12 Social Media Monitoring Tools Reviewed
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After several months of researching, testing, and using various tools for social media monitoring and response, I thought it might be helpful to share some of my findings. It was fun to dive into these tools, but I hope the information in this article will save you time and help you quickly find the tool that’s right for your needs.
Why Bother Monitoring Social Media?
Even if you or your clients have "decided" not to actively participate in social media, it’s really not a choice. Nature abhors a vacuum, and so does social media. Either you can fill the vacuum with your perspective, or your customers and competitors will fill it for you. The choice is clear.
Monitoring helps with branding and marketing and can help identify quality control or customer care problems that may have gone unnoticed.
Monitoring is only one piece of the puzzle, however. It’s important to find out who is saying what, and where the conversation is happening so you can respond appropriately.
Terminology
There are few terms you’ll need to be familiar with before we talk about the tools, so let’s take a moment to cover them before we jump into the details.
Influence
If you find there are customers who have a strong opinion of your brand, it’s important to understand the influence of those customers.
- How many followers do they have?
- Do they get retweets?
- How many external links point to their blog?
- How many comments do their blog posts attract?
Several of the free tools listed below include this measurement to assist in your monitoring and response efforts. All of the paid options include it.
Sentiment
Are the comments positive or negative? Most current tools attempt to assign sentiment to a post automatically. While this is helpful for brands with tons of mentions, it’s only about 70% accurate in most cases[1], so manual verification and spot-checking is encouraged across the board before making any decisions based on influence data.
Volume
This is simply the amount of "buzz" that exists. Many monitoring tools give the ability to chart volume for specific keywords over time. This gives you a great way to measure the impact of your marketing efforts and social media campaigns, especially when combined with sentiment. A lot can be learned about your brand and your customers by investigating spikes in social media volumes.
Workflow
Workflow is the process of assigning, tracking and responding to social media, typically in a team environment. An effective workflow can prevent double responses and missed opportunities.
Now that we have an understanding of the purpose and the terminology surrounding social media monitoring, let’s take a look at some tools that can help you monitor your presence.
1. Google Alerts
An oldie but a goodie! Google Alerts allows you to set up keyword searches for the name of your company or competitors, for example, and receive updates in your email inbox or through an RSS feed.
When combined with iGoogle, you can create a pretty nice consolidated page that contains the latest findings for your selected keywords. When it comes to monitoring social media, this is the least you should be doing; it’s free and an absolute snap to set up.
2. Twitter Advanced Search
By using the advanced features in Twitter’s search tool, you can use simple Boolean logic (true or false conditions) to perform some pretty powerful searches.
Once you set up your search, you can save the query as an RSS feed so you can keep up to date on the latest news.
3. Icerocket
Used by many, Icerocket helps you keep watch over Twitter, blogs, web, news, images and more. Features include a topic cloud and basic listing of mentions. This social media monitoring tool also offers the ability to bookmark your search results for later reference.
Although helpful, some users might find the interface and the style of the search results pages a little archaic compared to the other options.
4. Addict-o-matic
This tool is a consolidated page with search matches across blogs, Twitter, Digg, Flickr and more. Featuring an appealing interface and one-page dashboard, Addict-o-matic is one of the best free tools available for summarizing all your "buzz" in one place.
5. Boardtracker
Boardtracker focuses on grabbing "buzz" from message boards and forums. Features include a topic cloud and influencer list. There are ads mixed in with your search results which may turn off some users. A premium version is offered. If your target customers are more active on message boards than other channels, this could be the right tool for you.
6. Twazzup
Of the Twitter-focused monitoring tools I’ve come across, Twazzup does a great job of getting everything on one page. Sentiment, top links, and influencers are available.
The ranking of influencers, however, seems a little mysterious. A quick check of Klout scores on profiles for a few key topics didn’t reflect a high level of influence, so Twazzup must be using a different calculation.
7. Social Mention
This social media monitoring tool features an interesting combination of easy-to-read metrics including reach, sentiment, passion, and strength (volume/day). Social Mention tracks blogs, blog comments, Twitter, mainstream news, images, video, and audio. Searches can be saved as an RSS feed so you can easily stay up-to-date.
