02/09/2021
Do you know what time of day to post on Facebook to generate the most engagement? Or what kind of Instagram posts generate the most traffic to your website?
Social media without analytics is like Bonnie without Clyde, Tom without Jerry, Mickie without Minnie… you get the picture. One doesn’t work without the other.
Analytics tools are key for any marketer, from being able to schedule social media posts, to analysing how well they perform afterwards, they make the day-to-day running of these accounts run smoothly.
However, as social media platforms have grown over the years, the number of different tools available to analyse these platforms have soared.
Just a few years ago, you could probably name a few of the biggest tools out there. But now, it seems a new tool enters the online marketplace every other day. It’s hard to keep up!
The question is, which one is best suited for your brand and social media strategy? That’s where we come in. We’ve narrowed it down to the top 10 social media analytics tools to help you decide which is best for you.
Google Analytics isn’t technically a social media analytics tool, but it’s one of the best ways of monitoring your social media activity and can even help you measure your return on investment. If you already have a website, then chances are you’ve already set up Google Analytics.
Pros:
– It can generate reports that solely present you with social media data.
– You can see how much traffic each social media platform generates for your website.
Cons:
– Google Analytics won’t help you understand why visitors are doing certain things.
– It isn’t ideal for creating marketing reports.
Pricing:
Free
Social Media Platforms:
All
There aren’t many social media specialists that aren’t aware of Hootsuite. Everyone knows this tool as a social media automation and publishing tool. But it also provides users with social media analytics so they can see which type of content performs best and on what platforms.
Pros:
– Great if you’re looking for a tool that integrates both social media management and analytics in one place.
– Allows you to schedule content and manage it.
– Works with over 100 third-party apps.
Cons:
– Can be quite complicated to use.
Pricing:
Professional Plan: £39 per month
Team Plan: £99 per month
Business Plan: £520 per month
Enterprise Plan: contact Hootsuite for pricing
Social Media Platforms:
Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest
Sprout Social allows you to create social media calendars in advance, schedule and publish posts and watch users have conversations on social media. They also offer an agency programme, where they provide strategy advice, reporting templates and expose them to major brands that already use it.
Pros:
– Easy to automate posts and schedule for an exact time.
Cons:
– One of the more expensive social analytics tools.
Pricing:
Standard Plan: $89 per user/month
Professional Plan: $149 per user/month
Advanced Plan: $249 per user/month
Social Media Platforms:
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Google Analytics
Later is a social marketing platform, most often used for Instagram. It’s an Instagram partner, making it a great choice for scheduling and publishing content on this platform. The tool allows you to do anything from schedule posts, videos and Stories, to see posts and Stories analytics.
You can also share your content plan with others, which is handy for team members.
Pros:
– Great for Instagram.
– Affordable prices, with a free version available too.
Cons:
– Only business Instagram profiles can auto-publish. If your account isn’t a business one, you will get a notification when your post needs to be published.
Pricing:
Starter: $12.50 per month
Growth: $20.83 per month
Advanced: $33.33 per month
Social Media Platforms:
Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, LinkedIn
Iconosquare is a brilliant platform to track everything to do with Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. This includes communities, where followers are coming from, what type of content followers are engaging with, the performance of hashtags and even what impact filters are having. And, they even have a brilliant feature that allows users to perform audits on their social media pages.
Major brands such as National Geographic, Premier League and IKEA use this platform for their social media analytics.
Pros:
– Can manage multiple profiles from one dashboard, making it easy to use.
– Allows you to select competitors to compare your analytics to.
– Reports are easy to share with clients.
Cons:
– The set-up process can be difficult.
Pricing:
Pro Plan: £49 per month
Advanced: £79 per month
Enterprise Plan: £139
Social Media Platforms:
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn
This analytics tool is unlike any other that we have included in this blog. Buzzsumo doesn’t look at a brand’s social media presence or performance. Instead, it analyses how content from a website performs when it is shared on social media.
It’s quite surprising that there aren’t any other tools that solely focus on this when you consider the fact that the most popular way that website content gets spread is by using social media.
Pros:
– Unlike many other analytics tools.
– Shows the number of social shares that a piece of content gets and also shows what type of content performs best on which platform and at what time of day.
– Has over 50 features that help you find good content on the web, from what’s trending to top authors.
Cons:
– Expensive.
– Influencer insights are mostly limited to Twitter.
Pricing:
Pro Plan: $99 Per Month
Plus Plan: $179 Per Month
Large Plan: $299 Per Month
Enterprise: Get in touch
Social Media Platforms:
Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Twitter
Ever since influencer marketing disrupted the social media landscape, it has continued to grow from strength to strength. So, it comes as no surprise that there is a growing need for influencer marketing analytics tools.
TapInfluence is the most comprehensive tool on the internet that allows brands to research prospective influencers that they want to work with, together with tracking their past campaign performance. This is a particularly great feature, as it allows brands to drill down whether a specific influencer is suitable for a campaign or not. If influencer marketing is part of your overall social media strategy, then you need to be using this tool.
Pros:
– Brands can use filters and criteria to narrow down the best influencers for them from TapInfluence’s huge database.
– Payments and legal documents can be sorted out all in one place.
Cons:
– Difficult to use for beginners.
Pricing:
Upon request
Social Media Platforms:
Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook
Socialbakers is a social media analytics tool that lets users benchmark their performance against their competitors and report on their entire social media activities.
Unlike other social media analytics tools, Socialbakers uses Artificial Intelligence to identify target audiences on social media and what influencers they engage with the most.
Pros:
– Offers detailed analytics about Instagram influencers.
– Large database.
Cons:
– Expensive in comparison to other social media tools.
– Can only monitor one social network at a time.
Pricing:
Essential Plan: £150/£300 per month
The Complete Socialbakers Platform: Price on request
Social Media Platforms:
Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and Instagram
With Keyhole, you can track and measure social media campaigns, monitor competitors, identify and analyse influencers and conduct market research by looking at what your target audience is talking about on social media.
This tool also shows you when your followers are the most active, and when they engage the most with your content which can come in handy when planning your social media calendars.
Pros:
– Comes with a free trial.
– Easy to use and visually appealing.
Cons:
– Top features are only included in the highest plans.
Pricing:
Get in touch to create a custom plan
Social Media Platforms:
Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, YouTube, TikTok
Followerwonk is a social media analytics tool that only specialises in Twitter. It helps you compare competitor’s Twitter pages and which of your followers have the highest follower count.
It also lets you see when your followers are the most active, what tweets they engage the most with and where they are located.
Pros:
– Can be used to compare a range of Twitter profiles.
– You can see when your followers are most active.
– Has free features.
Cons:
– Can only be used for Twitter.
Pricing:
Connect Plan: Free
Target Plan: $29 Per Month
Multitask Plan: $79 Per Month
Social Media Platforms:
Twitter
With social media analytics tools, there really isn’t a “one size fits all” option. It is best to evaluate precisely how you use social media for your business and what your objectives are. That way, you can select the best tools that are best suited to your requirements. We hope this blog has helped you narrow down which tools would be best for you!
