Top 10 Free & Paid Social Media Analytics Tools: Simple Guide

You needed a social media analytics tools: a social media platform that pulls important data from channels. And you present it in a way that’s easy to understand.

Top 10 Free & Paid Social Media Analytics Tools: Simple Guide

What do social media analytics tools measure?

Before we get to the media tools themselves, let’s take a look at some of the metrics you’ll have access to with these popular social media analytics tools platforms.

The most common engagement metrics are:

  • Reach: How many people have seen your content.
  • Views and Impressions: How many times your content has been viewed.
  • Shares: The number of people who have shared your content with their own networks.
  • Link Clicks: How many people clicked on a link within your social media copy.
  • Engagement Rate: The percentage of people who saw and engaged with your post.
  • Comments and Replies: The number of people who replied to each of your individual posts.
  • Your Video/Photo Views: The number of people who viewed a photo or watched your video.

It’s worth noting that the exact metrics depend on the social media channels you’re using. Each platform calls similar metrics a different thing, and some KPIs are native to that platform (like Twitter’s retweets, for example.)

But overall, these are the basic metrics you’ll find in a social media analytics tools.

How do you use Social Media Analytics Tools ?

There are many reasons why you might want to use a tool to mine your social media data.

Let’s take a look at three of the biggest benefits for social media marketers.

Find your best-performing content

You share content on social media to meet one of your marketing goals, such as reach, link clicks or follows. But do you know what types of content actually meet those goals more often?

For example, if you see that tweets with videos get twice as many clicks as links without one, create custom graphics for each new tweet.

It’s an easy way to refine your social media strategy to make sure each post is optimized for your goals.

Post at the best time of day

Social media marketing analytics tools don’t just show data about the content you post. Rather a handful of platforms also explain who your audience is and when they’re online.

Social Media All of this historical data allows you to create a customizable social media posting schedule for your exact audience. You will know the right time to post to get maximum engagement. After all, there isn’t much value in posting content if your audience is offline.

Prove social media ROI to your team

Social media’s return on investment (ROI) is difficult to prove. It can take months for followers to actually buy from you; And they often have to see a lot of content in their news feed before they start trusting (or engaging with) your brand.

However, metrics that show how much reach you’re getting with your content help show the ROI for your marketing efforts. This, combined with the engagement you’re getting, should help establish why team members (or your CEO) should take social media managers seriously.

Top 10 Free & Paid Social Media Analytics Tools List

Here are 10 of the best social media analytics tools for any budget. Take a look.

  1. Twitter Analytics
  2. Instagram Insights
  3. Databox
  4. Talkwalker
  5. Hootsuite Analyze
  6. Sprout Social
  7. Buffer Analyze
  8. Zoho Social
  9. Rival IQ
  10. Tailwind

1. Twitter Analytics

Our list includes Twitter Analytics, a tool created by Twitter that is automatically available to anyone with a Twitter account.

Inside the platform you’ll see a 28-day summary of how your tweets (and profile) performed. All the metrics native to Twitter marketing are also included, such as how many mentions you’ve gotten, your follower growth, and how many people have visited your profile.

What’s great about Twitter Analytics is that it shows your best-performing tweets every month. You can analyze these results to see what kind of content your audience wants to see and continue to post it

Price: Free.

2. Instagram Insights

This social media analytics tools only works for Instagram. But it is not available to everyone by default and you need to have a business account to use the platform.

Instagram Insights shares key statistics about the posts you share, including how many people viewed, liked, commented or bookmarked your post.

Also, you can track how followers engage with your Instagram stories. The Audience Insights tab will show you how many people viewed the story and how people interacted with it, such as replying to it or visiting your profile.

You can see how people engage with your Instagram profile after viewing that post. This is a great way to judge if your Instagram posts are resonating enough with your audience to make them take action.

Price: Free with business account.

3. Databox

Databox is different from the other social media tools we’ve mentioned so far. It is more of a marketing campaign reporting software than an analytics tool that pulls data from various social networks and displays it on one page.

It’s a marketing tool you should have access to if you’re trying to prove the value of social media and explain how it connects with your other marketing strategies.

They have pre-made templates that bring your key metrics from different tools – including your CRM and Google Analytics – on one screen. This means you can see real-time data from your social media campaigns, including the impact of each campaign on other marketing channels, including SEO and content marketing.

