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Top 10 Social Listening Freelancers to Hire for Improved Insights in 2024

Listen to what customers say about you online and use it to improve your marketing, enhance engagement, and grow your business.

Dyllan Hopewell
By Dyllan Hopewell
Janet Barben editor profile photo
Edited by Janet Barben

Published January 28, 2024.

A social media freelancer works on her laptop and phone at a coffee shop

Gaining insights into your customers' needs, interests, and concerns is more important than ever for shaping effective business strategies in our highly connected world. With countless conversations happening across social platforms, tapping into social listening gives you invaluable data to inform your marketing, product development, CX, and more.

Partnering with a skilled social listening pro allows you to monitor branded mentions and industry trends, understand customer sentiment, identify opportunities, and stay agile in meeting audience demands. Their insights empower you to refine messaging, offer relevant solutions, and foster meaningful engagement.

Our top picks for the top social listening freelancers

1. Gabriela O.- Best overall

2. Tom M.- Best for financial insights

3. Alex M.- Best for enhancing engagement through social listening

4. Gary E.- Best for gathering info on consumer insights

5. Matthew S.- Best for discerning interests from consumers

6. Michael M.- Best for connecting with audiences

7. Philip J.- Best for uncovering precise customer needs

8. Cody W.- Best for maximizing campaign relevance through listening

9. Brad J.- Best for transforming insights into strategic content

10. Katia G.- Best for data-driven messaging for SaaS brands



What is a social listening freelancer?

A social listening freelancer is your online ear to the ground. They meticulously track and analyze social media conversations, uncovering valuable insights about your brand, competitors, and industry trends. These digital detectives help businesses make informed decisions, enhance customer engagement, and stay ahead of the curve.

Best overall

1


Exceptional
10
Gabriela O Icon

Gabriela O.

Social listening expert

Expirience

8+ years


Country

Brazil


Industry focus

Automotive, finance, health & wellness, travel, art & entertainment

Gabriela leverages social listening to inform content strategy and identify trends for automotive, finance, health, travel, and entertainment brands. Her insights help optimize messaging and engage target audiences.

      • Social listening
      • KPI-driven marketing
      • Digital advertising
      • Strategy

Gabriela's social listening skills allow her to monitor branded conversations and pinpoint opportunities to improve content resonance with key demographics.

Best for financial insights

2


Outstanding
9.9
Tom M Icon

Tom M.

Social listening freelancer

Expirience

20+ years


Country

USA


Industry focus

Finance and banking

With over 20 years of experience, Tom is highly skilled at leveraging social data to gather competitive intelligence and consumer insights for the finance sector. His technical expertise strengthens analysis.

    • Social listening
    • Digital marketing
    • Computer programming
    • Online content creator

Tom draws on his extensive digital marketing and programming background to uncover impactful industry and consumer insights through social listening.

Best for enhancing engagement through social listening

3


Outstanding
9.8
Alex M Icon

Alex M.

Experienced social listener

Expirience

20+ years


Country

USA


Industry focus

Art & entertainment, finance, style & fashion

Alex is an expert social listener, using his 15+ years of digital marketing experience to extract strategic insights for art, fashion, and finance brands from social data.

      • Data Analysis
      • Social listening
      • Social media marketing
      • Content writing and creation
      • Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest marketing

Alex's analytical rigor and creative social listening deliver data-driven insights to optimize content and engagement across channels.

Best for gathering info on consumer insights

4


Outstanding
9.7
Gary E Icon

Gary E.

Proficient in media and social listening

Expirience

9+ years


Country

United Kingdom


Industry focus

Automotive, electronics, finance, professional service

Gary uses social listening within his digital marketing skillset, monitoring online conversations to glean consumer insights for automotive, electronics, finance, and professional services brands.

      • Social listening
      • eCommerce
      • Email marketing
      • PPC
      • Social media marketing

Gary's social listening expertise provides the pulse on consumer perceptions, guiding data-driven content and engagement strategies.

Best for discerning interests from consumers

5


Outstanding
9.6
Matthew S. icon

Matthew S.

