If you’re a small business that interacts with its target audience on social media, you know that immediate, unbiased feedback about how your posts are resonating can help you optimize yoursocial media marketing strategy.
This is where social media analytics tools come in. These tools gather and analyze social media data, so you can cut the content that flops, amplify what works, and gain insights to improve your overall social media performance.
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What are social media analytics?
Social media analytics are data about how your audience interacts with your content. They provide insight into your social media performance so you can improve key aspects of your social media efforts.
Social media analytics tools aggregate and filter social media data to present advanced reporting on key metrics and offer insights into audience demographics and behaviors. They provide businesses with enough information to draw conclusions about their customers so that social media managers don’t need to manually monitor post performance.
Some analytics tools are already embedded in popular social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Others are third-party analytics applications, like Hootsuite.
What social media metrics should you monitor?
Social media data gives you a sense of what content is performing effectively. Business owners generally refer to data in three categories: post and profile metrics, paid metrics, andsocial listeningmetrics.
Post and profile metrics
Post metrics measure the performance of an individual social post. They include:
- Reach.Total number of people who see your post.
- Impressions.The total number of times your post is displayed.
- Engagement rate:The percentage of people reached who interact with your post through a like, comment, share, click, or direct message.
- Amplification rate.The percentage of your followers who share your post.
- Click-through rate.The percentage of people who click on a link in your post.
Profile metrics include total views of an account profile (as opposed to views of an individual post) and an account’s audience growth rate.
Paid metrics
Paid metrics apply to social advertisements and posts you’ve paid to boost on the platform. These only apply to small businesses with a paid social media strategy. Common metrics include:
- Cost-per-click (CPC).This is a measure of how much you paid for an ad divided by the number of clicks on the ad.
- Conversion rate.The number of people who saw an ad divided by the number who took the desired action (such as purchasing a product or signing up for an event).
- Return on investment (ROI).The profit generated by an ad campaign divided by the total cost of the campaign.
Social listening metrics
社会听指标监控的声誉your brand on social media. Metrics include:
- Mentions.The number of times your brand is mentioned on the platform.
- Share of social voice.How often your company is mentioned compared to your competitors.
- Social sentiment.The distribution of neutral, positive, and negative sentiments expressed about your company.
Many third-party platforms charge more forsocial listeningmetrics, making these tools more popular among medium-to-large businesses with sizeable audiences.
What makes a good social media analytics tool?
A solid social media analytics tool should provide the data you’re most interested in. They should also be flexible, easy to use, fit your budget, and support your business goals. Here are a few things to keep in mind when selecting an analytics tool:
- Platform compatibility.Your tool should be compatible with all of the platforms on which you run your social media strategy. Most third-party tools are compatible with major social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and some also support LinkedIn, Pinterest, and other social media networks.
- Metrics.Before choosing a social media analytics tool, identify the metrics that matter most to you. Then select an analytics platform that provides the data you need to optimize your social media campaigns.
- Flexible, user-friendly reporting.Consider your audience when deciding what kind of tool you need. If you’re presenting data to stakeholders, the ability to export it to a deck-compatible format, or create custom social media analytics reports is helpful.
- Collaborative functions.If your team shares social monitoring responsibilities (or if you employ a dedicated social media marketer), find a platform that supports collaboration and allows more than one user.
- Real-time monitoring and alerts.If a dissatisfied customer posts angry comments about your company, you’ll want to respond. Some social media analytics tools can notify you of incoming messages, negative sentiments, or unusual activity on your social media accounts.
- Recommendations.Numbers are great; insights are better. Some social media analytics tools do some analysis for you and make recommendations about content type, frequency, and timing based on past performance.
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Learn more.4 tips for effectively using social media analytics tools
- Make a plan
- 选择正确的tool
- Monitor social data
- Optimize your strategy
Here are four key actions to get the most out of your social media analytics tool:
1. Make a plan
Before selecting a tool, identify your key business goals and how your social media strategy will support them. From there, identify the social media metrics that will be most important to you.
2.选择正确的tool
Choose an analytics tool based on the criteria above. Make sure it measures the metrics you need, covers the social media platforms you use, and fulfills your reporting needs.
3. Monitor social data
Metrics are only as useful as you make them—but this doesn’t mean you need to spend all day glued to your dashboard. Decide how frequently you’ll run reports and stick with your plan.
4. Optimize your strategy
Once you’ve looked at the data, identify the common factors of your successful social media posts. Then use this information to optimize your strategy and improve your overall social media performance.
10 social media analytics tools for small business owners
- Hootsuite Insights
- Sprout Social
- Agorapulse
- Google Analytics
- Brandwatch Social for Small Business
- Rival IQ
- Facebook Insights
- Instagram Insights
- Twitter Analytics
- Pinterest Analytics
Using a social media analytics tool can support your social media efforts by providing insights into your overall performance. These 11 tools are popular among small business owners:
Hootsuite Insights
Hootsuite Insightsis a full-service social media management platform offering real-time monitoring of mentions, cross-channel analytics, customizable reports, andcompetitor analysis. It reports on a large number of metrics and makes data-informed recommendations about optimal publishing time.
