Introduction
Social media has become an essential part of digital marketing strategies. However, keeping up with multiple networks and measuring performance can be a challenge without the right tools. This guide analyzes 15 top social media monitoring software options based on their features, ease of use, and value to help you pick the solution that best fits your budget and goals.
Methods of Evaluation
The software options will be evaluated based on analytics and reporting capabilities, social publishing features, ease of use, platform support, pricing structures, and other criteria like customer reviews. Additional weight will be given to tools that offer comprehensive analytics leveraging metrics like engagement, follower growth, backlinks, traffic and keyword trends to benchmark performance.
1. Facebook Analytics
Facebook Analytics is a free social listening and analytics tool from Facebook that provides insights directly from the Facebook platform. As one of the largest social networks in the world, Facebook Analytics offers a unique perspective into how customers and audiences are interacting with brands and companies on Facebook.
Pros: Some key advantages of using Facebook Analytics include:
– Native Facebook insights at platform level
– Tracks referral traffic from social ads and pages
– Breakdowns by demographic, geography and device
Cons: As a free tool, Facebook Analytics has limited functionality compared to paid social media monitoring tools. Some limitations include lack of competitive analytics, limited date range for insights, and inability to segment audiences for highly customized reports.
Pricing: Facebook Analytics is free to use for any Facebook business or personal page. There are no additional fees, costs, or pricing required to access analytics and insights for your Facebook presence.
Some key stats and insights available with Facebook Analytics include demographic breakdowns of followers and fans, referral traffic sources from Facebook ads and pages, engagement metrics on posts, and geographic insights into where your audience is located.
2. Instagram Insights
Instagram Insights is a free social media monitoring tool built directly into Instagram profiles. It offers analytics exclusive to Instagram profiles and ads campaigns, including key metrics like reach, engagement, follower growth and more. Owned by Meta, Instagram is one of the largest social media platforms globally with over 1 billion monthly active users.
Pros: Key advantages of using Instagram Insights include:
– Analytics exclusive to Instagram profiles and ads campaigns
– Insights on metrics like reach, engagement, follower growth and changes over time
– Benchmarking features that allow comparing performance metrics against similar industry categories and profiles
Cons: The main disadvantage of Instagram Insights is that the level of data and analytics available is limited compared to third-party social media monitoring tools. It only provides analytics for the user’s own Instagram profile or ads accounts and not competitors.
Pricing: Instagram Insights is free to use for any Instagram business or creator profile. There are no additional costs, premium versions or paid tiers.
Some key stats and insights available through Instagram Insights include the total number of likes, comments and saves on posts, top performing media by engagement, follower growth over time, impression and reach of Instagram ads, estimated earnings from promoted posts and more.
3. LinkedIn Insights
LinkedIn Insights, owned by LinkedIn Corporation, is a social media monitoring tool built specifically for LinkedIn. Integrated directly with the LinkedIn profile and advertising platform, LinkedIn Insights provides deep analytics focused on LinkedIn marketing efforts.
Pros: Key advantages of LinkedIn Insights include:
– Analytics dedicated to LinkedIn marketing efforts such as profile optimization, content performance, and ad campaigns. Insights not available elsewhere.
– Page tracking and detailed metrics on campaign performance to improve ROI through testing and optimizing ads and content.
– Leverages LinkedIn’s large database of professionals to provide context on trends and conversations in a user’s industry.
Cons: As a platform-specific tool, data and insights are limited only to the LinkedIn social network. It does not provide a cross-network view of a brand or offerings on other sites like Twitter, Facebook, etc.
Pricing: Pricing for LinkedIn Insights depends on the plan level chosen. Basic plans are free for standard LinkedIn accounts. Premium & Enterprise plans with more advanced features start at $99/month.
Some key stats about LinkedIn Insights include:
– Over 930 million members on the LinkedIn platform
– Provides insights on over 690 million professional profiles
– Monitors trends and conversations among LinkedIn’s large professional network
4. Salesforce Social Studio
Salesforce Social Studio is a social media management software built natively within the Salesforce platform. As the name implies, it tightly integrates with Salesforce CRM to help businesses strengthen customer relationships and improve marketing initiatives through social listening, publishing, analytics and more.
Pros: Some key advantages of Salesforce Social Studio include: Tight Salesforce integration that allows sharing of customer profiles, opportunities and other CRM data across social and sales teams. Powerful automation options like schedulable social posts and workflow rules. Advanced analytics features that provide deep insights into social marketing effectiveness. Wide community support with many implementation partners and user groups.
Cons: As a native Salesforce product, it can be more expensive than some stand-alone social media monitoring solutions. The interface and features primarily cater to larger enterprises versus small businesses.
