TikTok social listening strategies every brand needs in 2025

TikTok social listening is becoming a must-have for brands today. With the platform driving chart-topping songs, viral products and culture-shaping memes, listening reveals the trends and audience conversations you should pay attention to.

According to our Q2 2025 Pulse Survey, more than half of consumers (52%) use TikTok. That number jumps to 76% for Gen Z. With its endless stream of posts and interactions, TikTok is a goldmine for marketers who want to tap into what their audience cares about most.

But collecting data is only the first step. The real challenge is analyzing and interpreting it, and then connecting those insights to tangible business outcomes.

In this article, we’ll break down what TikTok social listening is, why it’s critical for your brand and how Sprout Social enables you to turn TikTok chatter into actionable insights that fuel your brand success.

What is TikTok social listening?

TikTok social listening is the practice of collecting and analyzing TikTok conversations (posts, comments, hashtags, trending sounds and more) to uncover useful findings.

While basic monitoring might track hashtags or direct mentions of your brand, social listening goes deeper. It spots patterns in the topics, formats and cultural moments your audience engages with.

For example, a skincare brand might use social listening to track direct mentions as well as relevant hashtags like #GRWM, trending sounds in popular beauty videos and viral product reviews to identify new opportunities.

These signals reveal what people really think, feel and expect from your brand—often before they ever tag you directly. Maybe there’s growing buzz around a product feature you haven’t promoted yet. Or an emerging trend that fits your B2B brand’s TikTok voice and audience perfectly. Catching these moments early through social listening enables you to respond quickly, authentically and strategically.

Why TikTok listening is unique

TikTok’s listening landscape is unlike any other network. While Twitter/X is text-driven and Instagram is image-first, TikTok thrives on short-form vertical video paired with sound, which is often the real driver of a trend.

What sets TikTok apart:

• Sound is king. A single audio clip can be remixed into thousands of videos, each with its own twist. Listening allows you to track the engagement and commentary around them to better understand the context.
• Trends move in bursts. A niche marketing meme in “BookTok” might suddenly cross into mainstream culture, or a hyper-local dance challenge could inspire a global movement within days. Listening reveals these shifts before they peak and act on them before your social media competitors do.
• Context matters. Tracking hashtags, captions and comment threads can show whether TikTok audiences are engaging with a trend seriously, ironically or critically.

Hashtags are only half the story. Where TikTok social listening is most impactful is in tracking trends and conversations—and the sentiment behind them—as they unfold.

Why TikTok social listening is critical for your brand

TikTok social listening transforms the platform from a posting channel into a source of business intelligence, helping you stay ahead of trends and closer to your customers.

Spot purchase-driving moments in real time

On TikTok, the path from trend to purchase can be just a few swipes. According to The 2025 Sprout Social Index™, 36% of social media users have made a purchase on TikTok. For Gen Z, that number is even higher. They’re more likely to shop on TikTok than on any other network.

An active TikTok presence puts your brand in front of these potential buyers. But social listening surfaces the trends, opinions and behaviors driving their decisions.

Turn conversations into product and campaign ideas

Social listening works like real-time market research. A viral unboxing video might spark demand for a specific product color, while a trending hashtag could reveal a new use case.

A snack brand noticing repeated requests for a “spicy” version could launch it as a limited edition to meet the hype. Likewise, early chatter about packaging issues gives teams a chance to fix them before they damage brand perception.

Connect TikTok trends to bigger business wins

TikTok moments don’t stay on TikTok. They spill into Google searches, in-store conversations and purchase decisions. Social listening connects these dots, turning viral chatter into a pipeline for marketing campaigns, retail promotions and more.

How to use TikTok listening to fuel brand success

TikTok moves fast, but social listening helps brands move smarter. From spotting the next big trend to crisis management, here are a few unique ways to use social listening to uncover opportunities other brands might miss.

Discover emerging trends

On TikTok, a sound, challenge or aesthetic can go from niche to mainstream in days. Social listening spots those shifts early by filtering through hashtags, captions, comments and trending audio. It highlights what’s gaining traction and puts your brand in the best position to join before everyone else.

For example, Jet2’s catchy jingle, “Nothing beats a Jet2 holiday” became a viral TikTok trend this year, with the audio often used ironically or humorously. At its peak, they launched a TikTok challenge tied to the jingle with a £1,000 travel voucher prize. This allowed them to keep the momentum going and turn the breakout moment into brand engagement.

Whether it’s a fashion brand spotting a rising micro-aesthetic or a food company joining a fresh recipe trend, acting early means more relevance, stronger engagement and a better chance to lead the trend instead of chasing it.

Monitor audience sentiment and brand health

Tracking owned mentions in comments and captions through TikTok social listening gives a real-time read on how people see your brand. It turns that feedback into a clear view of what’s working and what needs improvement.

For example, when Steve Madden went viral after the founder’s candid appearance on The Cutting Room Floor podcast, social listening would have shown how sentiment skewed unexpectedly positive.

While some might have expected backlash to his self-deprecating comments about copying shoe designs, TikTok comments told a different story: respect for his honesty and humor. The surge in positive mentions was matched by a 60% spike in Google searches, a 10% lift in organic site traffic and the brand’s stock reaching its highest level in a year.

