With social media now such a vast area, it can be difficult for brands to manually track their presence and growth. That’s why we always recommend software that will help our clients monitor and automate their activity, and engage where and when it matters. Today, we’re looking at the best tools brands can use for social listening.

When it comes to monitoring and identifying conversations about your brand, several of our favourite platforms such as Hootsuite and Sprinklr, integrate this technology. These platforms are however, best for providing all-rounded management and measurement, rather than purely focusing on social listening.

In this area, one of our favourite platforms has got to be Brandwatch. This useful software gives businesses insights into their social data in places such as blogs, news and reviews sites, forums, videos, images, and on Facebook and Twitter. The platform’s interface is clearly presented with visual assets such as charts and graphs- these enable brands to gauge their mentions and searches, top sites, topics, and which users are talking about them, as well as a global heat map.

For greater support of all major social channels, we like BuzzSumo. This platform supports Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Google Plus when it comes to how users are sharing individual pieces of content such as articles, and by topic, author and domain. The technology also allows brands to search through the past 12 months of their data to view which content was most shared at any given time in that period. And as with other popular options such as Google Alerts, businesses can also set up their keyword alerts through the platform.

Finally, we like SocialRank when it comes to monitoring Twitter and Instagram engagement. The free and basic version of the tool already lets brands connect multiple accounts, and filter their followers by location, keywords, hashtags and emojis, device, those most engaged, and several more metrics. The other two premium options enable further useful insights including competitor analysis, and the ability to save searches for future reference.

And now, the platform has added “RealTime”, a feature that will enable brands to join and contribute to relevant discussions. As demonstrated on the company’s blog, the feature uses AI technology to present businesses with relevant conversations. So for instance, fashion brand Juicy Couture used this on Twitter to connect with followers tweeting about what to wear at the upcoming Coachella festival. We love the sound of this update, as unlike other social tools which simply track brand mentions or keywords, Realtime clearly identifies current events and conversations which may be applicable to the business in question. We can particularly see this helping brands in the events and entertainment industries promote their shows, and be advantageous to smaller brands looking to generate added exposure. The other benefit to RealTime is that it allows marketers to view data about each user in a particular conversation- this will allow brands to selectively choose which individuals to engage with, as those with a greater klout will likely bolster their reputation and online presence.

Do you value social media tracking tools to help grow your brand presence? Which platforms are essential to you on a daily basis? We’d love to hear your thoughts, so please tweet to us @PracticeDigital and share your comments on our Facebook page.