December 17, 2018

How to choose the right social media monitoring tool

a young woman using a cup phone - social media monitoring tools require you to listen to your consumers

It is no news that the business world is evolving primarily through virtual association and social media marketing. From political agendas to ethical consumerism, our decisions are influenced and overpowered for the good and the bad, mostly by businesses and commercial corporations. How do they do it just by being on the internet? And how can you do that as well? Let’s find out. If you perform a quick search on the social media monitoring tools available in the market, you will be bombarded with dozens of apps. Each will promise you varying usability pertaining to customer reach, targeting, segmentation, and so on.

This article is not going to take you down that route.

We will equip you with the understanding needed to choose a monitoring tool amongst the plethora of choices in the market today. But let’s do it based on the requirement you’re looking to address:

1. Customer profiling

The persona of the consumer base you’re catering to cannot be overstated.

For impactful engagement, they must be categorically profiled based on demographics, interest, background, location, and other determining factors. This is a reverse selling strategy; based on the response the brand receives, one can categorise the profile of persons seeking engagement.

Tools like Alexa, Batchbook, and Brand24 can help you figure just that.

batchbook helps with customer profiling

2. Reach

Brand reach is about assessing the goals you can achieve based on your past performance and present efforts.

Some key monitoring tools that can help you with this are Sprout Social, Simply Measured, and BuzzSumo. They provide you with a holistic overview through the analysis of elements like time spent on each page, impressions, page views, CTR etc.

Sprout Social as a social media monitoring tool

3. Engagement rate

The frequency with which your brand receives mentions, likes, comments, tags, or follows from other social media accounts is considered the social engagement rate.

This insight is pivotal to the establishment and acceleration of your brand’s social presence. Monitoring tools such as Google Analytics, Likealyzer, and Keyhole assist with estimating the rise and fall percentages of your brand’s social engagement.

Likealyzer helps understand engagement rate

4. Tracking

Tracking visitors and prospects has been popular for a while now; it’s achieved by means of cookies on the browser and cache files on your system.

However, since recently, simply signing up on ZOHO Social Media, Union Metrics, or MediaToolKit provides you with a focused and curated collection of data pertaining to user behaviour and brand patronage.

Union Metrics as a social media monitoring tool

These, in turn, work not just as monitoring tools but also as key indicators for brand initiatives and marketing plans.

5. Reporting

As unassuming as it may sound, reporting is the final denominator in the customer acquisition plan – and the first step towards customer retention.

Analytical data showcased through comprehensive illustrations allow us to make decisions based on the present standing of social media initiatives. It prepares marketers and businesses to plan the next sequence of steps in view of the current developments.

The consolidated format in which it showcases the information does more for the long standing of a business than being a mere monitoring tool for marketing.

Try SocialBakers, Sendible, or Oktopost for the same requirement.

social bakers help report as a social media monitoring tool

The bottom line on monitoring tools

We believe that the categories mentioned above — the pit stops of profiling, performance tracking, and finally, reporting and reassessing — summarise the broad diversification of what is needed to run a brand successfully.

The key to utilising social media as a marketing tool is not just about speaking to consumers. It’s also about listening to what they have to say about you, your competing brands, and the industry in general. Once you have the data, you can undertake an analysis and, finally, reach social business intelligence.

Social monitoring tools allow you to capture powerful insights into your customers’ behaviour, competitors’ actions, and the industry influencers’… well, influence. These gathered insights can be used to reconsider your online presence and improve the way consumers perceive your brand; such efforts will transform into brand loyalty sooner or later.

References

1. What is Social Listening, Why it Matters, and 10 Tools to Make it Easier

2. The 13 Best Free Social Media Monitoring Tools for Every Marketing Team

3. 4 Best Tools for Social Listening

4. The Complete Social Listening Guide