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 request quotes directly from social media monitoring service providers.
1. Brandwatch
Brandwatch | |
| Usability | |
| Accessibility | |
| Visual Appeal | |
| Price | $$$$$ |
| Overall | |
| Reviewed by: Expert Market | 01/03/2019 |
Pros:
- ‘Groups’ feature lets you monitor keyword mentions across set websites
- Huge breadth of data captured, from social networks to product reviews
- Tabbed dashboard interface is easy to use
Cons:
- Influencer identification sometimes fooled by Twitter spambots
Verdict
Brandwatch is one seriously powerful social media monitoring service. Flexible filters and customizable reports turn mountains of data into meaningful insights. The service listens in over 44 languages and even understands things like spam and slang.
Fun fact: The team behind Brandwatch consists of about 300 staff working across four time zones.
2. Keyhole
Keyhole | |
| Usability | |
| Accessibility | |
| Visual Appeal | |
| Price | $$$$$ |
| Overall | |
| Reviewed by: Expert Market | 01/03/2019 |
Pros:
- Real time tracking comes in handy for events
- Gathers audience demographic data for deeper insights
- 30-day free trial
Cons:
- Limited Arabic language support
Verdict
Monitoring social media mentions in real time is a breeze with Keyhole. The reasonably-priced tool tracks hashtags, mentions and URLs on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to give you a complete picture of who’s saying what about your brand.
Fun fact: Keyhole's data get frequently cited in the media by organizations such as Reuters, The Guardian and Al Jazeera.
3. Sprout Social
Sprout Social | |
| Usability | |
| Accessibility | |
| Visual Appeal | |
| Price | $$$$$ |
| Overall | |
| Reviewed by: Expert Market | 01/03/2019 |
Pros:
- ‘Smart Inbox’ seamlessly merges social channels
- Clever calendar layout for scheduled posts
- Easy to manage multiple clients social posts
Cons:
- Costs rack up quickly when adding users
Verdict
Sprout Social was named to the Inc. 500 list of the fastest growing companies in the US, and they show no signs of slowing down. Strong analytics features take care of social media monitoring, and built-in publishing tools enable convenient content creation.
Fun fact: Sprout Social’s team numbers 400 people, but the platform serves a whopping 20,000+ brands. Not bad for ten years’ work.
4. Digimind
Digimind | |
| Usability | |
| Accessibility | |
| Visual Appeal | |
| Price | $$$$$ |
| Overall | |
| Reviewed by: Expert Market | 01/03/2019 |
Pros:
- Good mentions with low noise and little loss
- Well-designed dashboard is a doddle to use
- ‘Top Reputation’ feature is unique among tools of this type
Cons:
- Sentiment analysis can still be improved
Verdict
Digimind’s expertise in web analytics dates back to the 1990s. Today, if you’re an SMB that’s looking for detailed search and social insights, there’s no better option.
Fun fact: Digimind’s blog is a goldmine of industry expertise from influencers, brand managers and Digimind’s own clients.
5. Zoho Social
Zoho Social | |
| Usability | |
| Accessibility | |
| Visual Appeal | |
| Price | $$$$$ |
| Overall | |
| Reviewed by: Expert Market | 01/03/2019 |
Pros:
- ‘SmartQ’ feature for detecting best posting times is really useful
- Very reliable and stable platform
- Excellent integration with other Zoho business services
Cons:
- No easy way to see scheduled posts
Verdict
Zoho Social’s social media monitoring service makes it easy to manage your brand and cater to your audience’s interests. Keyword tracking, sentiment analysis and advanced reporting are all included. Plus, built-in publishing means you can create and schedule all your posts in one place.
Fun fact: Zoho boasts a combined 30 million users across all of its business communications platforms.
6. Falcon.io
Falcon.io | |
| Usability | |
| Accessibility | |
| Visual Appeal | |
| Price | $$$$$ |
| Overall | |
| Reviewed by: Expert Market | 01/03/2019 |
Pros:
- Very easy to use
- Tagging content by category is super handy
- Posting to Instagram is easier than with some other tools
Cons:
- No telephone support (but there is web chat)
Verdict
Falcon.io provides an intuitive platform for social media monitoring and management. If you’ve got tons of channels and more than a handful of hashtags to track, it’s definitely worth a look.
