by Fronetics | Jun 11, 2019 | Blog, Content Marketing, Logistics, Marketing, Social Media, Supply Chain
An effective social media strategy requires data. Here are our 10 favorite social media analytics tools to empower you with insights that will boost your social media game.
Highlights:
- Hootsuite and Sprout Social are all-around social media management tools that offer analytics.
- Google Analytics is an overall powerhouse tool to track the performance of all your digital assets.
- Newcomers to the list include Awario, Squarelovin, Keyhole, and image analytics tool PixL.
At Fronetics, we believe in a data-driven approach to digital marketing. A solid analytical framework has the potential to offer insights that will shape and refine your strategies, increasing your ability to generate, nurture, and convert leads. We’ve pulled together 10 of the best social media analytics tools to help you determine what’s working and what’s not — and to empower you to develop a data-driven strategy.
Our 10 favorite social media analytics tools
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1) Hootsuite
There are so many tools out there, and our internal list of the best social media analytics tools often shifts. But there are a few platforms that always make the list, and Hootsuite is one of them. It’s one of the most popular social media management tools for a reason – it’s a powerhouse that can manage tasks from scheduling social media publishing to measuring social media ROI.
Hootsuite gives you key metrics from Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram with audience and post insights, as well as performance data. It packages all the data in approachable charts and graphs. One of our favorite features is the AutoSchedule tool, which lets Hootsuite determine the optimal time to post or tweet based on when similar content performed well in the past.
2) Google Analytics
Another of our perennial favorites, Google Analytics is a robust platform that can provide deep and detailed insights into how your audience is interacting with your digital assets, including social media. This is one of the best social media analytics tools out there, and we’ve written extensively about how to get the most out of it.
For social media analytics, we particularly recommend three custom reports: Best Days to Post on Social Media, Best Time to Post on Social Media, and the Social Media Traffic by Date and Hour. These three reports offer real-time data, along with the in-depth insight you need to help your business optimize its social media strategy.
3) Awario
Awario analyzes online mentions of your business and gives you statistics on mention growth, reach, mentions’ languages and locations, mention sentiment, and where on the web mentions are occurring. We particularly appreciate that the tool also identifies social media users who have used your keywords and provides you with a list of social media influencers in your specific area.
Benchmarking your social media marketing strategy against your competitors is key to understanding how you’re doing. Awario lets you create alerts for your main competitors and offers you a step-by-step comparison of your social media performance against theirs.
4) Snaplytics
While all-inclusive tools like Hootsuite and Google Analytics are excellent for evaluating your overall social media strategy, we also recommend a few tools that focus on specific platforms. Snaplytics hones in on Instagram and Snapchat, including offering insights on Instagram Stories.
For both networks, Snaplytics shows you which acquisition methods are performing best for your business, as well as what precipitates rises and falls in engagement levels. Snapchat can be a tricky platform for brands, and Snaplytics provides the kinds of insights you need to make inroads on this millennial-dominated network.
5) Squarelovin
We’ve written extensively about how supply chain companies can make the most of Instagram and Instagram Stories. Squarelovin is an analytics tool specifically for Instagram that provides you with the data you need to optimize your strategy. It tracks likes and followers, reviews post performance, and measures overall profile engagement.
One of the best social media analytics tools for Instagram out there, Squarelovin highlights the best times to post, ideal filters to use, and most popular hashtags. It also gives you a history of engagement with your posts, broken down by hour.
6) Keyhole
This social media monitoring tool offers up deep analytics for Twitter and Instagram. Keyhole will show you the total number of posts that include your target keywords, as well as how mention volume has changed over time. It displays engagement data, hashtag usage trends, sentiment metrics, and reach statistics.
Influencers are key on Instagram and Twitter, and influencer marketing should be part of your social media strategy. Keyhole provides insights into influencers and trends in your specific niche, along with audience demographics and locations.
7) Union Metrics
Union Metrics analyzes a range of metrics from Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Like Hootsuite, it lets you know which content is performing best across each platform, the times when your audience is most active throughout the day, and who your key influencers are.
What really sets Union Metrics apart is in its potential for optimizing content creation. The tool goes above and beyond by tracking relevant trends to help you generate ideas for new content, based on hard performance data.
8) Sprout Social
Sprout Social is probably Hootsuite’s biggest competitor, and it’s another of our frequent favorites. Like Hootsuite, it’s an all-around social media management tool that provides key analytics as well. It measures performance and engagement across Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter and benchmarks your data against competitors.
Sprout Social also helps you identify your highest performing content and determine why it has performed well. It can also show you how your paid ads are performing through a comparison of paid versus organic impressions and followers gained.
