What Are the Best Social Media Monitoring Tools?

The immense availability of hundreds of social media monitoring tools is both exciting and confusing: Social media professionals now have tools available to them manage and measure their social efforts, but shopping for the right software in such a cluttered space is often frustrating and confusing.

Community managers, social media managers, consultants and agency professionals alike have many of the same concerns. What are the questions I should ask before purchasing a social media monitoring service? What are the best social media monitoring tools out there? Are there budget-friendly social media monitoring options?

oneforty recently surveyed 150 social media professionals to learn about what their main concerns were when it came to social media monitoring. What follows is an infographic produced in partnership with KISSmetrics to show you their main questions, as well as favorite social media monitoring tools. The list of tools at the bottom shows the most popular tools according to survey respondents who answered a question regarding which tools they use, and is admittedly not conclusive.

Feel free to share this with your community on your blog or on Twitter.

There were some intriguing outcomes from the survey. We’d love your take. Feel free to jump in to the conversation in the comments here or spark a discussion of your own on your blog.

• Relationship with vendor was noted as the least important factor in selecting a social media monitoring tool, while metrics were seen as the most important. Why do you think that is?
• The vast majority of people said their budget for a social media monitoring tool was less than $500/month. Many tools start at $500/month. What ways can social media professionals prove the value of their efforts to get more budget for measurement/management tools?
• Most people responded with indifference toward their choice of a social media monitoring tool – 60.1% said it was “okay” and that they’d try something different if it came along. What features would your ideal social media monitoring tool include? If you’ve already discovered it, which one is it and why?

Comments

Posted by Brian Whalley on Mon, Aug 08, 2011 @ 12:51 PM