Pricing: Pricing for Salesforce Social Studio depends on the edition selected – Professional, Enterprise or Unlimited. It is sold based on the number of monthly active users and additional fees apply for each monitored social network or integrated application.
Some key stats about Salesforce Social Studio include: Ability to monitor over 30 social networks and forums, Social publishing to all major networks, Real-time analytics dashboard, AI-powered social recommendations, Supports 25+ languages for social content.
5. Snapchat Ads Manager
Snapchat Ads Manager is an advertising platform developed by Snap Inc. that allows advertisers to create and manage advertising campaigns on Snapchat. With over 500 million daily active users, Snapchat offers a unique opportunity for brands to engage younger audiences.
Pros: Some key advantages of Snapchat Ads Manager include:
– Native analytics for Snapchat marketing campaigns
– Targeting and placements across Snapchat Stories
– Insights on age, gender, geo and other demographics
– Engages a younger audience that is harder to reach on other social platforms
Cons: One potential disadvantage is that Snapchat Ads Manager may not be as fully-featured as ad platforms from larger competitors like Facebook and Google. Advertisers have fewer targeting and optimization options compared to more mature platforms.
Pricing: Snapchat Ads Manager pricing is based on a cost-per-impression (CPM) model. Pricing varies based on the type and placement of the ad, as well as bidding and demand. Brands can generally expect to pay between $1-$5 CPM on average for Snapchat Story and Discovery ad placements.
Some key stats about Snapchat Ads Manager include:
– Reaches over 500 million daily active users
– Over 75% of 13-34 year olds in some markets use Snapchat every month
– Average user opens the Snapchat app over 30 times per day
6. Hootsuite
Hootsuite is a leading social media management platform that helps organizations and individuals manage social profiles, plan campaigns, and analyze results across major social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and more. Founded in 2008 and based in Vancouver, Hootsuite powers social profiles for over 18 million users worldwide including top brands like Intel, Red Bull, National Geographic, and CNN.
Pros: Some key advantages of Hootsuite include:
– Intuitive dashboard for managing all social profiles from one place
– Ability to schedule posts and easily publish across multiple social platforms
– Third-party app integrations allow customizing workflows
– Competitive pricing for individual and enterprise needs
Cons: One potential disadvantage is that the more advanced analytics and reporting features are limited on the basic plans and may require upgrading to a pricier tier.
Pricing: Hootsuite offers four different pricing plans – Free, Pro ($19/month), Business ($49/month), and Enterprise (custom pricing starting at $399/month). The free plan provides basic scheduling, publishing and engagement capabilities while the paid plans unlock advanced features like social analytics, employee team management, and vendor integrations.
Some key stats about Hootsuite include:
– Over 18 million users worldwide
– Integrations with over 250+ apps including Salesforce, Google Analytics, and Buffer
– Plans start from $19/month up to $399/month for enterprise teams
7. Semrush
Semrush is a leading SEO, PPC, and competitive research tool founded in 2008. With over 4 million users worldwide, Semrush offers a comprehensive set of digital marketing tools to help companies get found online.
Pros: Some key advantages of using Semrush include:
– Powerful SEO tools for keyword research, backlink analysis, site audits and more
– PPC management and bid insights to optimize ad spend
– Social media monitoring and engagement analytics
– Competitor keyword, backlink and site data for benchmarking
– Affordable tiered pricing plans for agencies and teams
Cons: One potential disadvantage is that the toolset may be overkill for small businesses or solopreneurs with limited budgets or marketing needs. The free version also offers limited functionality.
Pricing: Semrush offers three tiered pricing plans:
– Starter Plan: $99/month (good for 1-3 users)
– Standard Plan: $199/month (good for 3-10 users)
– premium Plan: $499/month (good for enterprise teams)
Some key stats about Semrush include:
– Over 4 million users globally
– Tools for SEO, paid ads, content, social media, and competitive research
– Tracks keyword rankings and organic traffic for millions of keywords
– Analyzes top-performing landing pages, ads, and more from competitors
8. Buffer
Buffer is a leading social media management platform that helps users publish engaging content to multiple social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and more. Founded in 2013, Buffer prides itself on being an intuitive tool that saves users time in planning, scheduling, and analyzing their social media efforts.
Pros: Some of the main advantages of Buffer include: – Easy to use intuitive dashboard for planning, scheduling, and analyzing posts across networks – Powerful content creation tools to plan and format posts in advance – Ability to queue up multiple posts and schedule them to publish at optimum days/times – Wide social network support to reach audiences across platforms – insightful analytics to track engagement metrics
Cons: One potential downside of Buffer is that the free plan only allows for 3 profiles and has limited monthly scheduled posts. For larger social accounts, the paid plans may be required for full functionality.
