Best 14 Social Media Management and Monitoring Tools for Social Media

In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, social media has emerged as a powerful platform for businesses to connect with their audience, build brand awareness, and foster customer engagement. However, effective social media management and monitoring can be a daunting task, especially with the increasing volume of online interactions. This is where social media management and listening tools come into play, providing businesses with the ability to effectively manage their online social accounts, and also track, analyze, and derive actionable insights from online discussions. In this blog post, we will explore the best 14 social media monitoring tools for 2023, which will help you not only efficiently manage your online business but also enhance your digital strategy and gain a competitive edge. For our diverse audience, we included both paid and free social media management tools.

1. Buffer:

Buffer is a renowned social media management tool that also offers a free version with essential features. With Buffer, you can effortlessly schedule and publish posts, track engagement metrics, and manage multiple social media accounts. Additionally, Buffer’s social listening capabilities empower you to monitor conversations, engage with your audience, and analyze sentiment, allowing for informed decision-making. Their paid plans offer advanced analytics and team collaboration features for seamless social media management.

Buffer – Top Features Summary:

• Interface Simplicity: User-friendly interface for effortless social media management.
• Scheduled Posts: With content calendar feature, schedule posts in advance, saving both time and effort.
• Platform Support: Provides support for almost all popular social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest, TikTok etc.
• Performance Tracking: Offers social media listening features like analytics and post performance reporting. You can track performance of your social media posts.
• Team Collaboration: Offers team collaboration features, allows you to assign roles, and multiple team members to work together on social media management.
• Affordable Pricing: Affordable pricing plans as compared to other social media listening tools.

2. TailwindApp:

Tailwindapp specializes in social media marketing for visually-oriented platforms like Pinterest and Instagram. Their free version offers basic features like social media management and listening for three channels, and their paid plans provide advanced scheduling, content planning, and analytics. Tailwind’s listening features enable you to monitor hashtags, track brand mentions, and identify trending content in your industry. Harnessing the power of visuals, Tailwind helps you maximize your impact on these image-centric platforms. 

TailwindApp – Top Features Summary:

• Post Scheduling Features: Provides post scheduling features.
• Smart-loop Tool for Pinterest: Offers Smart-loop tool for Pinterest. Using this tool, users can re-share their best-performing pins or posts to Pinterest boards i.e. increasing old posts engagement by re-sharing.
• Tailwind Communities: Allows users to join Tailwind communities. These communities are similar to group boards on Pinterest and you can add your pins and see others pins too.
• Creator Tool for Pinterest Pins: It offers a Creator tool to create Pinterest pins from scratch.
• Instagram Management Tool: Offers Instagram management tool which includes post creation, scheduling posts, stories and carousels, establishing  a smart bio landing pages, and hashtag research.
• Pinterest and Instagram Insights: Provides Pinterest and Instagram Insights like post engagement, re-shares/re-pins, and followers.
• Affordable pricing plans: Cost-effective pricing plans for budget-friendly social media management.

3. Sprinklr:

Sprinklr is a comprehensive social media management and monitoring tool that offers a free 90-day trial with a wide range of pricing plans for different premium services . It provides a centralized dashboard to manage all your social media channels, engage with your audience, and analyze campaign performance. Sprinklr’s monitoring capabilities encompass sentiment analysis, trend monitoring, and real-time social media monitoring, enabling businesses to make data-driven decisions and optimize their social media strategy.

Sprinklr – Top Features Summary:

• Social Publishing & Engagement: Easily plan, manage, and analyze brand content across 30+ channels using a single platform.
• Conversational Commerce Platform: Engage with customers on their preferred channels, build personalized relationships, and drive sales conversions.
• Local Social Platform: Enable collaboration between your corporate team and local branches, delivering personalized customer experiences at scale.
• Distributed Marketing: Coordinate marketing and social sales efforts across your organization, ensuring brand consistency and control.
• Review Management Software: Take charge of customer support and feedback by proactively addressing questions and concerns, fostering positive sentiment, and driving revenue.
• Employee Advocacy Platform: Leverage your employees’ social influence to amplify messages, enhance sales pipeline, and maintain control over brand messaging.

