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 your social 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.
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, and social listening metrics.
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
Social listening metrics monitor the reputation of 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 for social listening metrics, 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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4 tips for effectively using social media analytics tools
Make a plan
Choose the right 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. Choose the right 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 Insights is a full-service social media management platform offering real-time monitoring of mentions, cross-channel analytics, customizable reports, and competitor 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 Social is 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
Agorapulse provides 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 use Google Analytics to 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 Insights is 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 Insights is available on the platform for users with an Instagram 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
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Twitter Analytics
Twitter’s free analytics tool reports 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
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Pinterest Analytics
Pinterest Analytics is 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
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Social media analytics tools FAQ
What are social media analytics tools?
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.
What is the cost of implementing social media analytics tools for my business?
Some social media analytics tools are free; others can cost upwards of $700 a month. When choosing the right plan for your small business, account for the cost of your time. The right tool should fit your technology budget and free you up to focus on your core business operations.
Are there free social media analytics tools available?
Yes. Some social media analytics tools offer free plans. Many social media platforms (including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, and YouTube) offer free in-platform analytics tools.
How can I use social media analytics tools to improve my social media strategy?
Social media analytics tools can help you learn more about the performance of your social media content. Once you know what’s working, you can use these insights to replicate successful tactics.
Can I get real-time insights with social media analytics tools?
Yes. Many social media analytics tools offer social monitoring and listening functions. Some also allow you to set up alerts that notify you immediately of negative comments or unusual account activity.
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