Pricing: Buffer offers three paid tiers: – Professional: $10/month for 5 profiles and increased post limits – Business: $15/month for 20 profiles and higher limits – Enterprise: Custom pricing for teams, enterprise support
Some key stats about Buffer include: – Used by over 7 million people worldwide – Supports publishing to 12 major social networks including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Google+ – Over 160,000 paying customers, mostly small businesses – More than 50 million total shares, likes, comments from content published via Buffer
9. Sprout Social
Sprout Social is a leading social media management platform that helps businesses centralize, optimize, and measure their social media efforts. Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Chicago, IL, Sprout Social offers solutions for social listening, publishing, engagement, analytics and more to over 25,000 brands globally including Anthropic, IBM, and Budweiser.
Pros: Some key advantages of using Sprout Social include:
– Powerful analytics and reporting features to gain insights from social data
– User-friendly interface that is intuitive to use
– Social publishing capabilities to schedule and automate posts
– Responsive customer support for any questions or issues
Cons: One potential disadvantage is that Sprout Social is considered a more premium product and some features require paid subscriptions.
Pricing: Sprout Social offers a free 30-day trial. After the trial period, pricing starts at $99 per month for the basic Starter plan for up to 5 users. Their most popular Professional plan starts at $249 per month for up to 15 users. For large enterprises, custom Enterprise pricing is available upon request.
Some key stats about Sprout Social include:
– Monitoring and analyzing over 500 million social profiles
– Serving over 25,000 customer accounts
– Having over 100 employees
– Processing over 250,000 social posts per day
10. Meltwater
Meltwater is a leading global provider of social media monitoring and analytics. Founded in 2001, Meltwater helps over 30,000 companies make better decisions based on insights from the outside world. The company monitors and analyzes conversations across social media, online news sites, blogs, forums and more in over 90 languages. Some key facts about Meltwater include: they currently have over 1,000 employees globally and support clients across six continents.
Pros: Key advantages of Meltwater include:
– Media intelligence and insights through comprehensive monitoring of online conversations
– Broad social coverage across all major social platforms including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and more
– Powerful search and analytics capabilities to analyze trends, competitors and industries
– Dedicated client success reps and account managers to help customers maximize the value
Cons: One potential disadvantage is that Meltwater has a higher price point than some other social media monitoring tools. However, this is offset by the comprehensiveness of their coverage and analytics capabilities.
Pricing: Meltwater offers flexible pricing plans tailored to business needs. Pricing is based on the number of users, data sources monitored, and additional analytics modules. Custom solutions are also available for enterprise-level clients.
Key stats about Meltwater include:
– Monitoring over 500 million online sources daily
– Over 1 billion mentions tracked monthly across social media, news sites, blogs and more
– Coverage of print, broadcast and online media in over 90 languages
– Powerful search capabilities across all monitored sources and languages
11. Brandwatch
Brandwatch is a leading social media monitoring software that helps companies and organizations understand consumer opinions and conversations happening online. Founded in 2007, Brandwatch has grown to serve over 2,500 global brands and agencies. With headquarters in Brighton, UK and Denver, CO, Brandwatch monitors billions of conversations daily across social media, forums, news sites, and more.
Pros: Some key advantages of Brandwatch include:
– Advanced insights and metrics – Provides deep analytics, sentiment analysis, trend analysis and more to gain insights from social data.
– Real-time social monitoring – Lets you monitor conversations as they happen across multiple social networks and online sources.
– Powerful filters and search – Helps narrow down conversations based on keywords, topics, locations, influencers, demographics and other filters.
– Premium client success support – Offers dedicated client success teams and training to help customers maximize ROI.
Cons: One potential disadvantage is that Brandwatch has a relatively high price point compared to some other social media monitoring tools. It may not be suitable for small businesses or teams with limited budgets.
Pricing: Brandwatch pricing starts at $2500/month for a standard plan and goes up based on number of users, sources being monitored, data volume and additional premium features. They also offer customized enterprise plans for large organizations with very high data volumes and analyst teams.
Some key stats about Brandwatch include:
– Monitors over 500 million online sources including social profiles, forums, blogs, news sites and more.
– Processes over 500 million messages per day.
– Provides insights from 90+ languages and regions globally.
– Has over 1500 employees worldwide.
12. CoSchedule
CoSchedule is a leading social media monitoring and content scheduling platform that helps marketers organize all of their marketing efforts in one place. Founded in 2011 and based in Louisville, Kentucky, CoSchedule serves over 10,000 customers worldwide including brands like AT&T, Red Bull, Microsoft and General Electric.