Cost:$99–$739/month
Pros
- Centralized dashboard
- Over 80 metrics offered
- Publishing time recommendations
- Pricing includes the Hootsuite social scheduling tool
Cons
- Social listening is only included in higher-tier plans for an additional charge
- More expensive than some competitors
Sprout Social
Like Hootsuite Insights,Sprout Socialis a full-service social media management platform. Its features include competitor analysis functions and a centralized reporting dashboard. Sprout Social’s customizable reports let you choose from over 100 social media metrics.
Cost:$249–$499/month
Pros
- Centralized reporting dashboard
- Over 100 metrics
- Pricing includes the Sprout Social scheduling tool
Cons
- Social listening is only provided as an add-on to the Enterprise plan (custom pricing)
- More expensive than some competitors
- Only one free user is included per plan
Agorapulse
Agorapulseprovides customizable reports that pull post, profile, and paid metrics from multiple social media channels. It also offers publishing time recommendations, competitor analysis, and real-time metrics monitoring from a user-friendly centralized dashboard.
Cost:$0–$249/month
Pros
- Wide range of platforms supported
- Centralized dashboard
- Mobile app
- Pricing includes the Agorapulse social scheduling tool
- Social listening included in Professional and Advanced Plans
Cons
- Limited reporting available with free plan
- Social listening is provided only for Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube
- More expensive than some competitors
Google Analytics
Social media managers can useGoogle Analyticsto monitor traffic from social media channels to an online storefront or another website. Google Analytics is free, and you can apply tracking to links on any social media channel (or to links in an email or blog).
Cost:Free
Pros
- Free
- Customizable
- Provides audience and demographic insights
Cons
- Requires more work to set up than some tools
- Limited to click-through rate (CTR) and associated metrics (conversion rate, web traffic, ROI)
- Does not measure profile metrics or other engagement metrics (such as amplification rate or social sentiment)
- Not designed to generate shareable reports
Brandwatch Social for Small Business
Brandwatch is a consumer intelligence platform designed to help businesses of all sizes monitor and improve brand reputation. The company also provides Brandwatch Social for Small Business, a social media management and analytics tool designed specifically for small business owners.
Brandwatch Social for Small Business includes social media scheduling functions, cross-channel analytics, and shareable reports. Unlike many small business plans, it also offers social listening functions.
Cost:$108/month
Pros
- Offers five templated reports: summary, trends, reputation, influencers, and competitor comparison
- Package is designed specifically for small business owners
- Pricing includes Brandwatch social scheduling tool
- Plan allows for two users
Cons
- More limited report customizations than some competitors
Rival IQ
Rival IQ is an analytics-first platform, not a social media publishing tool. It offers customizable and shareable reports, competitor benchmarking, and social media audits. Rival IQ also includes unique features like a top-performing content visualization, a keyword search function, and alerts that notify users when a competitor posts high-performing content.
Cost:$239–$519/month
Pros
- Includes top-performing content visualization
- Offers recommendations for post topic, type, and timing
- Provides competitor alerts
Cons
- More expensive than some competitors
- Standard plan is limited to one user
Facebook Insights
Facebook Insightsis the platform’s free, embedded analytics tool. It measures post, profile, and paid metrics and provides competitor analysis through Pages to Watch.
Cost:Free
Pros
- Free
- Provides competitor analysis
Cons
- Single-channel only
- Limited customizations
- Not designed to generate shareable reports
Instagram Insights
Instagram Insightsis available on the platform for users with anInstagram Business Account. It measures post, profile, and paid metrics and provides information about follower activity.
Cost:Free
Pros
- Free
- Offers information about follower activity
Cons
- Single-channel only
- Limited customizations
- Not designed to generate shareable reports
Facebook app
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Install the appTwitter Analytics
Twitter’s free analytics toolreports on post and profile metrics for the most recent 28-day period. The platform does not report on paid metrics.
Cost:Free
Pros
- Free
- Measures post and profile metrics
Cons
- Single-channel only
- Limited customizations
- Not designed to generate shareable reports
- Limited to 28-day period
Twitter app
Bring your products to Twitter to drive sales from your most leaned-in audience.
Install the appPinterest Analytics
Pinterest Analyticsis free for users with a business account. It measures post and profile metrics and provides insights into audience demographics and preferences.
Cost:Free
Pros
- Free for Pinterest business accounts
- Provides audience demographic insights
Cons
- Single-channel only
- Limited customizations
- Not designed to generate shareable reports
Pinterest app
Get your products in front of 445 million people on Pinterest, where they go to find ideas to try and buy.
Install the app