Top 6 Social Media Monitoring Tools

Kasia Mikoluk

There are many social media analytical tools just as there are many reasons to use them. Social media has shaken up the world of business by offering up valuable raw data. It is imperative that companies become familiar with and utilize tools that can mine and analyze this data to help them make intelligent business decisions.

This data can be used to provide insights to:

Marketing – They can determine what products or services to market, which ones to drop. Information can be used to create or modify marketing campaigns.
Sales – Regional territories can be analyzed to improve sales in under performing areas.
Customer Service – Where is company service lacking? Monitoring complaints can lead to improvement.
Corporate Head Office – Data and Key Performance Indicators can be analyzed to determine strategies to move the company forward.

Before choosing an analytic tool, you need to define your objectives. Do you want real-time reports, dashboards or raw data to mine? Perhaps you want something that is simple and easy to use for your staff. Let’s have a look at some of the tools that are available.

Google Analytics

Not only does this tool gather website metrics but it also gathers social metrics in real-time. Information and data is available through dashboards and reports. A nice feature is the multi-channel analysis which reports what channels your customers interacted with prior to a purchase. Another great feature is the ability to capture stats on your web-enabled mobile devices. If you are just starting out monitoring social media, this is a good tool to use and it’s free.

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HootSuite

HootSuite offers 3 solutions to choose from. Start with the free version and then move up to the pro or enterprise version when you are comfortable with it. This tool will execute and monitor campaigns across numerous social media platforms. Tweets and messages can be automated and mentions of your business can be monitored on platforms like foursquare and LinkedIn. Dashboard, reports and raw data are available.

KISSmetrics

This tool is very powerful to gather your customer’s feedback and provide metrics that a company can use to improve revenue. They can tell you where a customer came from, what they did and what led them to become a customer. Analysis includes the lifetime value of your customer and how to improve your sales numbers.

Buffer

Buffer has powerful capability to post and share your data to social media platforms. This content can include posts, twitters, videos, pictures and content. The ability to push out content to mobile devices is available as well as detailed analytics about how many likes, retweets and shares you receive. Prices are as low as $10 a month with a free trial version.

SocialFlow

SocialFlow is used by companies like National Geographic and The National Post to monitor in real-time when the best times are to push out content. Knowing when to publish information is very useful to increase engagement of your potential and existing customers. Targeted content will be delivered at the right time to the right people. They also offer an advertising solution by monitoring real-time conversations and targeting the right ads with the right people to maximize conversation rates.

Argyle Social

This tool is useful in the B2B industry. It’s features work with your current social media marketing platforms to provide analytics for existing and potential prospects. It can help you to identify better leads and deeper relationships. Automated tools are available to schedule your posts reports and marketing content.

Tracking conversations on social media is a great way to grow your business. It is critical to stay informed about leading edge tools and the future of social media. Subscribe to a RSS feed or an online newsletter that discusses this topic. The bottom line is that you need to use social media to grow your bottom line!

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