How to Find The Best Social Media Monitoring Service

Word of mouth (WOM) on social media is one of the most crucial factors influencing how a brand is presented in the customers' minds. If considered under the magnifying glass of social monitoring tools, it can give invaluable insights into how a brand should behave to achieve skyrocketing business success and strong customer loyalty.

In this article, you’ll learn:

• How to choose the right social media monitoring tool for your business size and goals

• Key features and benefits of popular tools like YouScan, Hootsuite and Brandwatch

• Practical tips for finding a tool to protect your brand and support your growth

Intelligent social media monitoring has become a necessary disruption for brand growth happening under conditions of active circulation of information online. Here we will take an immersive dive into its specifics and outline the top ten social media monitoring services.

What is social media monitoring?

Social media monitoring is gathering and analyzing data around the online conversations of a target audience, its behavior, and communication with a brand on social networks.

In the tight embrace of artificial intelligence, emerging social monitoring software enables companies to keep abreast of industry trends and extract invaluable insights about KPIs, such as user engagement and content performance.

Best social media monitoring services to choose from

YouScan

YouScan is a social media intelligence tool that empowers you to track brand performance, analyze text and visual constituents, research the audience's reactions, and define customer sentiment. 

Investigating millions of pictures across all social platforms, YouScan helps marketers understand the target audience better and manage a brand more efficiently.

Key features

• Visual insights: Logo recognition, object and scene detection, powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), open up new opportunities for social network analytics.

• Audience insights: Provides demographic and interest-based data about people discussing brands online.

• Insights copilot: Powered by ChatGPT, features like Word Cloud, OCR, and Link analysis detect top trends and allow you to spend more time deploying them instead of looking for them.

Pros

• Comprehensive image and text analysis

• User-friendly interface with customizable dashboards

• Real-time crisis monitoring and competitor analysis

Pricing

Starts at $299/month, with custom pricing for enterprise needs.

Best for

Ideal for brands needing both text and visual analysis for detailed consumer insights and reputation management.

Hootsuite

Image source: G2

Hootsuite is a popular all-in-one social media management platform designed to streamline content creation, scheduling, and performance analysis. With features for publishing and engagement tracking, Hootsuite enables businesses to manage multiple social accounts from a single dashboard.

Its user-friendly tools and integrations help social teams enhance their online presence efficiently.

Key features

• Unified inbox: Team management for responding to messages, managing comments, and tagging users, enabling swift customer service.

• Social listening and analytics: with this users can build a customizable data and analytics report with more than 200 metrics.

• Advertising and boosting: Manage ads alongside organic posts and automatically boost top-performing content.

Pros

• Integrates with popular tools like Canva and Google My Business as well as over a hundred other apps

• Extensive analytics and social listening options for advanced insights

Pricing

Plans start at $99/month (Professional) with more options for team and enterprise needs.

Best for

Ideal for businesses and agencies looking to centralize social media management, from content scheduling to audience engagement and in-depth analytics.

Mention

Image source: G2

Mention is a social media monitoring and management platform that provides comprehensive tracking of online mentions and insights. It updates you with the latest brand mentions, analyzing millions of sources in real-time and in 42 languages. 

It provides a well-organized dashboard with the essential brand performance KPIs and helps you listen to what a target audience says about your competitors. Mention lets you clearly understand your company's advantages and how to market your product or services better. This social monitoring system works with the three most popular networks: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Key features

• Real-time monitoring: Tracks web and social media mentions in real time, allowing immediate response to brand mentions.

• Advanced query creation: Supports Boolean operators and precise keyword tracking for highly targeted monitoring.

• Sentiment analysis: Provides sentiment insights on mentions, helping brands understand public perception.

• Collaboration tools: Allows assigning tasks, sharing mentions, and automating workflows for seamless team collaboration.

Pros

• Highly customizable alerts and Boolean search for precise tracking

• Daily AI summaries for quick updates on key mentions

• Flexible pricing plans for various business sizes

Pricing

Plans start at $49/month (Solo), with advanced options for teams and large businesses. Custom enterprise pricing is available upon request.

Best for

Ideal for businesses and agencies that require in-depth monitoring and competitive insights across multiple channels.

Digimind

Image source: Surfer Editor

Digimind is an intelligence platform that provides social listening, competitive intelligence, and trend tracking to help brands understand consumer insights and market dynamics. Trusted by global brands like Audi, Nike, and Deloitte, Digimind is designed for in-depth brand reputation management, competitor monitoring, and influencer identification.

Key features

• Brand reputation & crisis detection: Monitors brand perception and anticipates potential crises.

• Competitive intelligence: Tracks competitor activities and analyzes industry positioning.

• Trend & campaign analysis: Identifies emerging trends and measures campaign effectiveness with real-time data.

• Customizable reports: Presentation-ready, tailored reports for easy sharing and insights.

Pros

• Extensive multi-platform tracking and real-time alerts.

• Detailed, presentation-ready reports.

• Customizable dashboards for personalized data analysis.

