Social listening tracks mentions, keywords, and competitors across a platform — or across the open web — rather than just showing you activity on accounts you already connected. That second part is the distinction most vendor marketing blurs.
Inbox vs. listening
An inbox (sometimes called a “social inbox”) surfaces comments, mentions, and messages on your own connected accounts. Nearly every tool in this Directory has some version of this. Listening is different: it finds conversations about your brand, a keyword, or a competitor happening on accounts you don’t own.
What we’ve verified
Agorapulse builds keyword-based monitoring and competitor analysis into the core product. Vista Social gates listening (18 platforms including web and news) behind a $75/mo add-on on every tier. HeyOrca‘s listening add-on covers Instagram and Facebook only, even on its Pro tier.
Before assuming a tool has listening, check whether it means “your own inbox” or genuine keyword/competitor tracking — the two get conflated constantly in vendor copy.