4. Agorapulse:

Agorapulse is an intuitive paid social media listening tool that offers a free 30-day trial without requiring credit card details and you also get a customizable pricing plan according to your business requirements.. It allows you to schedule posts, manage interactions, and monitor social media conversations. Agorapulse’s monitoring features include keyword monitoring, sentiment analysis, and customizable reporting, enabling you to stay on top of relevant discussions and streamline your social media workflow.

Agorapulse – Top Features Summary:

• Clean Interface: Nice and clean interface
• Post publishing tool: Comes with post selection, editor and post review.
• Automated Scheduling: Allows users to schedule posts and publish to social media platforms automatically.
• Publishing Lists: Offers publishing lists feature. The publisher list tool organizes posts into five sections: Scheduled, Queued, To Approve, Assigned to Me and Published.
• Social Media Calendar: Offers a social media calendar to showcase all the posts you have scheduled.
• Comment Management: Agorapulse allows you to directly handle all comments, messages, reviews  and replies right on their platform.
• Advanced Listening: Listening features include monitoring the performance of various keywords, phrases and hashtags.

5. BuzzSumo:

BuzzSumo is a popular content research and monitoring tool that provides a free 30-day trial and pricing plans both for individuals and teams of up to 30 users. While primarily known for content discovery, BuzzSumo also offers robust social listening capabilities. You can track mentions of your brand, monitor industry trends, and identify influencers who can amplify your reach. By understanding what content resonates with your audience, BuzzSumo helps you optimize your content strategy and uncover new opportunities.

BuzzSumo – Top Features Summary:

• Content Idea Generator Tool: Allows you to find out about trending topics, SEO insights, frequently asked questions, platform recommendation.
• Content Research Tool: Allows you to find ideas from the data of 5 billion articles, see trending content formats, competitors comparisons, and top trends based on the last five years of data.
• Find Influencers Tool: Offers a detailed research on the trustable and popular influencers who truly have a large loyal audience and genuine followers and authority.
• Monitoring and Tracking Tool: With this tool, users can track brand mentions, and their competitors. Users can also find trending products.
• BuzzSumo Chrome Extension: Helps you construct connections, delve into the depths of social media engagement, and easily track over 40 marketing metrics. 
• Marketing Resource Integration and Automation: Enables users to incorporate, automate, construct, and develop a range of marketing resource.

6. Hootsuite:

Hootsuite is a widely utilized social media management tool that offers a free 30-day trial. It allows you to schedule posts, engage with your audience, and monitor social media conversations on a single platform. Hootsuite’s monitoring features include keyword tracking, sentiment analysis, and customizable streams, providing you with a comprehensive solution to effectively manage your online presence and derive valuable insights. The Hootsuite offers comprehensive plans for professionals and businesses, offering a 20% off for individual and team plans.

Hootsuite – Top Features Summary:

• Content Publishing: Craft, plan, and share content across various social media platforms.
• AI-powered Content Generation: AI-powered content writer and idea generator to overcome creative hurdles.
• Smart Scheduling and Optimization: Smart scheduler, hashtag creator, and optimal posting times.
• Content Inspiration and Editing Tools: Content inspiration sources, Grammarly integration for spell checking, and Canva templates.
• Audience Engagement: Foster brand growth and enhance customer satisfaction through interaction.
• Social Monitoring: Keep track of brand mentions, industry trends, and competitors.
• Unified Inbox and Messaging: Monitoring and listening streams, Unified Inbox for public and private messaging.
• Automated Responses and Tagging: Automatic responses, preset replies, and automated tagging and delegation.
• Advanced Search and Tracking: Customizable search queries, hashtag and keyword tracking, and social mention streams.
• Brand Mention Analysis: Analysis of brand mention volume and sentiment.
• Performance Analytics: Comprehensive tools for informed social media strategy.
• Detailed Reporting: Detailed post-performance reports, sentiment analysis, and industry comparisons.
• Advertising Solutions: Oversee paid social media advertisements alongside organic posts.
• Ad Management Tools: In-depth social ad analytics, ad management, and promotion of organic content.