Pricing

Digimind offers custom pricing based on business needs, with demos available upon request.

Best for

Ideal for large enterprises and agencies requiring consumer insights, competitive intelligence, and brand reputation management across digital channels.

Talkwalker

Image source: G2

Talkwalker is a social listening and media monitoring tool designed to give brands a comprehensive view of online conversations, brand sentiment, and competitive positioning. Trusted by over 2,500 global brands, Talkwalker excels in areas like crisis management, trend tracking and consumer insights to help businesses stay ahead.

Key features

• Next-gen social listening: Uses AI-powered insights to analyze trends and brand mentions across 150 million websites (including news sites), social networks, and 187 languages.

• Visual recognition: Identifies brand mentions in images and videos, offering a fuller view of consumer engagement.

• Conversation clusters: Group related topics to reveal underlying trends and new audiences.

Pros

• Wide-ranging data sources for in-depth analysis.

• Real-time alerts and custom reporting for responsive strategy.

• Seamless integration across teams with unlimited user access.

Pricing

Talkwalker’s packages—Listen, Analyze, Business, and Premium—offer various levels of social listening and insights. To obtain pricing for a specific package, you’ll need to book a demo, where Talkwalker’s experts tailor the experience to your needs.

Best for

Enterprises and agencies needing extensive social data, crisis management, and market insights across multiple regions.

Google Alerts

Image source: EvergreenFeed

Google Alert is a Google-powered content monitoring service that allows digital media monitoring.  This means how many mentions of the brand are made or how many conversations on related topics. Users can also spy on the tactics and practices of competitors by doing competitor monitoring in Google alerts.

How it works is by logging into your account on Google, finding an application called Google Alerts, and entering the keyword or keyphrase you are interested in monitoring within the search box. Then, after that, you will get email alerts whenever the tool finds results that suit your requests.

It keeps you constantly updated on the latest web discussions involving a certain brand, and it also sends alerts when a brand name has appeared in an article or website.

Key features

• Customizable alerts: Users can set alerts for any keyword, receiving notifications daily, weekly, or in real-time.

• Email notifications: Alerts are sent directly to the user’s email, providing a convenient way to stay informed.

• Broad source monitoring: Tracks mentions across news, blogs, and websites to capture a wide range of online content.

• Simple setup: Easy to configure with no advanced options, making it accessible for all users.

Pros

• Completely free and easy to use

• Monitors a wide range of web sources

• Flexible notification frequency

Pricing

Free

Best for

Best suited for individuals, small businesses, or those new to social media monitoring who need basic web alerts without extensive customization.

X Pro

Image source: G2

Formerly, TweetDeck is a social media dashboard specifically for X (formerly Twitter),  designed to allow users to monitor, manage, and engage with multiple timelines on a single screen. 

It is an excellent platform for real-time tracking of tweets, hashtags, and user interactions, making it a favorite of social media professionals.

Key features

• Customizable columns: Users can set up columns for specific accounts, hashtags, lists, and more, customizing their views based on content preferences.

• Real-time monitoring: Ideal for staying updated on live events or monitoring brand mentions in real time.

• Multi-account management: Supports multiple X accounts, enabling easy switching and managing all activity in one place.

• Engagement tools: Allows users to interact directly with followers through replies, likes, retweets, and messages.

Pros

• Free and easy to set up

• Provides a comprehensive overview on a single screen

• Ideal for real-time social media tracking and engagement

Pricing

Free; X Premium subscribers gain added features like enhanced analytics.

Best for

Best suited for social media managers, brands, and individuals who need real-time monitoring and quick engagement on X. Ideal for users who manage multiple accounts and participate in live event tracking.

HubSpot

Image source: G2

HubSpot is a marketing automation tool that helps manage email campaigns, search engine optimization, and lead generation.

Since HubSpot combines different fields of marketing (social media, email marketing, influencer marketing, etc.). It lets you thoroughly investigate your leads and buyers, get a more extensive understanding of their needs and wants, and use this information to optimize marketing for more precise targeting and better results.

Key features

• Keyword tracking: HubSpot allows users to set up keyword tracking to monitor conversations around specific topics or phrases relevant to their business.

• Competitor analysis: Users can monitor competitor activity on social media to gain insights into their strategies and performance.

• Content and operations hubs: All-in-one content management and data syncing, making it easy to centralize operations.

• Custom reporting and analytics: Detailed insights into customer behavior, revenue attribution and multi-channel performance.

Pros

• Comprehensive CRM with integrated marketing, sales and service tools

• Scalable with multiple plans for different business sizes

• AI-powered insights and automation for improved efficiency

Pricing

• Free tools: Basic CRM features available at no cost.

• Starter: €15/month per seat for essential tools.

• Professional: Starting at €792/month, including 2,000 contacts and advanced automation.

• Enterprise: Starting at €3,300/month, with extensive analytics, reporting, and onboarding services.

Best for

HubSpot is ideal for businesses of all sizes, from startups needing foundational CRM tools to large enterprises seeking a powerful, scalable solution for customer engagement and operational efficiency.

