts tied to specific dates or announcements.
Top authors
A ranked list of the most active voices in your listening stream. Each entry shows:
- Author name and platform (e.g. Instagram)
- Last seen date
- Message count (MSGS) with a sentiment bar indicator
Use this to identify your most engaged community members, advocates, or critics.
Top signals
The strongest trends matched in the selected period, ranked by a composite score. Use it to see which topics are driving the conversation around your keywords.
Source breakdown
Shows where signals are coming from across social networks, trend platforms, and news, so you can see which channels matter most for this listener.
Source mix over time
A stacked area chart showing the share of mentions per network, normalized to 100% per day. The networks shown depend on where your listener found mentions.
This view helps you understand where the conversation is happening and whether your keyword reach is concentrated on one platform or distributed across several.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What are Listener Impressions in Vista Social?
A: They’re based on the follower count of the author of posts that contained your listening keyword(s). This shows how many times audiences could have seen those messages. (Available for X, YouTube, and Reddit.)
Need help?
Reach out to our support team, and we are happy to help.
Related Reading:
Social Listening with Vista Social
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