How to Publish an Original Social Data Report

An original report earns trust when readers can inspect the question, sample, method, and limits. Interesting charts cannot rescue an unclear dataset.

This market research workflow creates a reproducible report from a defined public search sample.

SocialListeningAPI searches public posts on LinkedIn, X, Reddit, Facebook, Hacker News, TikTok, and YouTube and Google results for the phrases you choose. It returns normalized records with source URLs.

Step 1: Write the research protocol

Create a SocialListeningAPI account and claim the 100 free credits. Before collecting anything, record:

• Research question
• Exact query set
• Collection dates
• Sources included
• Inclusion and exclusion rules
• Duplicate rule
• Fields you will analyze
• Human review plan

Do not change the protocol after seeing which answer looks more interesting.

Step 2: Collect the market research dataset

for endpoint in \
  linkedin/search-posts \
  x/search-posts \
  reddit/search-posts \
  facebook/search-posts \
  hackernews/search-posts \
  tiktok/search-posts \
  youtube/search-posts \
  google/search
do
  curl --get "https://api.sociallisteningapi.com/api/v1/$endpoint" \
    --data-urlencode 'query=customer research workflow' \
    --header 'x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY'
done

One phrase across all eight sources costs 15 credits. The API introduction explains source coverage and response structures. The MCP can collect records through Claude or ChatGPT.

Step 3: Build the external dataset

Store query, source URL, platform, published date, collection time, text or title, and inclusion status in an external database. Remove duplicate URLs and copies of the same content.

Facebook search returns one page with no next cursor, and sentiment is disabled. Document that limit if Facebook is part of the sample.

Step 4: Analyze and check the work

Use an external LLM or analysis tool to suggest categories. Have a person review a sample from every category, record corrections, and check calculations. Keep results tied to source URLs.

SocialListeningAPI performs public search. Storage, classification, statistics, charts, and human checks happen outside it.

The dataset must not trigger automated Reddit replies. A human must read the community rules and approve any response.

Step 5: Publish the report and sources

Include the protocol, sample size, dates, source counts, method, human checks, findings, and limits. Publish a source URL appendix or downloadable dataset when rights, privacy, and your research method allow it.

Conclusion

Release the method with the findings. Readers need both to decide whether the report supports its claims.

Keep the query set and source file so another person can repeat the collection later.

Continue with Find Content Ideas From Repeated Public Questions.

Written by ShashFounder at sociallisteningapi, focused on product and growth