# Free Social Listening Tool: Track Brand Mentions

> Free social listening tool. Track brand mentions, competitors and hashtags across X, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and news, with volume, themes and sentiment in 30 seconds.

Canonical: https://www.getsift.ai/tools/social-listening/

## Free social listening tool

Track brand mentions, competitors and hashtags across X, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and news.

Type a keyword and get a social listening report in about 30 seconds. It shows mention volume, engagement, the topics people talk about and how they feel, with the top posts.

- Brand monitoring
- Competitor tracking
- Campaign buzz
- Hashtag tracking
- Sentiment analysis

[Example, Starbucks, last 7 days Real data **15k** posts on X **914k** engagements **-2** net sentiment Posts on X per day Holiday menu launch positive Boycott and union protest negative Barista life negative Company turnaround and layoffs neutral **@kaithannas**, TikTok, 202k engagements one more sleep until starbucks holiday drinks are back!!! 🎄☕️ counting down to the return of the starbucks christmas menu and the start of the holiday coffee season! @Starbucks #christmascoffee #starbucksholidaydrinks #christmascountdown #holidayseason #christmas2026 Open the full example →Themes, every post, CSV](https://www.getsift.ai/tools/report/?example=starbucks)

Searching About 30 seconds

Each channel fills in as it answers.

## How it works

**01**

### Type a keyword

A brand, product, campaign or hashtag. Add up to three.

**02**

### We read the public posts

Every matching post on X is counted. The most engaged posts from each channel are sorted into themes and sentiment.

**03**

### Open your report

Volume by day, themes, top posts and a CSV, with a link you can share.

## What is social listening?

Social listening means tracking what people post about a brand, product or topic, then reading those posts for patterns: how much people post, which topics come up, and how they feel. It differs from social monitoring, which mostly counts mentions. Listening also tells you why the number moved.

This free social listening tool runs a one-time check across X, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and news for the last 7 or 30 days.

## What you can do with it

**Monitor your brand**

See how many people mention you, where, and whether the tone is shifting.

**Track competitors**

Run a competitor's name, or compare up to four brands with [share of voice](https://www.getsift.ai/tools/share-of-voice/).

**Measure a campaign**

Check the buzz around a launch, a hashtag or an ad in its first week.

**Find what to post about**

The themes show what your audience cares about this week.

## How the report works

We count every public post on X that matches your keyword, so the volume and the daily chart are exact. Then we read the most engaged posts from each channel. An AI model groups them into themes and labels each one positive, neutral or negative. Posts about something else with a similar name are dropped.

Engagements are likes, comments, shares, reposts and quotes. The CSV includes every post the report read, with its link, author, theme and sentiment.

## Free tool vs a full platform

The free report is a snapshot. A social listening platform like Sift runs the same agents all day on your own channels and keywords. It answers the posts that need a reply and alerts you when a topic starts to grow. It also writes the weekly report for you.

## Questions

### Is this social listening tool free?

Yes. You need a work email to open the report, so we can send you the link. There is no trial and no credit card.

### Which channels does it search?

Public posts on X, TikTok, YouTube and Instagram, plus news articles, for up to 3 keywords over the last 7 or 30 days.

### How many posts does it read?

It counts every matching post on X, so the volume is exact. It reads the most engaged posts from each channel, up to about 320, to find themes and sentiment.

### What counts as an engagement?

Likes, comments, shares, reposts and quotes. Views are counted separately.

### Is my report public?

No. Report links are unlisted and search engines do not index them. Anyone you share the link with can open it.

### How is this different from Sift?

The free report is a one-time snapshot. Sift runs the same agents all day on your own channels, answers the posts that need a reply and tells you when a topic starts to grow.