To quote celebrity handyman Mike Holmes, the best approach to any project is determining if you have “the right tool for the right job.”
This week I explored three different free and one paid social media web analytic tools. Keep in mind that the free options all have subscription options; some plans are more expensive than others, so I leave it up to you and your organization to determine if they are worth the money.
FREE:
1. Hootsuite:
image from http://www.commonplaces.com/HootSuite
Benefits:
– multiple social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Foursquare, MySpace, WordPress and Mixi with the option to add more under their “App Directory”
– ability to schedule social media postings in advance, and multiple social profiles at once
– compatible with multiple devices including SmartPhones and Tablets
What you get for free:
– Up to 5 social profiles, basic analytic reports, basic message scheduling, basic app integration, up to 2 RSS feed
-Hootsuite Analytics are expensive (up to $50 per from purchased points)
– forced to use ow.ly url shorteners that are only usable within Ow.ly and Hootsuite
– issues with Facebook integration
– neat team features are a paid feature and expensive for small business
2. HowSociable?
Benefits:
-calculates brand impact scores (“magnitude score” 0-10) from the 36 most popular social media sites.
– it breaks down scores for different social media platforms so that “you can see where your brand is most active.”
What you get for free:
– 1 brand 12 metrics, limited features
-to get the most from your account, a plan is needed to scan the full 36 sites, as well as the top 360 mentions and pages
-the magnitude score needs context for it to make sense
-can be inconsistent with its tracking results
3. Mention:
Benefits:
– monitor in real time allowing users to be able to react in seconds
-export your data
-analyze by tonality, source and language
-access mention from anywhere
-alert emails that take you straight to source of a comment
What you get for free:
-unfortunately not much – you are allowed 1 user, tracking one key word at 100 mentions/month
-the features of sharing and assigning tasks to your team is available when you purchase additional plans at $29.99/month (1 user 29.99, 3 users 69.99, etc), while you get a month free with the business plan purchase, for a small business starting off it gets expensive
PAID:
Sprout Social:
image from https://www.facebook.com/SproutSocialInc
Benefits:
-real time social metrics, 15 Min average tracking times, weekly data visualization reports
– view all of your social channels and profiles at once via their “smart inbox” via single, filterable stream
-assign tasks to teams and create support tickets without leaving Sprout, track conversation history
– post messages on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn simultaneously, shorten url addresses
-customize reports incorporating your own brand, with easy .pdf or CSV export options
Costs:
Free trial with full options, then from $39-59-99/month
What’s not good:
– You are not able to “like” posts from Sprout’s platform – but you can respond
– Missing an influencer search option
– $39/month is expensive for new users
Pondering PR 