Each day, marketers struggle to catch up with the wild pace of social media trends, and without the right tools, understanding what works and what does not can be daunting.
Enter social media analytics tools - the compass every marketer needs.
Today's business environment calls for brands to keep a pulse on how their content is performing in real-time to determine what's resonating with their audience immediately.
But how can you make sense of the overwhelming amount of data that each post, retweet, or comment generates?
Should you count likes, shares, or every click on your link?
In this blog post, we've rounded up the 12 best social media analytics tools every marketer should consider.
So whether you're a seasoned social media manager looking to up your game or a small business owner trying to dive into the social media battleground, this post is your guide to making informed decisions that can significantly boost your marketing strategy.
Let's get started.
What Are Social Media Analytics?
Social media analytics collects, analyses, and interprets data from social media platforms. This data enables businesses to measure the performance of their social strategies, learn about their audience, and improve their engagement with followers.
Businesses can track key performance indicators (KPIs) to understand which posts generate the most engagement, identify trends, and see how competitors perform.
These insights empower companies to make informed decisions, optimize their marketing tactics, and allocate resources more efficiently. In essence, social media analytics is a roadmap guiding businesses to effectively maximize their social media presence.
Why Do You Need Social Media Analytics Tools?
As businesses continue to integrate social media into their marketing strategies, the importance of social media analytics tools becomes more apparent. Let's take a closer look at why these tools are so critical:
- Understanding Your Audience: Analytics tools provide valuable insights into your audience's demographics, behaviors, and preferences, helping you tailor your content and strategies to meet their needs and interests.
- Competitor Analysis: These tools allow you to monitor your competitor's activities, interaction with the audience, and overall performance. Comparing your performance metrics with your competitors lets you identify your strengths and areas needing improvement.
- Measuring ROI: Using analytics tools, you can gauge the effectiveness of your social media campaigns by calculating your return on investment. This helps justify your marketing spend and informs future budget allocation.
- Identifying Optimal Post Times: Analytics tools can track engagement rates at different times and days, helping you to optimize your posting schedule and increase the reach and impact of your content.
- Tracking Performance Over Time: These tools allow for monitoring performance trends over time, providing a holistic view of your social media strategy's effectiveness and its long-term impact on business goals.
In short, social media analytics tools are indispensable for businesses aiming for successful, data-driven social media marketing strategies.
Top 12 Social Media Analytics Tools for Marketers
Here are the 12 best social media analytics tools to help you understand your audience and optimize your marketing efforts.
1. Highperformr
Highperformr is a unique Social CRM platform leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance social engagement and fuel growth. It is designed to help entrepreneurs, creators, and businesses establish and expand their social presence.
Paid or Free:
Highperformr offers two plans tailored to different users' needs:
Free Plan: Ideal for individuals and small businesses starting their social media management journey, this plan includes essential tools at no cost. Users can manage one Twitter account and enjoy unlimited post scheduling, drafts, AI-generated tweet templates, tweet ideas generation, focused writing mode, and calendar view.
$18/month Plan: Designed for professionals and businesses looking to elevate their social media presence, this plan offers advanced publishing, analytics, and engagement tools. In addition to Free Plan features, it includes detailed analytics, smart automations (automated replies, thread scheduling, and thread timing control), advanced AI capabilities, enhanced tweet templates, and cross-platform engagement (coming soon).
Choose the plan that best fits your requirements to manage and optimize your social media presence effectively.
Key Features:
Data-Driven Insights
Highperformr don't just feed you raw numbers. In contrast, it processes the latest trends and provides the salient insights you need daily, weekly, and monthly. This allows you to shape a strategy corresponding to your social media goals.
With a focus on Twitter analytics, Highperformr digs deep to understand what makes your audience engage with your content. It identifies the most engaging types of content, and highlights the optimal times when your followers are active on the platform. This ensures that you know how to craft your messages and when to post for maximum exposure and engagement.
Highperformr's reporting features help visualize your performance data with easy-to-read reports that can be customized to focus on the metrics that matter most to you. With a clear, concise presentation of your insights, you can track progress and make data-driven decisions to improve your social media presence further.
Content Generation
With the help of a dynamic virtual AI coach, the platform refines and evolves your initial content ideas while maintaining the unique style and tone that represent your online persona.
Post Scheduling
Highperformr offers the flexibility to schedule your content according to your preferred time and format. This feature facilitates both individual posts and threads, ensuring consistent and timely content publication.
