15 Tools for Social Listening / Social Media Monitoring

TLDR: 15 Social Listening & Monitoring Tools at a Glance

• Awario – Social listening tool that tracks brand mentions across the web and social media for market data, sales opportunities, and competitor monitoring. Starts at $29/month.
• Agorapulse – Social media management tool for agencies and marketers to schedule content, monitor channels, and collaborate from one dashboard. Starts at $79/month.
• Keyhole – Real-time hashtag and campaign tracker built for measuring influencer campaigns and creating client-ready reports. Starts at $99/month.
• Mention – Tracks brand mentions worldwide across millions of sources and many languages, with a built-in competitive analysis tool. Free version; paid from $25/month.
• Brandwatch – Enterprise analytics and data-visualization platform for deep audience insights and demographic data. Pricing on request.
• Hootsuite – Popular all-in-one dashboard to monitor and respond to mentions, messages, and comments across 30+ networks. Starts at $299/user/month.
• HubSpot – All-in-one marketing platform combining social management, publishing, and CRM integration. Starter from $50/month.
• Buffer – Simple publishing, scheduling, and analytics tool with a shared inbox for managing comments and mentions. Starts at $15/month.
• BuzzSumo – Content analysis and listening tool for finding top-performing content, mentions, and key influencers. Starts at $199/month.
• Sprout Social – Social management platform focused on audience engagement, reporting, and social CRM. Starts at $199/seat/month.
• Talkwalker – Leading listening and analytics tool that also monitors TV, print, and radio, with image/video recognition. Pricing on request.
• Synthesio – Enterprise listening tool covering 190+ countries and 80+ languages with NLP-powered sentiment analysis. Pricing on request.
• Mentionlytics – Finds mentions of your brand, products, and competitors across the web, with Hootsuite integration. Starts at $49/month.
• IFTTT – Automation tool that connects apps and can funnel brand mentions and keywords into a spreadsheet; 550+ integrations. Developer plan $199/year.
• Google Alerts – Free Google tool that emails you whenever your brand, products, or content are mentioned online. Free.

Awario

Awario is an incredible social listening tool that makes it super easy for brands to access valuable market data and customer insights. It helps businesses track brand mentions, find sales opportunities, and monitor competition. Small and medium-sized companies should consider using Awario if they need a powerful web search system to generate insights.

Founded in 2015, Awario has evolved into a powerful tool that monitors discussions across the web and social media. From building relationships with influencers to tracking how word of mouth about competitors spreads, Awario is a simple solution that streamlines many of your marketing and research tasks.

Supported network:

Awario monitors keywords on X, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, forums, news, blogs, and the web.

Benefits:

• Non-stop monitoring
• Diverse and powerful analytics
• Track mentions across the web, languages, and locations
• Sales opportunities
• Daily/weekly summaries of new mentions

Pricing:

Awario offers a free trial. However, the paid version starts at $29/month. ‘Pro’ is the most popular plan that costs $89/month. Awario’s Enterprise plan can be purchased in $249/month.

Agorapulse

Source: Agorapulse

Agorapulse is a social media management and monitoring tool designed for agencies and marketers to schedule content and manage social media marketing tasks. You can use the tool to schedule and publish content, monitor various social media channels, identify key influencers, and generate concise reports for each profile on the go, all using a single dashboard. The tool makes it easy to create content once and publish it to multiple channels. Social media management and team collaboration become convenient with Agorapulse.

Agorapulse’s analysis tools help you track mentions, shares, and fans based on engagement. You can receive and respond to messages and comments directly from a simple-to-use dashboard. Started in 2011, Agorapulse is surely a valuable social media management solution for large teams and marketers.

Supported Network

Agorapulse supports Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

Benefits

• Manage all messages in one place
• A variety of publishing options
• Ease of tracking hashtags, trends, and key influencers
• Improved team collaboration and visibility
• Social reporting
• Built-in CRM and deeper insights

Pricing:

Agorapulse offers a 28-day free trial. Small businesses can take advantage of the tool for $79/ month. The Advanced Plan costs $149/month, which is designed for large teams.

Keyhole

Source: Keyhole

When it comes to measuring the impact of influencers campaigns and social media, it’s hard to undermine tools like Keyhole. Marketers use Keyhole to track hashtags and social campaigns in real-time in order to create persuasive reports for clients.

Keyhole is probably the most trusted tool to track influencers’ data on social networks. If you find it difficult to deliver on-demand requests from your clients, try out this tool and delight your clients quickly without spending hours downloading information into spreadsheets. Hashtag & Keyword Tracking and Account & Profile Analytics are two of Keyhole’s products that you can buy to improve your social media efforts.

