How do you know that your social media marketing is working? You get leads on your website and some of them subscribe to you, others buy directly…That’s very vague, isn’t it? However, this is exactly what you know (or, rather, don’t know) about how your social media efforts if you do not keep a close eye on the analytics for each social media platform.
“Oh, so I need to go over each social media page and spend hours and hours on end reading analytics?” Well, not exactly. What I really have in mind is using various tools that bring together all your social media accounts, give you a clear view of what is going on your pages, what is trending, what your competitors are doing and so on. Using such tools is like having an efficient secretary collecting and preparing relevant data for you.
And the best thing about these tools? They are 100% free. So, here is the line-up: the top 5 free social media analytics tools!
1. Buffer
Buffer has a lot to offer for its free subscription plan: up to 10 updates per day per social media platform, a clear overview of the analytics for your social media activity and, as a great bonus, you get to see a badge next to each of your posts that performs above the average. The social media platforms covered by Buffer are Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn.
What is great about Buffer is its simple and easy to use interface and the ability to add more people to manage your social media accounts (a good option for later, when your business grows and you can hire others to manage your social media marketing).
2. Google Analytics
This is one of the richest sources of information for everything you do online. Google Analytics does not only offer statistics for your website, but also for your social media activity. To access this section of analytics data, go to the Acquisition tab and select Social sub-menu.
Compared to other tools, Google Analytics collects and displays data for a wide range of social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pocket, Digg and Quora. You can also set engagement goals and monitor how well you manage to achieve them.
3. SumAll
This free tool is great if you tend to forget to log in the application and take a look at the analytics data. SumAll sends you a daily or weekly email containing all the statistics for your social media accounts. Of course, you still have them available on the web dashboard, in case you are proactive and want to check the data first thing in the morning.
4. Cyfe
Cyfe is the perfect analytics tool if you like to configure your dashboard and have all the analytics data available in the form and order which best fits your preferences and interests. Cyfe’s powerful and free interface offers you real-time reports and useful pre-built widgets for everything from Salesforce and Shopify to Mailchimp and Freshbooks.
5. Klout
Klout offers a different approach to social media analytics. This tool scans all your social media accounts and prepares a score between 0 and 100 for the degree of influence you have on the specific social media platform. With the help of this tool, you can find out what type of social media platform potentially brings you the largest number of leads. In this way, you can become more selective and efficient in your social media marketing activities.