8. HootSuite
HootSuite is a popular tool that can be used to manage multiple accounts across Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, WordPress, Foursquare and LinkedIn. Although HootSuite could be categorized as an account management tool rather than a monitoring tool, I believe it deserves mention here because of its large user base and powerful functionality.
You can push updates to one or more profiles, track click-through, deploy timed updates, monitor your social media buzz across multiple web services, and assign tasks among team members based on roles. If you use HootSuite, you’ll want to use an additional tool to supplement monitoring of forums and blogs. HootSuite apps for both iPhone and Android are available.
9. Seesmic
If you try HootSuite, you’ll find the interface of Seesmic fairly familiar. The similarity doesn’t end there. They also share the capability to manage multiple accounts across all the popular social media outlets. Seesmic gives up some ground to HootSuite, however, on the team collaboration and workflow front.
10. TweetDeck
Another account management tool, TweetDeck is available as an application for Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhone and iPad. You can use TweetDeck to manage profiles across Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Foursquare and Google Buzz. If you’ve used the other tools on this list, the multi-column format will feel familiar.
TweetDeck is lacking a good workflow, so it is not for those who will be collaborating with a team. In addition, because it needs to be installed on your system instead of being able to run in a Web browser, many people won’t be able to use it in a secure corporate environment.
11. Scoutlabs ($249/mo)
Scoutlabs has a great clean interface and overall excellent features for volume trending, sentiment-tracking, learning about key quotes (based on sentiment), and managing workflow for response management. Unlimited results helps protect you from increased monthly cost due to unexpected spikes in volume.
It’s a great option for agencies and freelancers because you can give clients access to a dashboard with your logo on it, branding the service as your own. Note that it can be a challenge to output some graphs and reports which may be an issue if you want to produce reports for your clients.
12. Radian6 ($500/mo)
Radian6 is a powerhouse that gives you the ability to slice-and-dice your data until your head spins. Integrated workflow, alerts, sentiment, monitoring across blogs, forums, news, Twitter, and more is what this social media monitoring tool has to offer.
The amount of monthly volume can influence pricing which is a little scary for companies that may experience wild swings in monthly volume. This is not the type of solution you should set up and hand over to your clients; it provides you with a wealth of information so you can become the go-to expert for them. If you invest the time to learn this tool, you can discover insights that will make you a hero to your clients.
References
Related Content
- How Social Media Works and the Role of the Intelligent User
- Make the Most Out of Social Media
- 12 Excellent Social News Sites for Web Designers
- Related categories: Tools and Website Management
About the Author
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33 Comments
Mark Evans
July 31st, 2010
Jason,
Have you taken a look at Sysomos, which offers two social media monitoring services: Heartbeat (monitoring and measurement) and MAP (analytics and in-depth reporting)? If you’d like a demo, let me know.
Mark
Director of Communications
Sysomos Inc.
SHRINK
July 31st, 2010
Thanks for the great post… so many useful options. Have you tried SocialOomph or CoTweet? We currently use those, but are in the market for others.
Kaushik
July 31st, 2010
I would like to add Topsy http://topsy.com/ and Ubervu http://www.ubervu.com/ for Twitter monitoring.
With Topsy you can use search operator “site:domain-name” to search within a domain, exactly the same way we do on Google. Results can be sorted by tweets and within time frames.
Ubervu is an Analytic tool which is useful for further analysis.
Sachin
July 31st, 2010
thanks for this useful post…i have used few of these but many are new…thanks a lot
Jeff Schoolcraft
July 31st, 2010
One of the things we focused on when we built BrandPulse (http://getbrandpulse.com) was workflow. We saw social media monitoring as a two step process: 1. triage, 2. treatment. It works well on your own or if you have a staff to support you.
In the triage phase you quickly run through your search results ticking off the ones you need to deal with, good or bad or otherwise.
In the treatment phase, maybe when you have a bit more time or perspective, you hit the dashboard and start processing results.
Murlu
July 31st, 2010
Excellent collection of tools.
