Tuesday 27 March 2018

How to Discover and Create Content That Your Audience Craves (and Grow Your Following)

There are times when we all run out of content ideas.

I’ve been in this situation many times myself — feeling unsure about what content to create and share.

However, after much trial and error, I’ve managed to find a few solutions to help keep a constant stream of content ideas flowing. These strategies help me uncover the types of social media content that our audience loves to engage with and share.

And in this post, you’ll learn about six ways to discover the content your audience craves.

Let’s dive in.

How to Discover and Create Content That Your Audience Craves

1. Use your analytics

One of the best ways to find out what your audience likes (or what works for you) is to use your analytics.

Your social media analytics can tell you what’s working and what’s not.

What you’ll want to do is to study your top-performing posts and re-create them. Here’s how to find your top posts with the native analytics in Facebook, Instagram, and more.

Facebook

One way to find your top-performing Facebook posts is to go to your Page Insights > Posts and manually look for posts with high reach or engagement.

Facebook Insights top posts

A shortcut is to use the Pages to Watch feature in the “Overview” tab. When you click on your own Page, Facebook will show you your top posts for the week.

Instagram

To get the analytics for Instagram, you’ll need to have a business account. (Here’s how to convert to a business account if you wish to.)

In your business account, tap on the analytics icon on your profile. Then, tap on “See more” under the “Posts” section. Here, you’ll see your top posts sorted by impressions. You can also sort it by engagement, reach, and more, and adjust the time period.

Instagram Insights top posts

You can also find your top posts on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest using the respective native analytics.

Buffer customers

If you are using our Pro or Business plan, you can easily find this information in your Buffer dashboard. Go to your Analytics tab and then Posts report. Then, click on “Most Popular” to see your most-engaged posts.

Buffer analytics top posts

You can also sort your top posts by Likes, clicks, comments, and more. If you are on the new Business plan, you can also use the Overview report to find your top posts.

Once you’ve found your top posts, try to find a pattern among them. Here are some questions you could ask yourself:

  • Is there a common topic among them?
  • Is the content from a particular source — your blog or other publications?
  • Does a particular content type — text, image, or video — perform consistently better?
  • Did people leave any interesting comments on those posts?

2. Ask your audience

The second strategy is to ask your audience.

You could simply post a question or a poll on your social media profiles. For example, “What content do you want to see us sharing?”

If you would like open-ended replies, posting a question will be great. If you have a rough sense of what your audience might be interested in, you could create a poll and list a few options. For example, a while back, we created a Twitter poll to ask our followers what sort of content they would like to see more of from us.

A few people also replied the tweet to give us more suggestions.

Twitter poll replies

As Facebook and Instagram (Stories) only allow two options for polls, my favorite way around it is to do a manual emoji poll.

Facebook emoji poll

Alternatively, you could email your blog subscribers and ask them what they would like to see from you. For example, at the end of 2017, we reached out to our blog subscribers with a survey. In the survey, we asked them what topics they enjoy the most and what topics they would like to see more from us.

Blog survey

From the answer, we learned about what to create for the blog and also what to share on our social media.

3. Learn from your industry peers

The third strategy is to learn from your industry peers.

Look at the top pages in your industry and see what is working for them. If you have a similar target audience, what worked for them will likely work for you, too.

It’ll be great to go beyond just your competitors. Are there other companies that you admire, which you can learn from? Maybe because they are in the same space but aren’t your direct competitor. Or perhaps their way of marketing resonates with you. For example, I often like to check out the social media profiles of HubSpot, MailChimp, and Airbnb.

Here are a few ways to research on your favorite companies:

Facebook

On Facebook, you could use Pages to Watch. This feature allows you to quickly compare the performance of your Page with similar Pages. You can also click on any of the Pages and see their top posts for the week. For instance, here’s a recent top post from Shopify:

Facebook Pages to Watch top posts

You can find this feature in your Page Insights, at the bottom of your Overview tab. This feature will only appear once you have more than 100 Likes on your Page.

Twitter

On Twitter, you could create a Twitter list of the companies that you would like to learn from and regularly check out what they share.