Fun fact: Falcon.io was the first social media suite to support advanced Instagram measurement.
7. Buzzsumo
Buzzsumo | |
| Usability | |
| Accessibility | |
| Visual Appeal | |
| Price | $$$$$ |
| Overall | |
| Reviewed by: Expert Market | 01/03/2019 |
Pros:
- ‘Influencer’ feature is fantastic for finding leading voices in your niche
- See all shares for your content at a glance
- Amazing in combination with blogger outreach tools
Cons:
- Weaker backlink analysis than comparable tools
Verdict
Buzzsumo gives you no-frills feedback on how your audience engages with your content. It’s also great at pinpointing powerful influencers for you to add to your customer or client outreach list.
Fun fact: Buzzfeed used Buzzsumo to track the most viral content about the 2017 UK election.
8. Mention
Mention | |
| Usability | |
| Accessibility | |
| Visual Appeal | |
| Price | $$$$$ |
| Overall | |
| Reviewed by: Expert Market | 01/03/2019 |
Pros:
- You can filter out spam sources to cut through the noise
- You can see and document your most successful posts in detail…
- …but the dashboard also gives you the gist at a glance
Cons:
- Price may be a barrier for startups
Verdict
Mention makes social media sleuthing easier than ever with in-depth keyword, hashtag and comment tracking, and detailed demographic breakdowns by source type, location and more.
Fun fact: Unlike Google Alerts, Mention tracks chatter on Facebook and Twitter. Their web app is also much more user friendly.
9. Socialbakers
Socialbakers | |
| Usability | |
| Accessibility | |
| Visual Appeal | |
| Price | $$$$$ |
| Overall | |
| Reviewed by: Expert Market | 01/03/2019 |
Pros:
- Facebook profile analysis offers incredible depth
- There’s YouTube analytics too
- Crisp data visualizations are readymade for reports
Cons:
- Historical Facebook data limited to past 89 days
Verdict
Analytics aficionados will appreciate Socialbakers’ powerful social media monitoring service. The platform covers just about every major social media channel, and has a Facebook Analytics module that delves even deeper than Facebook’s own analytics tools.
Fun fact: Socialbakers has hosted the Engage digital marketing conference every year since 2012.
10. Brand24
Brand24 | |
| Usability | |
| Accessibility | |
| Visual Appeal | |
| Price | $$$$$ |
| Overall | |
| Reviewed by: Expert Market | 01/03/2019 |
Pros:
- Daily email alerts show you mentions by top influencers
- Support team is fast to fix bugs
- Superb customer service in general
Cons:
- No Pinterest tracking
Verdict
Brand24 collects real-time social data faster than you can say ‘customer experience management’. It’s great for tracking buzz around your brand or public interest in new product announcements.
Fun fact: A Brand24 subscription gives you access to discounts on more than a dozen other digital marketing tools, like LiveChat and GetResponse.
11. Hootsuite
Hootsuite | |
| Usability | |
| Accessibility | |
| Visual Appeal | |
| Price | $$$$$ |
| Overall | |
| Reviewed by: Expert Market | 01/03/2019 |
Pros:
- The most complete social listening and publishing suite
- Heaps of free advice on Hootsuite’s blog
- Great audience analytics
Cons:
- Sporadic customer support response times
Verdict
There’s a good reason why more than 15 million people use Hootsuite every day. You won’t be able to live without it after seeing how easy it makes checking your social media feeds, scheduling posts and tracking conversations about your brand.
Fun fact: Hootsuite’s name is inspired by the platform’s owl logo, and is a play on the French phrase ‘tout de suite’ which means ‘right now’.
12. Talkwalker
Talkwalker | |
| Usability | |
| Accessibility | |
| Visual Appeal | |
| Price | $$$$$ |
| Overall | |
| Reviewed by: Expert Market | 01/03/2019 |
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.