Consistently monitoring sentiment like this allows brands to spot when the conversation is turning in their favor—or when it’s heading toward trouble—so they can refine messaging, address issues early and keep overall brand health on track.

Act fast during a crisis

On TikTok, a bad take or a misstep can blow up in hours. Social listening tools are your early alert, flagging negative sentiment in comments, captions and videos before it turns into a full-blown trend for the wrong reasons.

Say a product update drops and suddenly your mentions are full of “don’t buy this” videos. Listening helps you catch it fast, see what people are actually saying and adjust your response so it lands with the right tone.

It also allows you to keep an eye on sentiment after you respond to see if the conversation is cooling down or heating back up. Speed matters on TikTok, and listening keeps you one step ahead.

Connect with niche communities and subcultures

TikTok is a patchwork of niche communities—see: #PerfumeTok, #TravelTok, #NurseTok—each with its own inside jokes, obsessions and trends. Social listening helps brands spot where those conversations are happening and join in authentically.

Take Gap’s recent collaboration with TikTok creator Julia Huynh. Her viral “Hoodies That Hoodie” series chronicled her search for the perfect hoodie, attracting a loyal following of fellow hoodie enthusiasts. Gap’s creative team saw the opportunity, flew Huynh to New York and co-designed a hoodie with her. The finished piece is now available online and in select stores.

By tapping into a niche fashion community and collaborating with a trusted voice, Gap turned a trending conversation into a real product and strengthened its connection with that audience.

Feed audience insights back to the rest of your organization

TikTok listening insights shouldn’t stay in the social team’s corner. The same insights that flag a rising trend can also guide product updates or shape a PR response.

Recurring TikTok questions about a feature could signal your product team to improve it. Positive sentiment spikes around a campaign might give PR fresh angles to pitch. Even sales teams can use listening insights to address objections they see playing out in the comments.

By sharing TikTok listening data across departments, social teams turn social audience insights into company-wide opportunities for growth.

Unlock brand insights on TikTok with Sprout Social

TikTok moves fast. With Sprout Social Listening, your brand moves faster. Sprout’s AI-powered TikTok monitoring tools zero in on the conversations most relevant to your brand, in real time, so there’s space to act before the moment passes. With the ability to process up to 50,000 TikTok posts per second, Sprout keeps opportunities and risks on your radar.

Here’s how Sprout powers TikTok social listening

• Monitor brand mentions. Track mentions in videos, video comments and Spark Ad comments to get a more complete picture of how people are talking about your offers and campaigns.
• Track comments and engagements on your own posts. Smart Inbox pulls video and Spark Ad comments into a centralized feed where your team can reply, like, tag or assign comments directly.

• Spot shifts in audience sentiment at scale. Sprout automatically analyzes the sentiment of all messages in the Smart Inbox, including TikTok. This gives you an early read on brand health to see whether your TikTok engagement is leaning positive, negative or neutral.

• Use automated workflows to stay organized. Apply Automated Rules and Inbox Macros to bulk categorize comments, assign them to the right team member or mark them complete. This step streamlines customer care and ensures critical feedback doesn’t slip through the cracks.

• Export and share custom listening reports across teams. Turn TikTok conversations into actionable insights for marketing, PR, product and customer care teams. Sprout Listening reports track data like engagements, network overview, potential impressions, sentiment trends and volume.

 

H3: How to get additional insights from TikTok using Sprout’s Smart Inbox

Here’s a step-by-step breakdown:

• Leave the Listening tab in Sprout and navigate to Smart Inbox > All Messages to see TikTok comments alongside other networks.
• From the Sources dropdown, select the TikTok profiles you want to review.

• Use the Message Types dropdown to filter specifically for TikTok comments.

• Click the arrow icon to reply directly. Use Saved Replies, emojis, or even sync user data through Sprout’s Salesforce and help desk integrations.

With TikTok social listening combined with Smart Inbox capabilities, using Sprout’s whole platform can deliver a wealth of TikTok social intelligence.

Integrating TikTok social listening into your broader social strategy

TikTok is where culture moves fastest. If you’re not listening in, you’re missing out.

Pulling TikTok insights into your existing listening workflows enables you to spot opportunities sooner, connect dots across channels and act before your social media competitors even realize what’s happening. And a tool like Sprout Social enables you to see TikTok data alongside insights from every other network. No tab juggling required.

The result? A streamlined, smarter social strategy that moves at the speed of a Gen Z-er’s FYP.

See how TikTok insights can fuel your biggest wins. Request a Sprout Social Listening demo.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you do social listening on TikTok?

Yes. TikTok social listening tracks and analyzes platform content like hashtags, captions, comments, trending sounds and @ mentions. It goes beyond basic post monitoring to uncover trends, measure sentiment and reveal opportunities. With the right tools, brands can use these insights to connect with niche communities, manage crises and refine marketing, product and sales strategies.

What social listening tools are available for TikTok?

Several platforms like Emplifi, Brandwatch and Talkwalker now offer TikTok listening capabilities. However, Sprout Social stands out for combining it with insights from every other network in one place.

Sprout’s AI-powered listening lets you:

• Track hashtags, keywords, sounds, @ mentions, and comments
• Analyze sentiment
• Detect spikes in negative mentions
• Export reports to share across teams

With the ability to process up to 50,000 posts per second, Sprout delivers fast, actionable insights, without juggling multiple tools.