Here’s how to create a Twitter list:

  • Click on your profile photo and select “List”
  • Click on “Create a list” and fill out the fields (You might want to keep this list private)
  • Hit “Save list”

Twitter list

Once you’ve created your list, head to the companies’ profile, click on the three dots, and select “Add or remove from lists…” to add them to your list.

A tool I like to use to monitor several lists at the same time is TweetDeck. It is a free tool by Twitter, which allows you to have multiple columns of tweets from a list, search result, and more.

TweetDeck

Here’s a point worth noting: while it’s great to learn from your favorite companies, you might not want to follow them exactly. This is because ultimately your brand is different from theirs and you would likely want to be unique with what you’re sharing on your social media profiles.

The point here is to look for general patterns and ideas that you can adapt for your own brand.

4. Use a research tool

The fourth strategy is to use a content research tool like Buzzsumo.

Buzzsumo is like Google for the most shared content. You can search for any keywords (e.g. “social media marketing”), and Buzzsumo will show you the most shared content that’s relevant to the keyword.

Look through the results and see if you can identify the popular topics around that particular keyword.

What is also helpful is that Buzzsumo breaks down the share count by networks. So you can see if a piece of content is more popular on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, or Pinterest.

Buzzsumo

Buzzsumo also allows you to sort the results by social network. For example, maybe you want to see what types of articles are popular on Twitter. You can click on the “Twitter Shares” header, and Buzzsumo will sort the articles by the number of shares on Twitter.

Buzzsumo sort

This is also a great way to find quality content to share on your social media profiles. If an article has done really well on Twitter in general, it would likely resonate with your audience, provided that it is relevant to them.

5. Create marketing personas

The fifth strategy is to create marketing personas. Your marketing personas will give you ideas on what content to create and share on social media.

Here’s what a persona is and why it’s important, according to Adele Revella, the founder and president of The Buyer Persona Institute1 :

… a buyer persona is a composite sketch of a key segment of your audience. For content marketing purposes, you need personas to help you deliver content that will be most relevant and useful to your audience.

Without personas, you may only be guessing what content your audience wants, which means you are more likely to revert to creating content around what you know best (your products and company) instead of around the information your audience is actively seeking.

Marketing persona template

Once you have done your research and created your marketing personas, you’ll have a better sense of your core audience’s goals and challenges, and the content that they want to read.

To help you with this, here’s our beginner’s guide to creating marketing personas.

Experiment with Jobs To Be Done

Besides creating personas, you could also try the Jobs to Be Done methodology (we’ve tried both ourselves!)

Jobs to Be Done is a concept created by Harvard Business School professor, Clayton M. Christensen, and his team. The idea is that understanding the jobs our customers want to do (or the reasons they buy products) is more useful in helping us create and sell great products than just having demographic information.

Here’s a short video about the methodology and how Intercom uses it for marketing:

How does this apply to creating content that your audience loves?

By understanding the jobs that your customers want to do, you can create and share content that helps them with those jobs.

For example, we have been creating content that helps our readers with their social media strategy, content creation, engagement, and more. And those blog posts seemed to have resonated with our readers. (You might have noticed in the survey results I shared above, we phrased each option as “Content that helps me with (a job)” rather than just the topic.)

6. Follow trends

The final strategy is to keep an eye out for general trends in the social media space and follow them. This will help you get a general sense of the types of content to post. While it won’t be very specific to your audience, I think it can still be helpful.

For example, the top content format now is video. In our 2018 Social Media Trends report, we pointed out that “video posts have the highest average engagement and twice the level of engagement of other post types on average”2. Also, according to our State of Social 2018 report, we found that 85 percent of businesses would like to create more videos in 2018.

State of Social 2018: Content Types

Does that you mean you should be creating videos?

I think it’ll be great to experiment with a few videos if your resources allow and see how they perform. You can create simple videos without a big budget using tools like Animoto and Lumen 5 (and more here). If you are keen, here’s our step-by-step guide to creating engaging social media videos.

Over to you: How do you find out what your audience likes?