Engagement Automation
By ensuring that your viewers encounter your content at peak times, Highperformr amplifies your engagement rates and circumvents the hazard of repeated content, making every piece as fresh and appealing as possible.
Safe Social Engagement
Highperformer shows the pathway to safe online interactions by advising you on the entities that are worth engaging with and those on whom your time would be better not spent.
Best for:
Highperformr is best for entrepreneurs, creators, and businesses looking to enhance their social media presence using intelligent, data-driven tools.
2. Sprout Social
Sprout Social is a powerful social media management and analytics tool that allows businesses to streamline their social media activity, engage with their audience more effectively, and generate better results from their social media campaigns.
Paid or Free:
Sprout Social doesn't offer a free plan, but it does provide a 30-day free trial. After the trial period, users can choose from three paid plans: Standard, Professional, and Advanced.
Key Features:
- Comprehensive social media management
- Detailed analytics and reporting
- Content planning and publishing
- Social listening and engagement tools
- Customer relationship management (CRM) features
Best for:
Sprout Social is best for businesses and organizations that rely heavily on social media for marketing and customer engagement. Its extensive features cater to many needs, from small businesses to marketing professionals to large enterprises with complex social media requirements.
3. Hootsuite
Hootsuite is a popular social media management platform that simplifies the process of scheduling, publishing, monitoring, and analyzing social media content across various channels.
Paid or Free:
Hootsuite offers a limited free plan and various paid plans (Professional, Team, Business, and Enterprise) depending on the size and needs of the business.
Key Features:
- Unified social media dashboard
- Multi-platform scheduling and publishing
- Social media monitoring and analytics
- Collaborative tools for teams
- Third-party app integration
Best for:
Hootsuite is suitable for individuals, small businesses, and large enterprises looking to manage their social media presence, save time on scheduling, and gain actionable insights from their social media efforts.
4. Zoho Social
Zoho Social is a robust social media management platform designed to help businesses manage their social channels, monitor audience interactions, schedule posts, and analyze performance.
Paid or Free:
Zoho Social offers a 15-day free trial, after which users can opt for one of their paid plans, namely Standard, Professional, or Premium.
Key Features:
- Social media management across multiple channels
- Smart Scheduler for posts
- Real-time monitoring and analytics
- Collaborative workspace for teams
- Integration with Zoho's CRM
Best for:
Zoho Social is best for small to medium-sized businesses already using Zoho's suite of apps. Still, it can also be a powerful tool for any size of businesses looking to streamline their social media management and track analytics effectively.
5. Sendible
Sendible is a comprehensive social media management tool focused on enhancing growing agencies and teams' efficiency and online presence.
Paid or Free:
Sendible comes with a 14-day free trial; thereafter, businesses can choose from four different paid plans: Starter, Traction, Growth, and Large, each designed to cater to different business sizes and needs.
Key Features:
- Unified social media dashboard for quick access and management.
- Support major platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Google My Business.
- Real-time monitoring enables immediate response to comments and messages.
- In-depth reporting to make data-driven decisions.
- Provision of white-label software for businesses to customize according to their brands.
Best for:
Sendible is ideally suited for growing agencies and teams seeking an efficient solution to manage their online presence, streamline workflows, and drive engagement through social media. Whether you're a solo marketer or a part of a larger team, Sendible can help you save time, maintain consistent communication, and further cultivate your brand image.
6. Keyhole
Keyhole is a real-time social media analytics tool that tracks keyword and hashtag, helping companies monitor their brand presence, campaigns, and events on social media.
Paid or Free:
Keyhole offers a free trial for users to experience the service. After the trial period, users can select a range of paid plans that suit their business needs.
Key Features:
- Real-time hashtag and keyword tracking.
- Influencer identification and tracking.
- In-depth analytics and reporting.
- Predictive analytics for future trends.
- Competition tracking and comparison.
Best for:
Keyhole is ideal for businesses, marketers, and agencies intending to up their social media game. Its comprehensive analytics capabilities suit those looking to fine-tune their social media strategy through data-driven insights.
7. BuzzSumo
BuzzSumo is a research and monitoring tool that helps users discover engaging content, identify key influencers, and track competitors' content performance.
Paid or Free:
BuzzSumo offers a free version with limited capabilities. For advanced features, users can choose from various paid plans: Pro, Plus, Large, and Enterprise.
Key Features:
- Content discovery based on popularity and engagement.
