Review of 4 Social Media Monitoring Tools

The HostDime Marketing Team has spent several months researching, testing, and using various tools for social media monitoring, aggregation, and response. We’ve come to the conclusion that monitoring tools help brand and market your company/website and can help identify quality control or customer complaints that have gone unnoticed.

We chose 4 different Monitoring Tools to analyze, and decided on specific pros and cons for each:

Hootsuite:

Hootsuite is a monitoring tool that doesn’t need to be downloaded onto your desktop. Since you are able to control your dashboard from signing into their website, you are able to manage your social media content anywhere, at any time. Hootsuite’s free service includes an analytics section, scheduling, two RSS/Atom feeds, browser extensions to share sites even quicker then before, and a maximum of five social profiles to manage.

Unlike many other monitoring tools, Hootsuite allows you to control your Facebook Fan Pages; for the majority of businesses who use social media to communicate with clients. Their mobile app is also a key positive aspect, but it only allows you to add 3 Social Profiles.

However, to gain the full advantage of Hootsuite, you will need to pay a monthly fee of $5.99. The upgraded version includes enhanced social analytics, unlimited social profiles, 1 free team member (a collaborator who can help manage your social accounts), unlimited RSS Feeds, no advertisements, and a free report with advanced tools like network stats, Facebook insights, influence scores, URL parameters, and Google Analytics to help measure your social media efforts.

Hootsuite also doesn’t have the most accurate Analytics Tool. As we experimented with it, we found that sometimes clicks were not accounted for.

TweetDeck:

TweetDeck is a little different from Hootsuite since it’s mandatory for you to download it as a Desktop Application. However, we found out that you are also able to install it as a Google Chrome Extension so that your TweetDeck Dashboard opens up as a Tab on your Browser. The monitoring tool also provides the ability to manage your Facebook Fan Pages, just like Hootsuite.

One competitive advantage that TweetDeck has over the other monitoring tools is that it comes with a consistent pop-up on the top left corner of your screen. You can organize the tweet feeds on your pop-up and wall by choosing specific lists you segmented your followers within.

Even though TweetDeck doesn’t have any form of analytics, we used Bit.ly as the external, replacement analytic tool by connecting the two together. We also had some trouble adding the Facebook Fan Pages on the downloaded TweetDeck program, but they all decided to show up when we installed the TweetDeck Chrome extension. #Weird? If your business plans on using this tool, you won’t be able to create multiple collaborators to help manage your several social media accounts. TweetDeck’s mobile version is not the best App since it doesn’t separate the Facebook and Twitter columns on your Dashboard Feed.

CoTweet:

If you are only controlling your twitter account, CoTweet is the perfect monitoring tool for you! It is basically a mini customer relationship management (CRM) system for Twitter.

CoTweet, in contrast to HootSuite, contains a cleaner design and clearly targets at the corporate level. The biggest difference is that it doesn’t have multi-column support in the main window, but it does put all of your twitter account feeds into one column if you like. It also conatins a search interface to monitor any suggested keywords, provides unlimited free collaborators in one account, allows you to assign tweets to any of your collaborators, and controls team member access and engagement levels.

CoTweet also provides you with a Klout Score whenever you are viewing someone’s profile and also some form of analytics by automatically connecting you to Bit.ly, unlike TweetDeck where you need to manually connect the two.

CoTweet’s free service only allows you to manage your Twitter accounts. However, if you decide to get the Enterprise Update, you will not only be able to manage Facebook, but also connect all of your different social media conversations in real-time and form brand-focused teams to collaborate across social accounts.

Yoono:

Yoono is a very different monitoring tool compared to the others. The main competitive advantage of Yoono is the fact that your dashboard can be located on the left side of your browser (Google Chrome Application or Firefox Add-on). It helps you navigate through your different social media accounts without having to leave your browser.

You are also given the option of downloading a Desktop App, iPhone App, or even a portable version for your USB key! Yoono also offers additional features and functionalities such as providing additional information if you’re looking for something on the Internet. This may include videos, definitions, websites, or even photos related to the website you’re currently surfing through.

However, scheduling your tweets or Facebook posts for future times or dates is not an option with Yoono. If you decide to download the application within your browser, it will dramatically slow down your internet connection since it is ‘stealing’ bandwidth to constantly update your feed. The monitoring tool doesn’t provide its customers with an analytics tool either. Overall, Yoono barely offers any improved options compared to its competitors.

 

Our Conclusions:

Hootsuite: Generally one of our favorite free monitoring tools, but upgrading your service would give you the best and fullest social media monitoring experience.

TweetDeck: A monitoring tool that you might benefit from if you prefer to read specific twitter feeds on the regular or if you like to manage your multiple social media accounts within one page.

CoTweet: The perfect tool for your business if you only have twitter accounts to manage.

Yoono: If you desire to manage your social media accounts while browsing on the internet, this monitoring tool is right for you.