The key to growing your following and engagement on social media is to create content that your audience craves. Here are six ways of discovering that content:

  1. Use your analytics
  2. Ask your audience
  3. Learn from your industry peers
  4. Use Buzzsumo
  5. Create marketing personas
  6. Follow trends

How do you discover the content that your audience likes? Let’s exchange notes below. ๐Ÿ™‚

The awesome featured image is by Lina Silivanova via Unsplash.



source https://blog.bufferapp.com/discover-content-ideas

Monday 19 March 2018

How to Schedule Instagram Posts: The Complete Guide

As Instagram has grown it’s become an integral marketing channel for more than 5 million businesses worldwide1.

But as a busy social media manager, it can be difficult to find the time to consistently post to Instagram.

This is where scheduling comes in.

Learning how to schedule Instagram posts is one of the biggest time savers and productivity hacks for social media managers today. And what’s more, scheduling your Instagram posts has many benefits.

Studies have shown that consistency is key to growth on Instagram, so scheduling your Instagram posts and ensuring regular updates can be a win-win situation—both boosting your reach and engagement as well as saving you valuable time throughout the day.

This guide will explain exactly how to schedule Instagram posts (and how scheduling can benefit your business).

Let’s dive in ๐Ÿ“ท

Buffer for Instagram now comes with direct scheduling! Schedule single-image posts or set reminders to post videos and multi-image posts at your best times to grow your Instagram following. Learn more today.

⭐ Note: We are rolling out this feature to all users throughout the week of March 19 to March 23. Look for it in your Buffer account soon!

3 benefits of scheduling your Instagram posts

1. You can save time

Crafting and posting the perfect Instagram post can be time-consuming — especially if you’re creating your posts on the day you want to publish them.

However, scheduling your posts ahead of time might be a better, productivity-boosting way to create and share your Instagram content. By batching your work, you can avoid the costs associated with multitasking and context switching.

According to research shared by Inc., multitaskers take 50 percent more time to complete a single task and commit 50 percent more errors2. By spending an hour or two creating and scheduling your posts for the week ahead, you can save a ton of time and keep a consistent quality across the board.

With Buffer for Instagram, you can now schedule single-image posts directly from desktop or mobile (with a few limitations). For any other scheduled Instagram posts, we’ll send a reminder notification to your mobile device to finish the post when the time is right. This approach can free up so much of your time to focus on the many other tasks social media managers must tackle daily.

2. Ensure you’re posting consistently

Consistency plays a key role in social media success. When you’re consistently and frequently publishing new content, your audience will learn what to expect from your and when it’ll be posted.

For example, every night the NBA shares a round-up of the latest scores from around the league and because I know when to expect this, I open up Instagram to check the results every morning when I start my day:

Keeping a consistent schedule makes sure you maximize engagement without hitting any lulls or stretches without updates.

A few years back, Union Metrics put together data on brands and Instagram and it found that most brands post to Instagram daily — the average was in fact 1.5 posts per day. Another interesting learning from Union Metrics’ study was that there was no correlation between increased frequency and lower engagement, so brands that posted multiple times per day didn’t notice any negative effects.

The lesson here is that consistency is key for Instagram success. By scheduling your posts ahead of time you can ensure your profile is always filled with fresh new content.

3. Create and upload content from your desktop

Smartphones are becoming awesome tools for creating content, but sometimes, especially if you’re a social media manager, it can be easier to prepare and schedule all of your content on a desktop computer. One of the advantages of scheduling your posts in the web app is that you’ll have access to images of videos that might not be on your phone.

Most Instagram scheduler tools, Buffer included, enable you to create your posts on your desktop before publishing on mobile.

 

With Buffer for Business you can also check exactly how your Instagram profile gallery will look once you’ve published your scheduled posts:

Scheduling direct posts vs scheduling reminders

In some exciting news, you can now schedule certain types of Instagram posts directly from third-party apps like Buffer to Instagram.

For any of your scheduled posts that Buffer can’t share directly, we’ll let you know after you create the post. Once the scheduled posting time comes around, we’ll send a reminder notification to you via the Buffer app on your mobile device. You can then finish the post in the Instagram app, where you can add things like filters and photo tags.

Which posts can be shared directly?