7. Sprout Social:

Sprout Social is a versatile social media management and listening tool that offers a free 30-day trial without the need for credit card details. It offers features such as scheduling, engagement, and analytics to streamline your social media efforts. Sprout Social’s listening capabilities include sentiment analysis, trend tracking, and competitor analysis, enabling businesses to gain valuable insights from online conversations and refine their social media strategy accordingly. Sprout Social’s comprehensive features nicely balance its apparently expensive pricing plans.

Sprout Social – Top Features Summary:

• Comment Management with Smart Inbox: Manage and interact with comments on Facebook and Instagram advertisements using the Smart inbox tool.
• Categorization and Reporting: Categorize inbox and generate reports using tailored custom tags
• Zendesk Integration: Integration with Zendesk for tracking support issues.
• Performance Assessment: Assess response rates, response time, and posting activity per profile and user.
• Task Monitoring: Monitor task execution and success rates across teams.
• Twitter Indicators: Customize indicators for specific Twitter profiles through the Smart inbox.
• Chatbot Implementation: Implement chatbots for Twitter DMs and Facebook Messenger using Bot-Builder.
• Mobile Applications: Mobile applications for iOS and Android for audience engagement.
• Personalized Inbox Views: Personalized inbox views for an efficient workflow.
• Customized Responses: Save and send customized responses using a reply library.
• Notifications for High Volume: Receive push notifications and emails for unusually high message volumes.

8. Zoho Social:

Zoho Social is a social media listening tool that offers a free 15-day trial. It provides features like post scheduling, analytics, and team collaboration to optimize your social media workflow. Zoho Social’s listening features allow you to monitor brand mentions, track industry keywords, and analyze sentiment, empowering you to make data-driven decisions and strengthen your social media presence. As compared to many other social media listening, Zoho Social offers modest pricing and plans.

Zoho Social – Top Features Summary:

• Streamline Post Scheduling: Preview and rearrange content through drag-and-drop, managing your content pipeline from one central location.
• Keep Track of Essential Information: Monitor brand mentions, reviews, and keywords; identify trends and engage in relevant industry discussions.
• Foster Teamwork on Social Media Tasks: Collaborate on drafts, analyze reports, and communicate through chat, audio, and video calls with team members.
• Customize Your Team’s Workflow: Tailor team discussions, roles, and permissions to suit your needs.
• Evaluate Your Brand’s Impact: Gain insights into follower demographics, content preferences, and brand sentiment; access crucial metrics for performance assessment.

9. Mentionlytics:

Mentionlytics offers a free 14-day trial without the need for a credit card. This social media monitoring tool provides comprehensive monitoring capabilities to track brand mentions, monitor sentiment, and analyze social media conversations. With Mentionlytics, you can gain valuable insights into customer opinions, identify emerging trends, and measure brand sentiment to refine your social media strategy effectively. Mentionlytics offers user friendly pricing plans as even the basic plan allows up to 5 users.

Mentionlytics – Top Features Summary:

