Top 12 Social Media Monitoring Service Comparison

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Where do the best social media monitoring services excel?


Most branded social media mistakes are avoidable. Some are unforgivable. In a day and age when innocent oversights can make your brand go viral for the wrong reasons, monitoring social media for warning signs is essential.

It’s also impossible without the right tools.

That’s why we’ve tested, rated and ranked 12 of the best social media monitoring tools. Read on for the lowdown on each one, or you can use a social media management company or freelancer to handle all your accounts.

1. Brandwatch

Brandwatch social media management company logo

Brandwatch dashboard


Brandwatch
Usability
Accessibility
Visual Appeal
Price$$$$$
Overall
Reviewed by: Expert Market01/03/2019

Pros

  • ‘Groups’ feature lets you monitor keyword mentions across set websites
  • Huge breadth of data captured, from social networks to product reviews
  • Tabbed dashboard interface is easy to use

Cons

  • Influencer identification sometimes fooled by Twitter spambots

Verdict

Brandwatch is one seriously powerful social media monitoring service. Flexible filters and customizable reports turn mountains of data into meaningful insights. The service listens in over 44 languages and even understands things like spam and slang.

Fun fact: The team behind Brandwatch consists of about 300 staff working across four time zones.

2. Keyhole

Keyhole social media management company logo

Keyhole dashboard


Keyhole
Usability
Accessibility
Visual Appeal
Price$$$$$
Overall
Reviewed by: Expert Market01/03/2019

Pros

  • Real time tracking comes in handy for events
  • Gathers audience demographic data for deeper insights
  • 30-day free trial

Cons

  • Limited Arabic language support

Verdict

Monitoring social media mentions in real time is a breeze with Keyhole. The reasonably-priced tool tracks hashtags, mentions and URLs on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to give you a complete picture of who’s saying what about your brand.

Fun fact: Keyhole's data get frequently cited in the media by organizations such as Reuters, The Guardian and Al Jazeera.

3. Sprout Social

Sprout Social social media management company logo

Sprout Social dashboard


Sprout Social
Usability
Accessibility
Visual Appeal
Price$$$$$
Overall
Reviewed by: Expert Market01/03/2019

Pros

  • ‘Smart Inbox’ seamlessly merges social channels
  • Clever calendar layout for scheduled posts
  • Easy to manage multiple clients social posts

Cons

  • Costs rack up quickly when adding users

Verdict

Sprout Social was named to the Inc. 500 list of the fastest growing companies in the US, and they show no signs of slowing down. Strong analytics features take care of social media monitoring, and built-in publishing tools enable convenient content creation.

Fun fact: Sprout Social’s team numbers 400 people, but the platform serves a whopping 20,000+ brands. Not bad for ten years’ work.

4. Digimind

Digimind social media management company logo

Digimind dashboard


Digimind
Usability
Accessibility
Visual Appeal
Price$$$$$
Overall
Reviewed by: Expert Market01/03/2019

Pros

  • Good mentions with low noise and little loss
  • Well-designed dashboard is a doddle to use
  • ‘Top Reputation’ feature is unique among tools of this type

Cons

  • Sentiment analysis can still be improved

Verdict

Digimind’s expertise in web analytics dates back to the 1990s. Today, if you’re an SMB that’s looking for detailed search and social insights, there’s no better option.

Fun fact: Digimind’s blog is a goldmine of industry expertise from influencers, brand managers and Digimind’s own clients.

5. Zoho Social

Zoho social media management company logo

Zoho Social dashboard


Zoho Social
Usability
Accessibility
Visual Appeal
Price$$$$$
Overall
Reviewed by: Expert Market01/03/2019

Pros

  • ‘SmartQ’ feature for detecting best posting times is really useful
  • Very reliable and stable platform
  • Excellent integration with other Zoho business services

Cons

  • No easy way to see scheduled posts

Verdict

Zoho Social’s social media monitoring service makes it easy to manage your brand and cater to your audience’s interests. Keyword tracking, sentiment analysis and advanced reporting are all included. Plus, built-in publishing means you can create and schedule all your posts in one place.

Fun fact: Zoho boasts a combined 30 million users across all of its business communications platforms.

6. Falcon.io

Falcon.io social media management company logo

Falcon.io dashboard


Falcon.io
Usability
Accessibility
Visual Appeal
Price$$$$$
Overall
Reviewed by: Expert Market01/03/2019

Pros

  • Very easy to use
  • Tagging content by category is super handy
  • Posting to Instagram is easier than with some other tools

Cons

  • No telephone support (but there is web chat)

Verdict

Falcon.io provides an intuitive platform for social media monitoring and management. If you’ve got tons of channels and more than a handful of hashtags to track, it’s definitely worth a look.

Fun fact: Falcon.io was the first social media suite to support advanced Instagram measurement.

7. Buzzsumo

Buzzsumo social media management company logo

Buzzsumo dashboard


Buzzsumo
Usability
Accessibility
Visual Appeal
Price$$$$$
Overall
Reviewed by: Expert Market01/03/2019

Pros

  • ‘Influencer’ feature is fantastic for finding leading voices in your niche
  • See all shares for your content at a glance
  • Amazing in combination with blogger outreach tools

Cons

  • Weaker backlink analysis than comparable tools

Verdict

Buzzsumo gives you no-frills feedback on how your audience engages with your content. It’s also great at pinpointing powerful influencers for you to add to your customer or client outreach list.

