When it comes to making the most of your social media presence, using a powerful social media monitoring tool becomes very necessary. If you are not familiar with the concept of social media listening, this post will have your back.
An overview of social listening
The term “social media listening” refers to the process of monitoring and analyzing social media platforms. This process aims at collecting and assessing the views and feedback of social media users on specific businesses. Social media listening happens when a user or consumer mentions the brand directly or uses relevant keywords in their online discussions. This is the basic level offered by numerous tools. However, there are more efficient ones offering more advanced features such as tracking competition, identifying suitable influencers to represent your brand and keeping an eye on your whole business scene.
After collecting data, tools backed by AI technology take care of analyzing the data. This helps you take proper action regarding what is being said about you, whether it is good or bad. Also, it allows you to improve the content of your social profiles based on the needs and preferences of your fans and customers.
The benefits of social listening
Integrating a powerful social listening tool into your social media management strategy comes with a lot of good. Here are a few benefits that you will get from efficient social listening:
Making your brand look good
For online users, a brand that interacts with their posts, reviews, and even problems is a credible and caring one. And people really like these two features in a brand they are following.
Getting solid information about your growth
Social media listening gives you information based on real feedback from your audience and consumers. So, you can exactly know how satisfied people are with your services and products and vice versa.
When necessary, taking swift action
Sometimes, social media gives an opportunity for anyone to attack any brand. In many cases, the attacks become really huge and negative comments and feedback start to surround your social pages. Social media listening tools can alert you about the presence of negative commentary on social media. This allows your social media team to act fast to contain the issues before they turn into a plague of negative discussions.
How does social listening work?
The mechanism of social media listening tools works in a similar way to mining machines. They integrate with various social platforms to find relevant keywords that you or your competitors use. There are some tools that go beyond social media platforms to any website or customer forums. Your tools do not interact with anything mentioned by customers, but your social media team can. This can happen due to the tool’s ability to notify them once there is a relevant conversation about your brand, competitors, or whole industry. Efficient social listening tools basically collect the words and, through AI techniques, analyze them. Then, words become numbers and data that you can benefit from in analyzing the performance of your business.
Now that you are familiar with the concept of social media listening, it is time for you to know the top 5 social media listening platforms in 2022:
- SentiOne
It is true that SentiOne has not been around for a long time, but it has managed to gain wide success and popularity among thousands of brands all over the world. SentiOne offers 3 packages that can cover different business needs. Also, there is an option for a free trial that helps you judge before you buy. The basic package of SentiOne allows you to collect data about your own business-relevant keywords. Also, you will get insights on direct brand mentions as well as users engaging in related conversations. Another huge benefit of using SentiOne is the historical overview that you can get using the tool. Yes, SentiOne allows you to look back in order to evaluate your past and current performance all together. But, the basic plan doesn’t offer limitless access to older feedback. You can upgrade your plan to get insights dating back to a year ago or more.
SentiOne supports various major social platforms, including TikTok. Due to its international success, the tool shows results in more than 20 languages.
- Social Bakers
This tool uses techniques of AI and social intelligence. Many professional marketers use the tool to take the pulse of their potential and existing audience. The platform makes it possible to track the activity of your business competitors based on their keywords and search phrases. Another great perk of this social listening tool is utilizing AI techniques to boost your marketing strategy through determining the kind of content your audience wants. You can try this tool for free before buying it, but the basic plan costs $200 per month.
- AgoraPulse
It is a tool for mentoring, listening, and managing social media. So, it lets you become fully aware of the latest conversations about your business. The alert service notifies you once there is something about you on social media. Once you get familiar with the tool’s features, you can use it for tracking business competitors and business trends. If you are willing to pay $79 per month, you can get the basic plan. The premium package is available for $399.
- Brand24,
This one provides similar features to fellow monitoring tools within the same budget line. It offers three plans. The starting price is $49 per month. The option of a free version for 14 days is also available. You can rely on Brand24 to know how people react to your brand name. You can also utilize it for competitors’ and influencers’ tracking and identifying.
Hootsuite
Another great contribution to the social media monitoring scene. The tool has been evolving since its launch over a decade ago. For $29 per month, you can get some of its basic features that allow you to get insight into users’ feedback and comments related to your brand. The other two plans are available for $129 and $599 for a monthly subscription. As you upgrade your package, you can take a closer look at your competition’s performance and their audience perception of their brands. Hootsuite offers a generous trial period for free that lasts up to 30 days.