Social listening tools: Finding the right balance between efficiency and cost-effectiveness

As businesses, it is important to monitor brand reputation and keep track of customer sentiment towards your products or services. One way to achieve this is through social listening tools, which allow businesses to track and analyse mentions of their brand on social media platforms, news outlets, and other online sources.

However, the reality of managing these tools can be overwhelming, especially for communications teams that are busy or under-resourced.

In this blog post, we will explore the most popular social listening tools and the pros and cons of each. We will also introduce Sensu as an alternative solution for businesses looking to achieve better value and maximum benefit without taking on expensive subscriptions or adding an extra drain on their team’s time.

10 of the most popular social listening tools

• Hootsuite Insights – Hootsuite Insights is a popular social media monitoring tool that allows businesses to track and analyse conversations about their brand across multiple social media platforms. Pros: It offers sentiment analysis, trend analysis, and real-time reporting. Cons: It has limited features for competitive analysis.
• Brandwatch – Brandwatch is a social listening tool that allows businesses to monitor brand reputation, track customer sentiment, and analyse market trends. Pros: It offers a range of features, including real-time data visualisation, sentiment analysis, and competitor analysis. Cons: It is relatively expensive compared to other tools.
• Mention – Mention is a social listening tool that allows businesses to monitor brand reputation and track customer sentiment across social media platforms, news outlets, and other online sources. Pros: It offers real-time alerts, sentiment analysis, and competitive analysis. Cons: The user interface can be overwhelming for beginners.
• Sprout Social – Sprout Social is a social media management tool that offers social listening capabilities. It allows businesses to monitor brand reputation and track customer sentiment across social media platforms. Pros: It offers sentiment analysis, trend analysis, and real-time reporting. Cons: It lacks advanced features for crisis management.
• Talkwalker: Talkwalker is an AI-powered social media listening and analytics tool that allows PR and marketing professionals to monitor their brands across various social media channels. Pros: It offers real-time monitoring, sentiment analysis, influencer tracking, and crisis management features, and provides customisable dashboards and reports. Cons: It is relatively expensive compared to other tools.
• Meltwater – Meltwater is a media intelligence platform that offers social media monitoring and listening capabilities. Pros: It offers real-time monitoring, sentiment analysis, and media coverage tracking across various online sources. It also provides a media database for media outreach and influencer identification. Cons: Its pricing is not transparent and can be expensive for smaller businesses.
• Digimind – Digimind is a social media listening and analytics tool that allows businesses to monitor brand reputation and track customer sentiment across various online sources. Pros: It offers customisable dashboards, real-time monitoring, and sentiment analysis. It also provides competitor analysis and trend monitoring. Cons: Its user interface can be complicated and requires a learning curve.
• NetBase Quid – NetBase Quid is a social listening and analytics tool that offers real-time monitoring and sentiment analysis across various social media channels. Pros: It offers advanced features for customer segmentation, trend analysis, and crisis management. It also provides an AI-powered analytics engine for insights and recommendations. Cons: It is expensive compared to other tools and may not be suitable for smaller businesses.
• Synthesio – Synthesio is a social listening and analytics tool that offers real-time monitoring and sentiment analysis across various social media channels. Pros: It offers advanced features for competitive analysis, crisis management, and influencer identification. It also provides a customisable dashboard for reporting and insights. Cons: It is relatively expensive compared to other tools and may not be suitable for smaller businesses.
• Agorapulse – Agorapulse is a social media management tool that also offers social listening capabilities. It allows businesses to monitor brand mentions, track customer sentiment, and identify potential influencers. Pros: It offers sentiment analysis, competitor analysis, and real-time reporting. Cons: It can be more expensive than other social listening tools.

The importance of keeping track of brand profile and reputation

Social listening tools are important because they help businesses keep track of customer sentiment towards their brand. By analysing social media conversations, news outlets, and other online sources, businesses can identify potential issues and act before they become a larger problem. Additionally, social listening tools can help businesses identify customer needs and preferences, which can inform product development and marketing strategies.

The reality of managing social listening tools

While social listening tools are important, managing them can be onerous. Many businesses do not have the expertise or resources to effectively manage social listening tools, which can result in wasted time and money. Additionally, the cost of subscriptions to these tools can be expensive, especially for teams with budgets that are already stretched.

Sensu: The alternative solution

Sensu offers an alternative solution to businesses looking to achieve better value and maximum benefit without taking on expensive subscriptions or adding an extra drain on their team’s time. Sensu mixes and matches the best tools on the market with our own proprietary software to create the perfect blend for your business. Our expert teams then create the right search, reporting, analysis, and recommendations to achieve the outcomes you actually want.

Contact us today to learn more about how we can help your business achieve its social listening goals.