9) Sotrender
This formidable social media analytics tool shows you where conversations about your brand are happening, which of your content performs best, and how your audience engages with your social media content. Sotrender analyzes Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram and makes it easy for you to benchmark your efforts against your competitors.
We like any tool that not only offers data but gives you advice for improving your strategy. Sotrender offers customized tips on where your marketing strategy needs improvement, based on the analysis it performs.
10) Scraawl PixL
As the internet, and social media in particular, becomes more visual, experts have pointed to a dearth of analytics tools with the capability to perform rich analysis on images. Scraawl PixL is a relatively new kid on the block, and it’s attempting to fill the void when it comes to image-based analytics.
This high-fidelity, cloud-based video and image processing exploitation tool offers an easy-to-use interface, as well as workflows for analyzing video and image data from online digital platforms. It relies on machine learning-based algorithms that enable face detection and recognition as well as object detection, tracking, and classification.
What are your favorite social media analytics tools?
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by Fronetics | May 7, 2019 | Blog, Content Marketing, Logistics, Marketing, Social Media, Supply Chain
When it comes to social media, timing is everything. These 5 tools will help you determine the best time to post on social media for your business.
Highlights:
- Social media is playing an increasing role in B2B purchasing decisions.
- Even if you’re posting great content, if you’re doing it at the wrong times, you’re losing out.
- Social media management tools can help you understand your audience and make informed decisions about post timing.
If you’re a B2B marketer, chances are, you’re well aware of the importance of social media. But since, as BuzzFeed’s Jonathan Perelman famously put it, “Content is king, but distribution is queen, and she wears the pants,” simply posting your content is only half the battle. Knowing the best time to post on social media is nearly as important as what you post.
It’s difficult to overstate importance of an effective social media strategy. Not only do 78% of marketers who have used social media for 2 years or more report increased traffic to their websites, but B2B decision-makers increasingly report that they are influenced by social media when purchasing. According to Demand Gen’s 2018 B2B Buyers Survey Report, more than half (54%) of all B2B buyers rely on social media to research vendor solutions.
[bctt tweet=”Not only do 78% of marketers who have used social media for 2 years or more report increased traffic to their websites, but B2B decision-makers increasingly report that they are influenced by social media when purchasing.” username=”Fronetics”]
These are powerful numbers, and all signs point to social media playing an ever-increasing role in the B2B buyer’s journey. For your social media content to pack the biggest punch, you need to be posting at the optimal times. Luckily, there are a plethora of social media management tools that can help you refine your strategy. Here are our 5 favorite tools for determining the best time to post on social media for B2B brands.
5 tools for determining the best time to post on social media
1) Google Analytics
This robust analytical tool is among the most popular all-around web tools for B2B businesses, and for good reason. Google Analytics can help you determine how your audience is interacting with all your digital assets, and it offers some great insights about social media in particular. You can create various types of custom reports based on your business’ goals and results. We recommend three in particular to help you find the best time to post on social media:
- Best Days to Post on Social Media
- Best Time to Post on Social Network by Hour
- Social Media Traffic by Date and Hour
2) Buffer
A company with an impressive record when it comes to social media management, Buffer’s platform lets you easily manage all your social media platforms. Like its biggest rival, Hootsuite (more on that soon), Buffer offers among its features some useful insights for determining ideal post timing and frequency. For example, it analyzes follower activity and suggests the perfect moments to post on each social media platform.
3) Hootsuite
Hootsuite has been one of our favorite tools for a long time, and it truly offers a rich variety of features and insights to maximize the effectiveness of your digital assets. Not only is it effective at scheduling social media posts, it’s an excellent tool for measuring social media ROI — no easy task! Hootsuite’s AutoSchedule feature is one of its best assets. For each piece of content you plan to post on social media, it analyzes when similar content performed best in the past and determines the optimal post time. In addition, it considers the platform and publishes based on audience engagement on each network.
4) Followerwonk
Followerwonk is new to our list, and it’s different from most social media management tools. While it doesn’t offer the kind of scheduling and management features as the other platforms on our list, what it does do extremely well is help you gain valuable insights and understanding of your audience. For example, Followerwonk lets you analyze your current Twitter followers by things like location, post timing, engagement, accounts they follow, and more, as well as contrast those relationships with your competitors. Understanding your followers at this level will not only help you determine when your business should post on social media, but will allow you to analyze and adjust your strategy in all kinds of ways.
