Azad Shaikh is the founder of internetgeeks. He likes to...
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Social media rules the roost today with every company targeting its audience through different online platforms. Be it Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter; social media is probably the best way to reach and engage with users right now.
Having said that, is it just enough to bombard our users and followers with ads and posts? Not really. You should also be able to determine whether your users are actually listening. Are they paying attention? Do they like what you are saying to them? Monitoring everything that’s going on is just as important as being active online. Otherwise, you will only be shooting in the dark with no idea about the performance of your brand.
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Luckily, there are brilliant social listening tools that will help you monitor not just your brand but also your competitors and the latest trends or updates in your industry. You don’t have to worry too much about the performance of your brand if you choose the right tools and use it to its potential.
We have compiled a list of the best social listening tools here to make your job easier:
1. Brandwatch
Pros: Extensively data-driven – a brilliant analytics tool
Cons: Very expensive
When you think about analysis and understanding, you won’t find a tool better than Brandwatch. Highly data-oriented, it is an expensive tool that can turn your whole online game around. You must be careful, though, because everyone in your organization may not be comfortable using it. It is extensive and requires someone who is comfortable using databases and command lines to understand.
Features:
- Multi-lingual dashboard
- Separate dashboard for each source in a project
- You can download files in Excel or CSV formats
- Extensive reports
- Basic search option
- Can be integrated with other tools
It is a great choice for small-sized and medium-sized businesses that can shell out big bucks for social media management and detailed analysis.
2. Mention
Pros: User-friendly interface
Cons: Limited support and training material
Mention brings to you the best of all worlds by giving you analytics data, enabling you to keep track of your competitors, and monitoring social media for you. It is a great option for big brands that see regular engagement and interactions online.
Features:
- Detailed dashboard
- It helps you find, keep track of, and follow potential influencers in your industry
- It makes social media monitoring a breeze
- You can keep a close eye on the competition and take cues from them about audience targeting.
- A weekly chart summarizes the number of positive, negative, and neutral mentions through the week.
- The analytics data will tremendously help you improve your targeting strategy online.
Some of the top brands across the globe use Mention for social media monitoring and competitor’s analysis.
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3. Buzzsumo
Pros: An excellent means to keep track of trending blogs posts and news
Cons: Does not include Instagram yet, limited engagement data
Buzzsumo is among the more affordable social listening tools. It is predominantly a tool that helps understand the trends in the industry and enhance your brand strategy accordingly. It is easy to use, and the interface is very user-friendly. You can navigate through the tool and understand how to use it. After a few uses, you will be able to get the hang of it. If you need help, you can always check out the FAQs or request a demo.
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Features:
- Helps you track backlinks.
- You can get real-time alerts that will help you stay updated with the latest trends.
- It is the best tool to track how many shares your content or your competitors’ posts have received. However, a few users say that the emphasis on shares is negative because the other metrics are sidelined in this process.
- You only get engagement data through the Facebook analyzer, which makes it quite restricted.
While it is an excellent tool for sharing monitoring and analysis, Buzzsumo falls behind in terms of influencer tracking and engagement tracking beyond sharing. Thus, only if you are looking for a good option that tells you about breaking news, trending blog topics, and listicles, Buzzsumo is for you.
4. Sprout Social
Pros: A single tool to monitor your social media presence
Cons: No real-time reports
Sprout Social provides an aggregated window of everything you need to know about your brand’s online presence. From Facebook to Twitter, you can see all of it in one place. This makes the tool hassle-free.
Features:
- Sprout Social’s trends report helps you understand your audience, thereby enabling you to change your content strategy accordingly.
- You can also learn about keywords and hashtags that you must use on various platforms so that your audience really connects with you.
- It is a time-saving tool that lets you gather data quickly.
Whether it is Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or LinkedIn, Sprout Social is the answer to all your social listening requirements. Do check the tool out. We highly recommend it for all businesses.
5. Hootsuite
Pros: An excellent tool for social scheduling, publishing, engagement, and analysis
Cons: The interface can feel cluttered
For complete social media management, monitoring, and listening, Hootsuite has emerged as the winner. This is mainly because it serves the purpose and does not force you to break the bank while doing so.
Features:
- You can schedule posts to all social media platforms in one go, without having to do it separately or one after the other.
- It is among the few tools that support all major platforms from LinkedIn to Instagram to YouTube.
- It lets you reply to comments and mentions without having to open the platform separately.
- The detailed analytics report will help you understand your audience and tweak your online content strategy accordingly.
All in all, Hootsuite is a really good tool especially if you are a small business and are looking for one platform to take care of all your social needs. The reports may not be as extensive as the other tools in this list, but they are a great starting point.
Each tool has its own advantages and disadvantages, and the right one for you will depend on your requirements. Do take demos of the tools you are interested in before making the final call.
Azad Shaikh is the founder of internetgeeks. He likes to write about almost any topic you can imagine. If you like this article then you should also check his other posts in the similar category. Google him to connect.
Anurag Mehra
July 16, 2018at1:30 pm
That’s a great list, I think Agorapulse can be a great addition to the list though. What do you think?