Since advertisers need the latest and accurate data to build effective social campaigns and know whether or not influencers are meeting their targets, tools like Keyhole come in handy. Besides, you can track your performance and measure ROI to determine the impact of your social campaigns. It’s time to avoid the hazard of manual tracking and data input with Keyhole.

Supported Network:

Keyhole enables users to track on Instagram, X, YouTube, and Facebook.

Benefits:

• Improved engagement
• Advanced influencer management
• Real-time analysis and reporting
• Sentiment analysis
• Hashtag tracking and setup

Pricing:

Plan for professionals starts at $99/month, while the Agencies & Enterprises plan costs $999/month.

Mention

Source: Mention

With Mention, you can track brand mentions across the world and millions of content sources across many languages. The tool gives you the freedom to tune out content and pay attention to trends that really matter.

Mention comes with a competitive analysis tool that can be used to compare a brand with its competitors. The competitive analysis tool helps you ensure your content is more valuable to your users than that of your competitors.

One of the prime features of Mention is that it helps companies deal with social media uproar and manage mishaps effectively. Mention lets your team collaborate and alert each other when they face an issue. Handy influencer dashboard and API access are also distinctive features of Mention.

Supported Network

Mention is compatible with  Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Buffer.

Benefits:

• Ease of finding customers’ pain points
• Listen to online conversations
• Comprehensive analytics
• Measure the impact of marketing and PR

Pricing:

While there’s a free version, the pricing plans for Mention start at $25/month. The Solo plan costs $25/month, which tracks 3,000 mentions. The Pro plan tracks up to 5,000 mentions and it costs $83/month. The Enterprise plan starts from $450 and it tracks 100,000 mentions.

Brandwatch

Source: Brandwatch

Brandwatch is an amazing social media tool that makes it easier for brands to better understand their audience through analytics and data visualization. Its demographic data covers interests, location, occupation, and gender. You can customize Brandwatch as it has access to various integrations and an API.

If you want to understand your customers and uncover critical insights within the conversations taking place online, Brandwatch would be of great help; the tool generates key consumer insights.

Brandwatch offers three products: Analytic, Audience, and Vizia. There is also a tool developed for agencies, which combines social intelligence with agency-specific resources, training, and support to help agencies expand their client base.

When it comes to Brandwatch Analytics, it streamlines your process for searching the web for information, segmenting data into categories, analyzing data, and taking instant actions.

Supported Network

X, Facebook, Instagram, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest, VK, Sina Weibo, QQ, and the web.

Benefits:

• Access to 99 million online resources
• Broad online coverage
• Comprehensive analytics
• Ability to adapt to suit unique customer needs

Pricing:

Pricing is available upon request.

Hootsuite

If you want to see and respond to all of your brand mentions, messages, and comments across various social networks in one place, you need Hootsuite, a social listening tool that enables marketers and brands to track leads and influencers in shareable lists.

The tools come with three different plans to help businesses select a plan that suits their needs. So far as the features are concerned, Hootsuite offers a variety of tools that monitor and manage social media activities.

One of the prominent features is the “boost” option that enables you to customize social media campaigns. You can use the tool to balance paid advertisements with an organic reach so that you enhance your content in terms of engagement. Also, you can tap into the conversation happening online and access real-time data from across the web, social networks, and languages.

Supported Network

Hootsuite is compatible with YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. It also supports a range of social network integrations.

Benefits:

• A single dashboard to manage everything
• Global operations
• Monitor interactions on over 30 social media networks
• Measure social ROI

Pricing

While Hootsuite offers a free 30-day trial, the Professional plan costs $299 per user/month. The Advanced plan costs $499/month. Pricing for the Enterprise plan is available upon request.

Hubspot

HubSpot is one of the most popular social media management and marketing tools. From building marketing campaigns to automating content distribution, a variety of social media marketing tasks can be streamlined with HubSpot. If you are looking for an all-in-one kind of tool to support your online marketing efforts, you should explore this truly amazing tool.

HubSpot comes with inbound marketing software, which is an ideal solution for teams looking to integrate social as an inseparable part of business operations.

The HubSpot interface is designed in a way that a user can create new posts and respond to mentions and comments with great ease. Users can even make performance comparisons and keep track of leads and visits across social networks. HubSpot tools are integrated with the HubSpot CRM, which enables you to transfer data onto the contact records.