5) SproutSocial
Another perennial favorite, SproutSocial offers the whole menu of social media management tools: everything from monitoring to scheduling to analytics. The customized dashboard gives you a bird’s eye overview of how your social media channels are performing. You can find deeper insights, including individual statistics on each post, and customer data like gender, age, and location demographics. The platform’s ViralPost technology boasts impressive results at finding the best time to share your content.
Figuring out the best time to post on social media for your business is no easy task, but it’s key to getting your content to reach your target audience. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution, and any one, or a combination, of these tools can help you understand your audience better and get your content out to them at the right times.
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by Fronetics | Feb 19, 2019 | Marketing, Social Media
Need some Instagram for B2B marketing inspiration? These 10 brands are getting it right.
Highlights
- Instagram is a great opportunity for B2B businesses.
- Avoiding blatant sales or advertising pushes is key.
- Successful accounts engage users with interesting visuals and/or provide them with value through informative content.
Instagramnow boasts over 1 billion monthly active users, making it one of the most popular social media platforms out there. It’s a tremendous opportunity for businesses. In fact, recent research has shownthat 66% of brands now use Instagram.
But many B2B marketers are still struggling to find their footing on this highly visual platform. Since we could all use a little inspiration now and then, here are 10 brands that are crushing Instagram for B2B marketing — and what we like about their presence.
10 brands that are nailing Instagram for B2B marketing
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1) Adobe
With 681k followers, Adobe (@adobe) is a fortunate brand when it comes to Instagram in that its product naturally lends itself to the visual medium. Its account boasts some truly stunning visuals, highlighting what Adobe products can create.
2) Intel
The tech giant Intel (@intel) cultivates a celebrity-style image, giving its over-a-million followers an inside glimpse into big events the brand plays a role in, like the X Games, Grammys, and glitzy tech conferences. Each of the carefully curated images reinforces the brand’s voice, and captions do a great job of detailing exactly what the brand does in the tech space.
3) Hootsuite
Social media management dashboard Hootsuite (@hootsuite) does a fantastic job of showing brands their social media know-how, right in its Instagram profile. The company cultivates a casual, friendly image and posts content that demonstrates company culture. From team building photos to office dogs, Hootsuite makes followers feel like they’re getting to know the brand.
4) CBRE
Global commercial real estate firm CBRE (@cbre) is a phenomenal example of finding beauty within the context of its operations. The brand’s Instagram feed features a stunning array of architecture from around the world, with clever use of hashtags.
5) HubSpot
Here’s a company getting content Instagram for B2B marketing right. HubSpot (@hubspot) consistently provides value to followers, posting informational content. Rather than letting it get boring, the brand keeps content visually appealing and makes clever use of captioning and video.
6) IBM
Tech juggernaut IBM (@ibm) has made highly effective use of reactive storytelling on Instagram. This method of storytelling combines a top-of-mind story or idea with a compelling marketing message. IBM uses it during popular or inspiring events, demonstrating how it’s making use of the brand’s technology.
7) General Electric
It’s a household name brand, and it’s over a century old. General Electric’s (@generalelectric) Instagram presences does a great job of leveraging the brand’s history, highlighting its involvement with important developments in defense, aviation, and technology. It’s a great example of creating a powerful voice from a brand through storytelling and tapping into the audience’s nostalgia.
8) FedEx
FedEx (@fedex) is a prime example of a B2B brand that makes the absolute most of what it does to create a compelling story for its Instagram content. The account features photos of airplanes and trucks all over the world, telling the story of how the carrier cares for and ships products in its care.
9) HP
With over a million followers HP (@hp) cultivates a sleek, design-minded brand image on Instagram. It capitalizes on subtlety and style, with eclectic images that never feel overtly promotional but that highlight the brand’s innovation.
10) Mailchimp
Email marketing company Mailchimp (@mailchip) truly gets the most out of its whimsical logo. Its Instagram content has given the playful chimp logo life and transformed him into a personality and voice for the brand. The image is quirky and fun, and Mailchimp’s Instagram presence reinforces and capitalizes on that.
What companies do you think are doing Instagram for B2B marketing right?
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by Fronetics | Mar 26, 2018 | Blog, Content Marketing, Logistics, Marketing, Social Media, Supply Chain
Social media scheduling tools can make social media management much easier while improving your bottom line.
Managing your business’ social media accounts might sound like a simple task — a fun one, even. But once it falls on your plate, it won’t take you long to realize: it’s a lot of work. That’s not to say that the work can’t be enjoyable. But the sheer volume can be overwhelming.
For example, Fronetics recommends posting to Twitter 40 times a day. Imagine your productivity levels if you needed to stop what you’re doing 40 times a day to craft and post a tweet. You get the picture.
The beauty of marketing automation
Here’s where marketing automation can help.
