Best Social Listening Tools for 2016

What are social listening tools? Social listening tools are monitoring tools you can use to see what your audience is saying about you online and which social media channels are producing the best results.

There are many recommendations about what you should be doing, however, social listening tools help you to know you are doing the right things online and give you meaningful insights and genuine data to back up your conclusions. This blog focuses on the top 5 social listening tools of 2016.

Social Mention

This http://www.socialmention.com/ should be a staple part of your listening diet when it comes to social listening. This one is free so you have to expect that you will get a free service however it does offer some helpful stats. This tool scours the internet for brand mentions covering blogs, news sites and more to determine four metrics: strength, sentiment, passion and reach. There are some downsides, especially if you brand name is a more generic term and used in several different ways, however it gives you a quick gauge on what is being said online.

TweetReach

This tool reports on how far your tweets go in terms of reach and tells you which followers have the most influence. It gives you helpful little tips about certain users which help you to target certain people at the optimal time of the day. For example it can tell you that User A typically interacts with tweets at 7 a.m. helping you understand the best way to personalise your content to certain users.

Sysomos

This is arguably one of the most insightful tools that gives you unlimited access to all social conversations about your brand, served up in an integrated interface. With Sysomos can track who is driving the conversations and contact your key influencers.

ViralHeat

https://www.viralheat.com integrates with Google Analytics and gives detailed insight about demographics, traffic and influencers. It measures the sentiment behind the mentions and shows what works and what could be hurting your online reputation. This services comes on a subscription basis which means it can be tailored to the size of your business, whether that be small, medium or large.

Listening to what your audience has to say about your business should become an integral part of your monitoring and reporting process. Finding a place for it will help you to understand what works and validate what does. If you have any questions about social listening or other social media questions, contact Prototype Interactive.

What social listening tools do you use? Tell us over on our Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.