In the digital age, marketers and entrepreneurs alike are faced with a barrage of tasks. In all fields, and especially those that are intrinsically connected to the digital world, it pays off to keep effective tools at hand. Social media is no different. Several social media marketers across the globe use tools for social media management, marketing, and even social listening. But what is the difference between these functions? How are social media tools and social listening tools different? Let us find out. 

Social media tools

Social media tools are designed in such a way that they offer a holistic look into the world of social media. They are constantly undergoing innovation and transformation to keep up with the everyday changes that social media tends to bring. These tools give you the blanket to juggle between the different social media apps without getting overwhelmed. 

The key features that form the mark of an excellent social media tool are as follows –

1. Centralized Analytics

Analytics is a key component of social media tools. It provides a factual and empirical answer to what is working and what is not. Having them centralized in one tool gives you the chance to monitor and organize insights from all of your social media marketing campaigns in one centralized location. Using real-time analytics, you can get an overview of your metrics in a dashboard to track the performance of your different campaigns. From there, you can make strategic decisions to outperform your competitors and improve your overall social media presence. However, the analytics are generally very basic in these tools.

2. Effective Scheduling

Once you have multiple social media accounts, it can be time-consuming to post on each one individually. However, with the scheduling feature, you can schedule a post to appear across all of your social media sites at a specific time and date. This saves a lot of time and allows owners to focus on their core business instead of updating multiple profiles. You can even plan and run your campaigns on days or weeks you are not actively working.

3. Engagement Boosters

If posting can take some time, engagement takes even longer. Ensuring you engage with all your users on all the platforms can prove to be an overwhelming task. That is why this feature is so important. It allows you to pre-record your replies and send them out to similar messages and comments. It is a simple feature but goes a long way in keeping your audience engaged. 

Social listening tools

Social listening tools are an effective way of monitoring what the audience has to say about your brand. These tools offer a narrow view with a specialized focus on social monitoring. As a result, they help determine what is being said, where your brand is being spoken about, and whether it aligns with your marketing efforts. With these tools, you can answer questions that people have, promote news and stories, gain more brand awareness, and respond to customer service-related issues.

The key features that form the mark of a good social listening tool are as follows –

1. Monitoring for Multiple Channels Simultaneously

This feature comes in especially beneficial with large enterprises. It is such an essential component of social listening that it can be considered a prerequisite for a good tool. That is because this feature allows you to monitor several channels and pages at the same time. You can choose which accounts you want to monitor and when you want to start and stop listening. You can also share your findings with your team for effective management.

2. Real-Time Monitoring with Effective Notifications and Alerts

When it comes to monitoring and social listening, real-time is crucial. This feature gives you the chance to monitor what is being said the instant it is being said. That gives you great leverage since you are constantly updated and prepared for a crisis if it does occur. Along with that, the ability to immediately reply is always a plus for customers across the globe.

3. Multiple Location or Global Tracking

Evaluation in a particular geographic region of brands, products, or industrial terms can help organizations gain insights on what particular markets they want. This is even more useful for global brands with local teams that look into their marketing and sales.

As we have seen, social media tools and social listening tools are two different components with different features and functions – and that is a good thing. Because of the complementary nature of both tools, their differences allow them to make up where the other lacks. That, in turn, offers a holistic look into social media management and monitoring.

The best part is that you can get both of them in the same place with Konnect Insights. Used by brands across the globe for customer experience management, social listening, and analytics, Konnect Insights has a powerful search engine that enables brands to listen, engage and respond in real-time to their customers’ social conversations.

 

Tags: Listening Tool, Listening Tools, Social Listening Tools, Social Media, Social Media Listening