Social media scheduling tools can make your job much easier — and improve your bottom line. In fact, according to HubSpot, businesses using marketing automation to nurture leads increased qualified leads by 451%.
Essentially, social media scheduling tools let you plan and schedule content across your social networks. There are plenty of free and paid options for you to explore, though two of our favorites are HubSpot and Hootsuite.
HubSpot’s comprehensive CRM and marketing platform includes the ability to automatically post to social media when you publish content, as well as in-depth analytical tools for determining the best time to post to social media platforms. Monitor social mentions and link your social media activity with larger marketing campaigns to determine ROI.
One of the most widely used automation tools on the market, Hootsuite lets you keep track of various social media channels at once. It also helps you perform brand monitoring, letting you know when you brand is mentioned, and what your customers are saying.
3 tips for using social media scheduling tools
Hopefully, you’re starting to get excited about the possibilities of automating your social media marketing tasks. Here are a few tips to keep in mind as you move forward.
1) Timing is everything
Good social media scheduling tools will also let you monitor the times of day when people read your content and interact with your brand on social media. Make use of these important metrics and schedule your content strategically for days and times of maximum exposure.
2) Diversify
Keep in mind that someone who follows you on Facebook is likely to also follow you on Instagram and Twitter. For the savvy social media marketer, this means that content should be optimized for each platform, rather than just repeated across multiple platforms, at the risk of boring your followers.
This doesn’t mean you have to reinvent the wheel each time you schedule content, but play to the strengths of each network. For example, Facebook allows more text, while Instagram is great for eye-catching images or stories.
3) You’re not off the hook
Automation is a highly effective tool for social media management — but it’s just part of the picture. Used properly, it should act as a supplement to your social media activities, like reading and replying to audience comments and interacting with your community.
What social media scheduling tools do you like?
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by Fronetics | Mar 21, 2018 | Blog, Content Marketing, Logistics, Marketing, Social Media, Strategy, Supply Chain
Use these 10 social media analytics tools to measure the success of your social media efforts.
Analyzing your social media performance is critical to a successful marketing effort, especially in light of recent changes to Facebook’s News Feed. You need the tools to determine what’s working and what isn’t, as well as the best time to post your content for your target audience.
At Fronetics, we use a variety of tools to measure social media success. Here are our 10 favorite social media analytics tools.
Our 10 favorite social media analytics tools
1) Hootsuite
Hootsuite is a social media management tool that can do everything from scheduling social media posts to measuring your social media ROI. The AutoSchedule feature lets Hootsuite determine the best time to publish a post or tweet based on when similar content performed well in the past. It also considers the platform and can publish the same message at different times based on audience engagement on each particular network.
2) Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a robust analytical tool for determining how web users are interacting with your digital assets, including social media. Three custom reports (Best Days to Post on Social Media, Best Time to Post on Social Network by Hour, and the Social Media Traffic by Date and Hour) offer real-time, in-depth insight. Also, Google Analytics is free!
3) Tweriod
Tweriod, a free Twitter tool that helps you know the best time to tweet, is changing the way companies approach their marketing tweets. It will evaluate up to 1,000 of your followers and their tweeting patterns, including schedule, interests, and retweets. You then receive an analysis of when your tweets will receive the most exposure based on that data.
4) Snaplytics
If you’ve jumped on the Snapchat bandwagon, you probably know that Snapchat gives brands relatively little data on performance. Snaplytics gives you data on the performance of your snaps, audience growth, and more.
5) Iconosquare
This tool is specifically for Instagram. It stands out because, in addition to analysis of your normal photos and videos, it gives you insights into Instagram Stories. With higher level plans, you can also get influencer analytics as well.
6) Buzzsumo
Instead of analyzing your brand’s individual social media performance, Buzzsumo takes a different approach: It looks at how content from your website performs on social media.
7) Tailwind
Tailwind lets you track your performance on Pinterest. Although Instagram and Snapchat are getting a lot of buzz these days, users remain extremely active on Pinterest. With Tailwind, you can track trends in followers and engagement and analyze your audience.
8) SproutSocial
SproutSocial offers a customized dashboard with a quick overview of how your social media channels are performing. You also can gain deeper insight into your followers — like gender and age demographics. And you can assess your customer reach and what will work in your favor.
9) ShortStack
This social media contest app provides performance analytics, so you can determine if your efforts are working, or if you’re simply giving away free merchandise.
10) TapInfluence
Influencer marketing is becoming one of the most commonly used social media tactics. TapInfluence is a complete influencer marketing platform that researches potential influencers you want to work with, as well as tracks campaign performance.
What social media analytics tools do you use?
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