15 Best Brand Monitoring Tools
Brand monitoring is something you should’ve been doing yesterday — but the next best time to start is now. In all seriousness, monitoring mentions of your brand on social media and the web is essential for taking care of a bunch of things like: 1) online reputation, 2) customer […]
Brand monitoring is something you should’ve been doing yesterday — but the next best time to start is now. In all seriousness, monitoring mentions of your brand on social media and the web is essential for taking care of a bunch of things like: 1) online reputation, 2) customer service, 3) influencer marketing, 4) lead generation, 5) SEO — and the list goes on and on.
Monitoring and analyzing brand mentions on social media and the web is referred to as social listening. Essentially, it’s 24/7, fully automated tracking of brand mentions found anywhere on the Internet. What you do with social data afterward is limited only by your resources: social listening use cases are many, and so are the ways to get creative with it.
The best part of tracking mentions of your brand is how doable it is. There’s a toolkit for every price range, monitoring scope, and analytics depth. On top of that, most tools offer a free trial that empowers you to test-drive all the features before you invest.
Let’s now take a look at some of the best social media monitoring tools the market has to offer.
Brand monitoring and analytics
1. Awario
2. Mention
3. Keyhole
4. BuzzSumo
5. Brandwatch
6.Meltwater Social
7. Talkwalker
8. Synthesio
Brand monitoring + publishing
9. Buffer
10. Zoho Social
11. Hootsuite
12. Sendible
13. Sprout Social
14. Agorapulse
15. Sprinklr
Brand monitoring and analytics
In case you’re new to brand monitoring, it makes sense to start with a dedicated monitoring and listening tool to thoroughly explore every use case.
1. Awario
Awario is a great starter option that’s both affordable and powerful. Versatile and user-friendly, it lets you run non-stop monitoring of brand mentions on social media (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Reddit), as well as blogs, news sites, and the web as such. You can track mentions in a specific country or run global monitoring campaigns — either way, Awario will deliver raw user data and analytics ranging from user sentiment to leads.
Pricing: $29-299 when billed monthly; yearly plans save you 2 months.
Free trial: 7 days for the Starter plan.
2. Mention
Mention is a social listening tool built to look for every online conversation relevant to your brand. By tracking brand mentions and related conversations, you’re able to spot trends, identify social media influencers, and get audience insights. Mention searches Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, forums, blogs, videos, news, web, and even radio & TV to make sure you never miss a conversation that matters to your business.
Pricing: $29-450/mo when billed monthly; yearly plans save you 2 months.
Free trial: 14 days for Solo and Pro; the Free plan is also available.
3. Keyhole
Keyhole is a social listening tool with extensive data analytics. It’s a perfect fit for brands running influencer and hashtag campaigns in need of real-time conversations monitoring and in-depth analytics. The tool covers Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, news, blogs, and forum platforms, and supplies you with every metric required for clear reporting on your digital marketing efforts.
Pricing: $49-59+/mo.
Free trial: 7 days for Keyhole Suite.
4. BuzzSumo
BuzzSumo is a social media monitoring tool. It empowers brands to discover top trends, content, and publishers to build partnerships and use best-performing content for ever-growing audience engagement. BuzzSumo lets you monitor mentions of your brand, related topics, competitors, products, and any keywords you can think of — all to make sure you have the insights for effective planning and implementation of your SMM strategy.
Pricing: $99-499/mo when billed monthly; all yearly plans save you 20%.
Free trial: 7 days for all plans.
5. Brandwatch
Brandwatch is an Enterprise-level tool that offers extensive brand monitoring features. It’s a perfect fit for large teams and marketing depts running advanced brand management and audience analysis. In addition to standard social listening features, Brandwatch offers AI that powers image analysis, trends prediction, and custom classifiers. The tool covers Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, Sina Weibo, VK, QQ, as well as blogs, news, and the web.
Pricing: $800+/mo.
Free trial: not available.
6. Meltwater Social
Meltwater Social is a social media monitoring and listening platform that lets you monitor your brand mentions while also delivering tons of social data insights like sentiment, brand health, influencers, and competition intel. Similar to other tools, Meltwater Social brings you raw user data and performance metrics to build content and strategies around. The platform covers 15 social media platforms, as well as blogs, forums, comment sections, and review sites.
Pricing: $4,000+/year.