Pricing: Starts at $49/month. Free plans available.

4. Talkwalker

You want to know more about your social media strategy than the metrics surrounding the content you post.

Talkwalker helps you go beyond your own content to find brand mentions and discussions about your industry All you have to do is add your brand name or industry to the tracking field, and you’ll be able to monitor who and what is being said about the topic.

The social media monitoring tool also shows you sentiment analysis for those social media mentions, such as whether it’s a positive or negative post. The end result is a solid understanding of what’s happening on social media outside of your branded profile.

Price: Starts at $9,600/year.

5. Hootsuite Analyze

Hootsuite is commonly known as a social media tool that defines content. But besides helping you manage your posts, their analytics feature helps you see all your data from different social media analytics tools social media platforms on a single screen.

Hootsuite Analytics works with most popular platforms including LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook Pages, YouTube and Instagram. But what’s interesting about these social media analytics tools is their impact metrics. It provides insight into the ROI of each social media post; Which is very helpful in proving ROI to your team.

Price: From $29/month.

6. Sprout Social

Sprout Social is a powerful social media management tool that provides great insight into how your social media campaign ideas are performing.

It integrates with both paid and organic social media channels and has a bonus feature that links social results to business events. This means you can see which campaigns — like summer sales or Black Friday launches — performed best on social media based on your most important engagement metrics.

Sprout Social also has a competitor analysis tool where you can compare recent posts with competitors. The number of posts published, most used hashtags, and engagement all help you use data to get a head start on your competition.

Price: Starting at $99/month.

7. Buffer Analyze

Here is another social media analytics tools that shows data from different social platforms like Instagram, Facebook pages and Twitter.

Buffer Analyze is an add-on to its standard scheduling tool. With Buffer’s add-on, however, you’ll have access to aggregate statistics about your social media strategy, including the option to break your data down by channel.

However, unlike the other tools we’ve shared here, Buffer Analytics offers advice on how to improve your social content based on your own analytics. You’ll see personalized recommendations based on your data set, which will help you make small (but effective) changes.

And the best part is that you can integrate Buffer with Many Chat via Zapier.

Pricing: Starts at $35/month.

8. Zoho Social

The social media analytics tools we’ve mentioned so far highlight important data on your own content or your industry But what’s interesting about Zoho Social is that it shows who your audience is, not just how they engage with your social media content.

Inside the dashboard you’ll see a breakdown of your audience by location, age, gender, and language. The more you know about your audience, the more likely you are to create content that interests them.

Zoho Social also includes a social listening feature to track brand mentions. You can use the tool to find instances where people are talking about your brand and join the conversation or respond without leaving the tool.

Pricing: Starts at $10/month.

9. Rival IQ

Competitor analysis is a technique that allows you to see “under the hood” of your competitor’s social media strategy. Rival IQ is a tool that will help you do just that.

Its software lets you benchmark your and a competitor’s social media platforms and see how you compare on various metrics; Ultimately giving you the opportunity to improve and surpass your competitor on those metrics.

Rival IQ also shares industry benchmarks for specific industries on social media. You’ll see key data on strategies for influencers, airlines, sports teams and more. The goal is to help you see if you’re on par with (or beating) the larger competition.

Price: Starting at $199/month. Free head to head analysis.

10. Tailwind

Does your social media strategy include Pinterest? While the native Pinterest analytics feature is great, Tailwind offers all that data and more with its own social media analytics software.

Tailwind highlights basic data about each of your pins, including how many likes, repines, and followers you’ve gotten from each pin. Also, it can help schedule future pins without creating them manually.

It’s a great choice for any visual marketer because of its integration with Instagram. It has great tools to help you grow your Instagram profile, such as hashtag suggestions and smart scheduling, to ensure your visual content gets the attention it deserves.

Price: Starting at $9.99/month.

Conclusion

And there you have it, the best social media analytics tools for the most popular networks.

Whether you’re doing competitive analysis or just tracking your brand’s social media performance, it’s worth having a handful of these tools in your arsenal because they can tell you how much engagement your content is getting, what your competitors are doing, and what your top-performing content has in common; All of which are bound to help you refine your social media marketing strategy and report results to your boss. Hope you will benefit from free & paid social media analytics tools.

Leave a Comment