Fun fact: Buzzfeed used Buzzsumo to track the most viral content about the 2017 UK election.

8. Mention

Mention social media management company logo

Mention dashboard


Mention
Usability
Accessibility
Visual Appeal
Price$$$$$
Overall
Reviewed by: Expert Market01/03/2019

Pros

  • You can filter out spam sources to cut through the noise
  • You can see and document your most successful posts in detail…
  • …but the dashboard also gives you the gist at a glance

Cons

  • Price may be a barrier for startups

Verdict

Mention makes social media sleuthing easier than ever with in-depth keyword, hashtag and comment tracking, and detailed demographic breakdowns by source type, location and more.

Fun fact: Unlike Google Alerts, Mention tracks chatter on Facebook and Twitter. Their web app is also much more user friendly.

9. Socialbakers

Socialbakers social media management company logo

Socialbakers dashboard


Socialbakers
Usability
Accessibility
Visual Appeal
Price$$$$$
Overall
Reviewed by: Expert Market01/03/2019

Pros

  • Facebook profile analysis offers incredible depth
  • There’s YouTube analytics too
  • Crisp data visualizations are readymade for reports

Cons

  • Historical Facebook data limited to past 89 days

Verdict

Analytics aficionados will appreciate Socialbakers’ powerful social media monitoring service. The platform covers just about every major social media channel, and has a Facebook Analytics module that delves even deeper than Facebook’s own analytics tools.

Fun fact: Socialbakers has hosted the Engage digital marketing conference every year since 2012.

10. Brand24

Brand24 social media management company logo

Brand24 dashboard


Brand24
Usability
Accessibility
Visual Appeal
Price$$$$$
Overall
Reviewed by: Expert Market01/03/2019

Pros

  • Daily email alerts show you mentions by top influencers
  • Support team is fast to fix bugs
  • Superb customer service in general

Cons

  • No Pinterest tracking

Verdict

Brand24 collects real-time social data faster than you can say ‘customer experience management’. It’s great for tracking buzz around your brand or public interest in new product announcements.

Fun fact: A Brand24 subscription gives you access to discounts on more than a dozen other digital marketing tools, like LiveChat and GetResponse.

11. Hootsuite

Hootsuite social media management company logo

Hootsuite dashboard


Hootsuite
Usability
Accessibility
Visual Appeal
Price$$$$$
Overall
Reviewed by: Expert Market01/03/2019

Pros

  • The most complete social listening and publishing suite
  • Heaps of free advice on Hootsuite’s blog
  • Great audience analytics

Cons

  • Sporadic customer support response times

Verdict

There’s a good reason why more than 15 million people use Hootsuite every day. You won’t be able to live without it after seeing how easy it makes checking your social media feeds, scheduling posts and tracking conversations about your brand.

Fun fact: Hootsuite’s name is inspired by the platform’s owl logo, and is a play on the French phrase ‘tout de suite’ which means ‘right now’.

12. Talkwalker

Talkwalker social media management company logo

Talkwalker dashboard


Talkwalker
Usability
Accessibility
Visual Appeal
Price$$$$$
Overall
Reviewed by: Expert Market01/03/2019

Pros

  • Clever image recognition spots shares of your logo
  • Extremely wide web coverage (150 million+ websites)
  • Up to two years historical data on demand

Cons

  • Sentiment analysis for foreign languages not always accurate

Verdict

For a tool that lets you carry out complex queries and analysis, Talkwalker is astonishingly simple to use. The social media monitoring service crawls the web, mining big data for mentions of your brand, and makes the findings meaningful.

Fun fact: Hootsuite’s name is inspired by the platform’s owl logo, and is a play on the French phrase ‘tout de suite’ which means ‘right now’.

Next Steps

If you’re like most small business owners, you’ve got plenty on the go without adding social media management to your plate. Social media monitoring services are there to ease the load, and the 12 tools reviewed here are well worth your attention.

Is there anything they can’t do?

Well, yes. They won’t, for example, respond to customer complaints on Twitter, or run Reddit Q&A sessions for you. For that, you need a dedicated social media support team.

Fortunately, social media management companies, like Hibu, can do it all for you – monitoring Twitter mentions, running audience reports, publishing LinkedIn posts, the works.

Requesting quotes for their services couldn’t be easier – simply fill out our short contact form to get connected directly with them.

Written by:
Dan’s a Senior Writer at Expert Market, specialising in digital marketing, web design, and photocopiers, amongst other topics.
Reviewed by:
Robyn Summers-Emler, Grow Online Editor, Profile Picture
Robyn started working on Expert Market in 2021 as a specialist in business websites and digital marketing. As the Grow Online Editor, she ideates, commissions and optimizes content on Expert Market that helps businesses thrive in online spaces and maximize their ecommerce potential. Covering everything from choosing a website builder to scaling a social media marketing strategy - Robyn uses her expertise to help startups, SMBs, and larger businesses realize digital growth in an increasingly competitive landscape.