TGL Tested: Our Takes on Media Monitoring and Social Listening Tools
We’re back with the latest installment of TGL Tested, a blog series sharing our team’s expert opinions on popular digital marketing tools. Last time, we tackled graphic design solutions. This week we’re diving into the diverse topic of media monitoring and social listening platforms.
While media monitoring and social listening are two different tactics, we combine them together because media doesn’t exist in a vacuum; when things happen, people talk about it. This is why following how media mentions play out on social media channels can be vital information for a PR team. For many of our clients, the two often go hand-in-hand, allowing us to deliver a complete picture of how the world is talking about their organization and reacting to its activities.
In this blog post, we’ll discuss three of TGL’s tried-and-true (and cost effective) platforms, sharing an overview of features, pros, cons, and our best-use recommendation.
Mention
Mention is a social media monitoring tool that allows you to set up alerts for your brand’s name, products, or competitors. It’s designed to keep companies updated in real time by tracking down the most relevant mentions across the web and in social media.
There are four plans available, ranging from $49 - $179/month: Solo, Pro, ProPlus, and a custom-built Company option, which is available only by request.
Ideal for smaller teams, Mention is a strong tool across the board with use cases including brand, crisis, PR, and social media management, as well as competitor analysis and market research.
TGL’s “best use” recommendation:
For small teams wanting a versatile social management tool that includes features for media monitoring and social listening
Pros:
Web and mobile access
14-day free trial
A wealth of free tools and resources
Real-time alerts
User-friendly
Cons:
No consultation service
Occasionally misses alerts, which means you must sometimes conduct manual searches
No free plan
Only basic-level analytics
Tested by: Senior Project Manager, Renee Tate
“Mention is my new favorite go-to. Media monitoring always requires a level of manual work from a human, but I will say Mention does an amazing job of curating everything into one platform. It gathers social media as well as blog and publication hits. My only pushback is you may get quite a few personal blogs depending on the topic you’re monitoring for, but it's better to see it all than nothing at all, in my opinion.”
Tested by: Media Monitoring Specialist, Aaron Maisler
“For social media, Mention is my preferred tool, especially for X (Twitter). The uncluttered interface and the ability to see the reach of a tweet or website are quite useful. It does a decent job of keyword monitoring across platforms, although it’s not perfect. Mention is particularly effective for tracking conversations and mentions on X (Twitter) and Facebook, though it struggles a bit with Instagram and TikTok due to its limitations with video content.”
Inoreader
Inoreader is a powerful RSS feed reader and content collector that helps you stay updated with the websites, blogs, and news sources that matter to your brand. With features like content organization, advanced search capabilities, offline reading, and integration with other tools, Inoreader makes it easy to manage and customize your information intake. It’s perfect for anyone needing to stay on top of a large volume of content efficiently!
Plans include Free, Supporter, and Pro, ranging from free to $5/month. Custom plans can be built with add-ons by request.
TGL’s “best use” recommendation:
For teams who want robust monitoring and listening for multiple keywords/topics at a budget-friendly price tag
Pros:
Web and mobile access
Great organization features such as tags, folders, and filters
Free plan available
Cost-efficient
Integrates with Pocket, Evernote, OneNote, Google Drive, Dropbox, Instapaper, and Readwise
User-friendly
Cons:
Lacks analytics features
No real-time alerts
In-depth social listening is not available
Tested by: Media Monitoring Specialist, Aaron Maisler
“When it comes to monitoring platforms, I have a few favorites that I rely on for different purposes. For RSS feeds, Inoreader stands out due to its ability to aggregate articles from many sources in real time, helping me stay updated on a large number of topics. It offers useful tools to organize and manage content efficiently, such as saving articles to custom tags or aggregating groups of feeds into folders. Additionally, I can create custom feeds for almost any keyword, making it highly versatile. RSS.app complements this by allowing me to create custom RSS feeds directly from websites that may not offer them, further streamlining my monitoring process.”
Tested by: Slice Author and Social Media Coordinator, Jade Martin
“I’m pretty fond of Inoreader and have been playing around with it for a few months now. One feature in particular I enjoy is the ability to change your article layout view; my favorite is the magazine view. The ability to create multiple different tags and feeds helps me and my team stay organized with how many varying keyword alerts we have set.”
Tested by: Senior Project Manager, Renee Tate
"Inoreader is an excellent tool to keep track of multiple keywords and topics. I especially love its ability to bypass most publication paywalls. This allows you to determine if an article is relevant to what you are monitoring. I rely on this feature often and appreciate that I can even add URLs from manual searches to the platform. It will display the article and track it within the topic folders you create, making it super easy to have everything in one place."
Sprout Social
Sprout Social is a comprehensive social media management tool with powerful media monitoring capabilities. It allows you to track brand mentions, monitor industry trends, and analyze competitor activities across multiple social platforms. With robust analytics, real-time insights, and team collaboration features, using Sprout can help you enhance your social media strategy and engage more effectively with your audience.
Plans include Standard, Professional, and Advanced, ranging from $249 - $499/month. An Enterprise custom-built plan is also available by request.
Sprout might be “too much, too fast” for smaller brands, but if you have a bigger team, it’s worth considering.
TGL’s “best use” recommendation:
For teams with complex management needs, such as social listening for tracking public brand sentiment, and highly specific reporting capabilities
Pros:
Web and mobile access
Advanced analytics
Team user collaboration tools, such as messaging and case assignments
Can monitor multiple social platforms at once
Customizable reports
Cons:
Cost
Complexity causes a learning curve
Tested by: Slice Author and Social Media Coordinator, Jade Martin
“In my experience, Sprout can be a bit difficult to use at first, but once you get the hang of it, it’s so worth it. You’re able to connect a bunch of different platforms to monitor such as X (Twitter), Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and more. My favorite feature on Sprout is how specific you can get the filters to be. This is especially important when you have multiple platforms linked to your account. With this, being able to see only new followers from one platform is super easy.”
Tested by: Boss Lady, Katie Stanton
“Sprout remains one of our favorite tools to recommend for clients to manage their social media platforms efficiently, especially if multiple people on their team will be managing channels at the same time. Their Support team has always been responsive and helpful, and, while certain add-ons like the Listening tool are expensive, if you have the budget and the time to learn the ins and outs Sprout can be one of the most useful tools in your comms arsenal. Don't forget to ask for non-profit pricing!”
Author’s Note:
While many media monitoring tools like Meltwater or Cision have some social listening features built in, we’ll be honest: We’ve never seen one tool do both types of monitoring well. This is why the TGL team left these two powerhouse platforms off our list. We typically find that using a combination of tools, rather than relying on one tool, is the most reliable way to perform the most comprehensive monitoring possible.
And there you have it! TGL’s favorite trustworthy media monitoring and social listening tools. If you have any suggestions on which tools, resources, or solutions you’d like us to cover next, we’re all ears! Drop a comment below or get in touch with us by emailing hello@thegoodlemon.com.
Stay tuned for the next installment TGL Tested: Our Takes on Project Management Tools. Don’t forget to sign up for our blog updates, and be the first to get it straight to your inbox!