Supported Network:

HubSpot’s social media tools are compatible with X, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

Benefits:

• Improved communication with clients
• Robust reporting system
• Ease of monitoring performance
• A clear understanding of ROI

Pricing:

The starter plan starts at $50/month, the Professional plan starts at $800/month, and the Enterprise plan starts at $3,200.

Buffer

Buffer is a remarkable social media management tool designed to help customer service teams have an omnichannel experience. Your team can use the tool to filter incoming comments and mentions through a shared inbox where issues can be resolved immediately. Trusted by over 75,000 brands across the globe, Buffer is an ideal tool for planning and scheduling content, engaging with audiences, and analyzing results.

It makes life easier for teams and social media marketers who are trying to get things done in an efficient manner. Publishing and scheduling options help your teams plan effective social campaigns. Besides, Buffer offers a reporting system and analytics that can be used to measure engagement, audience behaviour, and your team’s performance. The story monitoring feature analyses and records stories on social channels like Instagram and Facebook.

Supported Network:

Buffer is compatible with X, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.

Benefits:

• Informative social analytics
• Team collaboration
• Customized scheduling

Pricing:

With a free 14-day trial, the pricing plans start from $15/month. The Essential plan costs $60/year. You can use this plan to schedule 2,000 posts on 8 social accounts. Larger teams need the Team plan, which costs $120/year.

BuzzSumo

Source: Buzzsumo

BuzzSumo is an amazing content analysis and social media listening tool that helps marketers find any content online that includes your search term. It not only allows you to see the number of shares and impressions of certain posts but also enables you to collaborate with influencers who matter.

For instance, if you perform a search for your company, BuzzSumo will identify its online mentions and how many times your posts have been shared on various social channels.

If you want to analyse your brand’s presence on Facebook, don’t forget to use BuzzSumo to gain valuable insights about each post or what kind of content is performing best for your business. Also, BuzzSumo helps brands uncover ideal content length and the best times of the week to post content.

Supported Network:

BuzzSumo generates engagement figures for X, Facebook, Reddit, and Pinterest.

Benefits:

• Improved social media engagement
• Identify key influencers
• Find out the most popular content
• Explore interesting topics and keywords

Pricing:

BuzzSumo offers 4 plans. The $199/month Content Creation Plan allows you to use Content Analyzer, Trending Feeds, and Question Analyzer. The PR & Comms Plan allows you to access everything in the Content Creation Plan plus Media Database & Outreach, Coverage Reports, and Slack Integration. The Suite Plan allows you to access everything in PR & Comms Plan plus YouTube Analyzer, Advanced Chrome Extension and Article Uploads. Lastly, the Enterprise Plan allows you to access everything in the Suite Plan plus RRS Feeds, Granular Location Search, and Early Access to New Features.

Sprout Social

Source: Sprout Social

Social media is all about growing strong relationships. Sprout Social is a social media management tool ideal for those looking to understand and reach their audience. Trusted by thousands of global brands, Sprout Social enables you to enhance interaction with your audience measurably and effectively.

Reports and X Listener dashboards let you analyze your presence on X. Besides, you can track brand-specific keywords and direct messages. Simply put, Sprout Social will provide you with valuable insights, making it easy for you to track and improve your social media strategy.

Sprout Social comes with time-saving automation tools that manage various social media-related tasks using customizable workflows. Additionally, Sprout Social offers onboarding services to make things easier for new users. You can use the tool to identify and engage with your prospects beyond your computer screen.

Supported Network:

Sprout Social supports Facebook, X, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Instagram.

Benefits:

• Well-organized dashboard
• Actionable feedback
• Social CRM
• Single tool for all points of connections

Pricing:

While there is a free trial, Sprout Social offers 4 pricing plans: Standard ($199 per seat per month, Professional ($299 per seat per month), Advanced ($399 per user per month), and Enterprise for a Custom Amount.

Talkwalker

Source: Talkwalker

Talkwalker is one of the leading social listening, analytics, and influencer marketing tools that gives you the power to initiate impactful social media strategies. If you want an extra set of eyes and ears for your brand, Talkwalker is the tool that monitors social channels and online media in real-time.

Talkwalker will allow you to know what your customers are thinking about your products, brand, and campaigns. In other words, it tracks your brand message and awareness impact. Besides, Talkwalker also monitors TV, print, and radio broadcasts. You can even track your brand images shared on social media channels when your brand name isn’t mentioned.

Also, Talkwalker analyzes your social efforts and their results channel by channel. Annotated reports make things easier when you have to present your progress to management.