  • Single images with (or without) a caption shared to business profiles

Which posts will you need to finish in the Instagram app? (We’ll send you a reminder)

  • Posts scheduled to personal profiles
  • Single-image posts that are very long (portrait) or very wide (landscape). Technically, third-party apps can only directly post images within the range of 4:5 and 1.91:1 aspect ratios
  • Multiple-image posts
  • Video posts

While scheduling Instagram posts directly helps you save a ton of time for basic image posts, one of the great things about reminders are that they allow you to create an image on your desktop, and then use all of Instagram’s handy native features, like image filters, to put a final coat of polish on the post.

How to schedule Instagram posts: Getting set up for both direct scheduling and reminders

Here are a few quick steps to get started with Instagram scheduling:

Step 1: If your Instagram profile is for an organization, switch it to a business profile

If your Instagram profile isn’t a business profile already, switching it will enable Buffer to schedule posts directly to your profile. Here are some handy instructions from Facebook (you’ll need to have a Facebook Page to switch to an Instagram business profile). If your Instagram profile is a personal profile, Buffer will schedule reminders only.

Step 2: Connect your Instagram account

To connect your Instagram account with Buffer from our web dashboard, first, click Connect More on the left-hand side of your Buffer dashboard, below any social accounts you’ve already connected:

From here, click on Connect below Instagram:

Finally, you’ll be asked to log in to your Instagram account and then you’re all set to start scheduling your Instagram posts with Buffer.

Note: If you’re a current Buffer user who has an Instagram profile already connected, you can simply visit that profile in your Buffer dashboard and follow the prompts from the banner on the page. You can also connect Instagram to Buffer through our iOS and Android apps.

Creating and scheduling Instagram content with Buffer

Once you’ve connected your Instagram account with Buffer, it’s time to create the content you want to post to Instagram.

After you’ve sourced the video or image you’d like to post, it’s great to draft your caption, choose any hashtags you’d like to include and any other Instagram accounts you’d like to @-mention in your post.

  • Caption: Instagram captions are limited to 2,200 characters, and after three lines of text they become truncated with an ellipsis. Try to include any key details at the front of your caption.
  • Hashtags: Hashtags allow Instagrammers to discover content and accounts to follow. Research from Track Maven found that posts with over 11 hashtags tend to get more engagement.
  • @-mentions: Is there anyone else featured in your photo? Maybe you could @-mention them in the caption. This will notify them when you put the post live on Instagram.

The below post from Amy Tangerine is a great example of how to effectively use your caption, hashtags, and an @-mention:

(For more on how to craft a great Instagram post, check out our Instagram marketing guide). 

Now it’s time to schedule your post for the ideal time. To do this, hop over to your Buffer dashboard and choose your Instagram account by selecting it on the left-hand side of your dashboard.

Under the “Content” tab, you’ll see a section labeled “Queue”. Here you can upload a photo and write your caption (including any hashtags and @-mentions).

If you upload your content and it doesn’t meet the requirements for direct scheduling, we’ll let you know that it will be scheduled as a reminder and that you’ll receive a notification to your mobile device when it’s time to post.

Once you’ve uploaded your content, you can decide whether you want to:

  • Add the post to your Buffer queue
  • Schedule the post for a custom date and time (this is especially handy for big events or posts that need to be published on a certain date)
  • If you’re on a paid Buffer plan, you can also bump the post to the start of your queue using Share Next, or share it immediately by using Share Now.

If the post is scheduled as a reminder

When it’s time for your post to be published, Buffer will send you a notification to whichever devices have been connected to your Buffer account. Here’s how the reminder might look on your device.

Tapping “Open in Instagram”  will automatically copy your caption and open Instagram, with the photo or video ready to be customized. Here you can also crop and edit your content as needed.

Now, tap Share and you’re all set! Your post will then be published to Instagram and you’ll be able to see it on your timeline.

Here’s a quick recap of how Buffer for Instagram’s reminders work:

How to schedule Instagram posts

Ready to start scheduling your Instagram posts? Get started with Buffer today

With Buffer for Instagram, we’re excited to be giving you the power to manage your social media marketing from one central location, and we’re eager for you to have the tools you need to plan, track, and amplify your Instagram marketing.

