In this modernising world, digitalisation is widely increasing; which is parallel to the growing importance of online and social media presence. The 21st century which we live in is laden with technological evolutions, easing a business’ operations in terms of PR, sales, marketing, and visibility considerably. 🙂🙂
What is Social Media Monitoring? ❓❓
Social Media Monitoring is the process of listening to and analyzing reviews, questions and conversations that your audience have to say about you, your competitors and the market in general, through your social media channels.
When businesses go online, they are bombarded with countless queries, reviews, likes, dislikes, comments, mentions, and hashtags...this huge data intake makes the job business owners have - to read and listen to feedback - very difficult. 😵😵
This is where Social Media Monitoring Tools come into action. They help to
record quality audience data, enable businesses to take respective actions based on information collected - and save a lot of time by carefully analyzing data from all the social media accounts.
Businesses use social media monitoring tools to sort out relevant social mentions, track keywords, hashtags, and URLs, all of which could boost customer satisfaction.
👂👂 The benefits of being able to listen to your customers' minds are limitless. While social media monitoring is not exactly about reading people’s minds, it is as close as anyone can get.
This blog is about various tools available in the market to help listen to your audience effectively.
Hootsuite
👍 Hootsuite is one of the most popular social media management tool with the latest features; making your social media accounts super easy to manage. This tool acts as a sniper for your business – allowing you to see all the right people, at the right place, at the right time.
1️⃣ With Hootsuite, you can keep track of what people are saying through mentions of your brand, product, service or industry, and allows you to track conversations based on keywords, hashtags, locations and specific users.
2️⃣ If there are multiple employees handling your social media platforms, Hootsuite helps you to share information among its handlers and if any posts need replying to, it delegates tasks like reviewing, replying, answering questions etc. to each employee.
3️⃣ This tool also facilitates the scheduling of your social media posts. It supports almost every social media platform like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, blogs, WordPress and Foursquare.
Visit this blog on how to use Hootsuite to make the most of its free plan.
Hootsuite is popular for its knowledgeable and customer-friendly staff. The basic account is free. However, the pro and business account will cost you $5.99 and $499 respectively.
Google Alerts
🤜 Google Alerts is the simplest media monitoring tool and is highly recommended if you are a novice in the monitoring sector.
✅ It lets you monitor the entire web for the mention of your company, fellow competitors, your products and any other relevant information you wish to search for. You can have regular information updates emailed to you daily, weekly or whenever a new result appears.
❌ This tool is absolutely free but is limited to sources that only Google tracks. Therefore, there can be limited Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media results.
All you need to do is sign-in to your Google account. Go to Alerts, and type a word in the search box to see your company mentions. Just like this, you can set up alerts for up to 1000 keywords in specific regions and languages.
Visit this post to become an expert at using Google Alerts.
Keyhole
💁♂️ Keyhole is another popular social media monitoring tool used by major brands like Alibaba, Google, H&M, L’Oréal, and Mashable.
✔️ The tool provides more than just tracking keywords, mentions and hashtags. It also provides trends, insights, analysis, and brand health, based on ongoing conversations about your brand. Keyhole is best suited to know what is going in your customers’ minds.
✔️ The tool supports platforms like Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, news and various blogs.
Keyhole is a paid tool and the prices start from $59/mo for a basic account to $999/mo for advanced management and analytics features. There is an intermediate option of $199/mo for mid-sized organisations.
Mention
🙂 Mention, as the name suggests, monitors all of your brand mentions and tracks conversations about your company, product, industry, and campaigns online.
🌟 It keeps you informed of your customers’ thoughts and join in their conversations whenever needed. Historical data is also provided upon request and the app alerts you whenever a new mention comes in the last 24 hours.
Apart from social media tools like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+, Reddit, etc., Mention also supports reviewing platforms like Tripadvisor, Booking.com, Amazon and Yelp. 🗣️
Mention offers various pricing plans from a $29/mo Solo plan, a $99/mo Starter plan and also a Customs plan is available on request for your individual needs.
Brandwatch
👉👉 Brandwatch is a high-quality media monitoring tool which enables you to dig out relevant conversations about your brand and products.
It is a very powerful tool in terms of data analytics and comes with a data visualization tool called Vizia that can represent data in graphs, stats and numbers easily. There is also an option to directly export graphics to PowerPoint presentations! 💪💪
✅✅ It also provides advanced image analysis and finds photos that have your brand name or logo in it. With rich demographic data, trending topics, APIs, and availability on all social media platforms, Brandwatch is best suited to handle your social media monitoring.
Brandwatch is an Enterprise-level tool and comes with a plan of $800/mo; however, other Custom plans are available on request.
Visit this blog about Brandwatch Vizia to know more about the Brandwatch.
🏆🏆 All these tools are advantageous in their own ways and users must select them according to their needs. It is vital to note that just collecting this data wouldn't guarantee you any results. Businesses need to use this data and take eminent decisions based on the information, for the firm's longevity. Companies need to engage with people mentioning them and use the opportunity provided to solidify their reputation.
✨✨If used properly, social media monitoring can help business branding and increase ROI to a considerable level!
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About the Author
Siddharth is a Business Management student at London South Bank University. He is an avid reader and a content writer on various business aspects. Studying in London and raised in Gujarat, India, he speaks 3 different languages. He holds interests in sports, fitness, army and defense services, philosophy, business operations, marketing, and is passionate about becoming an entrepreneur. He is a writer and contributor for High Profile Club. Find Siddharth on LinkedIn here.
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