Social listener and marketer

Expirience

10+ years


Country

USA


Industry focus

Art & entertainment, electronics, home & garden, professional services

With over 10 years of digital marketing expertise, Matthew leverages social listening to discern consumer interests, trends, and sentiment for retail, services, and entertainment industries.

        • Social listening
        • Content writing
        • Computers, laptops, and accessories specialist

Matthew's social listening strengths produce keen insights to resonate with target demographics through relevant, impactful content.

Best for connecting with audiences

6


Outstanding
9.5
Michael M Icon

Michael M.

Creative marketer and social listener

Expirience

10+ years


Country

Israel


Industry focus

Professional services, electronics

Michael employs social listening techniques to identify trends and opportunities to emotionally connect with electronics and professional services audiences through creative content.

      • Social listening
      • Digital marketing
      • Social media marketing

Michael's artistic background brings a creative edge to his analysis of social data and content creation informed by consumer insights.

Best for uncovering precise customer needs

7


Outstanding
9.4
Philip J Icon

Philip J.

Social listening in B2B and B2C

Expirience

10+ years


Country

USA


Industry focus

Beauty, home & garden, social & community, sports, outdoors & fitness, style & fashion, travel

Philip uses social listening to uncover customer needs and interests for B2B and B2C brands in beauty, home, fashion, sports, travel, and community services.

      • Social listening
      • Creative marketing
      • Social media marketing

Philip's social listening savvy reduces CAC by optimizing content that precisely addresses consumer priorities and preferences.

Best for maximizing campaign relevance through listening

8


Outstanding
9.3
Cody W Icon

Cody W.

Marketing and social listening expert

Expirience

10+ years


Country

USA


Industry focus

Electronics, finance, home & garden, pets, sports, outdoors & fitness, style & fashion

Cody continuously monitors social conversations to discern opportunities to refine messaging and maximize relevance for electronics, finance, home, fashion, and pet brands.

    

      • Copywriting
      • Social listening
      • Facebook ads
      • Google Ads

Cody's relentless social listening focus on maximizing ROI drives ongoing content optimization based on consumer insights.

Best for transforming insights into strategic content

9


Outstanding
9.2
Brad J Icon

Brad J.

Social listening and marketing specialist

Expirience

12+ years


Country

USA


Industry focus

Beauty, education, finance, nonprofit & government, professional services

Brad leverages social listening within his digital marketing expertise to discern consumer perspectives and craft relevant brand stories for diverse education, finance, and professional services audiences.

      • Social media marketing
      • Social listening
      • Digital marketing
      • Assists colleges and universities with marketing

Brad's blend of robust digital marketing skills and nuanced social listening provides impactful consumer insights to transform concepts into strategic content.

Best for data-driven messaging for SaaS brands

10


Outstanding
9.1
Katia G Icon

Katia G.

Digital marketing and social listening

Expirience

9+ years


Country

Spain


Industry focus

Education, professional services, technology

Katia uses social listening techniques to discern audience needs and trends to help SaaS brands refine targeting and engage through relevant content. she blends analytical rigor with imaginative content skills to help SaaS brands engage through relevant narratives crafted with their ideal audiences in mind.

      • Social listening
      • PPC
      • SEO
      • B2B SaaS
      • Skilled at promoting online courses

Katia's analytical and creative social listening strengths unlock insights to build data-driven content strategies that deeply resonate with target demographics. With a mix of business marketing experience and content creation, Katia forms CMO-leading marketing and growth strategies.



What is social listening?

Social listening is like being a fly on the wall, gathering insights into what people say about your brand on social media. It involves monitoring and analyzing social media platforms to understand customer feedback, sentiment, and emerging trends.

With social listening, you can track mentions of your brand, competitors, industry keywords, and even your CEO's latest interview. It's an excellent way to understand your customers' needs, improve your products or services, and make informed decisions about your digital marketing strategy.

How social listening helps your ROI

Keeping tabs on what people say about your brand and industry provides valuable insights into customer preferences, pain points, and behavior. Monitoring these conversations allows you to optimize marketing efforts and product offerings to meet customer needs better, improving marketing ROI.