• Web and Social Media Monitoring: Tracks web and social media mentions.
• Versatile for Businesses and Individuals: Suitable for businesses of all sizes, agencies, and individual users (public figures, artists, politicians).
• Keyword Tracking for Relevant Mentions: Monitors user-specified keywords to capture relevant mentions.
• Lead Generation and Business Opportunities: Identifies potential marketing leads and business opportunities
• Intuitive Interface and Features: Intuitive interface featuring email notifications, top keywords, key mentioners, share of voice, infographics, and reports.
• Proactive Content Management and Crisis Handling: Proactively manages viral content and potential crises.
• Competitor and Industry Insights: Gathers competitor and industry knowledge for enhancing market presence and brand recognition.
• Social Media Post Optimization Recommendations: Offers recommendations for optimizing social media posts (ideal posting days, effective hashtags, repurposing successful content).
• Valuable Insights from Mentions: Extracts valuable insights from mentions (engagement, reach, sentiment).
• Distinguishing User Types: Differentiates between trolls, genuine users, and brand advocates.
• Long-Term Mention Storage: Stores mentions for up to 1.5 years for future reference or analysis (extendable upon request).
• Custom Tags and Mobile App for Monitoring: Custom tags for organizing comments and mobile app for monitoring mentions on the go.
• Tools Integration: Integrates with Google Data Studio, Hootsuite, and Slack.
• Advanced Search Capabilities: Advanced Boolean search for refining results.
• Hashtag and Competitor Analysis: Analyzes hashtags on Instagram and Twitter, as well as competitors’ mentions.
• AI-driven Trends and Insights: Exclusive SIA (artificial intelligence) for identifying trends and insights from mention data.
• Comprehensive Social Listening Data: Comprehensive social listening data from nearly any website.
• Dashboards Design: Personalizable dashboards, modern design, and user interface.
• Tailored Pricing Plans with Free Trial: Pricing plans tailored to different business sizes, including a 14-day free trial option.

10. Mention:

Mention is the social listening online tool that provides a free 14-day trial with no credit card required and moderate pricing and plans. With its real-time social media monitoring, you can track mentions of your brand, industry keywords, and competitors across various online platforms. Mention’s robust listening features enable you to engage with your audience, measure sentiment, and identify influencers who can amplify your brand’s reach.

Mention – Top Features Summary:

• Simplified Keyword Search: Simplify advanced keyword search with our Standard Alert query builder and monitoring filters.
• Precision Monitoring: Eliminate noise and precisely monitor sources with refined results and quota estimations.
• Brand Conversation Tracking: Monitor online brand conversations with extensive media sources, Advanced Research, and Smart folders.
• Organized Reporting: Organize Mention inbox for precise reporting and easy collaboration using priority labels.
• Advanced Search Customization: Enhance search quality using Advanced Alerts and Boolean Query for customized results.
• Social Media Insights: Learn from social media data, gauge audience sentiment, and visualize insights with robust filtering.
• Comprehensive Analytics: Access comprehensive analytics to analyze trends, compare data, and develop reports.
• Impact Measurement: Measure work impact with detailed dashboards, data visualization, and scheduled reports.
• Unified Social Media Management: Manage social media posting from one tool with Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn integration.
• Content Creation: Create relevant social media content, respond to mentions, and verify post layouts.
• Performance Analysis: Measure social media strategy performance with key analytics on published posts.
• Team Collaboration: Improve team collaboration with role assignments, publishing permissions, and clear brand voice.

11. Brand24:

Brand24 specializes in brand monitoring and social media listening, allowing you to track mentions, monitor sentiment, and analyze online conversations. Brand24’s comprehensive features enable you to stay on top of customer feedback, identify influencers, and engage with your audience proactively. By monitoring your brand’s online reputation, Brand24 helps you maintain a positive image and respond effectively to customer sentiment. As compared to the “Mention” tool discussed above, Brand24 plans are expensive and allows less number of brand mentions. It also offers a free 14-day trial.

Brand24 – Top Features Summary:

• Mention Volume Visualization: Display the quantity of mentions, social media reach, and non-social reach over a period.
• Emotional Tone Detection: Automatically classify mentions as positive, negative, or neutral based on language used.
• Customizable Filters: Sort mentions by source, sentiment, Influencer Score, significance, and additional criteria.
• Real-time Mention Stream: Access a constantly updating list of brand mentions from social media, blogs, news articles, and more.
• Mention Metrics: Evaluate marketing performance using KPIs such as total mentions, estimated reach, interactions, and others.
• Online Presence Indicator: Assess overall internet and social media presence as a measure of brand recognition.
• Popular Links and Hashtags: Identify trending links and hashtags associated with brand mentions.
• Influencer Identification: Discover industry influencers and potential brand advocates.
• Custom Alerts: Configure notifications for specific events, like negative mentions on high-traffic websites.
• Data Reporting: Generate and share user-friendly reports showcasing mention-related data.

