Not All Analytics Tools Are Created Equal

Most of us are already familiar with top social media software. Earlier this month, we published a comprehensive guide to social media management software. We also looked at how you can use a combination of SaaS to grow your Twitter audience. Then we looked at software that would complement your PR strategy. But we haven’t talked about analytics that much, yet.

there are so many different types of social media software today, each with a wide range of offerings, that it can be like finding a needle in a haystack

Today we are digging deep into social media marketing analytics software. Typically, they help in a variety of ways including scheduling and posting, social listening, analytics and lots of other things.

But, there are so many different types of social media software today, each with a wide range of offerings, that it can be like finding a needle in a haystack.

We have learned that it is very important to know the features that will benefit you the most and equally useful to know if there are some things you can compromise on.

Here’s what you need to do:

Make Your Requirements Clear

The very first thing you should ask yourself is what exactly are you looking for in this analytics software? There are hundreds, if not thousands, of social media software out there in the market with their own set of analytics features. Some of them have very useful dashboards, while others are better at handling reports. You need to make sure your requirements are outlined clearly, perhaps in a team meeting, while taking into consideration other software you may already be using.

It is possible that you need to dissect your requirements in more than one way when considering the use of a combination of different software. Maybe you want to use one piece of software for scheduling and post-specific analytics while using another to handle marketing automation and analytics across the board. In this case, it can be useful to make flashcards of your requirements, which you can toss into different piles to make sure you are not paying for the same feature twice.

Data Collection

The single most important feature to look for, in terms of analytics software, is how data collection occurs on a given platform. Before it can provide you with results in the form of visual reports, customer behavior analysis, trend identification or campaign insights, it needs to plug into data sources in a smart way. If you have put in the effort to make your requirements crystal clear, you will easily identify the channels and data you need to collect.

Some key things to keep in mind:

Number of Platforms:

The number of platforms it gathers data from is of great importance. You need to ensure your selected software is able to collect data from all the platforms you use.

Filtering:

Getting all the information isn’t going to benefit you in any way if it includes spam or other useless information. You need to check if the software provides filters for the information it collects and if it does, whether the filters are enough for your use case scenario.

Type of Data:

Different social media software are designed to collect different types of data. Some are great at collecting information about sales funnels while others are excellent at measuring the performance of content. You should look into the details about the type of data being collected to be sure you are getting the right software.

Analytics:

Almost every social media software comes bundled with analytics features but not all analytics tools are created equal. Go through customer reviews to ensure the selected software has the kind of analytics dashboard that will work for you and your team.

Review Software

As a SaaS comparison site, we are able to highlight all the social media analytics software you should definitely consider at this stage. While you can search and compare software on Crozdesk, in this blog post we can quickly review your best options before you go ahead with your free trial accounts with each of the vendors that match your needs the most. So let’s get started.

AgoraPulse:

If you are looking for software that helps with real-time tracking of all incoming communication after unifying your social media inboxes, AgoraPulse might just work for you. It provides a lot of useful tools, including great analytics to measure the performance of social media posts, filtering, data export and the ability to compare your data with that of your competitors, which is very useful.

Its Crozscore is a whopping 84 and it currently has a user happiness score of 87%. [Retrieved 26 June 2017]

Funnel.io:

As the name suggests, if the use of your social media software is more sales-oriented, you may want to see your leads convert through Funnel. It has a great ability to integrate your advertising data with your Google Analytics and gives you useful data visualizations. The basic package at $199 a month may seem a little steep, but if you make good use of your trial period you can collect enough data to make a business case for it.

Mailspice Analytics:

If the data you deal with pertains more to email than anything else, you may wish to seriously consider Mailspice Analytics. Granted, email is not exactly social media, but email is the most social medium even today, so we are including it here.

Mailspice Analytics processes email data on-premise, which is great in terms of data privacy compliance, and it offers great insights in the form of professional reports. It also has the ability to target specific groups and facilitates A/B testing to provide useful data about your email campaigns.

It offers a tiered pricing with a free trial and its Crozscore is 92 (100% user happiness). [Retrieved 26 June 2017]

Bpm’online Marketing:

Essentially a customer relations management (CRM) software, this is also a great tool for the more sales-oriented business. Apart from funnel-tracking it helps optimize communications strategies that rely on email marketing. In terms of analytics, it integrates with most social media channels, email and Google Apps with options for data import and export, A/B testing and data visualizations to help you target the right audience. It has a clean dashboard that also takes care of forecasting based on the data it collects, which is a very useful feature.

It has a clean dashboard that also takes care of forecasting based on the data it collects, which is a very useful feature.

MyPresences:

As a digital reputation management software, myPresences helps optimize the value a business can get from online reviews and ratings across a range of channels. It is essentially a tool for search engine optimization (SEO) so it is not specifically designed for analytics, but it does collect a lot of data from more than 1500 sources and provides meaningful data visualizations.

We are also able to give an exclusive Crozdesk discount for this software if you follow through to the myPresences listing.

MavSocial:

Designed with the digital agency in mind, MavSocial is a comprehensive visual content management software. Apart from the ability to give access to licensed stock images for social media campaigns and post scheduling, it integrates with social media to give a host of analytics data through its dashboard and also allows data import from other sources.

For this reason, it is useful to compare it with popular social media software such as Hootsuite, Crowdfire and TweetDeck.

Social Pilot:

Boasting support for an impressive number of social media profiles (200) and the ability to queue up to 5000 posts, Social Plot is primarily a social media software with social analytics built-in now for Facebook and Twitter.

Netcore Smartech:

The final mention on this list of analytics software is a premium-only marketing automation solution. With features such as social media and email integration, data import and export, A/B testing, lead management and conversion tracking, Netcore Smartech’s dashboard is able to provide meaningful analytics across the board, even though it is not an analytics specialist.

Analyticize!

This list is meant to get you off the ground by helping you get an overview of the variety of software that serves analytics needs in a variety of ways and is by no means an exhaustive list.

If you’re looking for SaaS (software as a service) solutions, it is worth going through Crozdesk’s business software listings to find the right software in your niche as you browse through more than 200 categories.

Once you’ve gone through your free trials, calls with the vendors and presentations to decision makers, it is time to make your SaaS purchase and get started.

Exciting.