Pros: Some key advantages of CoSchedule include:
– Powerful content planning and scheduling capabilities that allow marketers to plan months of content in advance and schedule to multiple channels
– Seamless integrations with all major CMS platforms which ensures content remains consistent across all channels
– Excellent social media monitoring and analytics that provide insights into how content is performing across different networks
Cons: One potential disadvantage is that CoSchedule is more full-featured and expensive compared to some other social media monitoring tools aimed at smaller teams or businesses.
Pricing: CoSchedule offers three paid plans – Basic, Pro and Enterprise. Pricing starts from $79 per month for the Basic plan which supports up to 3 users. The Pro plan costs $149 per month and supports up to 9 users. Custom pricing is available for larger teams with additional premium features in the Enterprise plan.
Some key stats about CoSchedule include:
– Over 10,000 customers worldwide
– Integrations with 35+ CMS platforms including WordPress, Drupal and Joomla
– Ability to schedule content to over 80 social networks and publishing channels
13. Iconosquare
Iconosquare is a leading social media monitoring and marketing platform focused on Instagram. Founded in 2013, Iconosquare provides powerful analytics and management tools to help brands and agencies maximize engagement and growth on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and TikTok.
Pros: Some key advantages of Iconosquare include:
– Instagram focused analytics with insights into hashtags, locations, mentions and branded content
– Photo library and hashtag tracking tools
– Benchmarks engagement against competitors
– Insights help optimize Instagram marketing strategy and content
Cons: One potential disadvantage is that Iconosquare focuses mainly on Instagram analytics over other platforms. For brands that want a more unified social media dashboard, alternatives may provide more robust cross-network analytics.
Pricing: Iconosquare offers various paid plans starting from $49/month for up to 3 social profiles. Enterprise and custom plans are also available for larger businesses and agencies.
Some key stats about Iconosquare include:
– Over 50,000 active users globally
– Tracks hashtags, mentions, profiles, and geographic data for millions of posts daily
– Provides benchmark analytics on top performing hashtags, accounts, and trends
14. Socialbakers
Socialbakers is a leading social media monitoring and analytics platform. Founded in 2007, Socialbakers helps thousands of brands and agencies gain valuable insights from social media. With offices worldwide, Socialbakers monitors social conversations across all major networks like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.
Pros: Some key advantages of Socialbakers include:
– Comprehensive analytics and metrics on social media performance
– Advanced campaign management tools for planning, publishing and analyzing social campaigns
– Monitoring of social media across all major networks in one centralized platform
– Customizable reporting capabilities for both executive summaries and detailed metric breakdowns
Cons: One potential disadvantage is that Socialbakers has a relatively high price point compared to some other social media monitoring tools. However, it offers more advanced features aimed at enterprise-level brands and agencies.
Pricing: Socialbakers offers different pricing tiers starting from $999/month for the basic Starter plan up to custom enterprise plans. Pricing is based on number of social profiles tracked, number of users, and additional premium features/support.
Some key stats about Socialbakers include:
– Over 250,000 brands and agencies use Socialbakers globally
– Tracks and analyzes over 25 million social profiles
– Monitors conversations in over 100 languages
– Processes over 2 billion social interactions daily
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15. Sumo
Sumo is a leading social media monitoring and engagement platform. Founded in 2011, Sumo helps over 30,000 companies and organizations track, analyze and respond to conversations happening on social media platforms and across the web. Sumo gathers data from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and other social networks as well as blogs and online forums.
Pros: Some key advantages of Sumo include:
– SEO focused with social media monitoring add-ons
– Robust link building and content publishing tools
– Customizable reports to measure campaign performance
– Affordable pricing with free basic plan and paid tiers for teams
Cons: One potential disadvantage is that the more advanced analytics and custom visualization features are limited to the higher pricing tiers which may not be affordable for some small businesses or teams.
Pricing: Sumo offers the following pricing plans:
– Free Basic Plan: Allows tracking up to 5 keywords and profiles
– Growth: Starts at $49/month billed annually for up to 10 users
– Performance: Starts at $99/month billed annually for up to 25 users
– Enterprise: Custom pricing for large enterprise teams
Some key stats about Sumo include:
– Over 30,000 customers including Fortune 500 companies
– Tracks over 300 million mentions daily
– Covers 500+ types of social profiles and online mentions
– Integrates with over 50 marketing, sales and CRM tools
Conclusion
With so many powerful yet affordable options on the market, you’re sure to find a social media monitoring tool that works for your business. Refer back to this guide when shortlisting and testing platforms to make sure you select the solution that provides the right mix of features for the best possible return on your investment in social media marketing.