Social listening also enables early detection of potential crises, allowing swift action to mitigate reputation damage. Further, identifying and engaging influencers can amplify your brand message to wider audiences. Adding social listening capabilities with a freelance specialist allows more strategic digital marketing and finer content tuning to your audience.

» Let us teach you how to measure your social media marketing ROI.

What does a social listening expert do?

A social listening expert uses sophisticated tools to monitor and analyze online sources to uncover trends, sentiments, and engagement opportunities with your target audience.

Essentially, they help you understand what target audiences are saying about your brand and use those real-time insights to improve reputation, customer experience, and the bottom line. Their capabilities also aid influencer identification, competitor tracking, and marketing strategy. If you want to know what people are saying and use that to grow your business, a social listening focus will help.

Skills top social listening freelancers have

Have you decided to hire a marketing manager to handle your social listening? Since this person's skillset has to be at the confluence between multiple marketing disciplines, general marketing skills are a must. Aside from that, look for someone with the following aptitudes: 

Social media marketing

A social media listening freelancer with skills in social media marketing understands how to apply insights from social media listening to optimize social media marketing campaigns. They can use the information gathered from social listening to target customers with effective campaigns.

This can result in improved engagement, increased followers, and higher ROI for your business. Having skills in social media marketing can complement a social media listening freelancer's work and add more value to their clients.

Communication

Social listening experts should be able to communicate their findings concisely and compellingly. Someone who is available to communicate any emergencies promptly has mastered the art of communicating effectively.

Social media tools

A social media listening freelancer should have a range of tools in their arsenal to effectively monitor and analyze social media conversations. Some essential tools include Hootsuite, Sprout Social, Mention, Brandwatch, and Google Alerts.

These tools allow the freelancer to track brand mentions, monitor social media conversations, and analyze social media data, providing valuable insights to businesses. 

Analytics and insights

Social media managers should have a knack for analyzing data and extracting insights from social media conversations to inform their clients' strategies. At a baseline level, a digital marketing specialist should have Google Analytics knowledge to provide insight and report on key metrics. 

Collaboration

Sometimes, social listening can lead to unexpected findings or challenges, so these listening experts should have a creative and flexible mindset to adapt and find solutions.



Questions to ask a social listening professional

When looking to hire a social listening professional, there are several kinds of questions business owners can ask to help determine if they are the right fit for your business:

  • What tools and technologies do you use for social listening?
  • Can you provide examples of past clients or projects and the results achieved through social listening?
  • How do you handle negative comments or feedback on social media?
  • How do you measure the success of a social listening campaign?
  • What industry trends have you noticed for our niche?
  • Can you give us some social media listening examples from businesses you appreciate? 
  • How does social listening help build a social media community? 
  • How does social listening help build a loyal community? 
  • How do you find who your ideal audience is? 
  • What is your favorite social listening tool, and why is it the best? 

By asking these questions, you learn more about your candidate's professional experience and expertise in social listening and their problem-solving and client management approach. This will help you select the best social listening professional for your business.

How to hire a social listening specialist

Not sure how to find the best social listening expert for your business? Here's a hiring process you could use: 

  • Post on a job board: Posting on job boards can help find candidates but may be time-consuming and attract an overwhelming volume of applications. Be clear in your posting about the required skills and qualifications to filter for the best fit.
  • Post on social media: Posting on your company's social media can leverage your existing audience to find candidates familiar with your brand. Ask followers to share the post to widen the reach.
  • Ask your peers: Tapping into your professional and personal networks can efficiently surface candidates vouched for by those you trust. Reach out and ask if anyone can recommend a specialist.

Hire the top freelance social listener through Mayple

You gain an invaluable competitive advantage by using the full breadth of social data through an experienced social listening specialist. Their expertise in sifting through the noise transforms complex information into actionable insights that drive business growth.

A vetted freelance social listener from Mayple will give you the dedicated skills needed to uncover hidden opportunities and empower data-driven decisions. With strategic guidance from a social listening professional, your business can actively listen, engage, and convert today's socially connected consumers.