Social listening is helping businesses take the pulse of their consumers and make faster marketing decisions during the pandemic. It’s still not a perfect analytics tool, but right now the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.

On today's episode, we discuss emerging podcast sub-worlds, how listener behavior has (permanently?) changed, and how the ad dollars are fairing. We then talk about what we expect from Twitter's Ticketed Spaces, what is going on in the world of print, and how Americans get their news on social media. Tune in to the discussion with eMarketer senior forecasting analyst at Insider Intelligence Peter Vahle.

Clubhouse has buzz, but social audio isn’t as simple as it looks. The most promising marketing use cases are for thought leadership, virtual events, and influencer marketing.

But for those that want to do corporate social responsibility and cause-marketing right, there has to an authentic connection between the social issue and brand. And more importantly, consistent action must be tied to the words.

Marketers have long turned to social media to hear and respond to what people are saying, gauge sentiment, and inform and support their team's marketing strategy. But the coronavirus pandemic has put fresh emphasis on the practice known as social listening.

We spoke with Brian Wright, social media listening and intelligence leader at Wells Fargo, about strategy, technology and measuring ROI.

The pandemic has sparked new use cases for social listening, an underutilized tool in marketers' work belts. But some brands, like Johnsonville Sausage, were already well-acquainted with the concept. Stephanie Dlugopolski, the company's senior manager of PR and social media, said her team has utilized social listening for nearly a decade. It has allowed them to not only monitor conversations about the brand, but also see how consumers react to larger issues.

The excitement over social audio is palpable, judging by the number of companies building out apps or features to support it, and by the number of news reports and opinion columns covering it (our own “Clubhouse and Social Audio 2021” report included). But any marketer that’s active in social media should weigh the drawbacks of entering social audio right now. Here are some key issues to consider before jumping on board.

As such, understanding memes can be part of social listening—a tactic which has seen a resurgence due to the pandemic. According to a March 2020 survey by Gartner, for instance, 51% of marketing leaders worldwide said they were using social listening platforms to understand consumers’ changing preferences during the pandemic.

Jürgen Stackmann, member of the board of management at Volkswagen passenger cars for sales, marketing and after sales, speaks with eMarketer vice president of business development Marissa Coslov about the automaker’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, the importance of social listening and more.

Chipotle, one of the first companies to take the plunge into TikTok, uses social listening to monitor “@chipotle mentions and #chipotle to find new creator content about our brand,” said Candice Beck, senior manager of social and digital at the fast-casual restaurant chain.

eMarketer forecasting analyst at Insider Intelligence Peter Vahle discusses the latest podcast deals and what the mean, how listenership is changing, and the state of podcast advertising. He then talks about the recent Unity and Snap mobile gaming partnership, YouTube's 15-second audio ads, and which sports Americans are currently most comfortable attending in-person.

Snapchat Trends is a public social listening tool where users and advertisers can see and search for trending keywords, products, or topics among Snapchat users. Results are based on public Stories posted over the previous 30 to 90 days and are available in the US, Canada, UK, and Australia.

One way that brand marketers can understand their audience and prospects is by listening to what they’re saying on social networks. eMarketer predicts that social network users will top 216 million in the US this year, accounting for 73% (or nearly three out of four) of internet users.

We also use memes for social listening as a way to unlock new insights. Who’s responsible for creating the memes you use on social media? Our in-house team works hand in hand with our social media agency, Day One Agency, to create original memes or repurpose meme content in a way that’s specific to Chipotle.

Spirits maker Pernod Ricard used social listening in short-video apps to not only spot the trend, but also discover that users were making “boozy” versions. That led the marketer to develop a series of social media posts (distributed on platforms other than TikTok due to users’ ages) that highlighted how its brand Kahlúa paired well with the whipped coffee drink.

Using social listening, KitchenAid and its agency Digitas discovered that some people were using social media during the pandemic to share how they were using stand mixers and other implements to make things like bread, pasta, and cookies. The marketer also learned that there was an increase in the number of people who wanted to learn more about cooking.

Our weekly review of the most intriguing stories covers Facebook’s cryptocurrency project, Spotify’s plan to target ads based on podcast listening and viewership metrics of the NBA Finals. We also delve into the digital ad industry’s latest steps to promote brand safety, and we bring you the game of the week, useless dinner party data and more! Host Marcus Johnson leads the conversation with eMarketer principal analyst Nicole Perrin and vice president of multimedia Paul Verna.

eMarketer principal analysts Mark Dolliver and Nicole Perrin, along with junior analyst Blake Droesch, discuss the latest EU ruling against Facebook, whether our phones are listening to us, Uber’s new jobs app and more.

Social network ad spending has substantially rebounded since the early days of the pandemic. In 2021, the biggest issues social media marketers will face are in the areas of brand safety, ethics, and privacy.