Supported Network:

Talkwalker supports all major social channels, websites, print, and broadcasts.

Benefits:

• Image recognition capabilities
• Wide coverage
• Free tools
• Video recognition
• AI engine

Pricing:

Talkwalker’s plans, Core, Analyze, and Business, are provided upon request.

Synthesio

Source: Synthesio

Synthesio is a social listening tool that surfaces actionable insights and monitors online presence to help brands stay ahead of the curve. The tool captures intelligence from over 190 countries and more than 80 languages. Synthesio’s automatic sentiment analysis capabilities work on more than 20 languages.

Synthesio comes with customizable dashboards to help users manage an immense amount of information with ease. You can use an interactive dashboard to track likes, retweets, replies, views, and shares from Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and X. Adding business intelligence with Engagement Rate and Media Value is a distinguishing feature of Synthesio.

Synthesio provides a range of tools that take conversations from the web and social channels and convert them into actionable insights that enable brands to make data-driven, well-informed decisions.

Moreover, you can export a large amount of pre-filtered data sets using Reveal or the API, and merge performance data with Social Listening metrics in various business intelligence tools.

Supported Network:

Synthesio can be connected to all major social media sites, news sites, and blogs.

Benefits:

• Natural Language Processing (NLP) technology
• Automated sentiment analysis (ASA)
• ROI widgets
• KPIs powered by powerful analytics tools
• Specialized reporting and consulting

Pricing:

Not provided by the vendor.

Mentionlytics

Source: Mentionlytics

Mentionlytics is a powerful social listening tool that helps you find mentions of your brand, products, and competitors on the web. It provides information for every mention to help brands grow sales and manage online reputation effectively.

Medium to large-sized organizations should consider using Mentionlytics to monitor competition and foresee any potential problems. If you need to know what people or the press are saying about your business or products, Mentionlytics should be in your online marketing toolkit. Marketing teams can also use the tool to find out about sales opportunities.

When it comes down to identifying the moments when industry leaders and popular bloggers or influencers talk about your brand, social listening tools like Mentionlytics are of great help. Mentionlytics enables its users to combine its social media monitoring capabilities with the posting and scheduling capabilities of Hootsuite.

Supported Network:

Mentionlytics supports multiple platforms including Facebook, X and LinkedIn.

Benefits

• Full web monitoring
• Comprehensive analytics dashboard
• Hootsuite integration
• Sentiment analysis
• Customizable email alerts

Pricing:

Mentionlytics offers 6 monthly subscription plans: $49/month Basic, $141/month Essential, $249/month Advanced, $416/month Pro, $624/month Business and $1083/month Enterprise.

IFTTT

Source: IFTTT

IFTTT (If this, then what) is software that isn’t designed specifically for social media listening, it connects apps, services, and devices. However, you can use the tool to monitor every time someone mentions your business on the web. A range of integrated apps and customizability helps you track relevant social media activities. You can either use IFTTT’s existing applets or create your own.

IFTTT can gather mentions of your brand, hashtags, and keywords into a Google spreadsheet. You can find out which social services IFTTT integrates into its applets and see which one fits your context. IFTTT has over 550 partner services and a community of over 11 million users running over one billion applets every month.

Supported Network:

IFTTT has more than 550 partner services, including Facebook and X.

Benefits:

• Analytics
• Applet repository
• Improved product value

Pricing:

IFTTT offers a Developer plan, a Team plan, and a Business plan. The Developer plan costs $199 per year. The price for Team and Business plans depends on the need of a user.

Google Alerts

Google Alerts is one of Google’s many free online tools. It provides businesses with a simple way to monitor the web for relevant and interesting topics. However, a majority of marketers and brands don’t take advantage of this free and useful tool.

You should use Google Alerts to know when your newly published content is indexed and monitor whether or not other sites have republished your content. If someone else publishes your content, make sure to receive proper credit to get SEO value.

Google Alerts notifies you when other sites link to your content. It also makes it easy to monitor online mentions of your company and products in real-time. Whether you are mentioned in social media conversations, blogs, or articles, Google Alerts will notify you via email. However, some brands need to use specialised social listening tools to get comprehensive insights.

Supported Network:

Google Alerts monitors web pages, news, blogs, and forums.

Benefits:

• Improved keyword strategy
• Free monitoring tool
• Identify brand and product mentions

Pricing:

Google Alerts is a free tool.

Conclusion

If you’re interested in learning more about social media marketing, please feel free to take a look at our WSQ Social Media Marketing Strategy & Optimisation Course.