Get started with Buffer for Instagram

Over to you

Thanks for checking out our guide on how to schedule posts on Instagram. We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments: What are your top tips for scheduling Instagram posts? Which tools do you use to create and share content on Instagram?

Photo credit: Erik Lucatero



source https://blog.bufferapp.com/how-to-schedule-instagram-posts

Thursday 15 March 2018

Are You Listening? The 20 Best Social Media Monitoring Tools

How do you know if your customers (and potential customers) are talking about you on social media?

If they tagged your social media profile in their posts, you could check your notifications. If they didn’t, maybe you could search on each social media platform every time you want to find out. Sounds tedious? Here’s a better way:

Use social media monitoring tools.

There’s a great deal of wonderful social media tools out there. Among them are tools built specifically to help you pick out relevant conversations on social media — social media monitoring tools. Some of these tools allow you to monitor multiple social media profiles on the different social media platforms from a single place. There are even some that let you monitor social media trends and keywords.

There’s likely one that suits your needs. Let’s take a look at the 20 best ones for small and medium businesses!

20 Best Social Media Monitoring Tools for Small and Medium Businesses

What is social media monitoring?

Social media monitoring is the process of listening out for social media conversations that are relevant to your brand. Businesses engage in social media monitoring for several reasons, such as to connect with their customers, to provide customer support, to measure their social media reach, or to understand social media trends.

To “listen”, businesses use social media monitoring tools to collect social mentions and track keywords, hashtags, and URLs that they are interested in.

Social media monitoring is also sometimes known as social listening.

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The 20 best social media monitoring tools for SMBs

All the social media monitoring tools listed below are not arranged in any particular order. They are all great in their own ways and will suit different social media monitoring needs.

For example, some are standalone monitoring tools while others have it as a feature within a social media management tool. Some gather individual social media mentions and messages while others analyze sets of social media content and trends.

Here’s an overview of all the tools in this blog post:

I’m sure I’m missing some great tools out there, and it’ll be great to get your help. If you have tried and love any social media monitoring tools for small and medium businesses, I would love for you to share them in the comments section below, including why you love them. Thank you!

Compare the tools easily with this spreadsheet

To make it easier for you to compare the tools, I’ve created a spreadsheet with the following information of each social media monitoring tool:

  • How much do the plans cost?
  • Does it have a free plan, free trial, or free demo?
  • Is it a standalone monitoring tool or is it part of a social media management tool?
  • What platforms are supported?
  • What are the main monitoring features?
  • Can I reply directly through the tool?

Social media monitoring tools spreadsheet
Get the spreadsheet

1. Buffer Reply

All your social engagement in one team inbox

Buffer Reply

Description: Buffer Reply organizes your Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram engagement into neatly-threaded conversations in one team inbox. You will have all the information you need to know about each customer to provide personalized responses. Oh, and you can easily add emojis and GIFs. ๐Ÿ˜‰

Platforms supported: Twitter, Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram

Prices: Starting at $50 per month and $250 per month

Once you’ve researched all your options and if you think Buffer Reply might suit your needs, we would love for you to check out our webinar on engaging with your customers using Buffer Reply.

2. Hootsuite

Effectively track topics that matter—then respond quickly

Hootsuite

Description: Hootsuite’s monitoring tool is part of its entire package of social media management tools. If you were to subscribe to one of their plans, you can also enjoy other features such as scheduling and analytics.

With Hootsuite, you can set up unlimited streams of social media content based on your mentions, selected keywords, hashtags, or locations. Furthermore, Hootsuite integrates with more than a hundred apps to help you do more from its dashboard.

Platforms supported: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google+, blogs, forums, and more

Prices: Free, $19 per month, $99 per month, $499 per month, and enterprise pricing

3. Sprout Social

Intelligent, real-time social media monitoring with Sprout

Sprout Social

Description: Similar to Hootsuite, Sprout Social’s monitoring and engagement tools are part of its social media management software. Sprout Social has two separate features for social monitoring and engagement.

In the Smart Inbox, you’ll get all your social media mentions and messages. With the discovery feature, you can search for particular keywords on Twitter or Instagram (for example when someone mentions your brand without tagging your social media profile).

