By Mashum Mollah
It was critical to start this article with probably one of the most seminal quotes on branding. In the last few years, social media has emerged as a powerful branding platform for millions of businesses all over the globe.
Even though most businesses are parts of social media platforms, it is only a handful for a few, which are able to make a real impact. This is possible owing to the hidden potential these brands use: the power of social listening or monitoring tools to analyze their performance.
In this article, we will discuss how social media monitoring tools can help optimize the social media performance of a brand. We analyze some of the best tools on the market and evaluate their pros and cons.
What is Social Media Monitoring?
Social media monitoring is the process of understanding what different types of audiences are saying on social media pages. In other words, brands who take help from social media monitoring has the opportunity to:
- Know what kind of content works best (images, videos, GIFs, etc.);
- Figure out where their target audience located and what people search for;
- Create social media optimized, targeted and high ROI driven campaigns;
- Be aware of the presence of “brand name” (brand mentions) on different platforms;
- Save money and engage in cost-cutting mechanisms on strategies and campaigns that don’t offer good returns.
There is a slight difference between social media monitoring tools and social listening tools. While social media monitoring tools assist with past data, listening tools are in the moment kind of software. They are active, dynamic and work in real-time. The key to a good and successful social media strategy is careful listening to what users are saying about your brand.
Without understanding users’ behavior and the type of content they are receptive to, no brand can hope to be successful on social media.
As I have already stated before, most brands know the advantages of being on social media. Going along with changing algorithms, they simply don’t know how to optimize their social media presence correctly. This factor prevents from engaging with the target audience, building credibility and reputation. This in its turn has a direct effect on sales and revenue figures.
What kind of data can the Social Media Monitoring Tools monitor?
Social media monitoring tools are as relevant to your business as your social media profile. Considering increased competition in the industry, every brand should attempt to stand out.
The best social media monitoring tools can help you:
- Find out about the hottest trends in your industry niche
- Help you find what your competitors are doing (competitor mentions)
- Find out about trending hashtags that are relevant to your industry
- Provide to you all information about your brand mentions on multiple social profiles
If you really want to catch the pulse of the audience, you need to find access to mentioned above four types of data. YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Telegram and Search are some of the platforms on which the best social media monitoring tools work.
What are some of the Social Media Monitoring Tools in the Market?
There are quite a few software companies that had ventured into creating powerful and insightful social media monitoring tools. here are some major differences between them, in terms of their offerings, price points and the information on offer.
In my over ten plus years of experience in the social media industry, there are many tools and software that have come and gone. In 2019, brands like You Scan, Brand24 and Famm.io are some of the biggest players when it comes to social media monitoring.
While You Scan can help you with both, namely, monitoring and reputation management, the data and insights are not as great as the others. For starters, there is a huge communication gap; for example, YouScan’s website is in Russian. Google Translate is possible as an alternative option, but it does not offer the same UI and UX. Besides, if you are someone who is not from the Eastern European region, YouScan might be the best choice.
Brand24 would be another company whose social media monitoring tool is pretty talked about. Backed by an aggressive digital marketing campaign, they have tried to spread their brand through a heavy influencer marketing strategy. If you’re one of those users who appreciates data and analytics, in this case, Brand24 is going to meet your expectations. Although for most of us, too much data amounts to lower levels of actionable plans.
The last tool on the list is Famm.io. Personally, I am someone who wants data and analytics to be presented in the least complicated way possible. I am assuming all creative guys, copywriters, designers and art directors (the ones who actually work on your social media account) are quite similar to me. Famm.io’s biggest advantage is the way they present important data and analytics.
Source: Famm.io
If you want the above-mentioned people to help with data and insights, Famm.io’s UI and UX would be the simplest, easiest and most attractive of all three. This coupled with the potency of the data at hand. It pulls brand mentions out of more than five social media platforms and search engines. Given the affordable nature of the tool, it’s not that hard to see, why it has emerged as a leader when it comes to social media monitoring.
In addition to mentions, you can also find out about Content Creators in your niche. You’re free to look up Research Sources and find out what your competitors are doing.
Conclusion
A social media strategy without a data-driven strategic approach is bound to end up in failure. The best social media monitoring tools help you carve your social media strategy in the most effective fashion possible. But you should always ensure that the presentation of data is done in a lucid and easy to understand manner.
Let me know what do you think about the article in the comments section below. Feel free to reach out to me in case of any clarifications.
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