A Listening Report That Changes a Decision

What it is for

A shape for a social listening report that leads with the question and carries its own method - date range, exclusions, sample size - where the reader will actually see it. Use it when findings go to people who will make a call on them. It prevents two common lies: a sentiment percentage with no sample behind it, and a share of voice chart where the competitor queries were built more loosely than your own.

The skill Copy

Use when listening data has to become a report someone acts on.

Open with the question, not the dashboard. "Did the packaging change hurt us?"
is a report. "Mentions in Q3" is a screenshot.

Put the method where the reader sees it, not in an appendix:
- The date range, and what changed in the query during it.
- What is excluded and why. If you removed coupon spam and job posts, say so -
  a reader comparing your number against another tool needs that line to
  understand the gap.
- The sample size behind any percentage.

Sentiment discipline:
- Automatic sentiment is an estimate. Report a direction, not a decimal. "More
  negative than last month, driven by delivery times" survives scrutiny;
  "negativity rose 3.4 percent" does not.
- If you must quote a figure, say how you checked it and on how many mentions
  you checked it.

Comparison discipline:
- A share of voice chart is only honest if every competitor query was built as
  carefully as your own. A loose competitor query inflates them; a loose query
  for you flatters you. Say who built each one.

Structure, in this order:
- The answer, in one sentence.
- The three things underneath it, each with its driver named and one real
  quoted mention as evidence.
- What you recommend, marked clearly as recommendation and kept separate from
  what happened.
- Appendix: the full query text, the exclusions, and when each was added.

Cut anything that does not change a decision. A chart nobody acts on teaches
the reader to skip your next report too.

Failure this prevents: a decision made on a sentiment percentage nobody can
state the sample size for.

How to install it Copy

1. Open the tool and start a new conversation, project or template.
2. Paste the text below wherever the tool keeps standing instructions
   — usually called system prompt, instructions, or persona.
3. Save it so it applies to every run rather than a single message.

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Where it came from