What are the best tools for tracking social media metrics for small businesses?

Hootsuite, Buffer, and Sprout Social are popular tools for tracking social media metrics. Google Analytics helps track website traffic from social media. Native analytics in platforms like Facebook Insights, Twitter Analytics, and LinkedIn Analytics provide valuable data. Consider your needs, budget, and platform usage when choosing the right tools for your small business.

Has anyone compared Zoho social against newer tools like hootsuite and sprout? I'm inclined towards Zoho for their established status and large suite of integrated tools, as well as integrations with other services (they've just been and longer and seem to be keeping up reasonably well). Google analytics is a must have imho; it lets you complete the sales/marketing feedback loop funnel from social platform campaign performance into ad campaigns and website traffic, into leads, conversions, and even in-application behavior for those with software products. These insights can then inform new social campaigns.

Tracking metrics is essential to ensure you can optimize your content and prove the value of your strategy. Without tracking, you’re essentially wandering around in the dark.

In the words of Peter Drucker, "You can't manage what you can't measure." If you post content on social media just for the sake of posting or because your leadership says it's a good idea. You're missing the point. Social media is an excellent medium to begin to plant the seeds of awareness for your company and its products and services. But, like any other endeavor, you'll want to track your progress, or lack of progress, over time. This is where social media metrics come in.

Depends on the platform. For Instagram, I obviously track the reach of my publications, but most importantly, the interactions, specifically comments and shares. Another one that I always have my eyes on is clicks on the links of the profile. For Twitter, interactions and clicks on links.

Here are my 5 favorite tools for tracking social media metrics: → Hootsuite Analytics → Sprout Social → Google Analytics → Brandwatch → Iconosquare

For most small businesses the native analytics and insights tools provided within each platform are sufficient. But, as time goes on your presence on social media, and your business will begin to grow and you may want to invest in more robust tools and reporting options. A few of my favorites are: - Hootsuite - Buffer - Sprout Social

Before I decided to choose Hootsuite as my go-to metrics tool, I did a trial period of several of them. This allowed me to compare how their metrics were, the interface (which was very important for me), and which one offered more features.

Don't be afraid to use native analytics! Sure, it's often more convenient to use a tool to track social analytics, but if you're a small business or even a larger one with a limited budget, don't let that get you down. The reality is, you can get most everything you need from native analytics, it's just less convenient. Don't forget that some of the native analytics can be the best ones. Take LinkedIn for example: there are some metrics natively that are harder to get from some of the paid tools. Depending on what your goals are and what you're tracking against, you may get a lot of use out of some of the native analytics. My company really values tracking against competitors so LinkedIn's Competitors tab is a huge value for us.