Platforms supported: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Google+

Prices (per user): $99 per month, $149 per month, and $249 per month

4. Agorapulse

Discover what people are really saying about your business

Agorapulse

Description: Agorapulse is also an all-in-one social media management tool, which comes with scheduling, monitoring, engagement, and analytics features.

Its inbox collects all your social media mentions while its listening feature allows you to search for keywords, URL, and handle on Twitter. Agorapulse also allows you to monitor comments on your Facebook and Instagram ads.

Platforms supported: Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram

Prices: $49 per month, $99 per month, $199 per month, and $299 per month

5. Zoho Social

Social media management software for growing businesses

Zoho Social

Description: Zoho Social is a social media management dashboard where you can publish and schedule posts, monitor social activities, analyze your social media performance. 

In the Zoho Social dashboard, you’ll get real-time updates of how people are interacting with your brands. I find this great for events, where I might want to monitor related social media posts and engage with the attendees.

Platforms supported: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Google+

Prices: Free, $10 per month, and $50 per month

6. Brand24

Smart social media monitoring for businesses of all sizes

Brand24

Description: Brand24 is a powerful yet affordable tool for those who want to dive deep into social media monitoring. Besides the major social media platforms, Brand24 also monitors blogs, forums, and other sites for mentions of your brand.

Apart from collecting your mentions and allowing you to reply, Brand24 analyzes your social media reach, interactions, sentiment, and more.

Platforms supported: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, blogs, forums, and more

Prices: $49 per month, $99 per month, and $399 per month

7. Mention

Media monitoring made simple

Mention

Description: Mention is more than just a monitoring tool for social media; it also monitors mentions of your brand across the web such as on Yelp, Booking.com, Tripadvisor, and Amazon. On its custom company plan, you can get in-depth insights and reports of your brand mentions.

If you connect your social media profiles to Mention, you can reply mentions directly within Mention. (You can even add a Buffer account and schedule your social media posts.)

Platforms supported: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, blogs, forums, and more

Prices: $29 per month, $99 per month, and enterprise pricing

8. Social Mention

Real-time social media search and analysis

Social Mention

Description: Not to be confused with Mention above, Social Mention is a free social media search engine for user-generated content across the web. It lets you find and measure what people are saying about your brand and products on places such as Twitter, YouTube, and blogs.

Since an account is not required, I believe Social Mention doesn’t save your searches.

Platforms supported: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Google, and other websites

Price: Free

9. Keyhole

Hashtag tracking for Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

Keyhole

Description: Rather than finding individual mentions of your brand, Keyhole provides trends, insights, and analysis of your preferred hashtags, keywords, or accounts. This makes it better for gathering data and reporting results than replying your social media mentions.

If you want to test out its tools, it offers free hashtag, keyword, and account tracking.

Platforms supported: Twitter and Instagram

Prices: $165 per month, $349 per month, $599 per month, $999 per month, and enterprise pricing

10. Trackur

Simple, fast, and affordable social media monitoring

Trackur

Description: Like Keyhole, Trackur is a monitoring and analytics tool. It can help you find mentions of your brand (or your keywords) on social media, blogs, forums, and more and then analyze the trends, sentiment, and influence level.

Platforms supported: Twitter, Facebook, Google+, blogs, forums, and more

Prices: $97 per month, $197 per month, and $447 per month

11. Buzzlogix

Social media monitoring and engagement made simple

Buzzlogix

Description: Buzzlogix helps you with both social monitoring and social engagement. For social monitoring, you can track content with your preferred keywords and get the statistics in easy-to-understand graphs. For social engagement, you can monitor multiple social media profiles and response to social mentions and messages.

Platforms supported: Google+, Twitter, YouTube, blogs, forums, and news sites

Prices: $19.95 per month, $49.95 per month, $99.95 per month, and $399.95 per month

12. TweetDeck

The most powerful Twitter tool for real-time tracking, organizing, and engagement

TweetDeck

Description: TweetDeck is the official Twitter management dashboard, where you can manage multiple Twitter accounts and monitor mentions, keywords, Twitter lists, and more in separate columns. And it’s free!