Don’t forget to not only keep track of the positive talk but also negative for if or when you need to do damage control hehe
leaflette
July 31st, 2010
Jason Schubring you have compiled a very nice list of tools. and saving my time for these kind of trend nowadays.
Thanks, and yes, you can use Twitterfeed.com as well, colaborate with your feedburner account. :)
Kristof
July 31st, 2010
Hi Jason – Thanks for the post. I like to reco taking a look at TweetReports. A free Twitter search (with extensive results) with advanced analytics and reporting for paid accounts. Has a free trial and even free accounts have cool features.
Sam
July 31st, 2010
You should check out http://www.actionly.com, it’s a great Social Media dashboard that tracks Google Buzz, Twitter, Facebook, News, Blogs, Flickr and Youtube. Plans start at only $125/mo and you can export all the data in excel. Very easy to navigate dashboard.
Connie Bensen
August 1st, 2010
Hi Jason,
We have the Alterian SM2 which aggregates all the sources (Twitter, Facebook, blogs & even LinkedIn). Then you can see the influence, sentiment, volume and workflow for all of the conversations across all the channels.
There is a Freemium version to try at http://alteriansm2.com and also a professional version. I have also written 6 white papers on the ROI of monitoring social media. They can be found there also.
Thanks for helping inform people that listening is a ‘must’.
Connie Bensen
Director of Community Strategy, Alterian
@cbensen
katchja
August 1st, 2010
This is a really good selection actually, there are plenty of other apps and tools that may help and that one may use to additionally to the 12 ones presented here. I would be really curious to meet more people who do use Radian (which is a bit overpriced – I guess).
Gilbert L
August 1st, 2010
Another nifty socil media tool is Kurrently (http://www.kurrently.com), a real-time search engine for Facebook and Twitter.
Jay Philips
August 1st, 2010
Great list of tools. I’m a huge fan of Tweetdeck.
Wp
August 1st, 2010
Thanks, you introduced me to quite a few new monitoring sites.
I always use tweetdeck for FB and twitter, but might try out twazzup now.
Michelle
August 2nd, 2010
I’m also a big fan of NetVibes. I have 3 different dashboards now, one for each mood I could be in lol
Check out Ben Burbary’s wiki, too (http://wiki.kenburbary.com/social-meda-monitoring-wiki) and Nathan Gilliatt for any in-depth web monitoring
Michelle @Synthesio
Steve Cranston
August 2nd, 2010
Thanks for the reviews, although I notice none of the tools you mention appeared to produce ROI measurements. Is this not the Holly Grail of SMI data and what will ultimately separate the wheat from the chaff?
Any good advice on who is providing best of bread ROI measurement tools in Social Media tracking?
Thanks,
Steve
@Media_ROI
Lauren Vargas
August 2nd, 2010
Thank you for rounding out this list of tools with a review of our tool. We appreciate the shout out! It is important to note that there is no single one magic tool. The tool or combination of tools (more likely) a company will choose should mesh with business culture and align with measurable business objectives.
Lauren Vargas
Sr. Community Manager at Radian6
@VargasL
Jakub Drahokoupil
August 2nd, 2010
@Steve Crantson: Have a look at upcoming Sysomos Audience. It seems like it would be an interesting tool.
As far as ROI goes, I am currently testing http://www.postrank.com which also provides (or tries to provide) ROI based on engagement. However the problem I see with ROI is that it is something that each organization bases on different metrics. I am preparing an article about it. There are currently no standards as how to calculate ROI in social media (Connie Bensen’s whitepapers are must read stuff though :-). In web analytics, it is simple, the ROI is basically revenue and campaign costs, in social media it varies in my opinion depending on objectives of specific social media strategy. So in the end, one will have to calculate ROI manually using the data provided by monitoring tools.
Paul
August 2nd, 2010
Great list. I’d like to add http://www.tweetmypitch.com it isn’t monitoring but is a useful Twitter app.
Thanks,
Paul
garyasanchez
August 2nd, 2010
I’d love to see examples of how people are creating and using reports from these services.
Jason Schubring
August 2nd, 2010
Thanks all for the comments. One of the biggest challenges with calculating ROI is that those who are running the campaigns don’t present a measurable *call to action*.