- Influencer identification to boost brand exposure.
- Social media monitoring and alert system.
- Competitor analysis and comparison.
- Content analysis with comprehensive reporting.
Best for:
BuzzSumo is an excellent tool for businesses, marketers, and content creators seeking to enhance their content marketing strategy, track social engagement, identify interactions with key influencers, and monitor competitive landscapes. It aids in crafting content that resonates with the audience, driving engagement, and improving overall marketing performance.
8. Rival IQ
Rival IQ is a social media analytics tool designed to help businesses track their performance, understand their audience, and monitor their competition's actions.
Paid or Free:
Rival IQ offers a 14-day free trial. After the trial, users can select from several paid plans that suit their operational needs and budget.
Key Features:
- Social media and SEO analytics.
- Competitor benchmarking.
- Social post scheduling and publishing.
- Hashtag and keyword tracking.
- Customizable reporting and alerts.
Best for:
Rival IQ suits businesses, marketers, and brands looking to improve their social media and SEO endeavors. Through monitoring performance, uncovering competitor strategies, and identifying audience preferences, users can formulate more effective and data-driven marketing strategies.
9. Tailwind
Tailwind is a social media scheduling tool primarily focusing on visual platforms like Pinterest and Instagram. It helps businesses plan, schedule, and automatically post content across these platforms.
Paid or Free:
Tailwind offers a free trial with limited features. After the trial, users can opt for separate paid plans for Pinterest and Instagram to unlock all features.
Key Features:
- Scheduling and automatic posting of posts.
- Smart Schedule for optimal posting times.
- Analytics to track profile, board, and Pin performance.
- Tailwind Tribes to connect you with like-minded content creators.
- Instagram Bio Link Tool to drive traffic from Instagram.
Best for:
Tailwind is best for bloggers, small businesses, and marketers who heavily rely on visual content and wish to streamline their content scheduling on Instagram and Pinterest. It's beneficial for those looking to reach their audience at optimal times while being part of a supportive content-sharing network.
10. Audiense
Audiense is an innovative social marketing platform designed to help businesses understand their audiences, identify target segments, and construct effective engagement strategies.
Paid or Free:
Audiense offers a free version with limited capabilities. More advanced features, suitable for larger enterprises, are available with Audiense Connect and Audiense Insights paid plans.
Key Features:
- In-depth audience insights to understand audience behavior and preferences.
- Segmentation tools to target specific groups.
- Social media listening for real-time tracking of trends and conversations.
- Influencer identification to enhance reach and engagement.
- Campaign planning and execution tools.
Best for:
Audiense is ideal for brands, marketers, and agencies seeking to elevate their social media engagement and marketing strategies. Audiense provides businesses with insightful data about their audience and enables precise targeting, making it possible to tailor strategies for maximum engagement.
11. Quintly
Quintly is a social media analytics platform that helps businesses track, benchmark, and optimize their social media performance across various major platforms.
Paid or Free:
Quintly offers a free trial, and after the trial period, users can choose from a range of paid plans according to their requirements.
Key Features:
- Comprehensive analytics dashboard for multiple social media platforms.
- Competitive benchmarking for performance comparison.
- Customizable reporting and automated report delivery.
- Data integration with API access.
- Influencer analytics and identification.
Best for:
Quintly is well-suited for businesses, agencies, and marketers focused on improving their social media strategies by leveraging powerful data insights and competitive benchmarking. With extensive platform coverage and customizable reporting, Quintly allows users to track, analyze, and fine-tune their approach to social media marketing.
12. SparkToro
SparkToro is an audience intelligence tool that aids in discovering where your audience spends time online, helping you target your marketing more effectively.
Paid or Free:
SparkToro offers limited free searches for users. It offers three paid tiers for more comprehensive usage: Basic, Starter, and Unlimited.
Key Features:
- Audience behavior analysis reveals where your audience spends time online.
- Comprehensive data on sources that influence your audience.
- Identification of popular trends, hashtags, and accounts among your target audience.
- Detailed analytics about your audience's demographics and interests.
- Broad database covering millions of social profiles and websites.
Best for:
SparkToro is ideal for marketers, SEO experts, PR professionals, entrepreneurs, and anyone looking to understand their audience's behavior, interests, and online presence. The more you know where your audience spends time online, the better you can market your products and services.
How do you choose a social media analytics tool?
