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Related Categories
1.) Social Media Management Software
2.) Social Media Analytics Tools
18 Social Media Marketing Tips To Grow Your Business
Read this article to learn the best strategies and techniques to help grow your sales.
How To Use Social Media To Grow Your Business
Every business should be active on social media today, find out what it takes to succeed.
How To Find Good Content To Share On Social Media
Success on social media is all about sharing amazing content relevant to your audience.
How To Use Social Media Monitoring Tools To Lift Sales
Using the right software is a must now days in order to grow sales via social media.
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Why Using Social Media Management Software Is Smart
The old days of manually posting content to social media are long gone, discover the best tools here.
Comprehensive Social Tool
$59 - $500
Smart inbox technology
Powerful CRM integration
Beautiful analytics reports
$9.99
Extensive integrations
Comprehensive dashboard
Connect 35+ social networks
Most Popular Social Software
$15 - $300
Visual content calendar
Advanced scheduling
Team collaboration features
Social Media Marketing For Teams
Brand monitoring & contests
Easy 1-click publishing/scheduling
Built-in CRM and collated inbox
Simple Social Manager Dashboard
$10 - $80
30 day free trial
In-built social CRM
Advanced functionality
All-in-one Social Dashboard
$5 - $49
Simple social management tool
Content recommendation system
Chrome plugin for easy publishing
Email Software With Built-In Landers
$9.95 - $44.95
Automated following and liking
Windows only software
Up to 24 social media accounts
Simple Scheduling & Automation
$17.97
Post to social networks via email
Scheduling & tracking
7 day free trial
Simple Social Media Software
$55 - $1,100
Twitter analytic reports
Automated campaigns
Find customers & influencers
Specialized Twitter Manager
$15
Monitoring & engagement
Scheduling & publishing
Facebook & twitter integration
Simple Social Marketing Application
$49 - $299
What Are Social Media Monitoring Tools
Social media monitoring tools help businesses to manage their social media presence and track brand mentions across all their social channels.
Managing social media can be a real challenge for businesses. They may have multiple social media channels to manage. It's not uncommon for a business to have a Facebook page, Twitter account, YouTube channel and LinkedIn account all in need of updating and tracking. Those are just the four most common social media tools: Businesses these days are also embracing Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr, Vine, Periscope and more.
Businesses use social media in four key ways:
•To make posts and engage their customers
•To provide customer service
•To search for new customers
•To listen out for what is being said about their brand
Social media monitoring tools make it much easier for businesses to manage all of these activities from one central dashboard. Using social media monitoring tools means that businesses can distribute content across several channels simultaneously. It's a much more convenient way to handle social media.
Businesses can also use social media monitoring tools to listen out for mentions of their brand. This is vital for providing good customer service and spotting problems – or praise – that might otherwise have gone unnoticed.
Social media monitoring tools also provide statistics which businesses can review to get a much clearer idea of how their social media accounts are performing, and what is the most popular with their customers.
Social media monitoring tools are useful for any business of any size who has a social media presence. They're equally well suited to online solopreneurs and large multi national corporations. It doesn't matter whether a business is solely based online, or has one or more bricks and mortar locations. If they're on social media – and they should be – a business can benefit from social media monitoring tools.
Why use Social Media Monitoring Tools
Social media is big news for businesses these days. The numbers of social media users are growing all the time, which means that more and more customers are on social media, and they expect businesses to be too. It's vital that when customers come looking, a business has a strong social media presence. But managing that social media presence can be expensive, stressful and time consuming.
That's where social media monitoring tools come in. They're reasonably priced (prices typically start at around $50 per month), and easily pay for themselves in terms of time and effort saved managing social media. With a social media monitoring tool, businesses can manage all their social media from one place. That means social media is quicker and easier, and businesses can get more out of it.
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The benefit of social media tools doesn't just come from the time and effort saved, or the convenience of managing multiple accounts. Social media monitoring tools offer huge benefits in terms of increased customer engagement, new leads, and better customer service.
With social media monitoring tools, businesses can analyze their social media accounts and review in-depth statistics about them. That means they can see at a glance how their social media channels are performing, which ones are working well and which are lagging behind, and what content is the most popular. All of this adds up to a clearer picture of what customers like and want from social media, which allows businesses to hone their social media activities to match that.
Social media monitoring tools also offer a fantastic opportunity to explore new leads. By listening out for different keywords and exploring what new and existing customers are saying on social media, businesses can pinpoint potential new leads, or find products and services that are perfect for existing customers.
A key benefit of social media monitoring tools is their impact on customer service. Research from JD Power shows that 67% of customers now turn to social media for customer service issues. Furthermore, statistics from Gartner show that failing to respond via social media can lead to a 15% increase in customer churn rate.
Social media monitoring tools make it easy to keep on top of customer services. Not all customers with a complaint will “@” a brand to get their attention. With a social media monitoring tool, businesses can listen for any mentions of their business, whether directed at them or not. That means they can step in and resolve issues quickly, thus increasing customer satisfaction. Of course social media monitoring tools also make it easier to monitor @ mentions too, making for smoother customer service management overall.
Social media is rapidly becoming an important customer engagement channel for all businesses. Social media monitoring tools take the time and stress out of managing social media, which means happier businesses, happier customers and increased loyalty, engagement and profits.
