In today’s digital world, social media has become an essential part of any successful marketing strategy, and businesses can now take advantage of free social media analytics tools to connect with their target audience, build brand awareness, and drive traffic to their websites.
With so much content being produced and shared on social media every day, tracking and analyzing the impact of social media efforts can be challenging. That’s where free social media analytics tools come in handy, as they are software programs that track and analyze data from various social media platforms, providing valuable insights into social media performance, including:
- Audience demographics: Social media analytics tools can help you understand who your audience is, including their age, gender, location, and interests. This information is crucial for tailoring your social media content and marketing messages to appeal to your target audience.
- Engagement metrics: you can track metrics such as likes, comments, shares, and clicks on your social media posts. These metrics provide insight into how engaging your content is and how well it resonates with your audience.
- Reach and impressions: they help you measure how many people are seeing your content and how many times it is being viewed. This information is useful for understanding the overall reach of your social media presence and how effectively your content is being shared.
- Referral traffic: Social media analytics tools can track the amount of traffic being driven to your website from social media platforms. This data can help you understand which social media platforms are most effective for driving traffic and which content is most successful at doing so.
- Influencer and competitor analysis: they can provide insights into the social media presence of your competitors and influencers in your industry. This information can help you identify potential partnerships and collaborations and inform your social media strategy.
While there are many paid and free social media analytics tools available, most will have both plans integrated to help you track your social media performance without breaking the bank. In this article, we’ll take a look at some of these tools available.
1. Google Analytics
Google Analytics has been one of the leading free social media analytics tools on the market since 2005. It’s a free web analytics tool that allows you to track website traffic and user behavior. It is an essential tool for any business with an online presence, as it provides valuable insights into your website’s performance.
However, Google Analytics can also be used to track your social media performance. By setting up custom campaigns and tracking parameters, you can track how much traffic your social media channels are driving to your website, which social media platforms are driving the most traffic, and which social media campaigns are most effective.
Goggle’s Universal Analytics will soon be replaced by Google Analytics 4 which collects event-based data from both websites and apps.
2. Hootsuite Insights
Hootsuite Insights is a free social media analytics tool that provides insights into your social media performance across multiple social media platforms. It allows you to track engagement rates, audience demographics, and sentiment analysis. Hootsuite Insights also provides real-time data, allowing you to monitor your social media performance as it happens.
This is a paid analytics tool.
Paid plan: (All come with 30-day free trial)
- Professional: $49 per month, billed annually
- Team: $129 per month, billed annually
- Business: $739 per month, billed annually
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
3. Buffer
Buffer is a social media scheduling tool that also offers basic social media analytics features. With Buffer, you can track your social media performance across multiple social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Buffer provides insights into your social media performance, including engagement rates, reach, and click-through rates.
Free plan:
- Connects to three social accounts.
- Allows scheduling of up to 10 posts.
Paid plans:
Free plan features plus Instagram hashtag manager, individual post analytics, audience demographics, shop grid, boosted post insights, and Shopify performance.
- Essentials: $6 per month per social channel
- Team: $12 per month per social channel
- Agency: $120 per month for 10 channels
4. Followerwonk
Followerwonk is a free social media analytics tool that specializes in Twitter analytics. It allows you to analyze your Twitter followers, track your follower growth, and track your engagement rates. Followerwonk also provides insights into your competitors’ Twitter performance, allowing you to see how your social media performance compares to your competitors.
Free plan:
- Manage one profile.
- Limited personal data, Twitter profile searches, and analyses.
Paid plans: More profiles, unlimited searches and more analyses.
- Target at $23.00 per month.
- Multitask at $63.00 per month
5. Tailwind
Tailwind has managed to nichedown the social media management field to just Pinterest and Instagram, which means they do what they do very well. Here’s a description on their website I believe aptly summarizes Tailwind;
“With Tailwind’s help, it will be EASY for small business marketers to plan campaigns, EASY to create content, and EASY to get that content in front of the right customers – without losing focus on the day-to-day tasks of running the rest of the business.”
It allows you to schedule content, monitor conversations, and analyze performance, providing insights such as the number of pins with your domain, the potential impressions, and the number of followers for your boards on Pinterest. On Instagram it helps you identify your best hashtags, posts and rates of engagement from your followers.
Free plan:
- One Pinterest and Instagram account.
- Limited number of posts plus basic analytics.
Paid plans (Monthly):
- Pro at $12.99
- Advanced at $19.99
- Max at $39.99
6. Keyhole
Keyhole is a free social media analytics tool that provides insights into your social media performance across multiple social media platforms, including Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. It allows you to track engagement rates, audience demographics, and sentiment analysis. Keyhole also provides real-time data, allowing you to monitor your social media performance as it happens.
This is a paid tool.
Plans (Monthly): All come with 7-day trial.
- Growing business at $99
- Company at $299
- Enterprise/Agency at $499
7. Cyfe
With Cyfe, you get to integrate dozens of metrics from several marketing tools on your custom dashboard. It allows you to sync all your networks and pull overview reports for the accounts you manage and those you want to track. You can track reach, impressions, clicks, check-ins, and posts. It enables you to monitor your brand mentions and competitors’ activity using the Twitter search widget.
This is paid tool.
Plans (Monthly): All come with 14-day trial.
- Starter at $19
- Standard at $29
- Pro at $49
- Premier at $89
In conclusion, social media analytics tools are essential for tracking and analyzing your social media performance. While there are many paid social media analytics tools available, there are also several free options that can help you track your social media performance without breaking the bank. By using these free social media analytics tools, you can gain valuable insights into your social media performance, optimize your social media strategy, and drive more traffic to your website.
