sales-brandwatch

What this skill does

# Brandwatch Platform Help

Helps the user configure and use Brandwatch — from setting up monitoring queries and dashboards through social media management, influencer campaigns, API integration, and troubleshooting. Brandwatch is part of the Cision Group.

## Step 1 — Gather context


If `references/learnings.md` exists, read it first for accumulated knowledge.

Ask the user:

1. **Which Brandwatch module do you need help with?**
   - A) Consumer Intelligence — monitoring, queries, sentiment, dashboards, audience research
   - B) Social Media Management — content calendar, social inbox, publishing, engagement
   - C) Influencer Marketing (Influence) — creator discovery, campaigns
   - D) Search Intelligence — GenAI monitoring, search data
   - E) API integration — Consumer Research API, Data Upload, Publish, Engage, Measure
   - F) Integrations — Salesforce, Slack, CRM sync
   - G) Something else — describe it

2. **What's your role?**
   - A) Market researcher / consumer insights
   - B) Social media manager
   - C) PR / communications
   - D) Marketing / brand manager
   - E) Developer / data engineer
   - F) Agency managing multiple clients

3. **Current setup?**
   - A) New to Brandwatch — setting up for the first time
   - B) Already using Brandwatch — need help with a specific feature
   - C) Migrating from another tool
   - D) Evaluating Brandwatch vs competitors

**If the user's request already provides most of this context, skip directly to the relevant step.** Lead with your best-effort answer using reasonable assumptions (stated explicitly), then ask only the most critical 1-2 clarifying questions at the end.

## Step 2 — Route or answer directly

If the request maps to a strategy skill, route:
- Social listening strategy across tools → `/sales-social-listening`
- Influencer marketing strategy across tools → `/sales-influencer-marketing`
- Media relations or journalist databases → `/sales-media-relations`
- AI visibility monitoring (ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity) → `/sales-ai-visibility`
- Connecting Brandwatch to other tools (Zapier, Make) → `/sales-integration`

Otherwise, answer directly from the platform reference below.

## Step 3 — Brandwatch platform reference

**Read `references/platform-guide.md`** for detailed module documentation, pricing, integrations, and data model.

*You no longer need the platform guide details — focus on the user's specific situation.*

## Step 4 — Actionable guidance

Based on the user's specific question:

1. **Query setup** — design Boolean queries, configure sources, set up alerts and Signals
2. **Dashboard design** — build dashboards for their use case (executive reporting, competitive intel, crisis monitoring)
3. **Sentiment optimization** — configure custom rules, design manual review workflow
4. **Social management** — set up content calendar, configure inbox routing, design approval workflows
5. **API integration** — authenticate, retrieve mentions/analytics, upload custom data (see references/brandwatch-api-reference.md)
6. **Migration** — plan data export from current tool, query translation, team onboarding

## Gotchas

*Best-effort from research — review these, especially items about plan-gated features and pricing that may be outdated.*

- **Annual contracts with auto-renewal.** Brandwatch has been reported to auto-renew contracts without explicit notification. Verify renewal terms upfront, set calendar reminders 90 days before renewal, and get cancellation terms in writing before signing.
- **Social scheduling has no cross-posting.** Each post must have its channel and platform selected individually — you cannot schedule one post across multiple platforms simultaneously. Plan extra time for multi-channel publishing.
- **Sentiment accuracy is 60-75%, not higher.** Do not present AI sentiment scores as ground truth. Manual correction on high-impact mentions is essential. Non-English content and sarcasm degrade accuracy further.
- **Steep learning curve.** The platform has a complex UI with many modules. Budget 2-4 weeks for team onboarding. Request dedicated onboarding support from your account manager — do not rely solely on self-service docs.
- **Onboarding support varies.** Multiple users report that sales handoff to customer success is inconsistent. Escalate early if your account manager is unresponsive — ask for a technical implementation specialist.
- **Consumer Intelligence and Social Management are separate products.** They can be purchased independently. Features that span both (e.g., social inbox with listening data) require both subscriptions. Clarify exactly which modules are included in your contract.
- **Channels disconnect.** Social network connections can break periodically (common across all social management tools). Check channel health weekly, especially after social platform API updates. Reconnect promptly to avoid gaps in data.

- **Self-improving**: If you discover something not covered here, append it to `references/learnings.md` with today's date.

## Related skills

- `/sales-social-listening` — Social listening strategy across tools — choosing tools, monitoring setup, sentiment, competitive intel, crisis detection
- `/sales-influencer-marketing` — Influencer marketing strategy — creator discovery, vetting, campaign tracking, ROI
- `/sales-meltwater` — Meltwater platform help — media intelligence, social listening, media relations, API (direct competitor)
- `/sales-media-relations` — Media relations and PR strategy across tools
- `/sales-ai-visibility` — AI visibility monitoring — track brand mentions in ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini
- `/sales-integration` — Connect Brandwatch to CRM, BI tools, and other platforms via API/Zapier/Make
- `/sales-do` — Not sure which skill to use? The router matches any sales objective to the right skill. Install: `npx skills add sales-skills/sales --skill sales-do`

## Examples

### Example 1: Set up brand monitoring from scratch
**User says**: "I just got access to Brandwatch Consumer Intelligence. How do I set up monitoring for my SaaS brand?"
**Skill does**:
1. Designs Boolean queries: brand name (with variations), competitor names, industry terms, crisis keywords
2. Configures source selection and language/geography filters
3. Sets up a dashboard with volume trend, sentiment breakdown, top sources, and competitive SOV
4. Configures Signals for anomaly detection and Slack alert integration
5. Creates a daily digest and weekly stakeholder report schedule
**Result**: Complete monitoring setup with queries, dashboards, alerts, and reporting

### Example 2: Improve sentiment analysis accuracy
**User says**: "Our Brandwatch sentiment scores don't match reality — lots of sarcastic posts are showing as positive"
**Skill does**:
1. Explains the 60-75% accuracy baseline and why sarcasm is a known limitation
2. Creates custom sentiment rules for industry-specific terms and known sarcastic patterns
3. Designs a manual review workflow for high-impact mentions (top publications, viral posts)
4. Recommends focusing on sentiment trends over time rather than individual scores
5. Sets up a monthly accuracy audit process
**Result**: Improved sentiment accuracy workflow with custom rules and review process

### Example 3: Integrate Brandwatch API with a data pipeline
**User says**: "I need to pull Brandwatch mention data into our data warehouse for custom reporting"
**Skill does**:
1. Walks through OAuth 2.0 authentication (api-password grant type)
2. Shows how to retrieve mentions with filters (date range, sentiment, source)
3. Demonstrates pagination for large datasets
4. Suggests using the Python SDK (bcr-api) for automation
5. Points to references/brandwatch-api-reference.md for endpoint details
**Result**: Working API integration pulling mentions into their data pipeline

## Troubleshooting

### Sentiment analysis shows wrong results
**Symptom**: Many mentions are classified as positive when they're clearly negative (or vice versa)
**Cause**