Platform supported: Twitter

Price: Free

13. Iconosquare

Instagram analytics and management platform

Iconosquare

Description: Iconosquare is one of the most popular Instagram analytics and management platforms. Besides its robust analytics and management features, Iconosquare offers custom feeds, which you can use to monitor specific Instagram content. For each feed, you can add up to 50 users and 20 hashtags.

Platforms supported: Instagram

Prices (per Instagram account): $9 per month, $29per month, $49 per month, and from $990 per month

14. Tailwind

Social media monitoring for Pinterest and Instagram

Tailwind

Description: Tailwind is built specifically for Pinterest and Instagram, the two visual social media platforms. Apart from its scheduling and analytics features, Tailwind enables you to monitor your content and your competitors. It also provides information about emerging trends so that you can tap into them.

Platforms supported: Pinterest and Instagram

Prices: $15 per month, $799.99 per month, and enterprise pricing

15. Sendible

Seize opportunities via social listening

Sendible

Description: Sendible is a full social media management tool, built for agencies that manage multiple clients. On top of scheduling and collaborating on social media content, you can also respond to comments and messages from an inbox and monitor hashtags, keywords, and your competitors on social media and the web.

Platforms supported: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Google+, blogs, review sites (e.g. Yelp), and more

Prices: $49 per month, $199 per month, and $499 per month, and enterprise pricing 

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The remaining social media monitoring tools are more pricey than those above. I have not had the opportunity to try them out myself (as they do not provide free trials). I’ve selected them based on reviews and their brand name. If you have used any of them before, it’ll be great to hear your experience.

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16. Union Metrics

Social intelligence. Designed for marketing teams.

Union Metrics

Description: Union Metrics provides the social intelligence that can help you improve your social media strategy. With Union Metrics, you can track and analyze social media posts, monitor your competitors and trends, conduct research, and more.

Platforms supported: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Tumblr

Prices: $99 per month, $199 per month, and enterprise pricing

17. HubSpot

Connect with the people you care about

HubSpot

Description: HubSpot is a comprehensive marketing automation software that includes everything from social media and emails to SEO and lead management. The social media management features are included in the plans starting from $200 per month.

Because HubSpot integrates many parts of marketing together (such as customer relationship management and social media), it allows you to better monitor your leads and customers on social media.

Platforms supported: Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Google+, Xing, YouTube, blogging platform with RSS feeds, and Pinterest

Prices: Starting at $200 per month, $800 per month, and $2,400 per month

18. NUVI

Real-time social intelligence

NUVI

Description: NUVI gathers all your social media data in real-time and displays it in insightful visualizations to help you make decisions quickly and effectively. Like most social media management tools, NUVI can help you publish and schedule posts, analyze your social media activities, and create reports.

Platforms supported: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Reddit, VK, blogs, and RSS feeds

Price: Custom pricing

19. Falcon.io

Manage your brand

Falcon.io

Description: Falcon.io is a marketing platform that helps social media marketers with social listening, customer engagement, content marketing, and audience management. Its social listening features help you monitor your brand, stay on top of popular topics, and engage influencers.

Platforms supported: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google+, and YouTube

Prices: $1,000 per month, $1,750 per month, and enterprise pricing

20. Talkwalker

Put social data intelligence to work. Instantly.

Talkwalker

Description: Talkwalker is one of the most powerful media monitoring tools. Besides being able to monitor social media platforms and websites, it can also monitor print and TV and radio broadcasts.

It even has image recognition technology to help you pick up social media posts of your brand or product even when your brand isn’t mentioned in the caption.

Platforms supported: More than 10 social platforms, websites, print, and broadcasts

Prices: $8,400 per year, $12,000 per year, and enterprise pricing

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100 more social media monitoring tools

While the tools above are all social media monitoring tools, they are different in subtle and big ways and serve different needs. I hope you found one suitable for your company. Otherwise, do check out this comprehensive list by G2 Crowd:

Best Social Media Monitoring Software

Once you have picked your social media monitoring tool, I would love to hear which tool you decided on and what considerations you have made. I believe it can help others make the right decision for their company, too.

The awesome featured image above is by Alex Blฤƒjan and taken from Unsplash.



source https://blog.bufferapp.com/social-media-monitoring-tools