Brandwatch

Image source: G2

Brandwatch is one of the top social media monitoring services with many features. It helps you stay updated with brand name mentions on news sites, social networks, and blogs, according to your requests, that may include specific topics, key phrases, and words.

This social media intelligence tool allows your company to hear the voices of millions of customers and leads on almost all social channels, respond to them in a timely manner, and take the right actions at the right moment to improve customer experience.

Key features

• Consumer intelligence: Utilizes AI to mine large datasets, offering insights into brand sentiment, industry trends, and customer behavior.

• Influencer marketing: Facilitates influencer discovery and campaign management, with access to over 30 million influencers for impactful collaborations.

• Social media management: Centralized dashboard for managing content, audience engagement, and performance metrics across social media platforms.

Pros

• Real-time alerts to monitor emerging trends and protect brand image

• Integrates seamlessly with various networks and platforms for comprehensive social management

• Customizable dashboards for tailored analytics

Pricing

Brandwatch provides customized plans based on business needs, accessible via demo requests.

Best for

Large enterprises seeking deep consumer insights, influencer marketing support, and multi-platform social media management.

Tailwind

Image source: G2

Tailwind is a social media scheduling and content creation tool focused on helping businesses streamline marketing, especially on Pinterest and Instagram. Designed with small businesses and solo entrepreneurs in mind, Tailwind's primary focus is on scheduling and content management, with limited monitoring functionality.

Key features

• Content and competitor monitoring: Tailwind allows users to track their own content's performance and monitor competitor activities. 

• Trend insights: Provides insights into trending topics and content on Pinterest that can be used to capitalize on popular themes and hashtags.

• Analytics: Tailwind includes analytics that help users evaluate their performance such as number of impressions, clicka and saves.

Pros

• Easy-to-use interface tailored for beginners and small business owners

• Integrates scheduling, design, and analytics into one platform

• AI-powered content creation reduces time spent on design and copywriting

Pricing

• Pro: $14.99/month for 200 posts and designs, with 200 AI credits and advanced analytics

• Advanced: $24.99/month, increasing to 1,000 posts, designs, and AI credits

• Max: $49.99/month, offering unlimited posts, designs, and AI credits across three accounts

• Free forever plan: Includes 5 posts and designs per month, basic analytics, and a single account

Best for

Small businesses, solo entrepreneurs, and content creators focused on Instagram and Pinterest who need a straightforward tool for scheduling, content creation, and analytics.

How do you find the right social media monitoring service for your business?

How do you find the right social media monitoring service for your business?

The choice of proper social media monitoring service depends on the present needs and growth stage, coupled with the goals of your business. Here are pragmatic tips to guide you based on the different types of businesses.

Growing businesses

Identify must-have features first, which may include basic monitoring on major platforms and keyword monitoring. Then, find the lowest-cost tools providing real-time alerts and customizable reporting. Mention or Hootsuite are tools which give you foundational monitoring at a budget-friendly cost and scale easily with your brand needs.

Mid-market companies

As you scale, consider tools that offer broader platform coverage and deeper analytics-including competitor insights and trend tracking. You will want to seek more in-depth reporting and further integration within existing platforms to help tie insights into marketing and sales goals more cohesively. Other popular options for mid-sized companies include deeper engagement and staying ahead of industry trends: NetBase Quid and Sprout Social.

For enterprises

It should provide comprehensive monitoring, predictive analytics, and support for crisis management at the enterprise level. It is important to notice the ability of platforms to enable cross-functional teams across departments to integrate insights across teams like marketing, PR, and customer service. 

For more in-depth data-intensive insights, enterprise-level tools such as Brandwatch and Meltwater have often proved well-suited with features including customizable dashboards, sentiment analysis, and reporting.

YouScan suits companies of all sizes that need in-depth sentiment analysis complemented with the power of visual engagement analysis.

Compliance and data security

Regardless of the size of your company, your organization should make sure the tool of choice meets set industry standards for data and follows regulations like GDPR.

 This is especially important for enterprises handling large-scale customer data.

Evaluate customer support and onboarding

Select a tool with reliable support and onboarding services. Look for training resources and dedicated account managers, especially when implementing a complex, multi-feature tool across a large team.

YouScan is known for its excellent customer service and support. 

Request a demo of YouScan and see how advanced social media monitoring can elevate your brand’s insights and reputation management.

FAQs

What is the best social monitoring tool?

The best tool depends on your needs—for example, YouScan is ideal for brand mention tracking, visual analysis and consumer insights, while tools like Hootsuite and SproutSocial excel in owned social channels analytics.

What is a social media monitoring tool?

It’s software that tracks online mentions of your brand, competitors, or industry topics, providing valuable data on sentiment and engagement.

How can social media be monitored?

Social media can be monitored by using monitoring tools that collect information across social platforms. You can then use that data to analyze mentions, trends, and user sentiment.

How to track social media presence?

You can track your presence by using tools like YouScan or Hootsuite, which offer analytics, engagement metrics, and audience insights.