12. Awario:

Awario is a comparatively low priced social media listening tool that offers powerful social media monitoring capabilities to track brand mentions, monitor industry conversations, and analyze sentiment. Awario’s advanced features include trend analysis, influencer identification, and competitive intelligence, enabling you to uncover valuable insights and adapt your social media strategy accordingly. Awario offers more number of features and very user friendly price plans as compared to other tools like Brand24 or Mention. For instance, it’s pro version offers unlimited keywords per topic and up to 300,000 new mentions per month. It provides a free 7-day trial with no credit card required. 

Awario – Top Features Summary:

• Continuous Tracking: Constantly monitors the web for keyword mentions, enabling prompt engagement with relevant discussions.
• Advanced Analytics: Assess mention growth, sentiment, top influencers, and compare alerts for data-driven insights.
• Lead Generation: Discover sales opportunities by identifying product recommendation requests and competitor complaints.
• Email Notifications: Stay informed with daily or weekly summaries of new mentions delivered to your inbox.
• Prioritized Reach: Focus on impactful conversations by sorting mentions based on audience size and potential reach.
• Streamlined Workspace: Maintain an organized social media routine with grouped shares and retweets, and sorted mention types.

13. BrandMentions:

BrandMentions allows real-time social media management and brand tracking across various platforms. BrandMentions’ listening features allow you to track brand mentions, monitor sentiment, and analyze social media conversations. By staying informed about your brand’s online presence, you can proactively engage with your audience and manage your brand reputation effectively. It offers a free 7-day trial that requires a credit card for activation. The pricing and plans of BrandMentions tool are somewhat similar to Brand24 specifically the individual plan.

BrandMentions – Top Features Summary:

• Competitor Spying: Analyze competitors’ strategies and stay informed about the competition’s position.
• Brand Monitoring: Receive real-time brand mentions to track online conversations about your brand.
• Reputation Management: Shape and protect your brand’s public perception in a competitive market.
• Media Monitoring: Monitor the web and social media for mentions and trending topics.
• Business Intelligence: Access actionable data for faster and informed decision-making.

14. Notifier:

With a 7-day free trial, Notifier tracks brand mentions, monitor conversations, and analyze sentiment. It’s features enable you to engage with your audience, identify brand advocates, and stay updated on relevant discussions. With real-time insights, Notifier empowers you to drive engagement and build stronger connections with your target audience. The basic plan of Notifier allows up to 5000 results per month for only 20$/month.

Notifier – Top Features Summary:

• Generate Leads: Utilize social listening to discover and engage with potential customers, effectively generating leads.
• Brand Protection: Monitor mentions of your brand or product name to proactively address any issues and safeguard your brand reputation.
• Customer Feedback Monitoring: Stay informed about customer feedback, comments, and reviews to gain insights into their needs and preferences.
• Sentiment Tracking: Track the sentiment associated with your brand mentions over time to evaluate the performance of your marketing efforts.
• Ticker Mentions Monitoring: Notifier is a powerful tool for financial firms and traders, enabling them to track and analyze stock and cryptocurrency ticker mentions across social media platforms.

Conclussion:

In today’s digital age, social media management softwares have become a critical component of any successful digital strategy. These top 14 social media management and monitoring tools of 2023 offer a wide range of features and functionalities to help businesses manage, monitor, analyze, and leverage online conversations effectively. Whether you need comprehensive social media management, real-time monitoring, or advanced analytics, these tools can provide valuable insights and help you make data-driven decisions. Selecting the right tools and successful social media marketing strategies depends on your specific requirements, budget, and goals. By incorporating social media monitoring software into your digital strategy, you can gain a competitive edge, enhance customer engagement, and build a strong brand presence in the ever-evolving social media landscape.