Too many companies (and agencies) launch campaigns that create buzz and “warm fuzzies” about the brand… but it’s hard to measure those.
Just like any other medium, it’s important to track the setup cost, ongoing management cost, etc. and then compare against the direct sales/sign-ups/etc. the campaign generates.
It’s amazing how many people fail to setup a specific, measurable call-to-action and then complain that they can’t measure social media campaign ROI. It’s not the medium that’s at fault if that’s the case… it’s the strategy.
Pascal
August 2nd, 2010
You can also check out InfoGlutton. Our social media monitoring platform is currently in Beta. It provides sentiment analysis, analytics, volume trends and we keep all mentions in a database for chronological analysis, export, etc. If anybody would like to give it a try and provide us with feedback, feel free to contact us: http://www.infoglutton.com/contact.html
Pascal Soucy
co-founder, InfoGlutton
Sam
August 2nd, 2010
You can check out our site – Actionly is a Social Media Monitoring dashboard and listening platform. On Actionly you can monitor what people are saying about your brand, products or industry terms on various social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Flickr, Youtube, News and Google Buzz. We help you make sense of all the chatter by showing key messages, sentiments, top influencers so you can engage and grow your brand on Social Media.
Pippa
August 2nd, 2010
I’ve tried tweetdeck but as my computer has just been reinstalled, I was thinking about a change, thanks for the timely post, I might just try out some of the others this time round. Thanks
Mohamed Abdallaoui
August 3rd, 2010
Nice article. I would like to present http://www.TraceBuzz.nl.
Jason Keller
August 3rd, 2010
Thanks Jason for the list of social media monitoring tools! I tried a few of the free tools out there (including the ones you’ve mentioned in the article), but was left wanting more. Tried out Brand Monitor: http://brandmonitor.position2.com/ (paid) and have been using this tool for a while. I’m quite pleasantly surprised with their sentiment analysis capability (80%+) and data coverage. The amount of data they index and analyze per minute is huge and includes a wide range of sites, blogs and twitter. You might want to check it out – perhaps tell us how it fares vs the rest?
Babar Bhatti
August 3rd, 2010
There is considerable difference between professional monitoring and other, mostly free tools. Enterprise grade products allow teams to work together, provide better data and advanced capabilities. MutualMind, for instance, comes at a flat price (no surprises) and offers monitoring, engagement and an integrated analytics dashboard.
Zak
August 4th, 2010
Hi Jason, great write-up of some of the players out there.. social media monitoring has really exploded in the past couple of years and rightly so!
Moreover Technologies (http://w.moreover.com/) are also worth considering in this space, as we’ve been there since the start monitoring news, and now offering a complete news and social solution.
Great post and thanks for highlighting the need for a comprehensive monitoring tool.
Zak
@moreovertech
Luke
August 4th, 2010
I knew Hootsuite would be on this, I tried to go from Tweetdeck to Hootsuite but it just didn’t happen, I dislike Hootsuit allot but I suppose that is down to my personal preference :-)
Giles (Webconomist)
August 5th, 2010
A great list here. The challenge we see from our clients is understanding “what to do with it all” when they monitor. We have our own tool going into beta this fall to join the crowd of over 40 monitoring solutions. But I think the challenge will remain for clients with what to do with it, how to make sense of it and understanding what really matters with what you uncover.
Sarah Wallace
August 8th, 2010
Jason, thanks for this post.
I am surprised you didn’t mention the most robust Radian6 or ViralHeat or ScoutLabs… There’s also a vendor in NH called JitterJam.
luke
August 15th, 2010
I knew Hootsuite would be on this, I tried to go from Tweetdeck to Hootsuite but it just didn’t happen, I dislike Hootsuit allot but I suppose that is down to my personal preference :-)~~~~~
MeiMei Fox
August 17th, 2010
Super helpful article. I’m trying out Radian6 now, and concur with your point that if you got up to speed with how to use it, that would be a very valuable skill to your consulting clients.
I didn’t know about a few of the other tools. Really outstanding post!
-MeiMei
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