Free trial: not available.
7. Talkwalker
Talkwalker is another Enterprise-level solution for large teams. The tool will deliver both real-time and historical data going back up to 2 years to make sure you get a comprehensive picture of your online performance. Some of its advanced features include image recognition and AI-based insights. Meanwhile, the coverage you get in terms of platforms extends to print and TV/radio networks in addition to 10 social media networks.
Pricing: $9,600+/year.
Free trial: no free trial, but there is a free demo.
8. Synthesio
Synthesio is a social listening platform that offers the best of brand monitoring and campaign analysis, as well as content and media planning. By tracking mentions of your brand globally, Synthesio helps you research markets and audiences, measure the impact of your activities online, and develop campaigns with guaranteed results. The tool covers Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, and VKontakte, as well as news, blogs, forums, comment sections, and the web.
Pricing: $1,200+/mo.
Free trial: not available.
Brand monitoring + publishing
If you’re looking for a 2-in-1 toolkit that’ll have you covered both on brand monitoring and social media management, below are some great options to consider.
9. Buffer
Buffer is a 360 social media management solution that takes care of brand monitoring via integrating social listening platforms like Mention. The result is a tool that allows you to publish content, deal with messaging, and analyze online performance under one dashboard. Buffer is an affordable option for teams managing social media and customer interactions while also monitoring what’s being said about their company and products on social networks and the web.
Pricing: $15-99/mo when billed monthly; yearly plans save you 20%.
Free trial: 14 days for all plans.
10. Zoho Social
Zoho Social is an SMM dashboard developed for brands that take good care of their online visibility. It offers scheduling, publishing, real-time monitoring options, as well as solid analytics to ensure full control of your social media presence. Zoho Social covers Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and even Google My Business, which gives you all the tools for effortless online brand management.
Pricing: €15-400/mo when billed monthly; all yearly plans save you 30%.
Free trial: 15 days for all plans.
11. Hootsuite
Hootsuite is an SMM platform that empowers you to manage your brand’s social media smoothly and efficiently, including as a team. The tool offers a one-inbox approach to message management and publishing while also running social data analysis for topics important to your business. Hootsuite works with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, WordPress, and lets you find growth opportunities within all social networks.
Pricing: $19-599+/mo when billed annually.
Free trial: 30 days for Professional and Team.
12. Sendible
Sendible is a social media management tool with extensive social data analytics. In addition to being a publishing platform, it runs brand monitoring and delivers data-driven insights. Sendible will notify you of new brand mentions and keep you posted on every conversation important to your business. The tool covers 25+ social media channels and provides platform-specific insights to make sure you have all the intel for successful brand management.
Pricing: $29-299/mo when billed monthly; all yearly plans save you 15%.
Free trial: 14 days for all plans.
13. Sprout Social
Sprout Social is a comprehensive social media marketing solution that offers social listening in addition to publishing and analytics features. The tool lets you monitor what’s being said about your brand online while also scheduling, publishing, and growing engagement on social. Sprout Social covers Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest and empowers you to run a cross-network analysis of your brand’s online performance.
Pricing: $99-249 per user/mo.
Free trial: 30 days for all plans.
14. Agorapulse
Agorapulse is a social media management toolkit with solid brand monitoring features. It keeps you updated on key trends, hashtags, niche influencers, and so much more. As part of its social media management functionality, you also get a set of useful publishing and collaboration features. Agorapulse works with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and LinkedIn, and helps you make sure you get the most out of your SMM activities.
Pricing: €99-499/mo when billed monthly; a yearly plan saves you 20%.
Free trial: 14-28 days for all plans.
15. Sprinklr
Sprinklr is a customer experience management platform that helps brands take care of publishing, monitoring, listening, engaging, and measuring results across social channels. It’s a neat toolkit with solid insights for every step of your digital marketing work. Sprinklr relies on AI to deliver data-powered customer insights and lets you use social listening for reputation and crisis management. The tool will track brand mentions on 20+ social networks, which ensures full coverage and comprehensive insights.
Pricing: available upon request.
Free trial: not available, but there is a free demo.
Before you go…
Brand monitoring is an all-round win: you get to manage your reputation, search for social selling opportunities, find brand ambassadors, and even new markets among other things. Make sure you give it a try with one of the brand monitoring tools on this list and unlock the full list of perks along the way.