What To Look For In Social Media Monitoring Tools
With such a wide range of social media monitoring tools on the market today, businesses might find themselves wondering how to choose the right one. A good rule of thumb is to look for these 12 key features:
1. Central dashboard. Businesses should be able to search for mentions of their brand, manage content, populate content queues, respond to customer queries or complaints, and get in touch with other team members from one central user friendly dashboard.
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2. Publishing to multiple accounts. Businesses should be able to publish content across several social media platforms with the touch of a button. This makes it much easier to share content with customers across multiple channels, and saves time spent publishing individually.
3. Post scheduling. With post scheduling, businesses can arrange ahead of time to have posts sent out across social media. Not only does this mean they can simply plan their posts and then let the software take care of it, they can also time posts to coincide with the days and times that customers tend to engage the most.
4. Mobile app. A reliable and easy to use mobile app is an absolute must. Without an app, businesses will be limited to doing their social media monitoring from desktop PCs or laptops. A mobile app means businesses can manage their account and respond to customers from a phone or tablet, meaning their social monitoring goes where they go.
5. Analytics. Easy to understand analytics are one of the most powerful benefits of social media monitoring tools. Being able to review analytics for different platforms and individual pieces of content gives businesses access to a wealth of useful information. Being able to see what works and what doesn't helps businesses to do more of what works will, and continue to boost engagement.
6. Social listening. Social listening lets businesses listen for all mentions of their brand, not just @ mentions. Social listening means businesses can get a strong sense of the sentiment and customer opinions surrounding their business. They can also spot any complaints quickly and deal with them.
7. Engagement tools. Engagement goes beyond just listening out for brand mentions. Businesses should be able to use their social media monitoring tool to tag or otherwise keep track of conversations and look for new opportunities to start or join conversations with customers.
8. Collaboration tools. Most businesses don't have only one person using social media, and even those that do might add more people to their social media team in the future. Collaboration tools make it easy for team members to work together.
9. CRM (customer relationship management) tools. With CRM tools, businesses can use their social media monitoring tools to engage more customers and track a customer's history through messages, saved information, tags, and notes. That means that everyone who engages with the customer can see their history at a glance and tailor their customer service to fit that.
10. Flexible pricing. Social media monitoring tools are not one size fits all. Many offer flexible pricing that allows businesses to scale up depending on the number of accounts they need to mange, their customer volumes or the size of their time. That way, businesses only pay for what they need and can scale up or down as necessary.
11. Ease of use. It's natural to have a learning curve with any new software, but it's important to choose a social media monitoring tool with an intuitive and easy to use dashboard. If it's complicated to use, businesses will soon drift from using it and the benfits will be lost.
12. Good customer support. Sometimes, software just doesn't behave as businesses expect it to, or they run into an issue with installation or daily use. Good, fast customer support is an absolute must, preferebly through a range of channels such as email, phone and live chat.
Social Media Monitoring Tools Strategies, Tips and Tricks
Once a business has chosen their social media monitoring tool and is making headway with using it, it's time to use tried and tested strategies, tips and tricks to really make the most of it. Here are 5 strategies that any business can use to make the most of social media:
1. Schedule posts. When customers visit a business's social media profile, they like to see an active profile with regularly posted content. Anything else makes it look like the businesses doesn't have much of a social media presence. With post scheduling, businesses can set up a list of posts ahead of time and make sure there is always a stream of fresh content to their social media profiles. Businesses can also use scheduling to make sure they pick the peak times for content publication.
2. Keep an eye on brand mentions. Looking out for brand mentions is an invaluable tool for any business. Once they get started with it, a business might wonder how they ever got by without it. Brand mentions give businesses a clear sense of what people are saying about them and what the general opinion is. They can use this to quickly handle any complaints, misconceptions or problems – complaint well-handled can boost customer loyalty and faith in the brand. They can also use it to reach out to loyal, positive customers and thank them for their custom.
3. Make use of analytics. Analytics are one of the most helpful parts of a social media monitoring tool. By reviewing them, businesses can see at a glance how their social media channels are performing. They can track visitor numbers, click throughs and even conversions. They can also analyze their content and see what gets the most engagement, and if certain times or days are more popular than others. They can then use this information to review their social media strategy to put more focus on what works, and trim away what doesn't.
4. Boost team collaboration. Team collaboration is a must for any business of course, and when it comes to social media monitoring, team collaboration can make things go all the more smoothly. Many social media monitoring tools boast collaboration tools such as messaging, workflows, tagigng and more, so team members can review all the necessary information and see their tasks at a glance.
5. Make use of CRM tools. Many social media monitoring tools include some CRM tools. These tools allow businesses to track their customers' interactions with them, including previous queries or complaints. Team members can use tags and notes to keep each other up to date on each customer, providing a faster and more satisfying customer experience.
Top 10 Best Social Media Monitoring Tools Compared
Everybody is on social media these days, there are always millions of conversations happening about brands, industry topic and trends which as a business you can participate in and learn from. Your business may be receiving positive or negative comments which needs to be monitored and responded too. With the social monitoring software tools below you can easily pinpoint the conversations and feedback relevant to your business and enhance your brand and egagement with your audience. Most of these tools have free plans or free trials so you can signup easily in minutes and become a professional social media manager.
