Are you a content creator, digital marketer, social media influencer, or news aficionado? If so, then you likely spend a lot of time keeping up with trends and viral content on social media. Beyond getting gists, staying up-to-date on social media hot stories is one way to promote your business or brand online. How? A simple opinion post or a tweaked content using viral hashtags is all you need to jump on a trend.
But then, staying up-to-date on social media takes a lot of time. No matter how active you are on social media, you really can’t monitor everything all at once. This is where using tools for monitoring social media comes in. With the right tools in place, you can monitor several social media platforms at once, without even paying attention.
Monitoring Social Media with VPN
Generally, social media platforms primarily showcase content based on user preference and location. This means that no matter how invested you are in social media, your content recommendations are limited by default. Even if you adjust your preference to specific niches, the content you’d likely see would be limited to your location. This is why the default tool for monitoring social media is a VPN.
Basically, a VPN (Virtual Private Network) creates a secure and anonymous channel through which users can connect to the internet. Thanks to its encrypted connection to remote servers across the world, it helps with discreetly browsing the internet.
But how does it help with monitoring social media?
When your device connects to a VPN, your IP (Internet Protocol) address gets masked with the VPN server’s IP address. When this happens, your new IP address will reflect the remote server’s location. Now, while this hides your online identity, it also automatically adjusts your content recommendations to suit the new location. Now, imagine browsing through social media with a VPN, you could easily stay updated on viral stories across different locations. You can even access geo-restricted content with a VPN. Cybernews review on the best VPN for Windows shows that, besides being great for web security and anonymity, VPNs are also pretty cheap.
Top 5 Tools for Monitoring Social Media
Thanks to social media monitoring tools, you can track viral content, analyze trends, and gain key insights that would be useful in promoting your brand or business. You could even take things further by using them to monitor the performance of your ads and content on social media. Here are the top five tools for monitoring social media:
Sprout Social:
This is a full-suite application for social media management for businesses of all sizes. It comes with a handful of tools for managing social media engagement, content publishing, analytics, and monitoring different social media platforms for the latest stories. Sprout Social is popular for its Smart Inbox, which monitors and manages all social media activity. From managing direct messages to responding to mentions and comments, the Smart Inbox is great for tracking social media interactions.
Hootsuite:
This is one of the longest-serving tools for monitoring social media. It’s a comprehensive platform that basically allows its users to manage multiple social media accounts from one place. Hootsuite specializes in scheduling social media content, analyzing content performance, and managing interactions. With it, you can conveniently monitor real-time mentions of your brand, promptly respond to comments and direct messages, while also tweaking your content to suit different social media platforms at once.
Agorapulse:
Agorapulse is another top-rated tool for social media management. It allows users to manage multiple social media accounts and also streamline their activity. Besides the usual feature of managing social media interactions and scheduling content, Agorapulse stands out with its reporting and competitor analysis. With it, you can easily keep tabs on your competitors and even steal a few ideas from their content playbook. You could even use the Agorapulse link in your bio to drive traffic from your social media accounts to your brand’s landing page.
Buffer:
This is one of the cleanest, user-friendly social media management platforms online. Buffer focuses mainly on scheduling content and analyzing social media trends. Apart from having a really efficient content analytics feature, Buffer is really popular with its AI assistant for content creation. All you need to do is give it a draft, and it’ll create multiple ready-to-post contents. With Buffer, all hands can be on deck thanks to its team collaboration feature. If you’re looking for a cheaper option for social media management, Buffer is perfect.
Zoho Social:
Zoho is a strong name in digital marketing, and its social media management platform can be conveniently integrated into the Zoho CRM system. Basically, you’d enjoy better deals and smooth integration if you’re already using Zoho’s business tools. Besides scheduling and publishing content across multiple social media platforms, Zoho Social is great for tracking social media activities. You can conveniently monitor brand mentions, keywords, hashtags, and content performances across your social media channels, all from Zoho Social. What’s more is that its social media listening feature helps with monitoring trends and online sentiments.
Pro Tip:
It’s easy to get confused, seeing as all social media monitoring tools come with similar features that are great for managing multiple accounts from one place. While some simplify content publishing, some offer seamless integration with other business promotional tools. Some allow you to use AI to create content, and some offer great deals with less competitive features. But you can avoid the confusion by focusing on what your brand needs. Factor in your budget, business size, and goal for getting any of the tools before making your pick.
Conclusion
Keep in mind that social media monitoring tools are simply tools. While they can optimize your social media management efforts, they’re not foolproof. Take advantage of free plans, but also be ready to invest in paid plans that come with better features. As always, a tool is only as
