7 Apps for Social Media Monitoring on the Go
If you're responsible for marketing a product or a brand, monitoring what people are saying on social media, and interacting with them when appropriate, is becoming increasingly important. That's why there are a large number of social media monitoring and listening tools that can help you do just that.
If you run a small business — or if you're often out of the office — then using such desktop-based tools may not be practical. What you need is a mobile app that can give you a quick insight into what's being said about your product or brand wherever you are. That way you'll be alerted to any potential trouble brewing on Twitter, Facebook or elsewhere before it becomes a crisis.
The good news is, there's no shortage of apps for iOS and Android devices that provide this type of functionality. Some offer a quick mobile view into a full Web-based service, while others are standalone monitoring systems in their own right.
All of the following mobile apps are free, so it's worth downloading a few and giving them a spin. Most of the apps also offer enterprise or professional versions that may be better suited to social media teams. Trying out a free version first is a best practice, as it gives you an idea whether the service is a good fit for your team.
Here are a few of the most interesting apps:
Radian 6 Mobile: Radian 6 is part of Salesforce.com's Marketing Cloud suite for social media monitoring, and Radian 6 Mobile is a free iOS app for Radian 6 users. It allows you to listen in to conversations around your brand and join in at any time. Using Radian 6's Summary Stack you can discover high-level information surrounding your brand, and visually monitor overall volume, sentiment and share of conversation and the top five countries generating discussion. You can also get real-time alerts of new posts, and compose and send tweets directly from the app.
Price: free
Mobile platform: iOS
Download from: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/radian6-mobile/id419336570
Hootsuite: Hootsuite is a Web-based service that provides a dashboard to manage multiple social profiles, schedule messages and tweets, track brand mentions and analyze social media traffic. The Hootsuite app lets you log in to Hootsuite, import and sync your account and use it on the go. Functionality includes sending and scheduling updates, tracking click stats, and setting up tracking columns to monitor keywords, hashtags and lists. It also includes a translation feature that covers more than 50 languages.
Price: free
Mobile platform: iOS, Android
iOS download from: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/hootsuite-for-twitter-facebook/id341249709
Android download from: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hootsuite.droid.full&hl=en
Seesmic: Seesmic‘s mobile app lets you update and view multiple social networks, manage multiple Twitter accounts, and organize all your accounts, searches, trending topics and lists in a customizable dashboard. It's easy to use and, with a consumer focus, it is probably most suitable to small businesses dipping their toes into social media monitoring. Note: Seesmic is in the process of being acquired by Hootsuite, but the Seesmic app is still available.
Price: free
Mobile platform: iOS, Android
iOS download from: https://itunes.apple.com/en/app/seesmic/id320224577
Android download from: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.seesmic&hl=en
SocialEngage: SocialEngage is a social media engagement and publishing platform that helps organizations track conversations about their brands. The SocialEngage app allows you to update Twitter, respond on Facebook, categorize conversations, schedule updates, monitor keywords, and track trends with tagging.
Price: free
Mobile platform: iOS, Android
iOS download from: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/socialengage/id411021136
Android download from: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.exacttarget.cotweet
Mention: With Mention‘s service, you can create alerts for your brand, your industry, your company, your name or your competitors, and be informed in real-time about any mentions on the Web and social Web. The Mention app monitors social media and notifies you by email or push notification of any new mentions. Its anti-noise technology is designed to remove the noise generated by homonyms and other irrelevant sources. For companies with social media teams, it allows you to share your alerts with any user for free and assign tasks, and ask your community manager to reply to a tweet, comment or blog article.
Price: free
Mobile platform: iOS, Android
iOS download from: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mention-for-iphone/id535505237?mt=8
Android download from: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.mention.android
Brandseye: Brandseye‘s Web-based service monitors all mentions of your brand online and enables you to actively manage your online conversations with regular notifications. The mobile app allows you to view and monitor your brand’s online conversations at any time via a regularly updated feed from your Brandseye account and view the original mentions online in its original location.
Price: free
Mobile platform: iOS, Android
iOS download from: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/brandseye/id503552880
Android download from: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.brandseye.mint&hl=en
Klout: Klout measures your influence based on your ability to drive action on social networks. While not strictly social media monitoring, it can certainly be helpful to know when your social networking activities are useful. The Klout app on your home screen shows your Klout Score so it’s always visible to you, even if you are not using the app. The Notifications tab also updates you about changes to your online influence.
Price: free
Mobile platform: iOS
Download from: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/klout-for-iphone/id517089691
Paul Rubens has been covering enterprise IT for over 20 years. In that time he has written for leading UK and international publications including The Economist, The Times, Financial Times, the BBC, Computing and ServerWatch.
Paul Ferrill has been writing for over 15 years about computers and network technology. He holds a BS in Electrical Engineering as well as a MS in Electrical Engineering. He is a regular contributor to the computer trade press. He has a specialization in complex data analysis and storage. He has written hundreds of articles and two books for various outlets over the years. His articles have appeared in Enterprise Apps Today and InfoWorld, Network World, PC Magazine, Forbes, and many other publications.
