Five Top Social Media Analytics Tools for Measuring Success

It’s always satisfying to put your company’s message out on social media and see that it’s being engaged with, shared, and amplified.

But if you’re like many other small- to medium-sized businesses, getting a sense of how successful your social media marketing efforts are can be a major challenge. That’s exactly where social media analytics tools can help.

Social analytics platforms and services help businesses measure typical social media key performance indicators (KPIs) in the four critical areas of reach, engagement, amplification, and economics. Analytics tools also measure more specific metrics like followers, likes, mentions, comments, shares, retweets, and sales conversions.

Here are five of the top social media analytics tools that businesses should consider implementing in 2017 to measure social media success and return on investment.

1. Hootsuite

Hootsuite represents one of the best platforms for those just getting started with analytics. Hootsuite is an “all-in-one” social-media platform, allowing businesses to schedule posts across multiple social channels, monitor performance in real-time, and create social media analytics reports. While the free version of Hootsuite offers basic analytics, users can upgrade to more robust plans that offer customizable and exportable reporting features.

2. Nuvi

Billing itself as “the world’s most stunning” tool for social media data visualization and analytics, Nuvi’s social analytics platform is used by big brands like Warner Bros., as well as many small-to medium-sized businesses. Nuvi combines its beautiful visualization with real-time streaming analytics to monitor social conversations and gives insights to businesses as to where they should prioritize responses. Custom pricing starts at around $300 per month.

3. Sprout Social

One of the longest-standing social media management platforms available, Sprout’s social analytics tool is one of the few on the market that can integrate social media data gleaned from both Google Analytics and Bit.ly to provide an in-depth picture of performance. Sprout Social’s reporting suite is easy to navigate and is built to efficiently export analytics data for reports and presentations. Users can drill down into social KPIs such as link clicks, impressions, and followers gained through Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram activity.

Sprout also contains a Twitter comparison feature that lets businesses compare metrics like engagement and follower growth against competitors. With additional features such as mention monitoring and ability to build report queries, Sprout is one of the best values in the social media analytics market. Plans start at $99 per month with a 30-day free trial.

4. Buffer