Choosing the right social media analytics tool is crucial for the success of your marketing strategy. The ideal tool should provide insightful data about your audience, offer competitive analysis, and help you craft effective engagement strategies.
Here's a step-by-step guide on how to choose a social media analytics tool:
1. Identify your needs and goals
Before exploring different tools, have a clear idea of what you need. Do you want detailed insights about your audience? Are you focused on tracking your competitors? Do you prioritize content scheduling? Your specific needs should dictate which features are essential in your chosen tool.
2. Consider the social platforms you use
Some tools work best with specific social platforms. For example, a tool like Tailwind would be a good fit if you are heavily focused on visual platforms like Instagram and Pinterest. Tools like Quintly or Audiense might be a better choice if your marketing spans multiple social media platforms.
3. Understand your budget
While some tools offer free limited versions, you need to go for paid plans to access all features. Understand what each tool provides at different pricing levels and decide what's worth investing in.
4. Check the ease of use
A complex tool may hinder your productivity. Always check if the tool is user-friendly. If possible, take advantage of free trials to see if you find the interface intuitive and the tool easy to navigate.
5. Look for scalability
As your business grows, your needs might change, and the amount of data you need to process can significantly increase. Be sure to choose a tool that can scale with your business.
This will help you avoid having to switch to a new tool in the future.
6. Review the quality of customer support
Good customer support can make a world of difference. Check if the tool provides support through channels that work best for you, like chat support, phone support, or email.
7. Check if it offers integration with other tools
Integration with other marketing software you use can facilitate smoother workflows. For example, some social media analytics tools integrate with CRM software to provide a more holistic view of customer behavior.
Also, read reviews from current users to gauge their experiences, and consider trying a demo or free trial before making your decision. Keep in mind that there is no one-size-fits-all tool. The best tool will always be the one that meets your specific needs and fits comfortably within your budget.
How Can You Use Social Media Analytics Tools to Grow Your Business?
Social media analytics tools can provide valuable insights and data to grow your business by enhancing your marketing strategy, improving audience engagement, and staying ahead of the competition. Here's how you can use social media analytics tools to grow your business:
1. Understand your audience
Analytics tools help you gain detailed insights into your audience's demographics, preferences, and behaviors. Use this information to create targeted, relevant content that resonates with your audience, which can lead to increased engagement, brand loyalty, and conversions.
2. Track and measure performance
Using analytics tools, track the essentials of a social media report: key performance indicators (KPIs) such as engagement, reach, and growth over time. Monitoring these metrics allows you to measure the success of your social media campaigns, making it easier to refine your strategy and optimize your content for better results.
3. Evaluate the effectiveness of your content
Social media analytics tools can reveal the types of content your audience prefers and engages with the most. By analyzing the performance of individual posts, you can identify trends and patterns that can inform your future content strategy, ultimately driving higher engagement rates.
4. Identify the best time to post
Analyzing when your audience is most active can help you schedule posts so that the greatest number of people sees them. Many analytics tools have features like "smart scheduling" or "keyword optimization," which automate this process.
5. Analyze your competition
Many tools offer competitor analysis and benchmarking. Keeping an eye on your competitors' strategies can help you identify areas of improvement in your own campaigns, compare your performance, and uncover tactics or content types that are working well in your industry.
6. Amplify reach through influencers
Analytics tools can help you identify key influencers in your industry who have a significant following. A collaborative strategy with influencers can expand your brand's reach, helping you tap into new audiences.
7. Monitor and manage your online reputation
Listen to what your audience says about your brand by tracking mentions, conversations, and sentiment analysis. Use these insights to tailor your communication, address customer concerns, and improve your brand image.
8. Set and track benchmarks
Establish benchmarks for your social media performance and track them over time. Analyzing your progress transparently can guide your marketing decisions and keep you on track toward your business goals.
Conclusion
In conclusion, social media analytics tools are indispensable for today's marketers. They provide valuable insights into audience behavior, help measure the performance of marketing campaigns, and aid in identifying growth opportunities. Each of the twelve tools we discussed offers unique features and benefits, catering to diverse needs and business scales.
Whether you're a small business, a blogger, or a large organization, you will find a solution from this curated list that aligns perfectly with your social media marketing objectives. However, always ensure that you assess your requirements, medium of focus, budget, and scalability before deciding on the tool that best fits your needs.
An effective social media analytics tool does not just measure your success; it guides you towards achieving it. And the key to a successful social media strategy lies in understanding your audience; these tools are designed to help you do just that.
