Social Listening: brand mentions and brand posts

For brands that want to see who is posting about them on Instagram and TikTok, outside TikTok Shop, and how their own social posts perform.

Social Listening is in the sidebar under Content → Social Listening. It has two tabs:

• Brand Mentions: posts by other accounts that tag your brand on Instagram, or @mention your brand in the caption on TikTok.
• Brand Posts: your brand's own Instagram and TikTok posts.

Creator videos linked to your TikTok Shop are a different page: Content → TikTok Shop. See Manage creator content.

The short version

• Social Listening is part of the Scale plan.
• Open Content → Social Listening and connect at least one account: Connect Meta for Instagram, Connect TikTok account for TikTok.
• Someone else holds the login? Click Copy share link and send it to them. They approve the connection without a Cruva login.
• TikTok only shares mentions with TikTok Business accounts. Your own TikTok posts work with any account.
• Data arrives over the first sync. For 30 minutes after you connect, the page says the account "was linked recently".
• Use Posted Time to pick which posts count and Performance Time Range to pick which days' views and likes count, the same as on TikTok Shop → Videos.
• Export CSV downloads the posts that match your filters, captions included.
• The switch beside Export CSV shows the posts as a grid of cards (the default) or as rows. Both show the same posts, filters and pages; the column filters live in the row view.

Connect your accounts

While nothing is connected, the page shows a connect panel for each platform. After that, each platform has a chip at the top right of the page: click it to connect that platform, or to see the connected account and manage it.

Instagram (through Meta)

1. Click Connect Meta.
2. Sign in with the Meta account that manages your brand's Instagram professional account, and leave every permission ticked.
3. If you're asked, choose the Facebook Page linked to your brand's Instagram account.

This is the same Meta connection Cruva uses for Instagram creator search and Meta Ads. If your shop connected Meta before Social Listening existed, the page shows Reconnect Meta to turn on brand mentions. Click Reconnect Meta and approve the new permissions. Nothing else changes.

TikTok

1. Click Connect TikTok account. A TikTok window opens.
2. Sign in with your brand's TikTok account and approve access.
3. The window closes and the chip shows your handle.

Cruva only reads. It never posts, comments or sends messages from your account.

Mentions need a TikTok Business account. TikTok doesn't share mentions for personal accounts. If yours is personal, the chip turns amber and says Mentions need a TikTok Business account. In the TikTok app, switch to a Business account (Settings and privacy, then Account), then click Reconnect on the chip. The Brand Posts tab works with any account.

Let someone else connect

If an agency or your social media manager holds the login, click Copy share link under the connect button (or in the chip) and send them the link. It opens the same Meta or TikTok approval screen for your shop, and they don't need a Cruva account. A TikTok share link lasts 7 days; after that, copy a fresh one.

Disconnect

Click the TikTok chip, then Disconnect. Cruva stops tracking that account's mentions and removes its TikTok access, and the TikTok mentions and posts it stored for your shop are deleted at the next sync. You can connect again at any time; Cruva then starts over with a fresh backfill.

When data appears

Cruva checks your connected accounts through the day:

• TikTok: new posts are picked up through the day, and the numbers on posts already found are refreshed daily.
• Instagram: Cruva checks for new tagged posts and refreshes their numbers once a day.

Connecting an account moves your shop to the front of the queue. For the first 30 minutes the page shows "Meta was linked recently. Please allow some time for the data to sync." (or TikTok). An empty page in that window is normal.

The first sync also pulls in older posts. Cruva only tracks daily numbers from the day it starts, so for the days before that it estimates each day from the post's totals. Those days are drawn as a dotted line on the cards, and hovering them shows "Estimated daily totals from before Cruva began tracking".

What each platform shares

Instagram shares posts where another account tagged your brand's Instagram account.

TikTok shares posts that @mention your brand's handle in the caption. A post that only shows your product, or mentions you in a comment or on screen, isn't included. TikTok also limits what it shares:

• only public posts,
• only posts from the last 90 days, up to TikTok's own limits,
• no exact view count below 1,000. Those posts show <1K views.

Brand Mentions tab

The cards

• Mentions: posts that mention your brand. If you filter the table to Instagram only, the card reads Tagged posts.
• Creators: how many different accounts posted them.
• Views and Likes: what those posts gained.

Each card shows the total, the change against the period before, and a daily line. When both Instagram and TikTok have data, each card also shows a thin line per platform under the total.

The table

One row per post:

• Post: the thumbnail. Click it to play the post.
• Creator: the account that posted it.
• Platform: Instagram or TikTok.
• Type: Reel, Video, Carousel or Image.
• Posted: when it was posted.
• Views, Likes, Comments, and Shares (TikTok only).

Platform and Type have a filter in the column header. Tick the values you want and click OK. Filtering Platform to one platform also narrows the cards to that platform.

Brand Posts tab

The same layout, for your brand's own posts. The cards are Posts, Views, Likes and Comments, and the table has no Creator column. Each tab keeps its own filters, sort and page.

The two date ranges

Both tabs have the same two date pickers as TikTok Shop → Videos:

• Posted Time picks which posts are included, by the day they were posted. It starts on the 30 days ending two days ago, when the numbers have settled.
• Performance Time Range picks which days' views and likes are counted. It starts on All time, so you see everything those posts gained. Set it to the last 7 days to see what posts earned this week, even if they went up months ago.

See The two date pickers for more on how they combine.

Export

Export CSV downloads every post that matches the current date ranges and column filters, in the current sort order. On Brand Mentions the file is named brand-mentions-<date>, on Brand Posts brand-posts-<date>.

Common questions

Why does the TikTok side show nothing? Most often the connected account is a personal account: the chip is amber and says Mentions need a TikTok Business account. Switch to a Business account in TikTok and reconnect. Otherwise, check that the posts @mention your handle in the caption, are public and are from the last 90 days.

Why is a post that shows my product missing? TikTok only shares posts that @mention your handle in the caption, and Instagram only posts that tag your account. Posts that show your product without a tag or mention aren't shared with Cruva.

Why do some TikTok posts show <1K views? TikTok doesn't give an exact view count below 1,000.

Why is part of the line dotted? Those days are before Cruva began tracking your posts. They are estimated from each post's totals.

I just connected and the page is empty. The first sync can take a while. The page says the account "was linked recently" for the first 30 minutes. Check back later.

Do Social Listening posts count toward my TikTok Shop video numbers? No. TikTok Shop → Videos, the dashboard and campaigns only count content linked to your TikTok Shop. Social Listening is a separate view.

Can Cruva post or reply from my accounts? No. The connections are read-only for Social Listening.