In today’s digital landscape, social media plays a vital role in business. It has made mass communication faster and more accessible. But at the same time, it’s important to know that social media can be a double-edged sword. A good review can quickly go viral. But on the flip side, a negative comment can spiral out of control, potentially damaging a business's reputation in no time.
This is where the social listening tools come in. Social listening tools can help businesses tap into online conversations, track brand mentions, and analyze audience sentiment. Whether you’re a small startup or a large corporation, the right social listening tool can enhance your brand’s reputation, track performance, and uncover valuable insights.
What Is a Social Listening Tool?
A social listening tool monitors and analyzes online conversations happening around specific keywords, brands, products, or industries. These tools collect data from social media platforms, forums, blogs, and news sites, providing businesses with insights into how their brand is perceived. By using social listening tools, businesses will be able to track mentions of their brand, understand customers better, and gain competitive insights.
How Can Social Listening Tools Help Businesses?
Social listening tools are more than just trackers–they provide actionable insights that can shape a brand’s strategy. Here’s how these tools can benefit businesses!
- Help businesses gain a clearer understanding of how their brand is perceived
- Keep an eye on competitors’ performance and customer feedback
- Essential for crisis management to help companies detect and respond to negative feedback
- Fosters stronger customer relationships by allowing brands to engage directly with audience
- Track how marketing campaigns perform in real-time
The 12 Best Social Listening Tools of 2025
Sprout Social
Key Features
- Monitor keywords and hashtags
- Perform sentiment analysis
- Measure share of voice
- Conduct competitor analysis
Sprout Social is a social media management platform that also excels in social listening. It aggregates brand mentions across major platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, and YouTube.
Pricing: Starts at $199/month
Best For: Small to medium-sized businesses and agencies looking for all-in-one management and social listening
Awario
Key Features
- Real-time monitoring
- Sentiment analysis
- White-label reports
Awario is a budget-friendly monitoring tool, ideal for tracking social media mentions—such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Forums, and Reddit. By using Awario, businesses will be able to increase brand awareness, find sales opportunities, engage with customers, and find the right influencer for their brand.
Pricing: Starts at $75/month
Best For: Small businesses and freelancers
Keyhole
Key Features
- Track keywords and hashtags
- Perform sentiment analysis
- Conduct brand comparisons
- Receive real-time notifications
Keyhole provides social listening and analytics. It tracks brand mentions, hashtags, and account performance across platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and TikTok—this will help in making business decisions. By using Keyhole, you can also track hashtag performance–which will be very useful for measuring campaign success.
Pricing: Contact for price
Best For: Brands running hashtag campaigns or tracking multiple platforms
Talkwalker
Key Features
- Analyze consumer sentiment
- Track campaigns
- Discover trending topics
- Conduct competitor benchmarking
Talkwalker offers in-depth social intelligence and real-time monitoring across social media, blogs, forums, and news sites. Beyond real-time tracking, one of its standout features is access to up to five years of historical data. This allows brands to uncover influencers, relevant topics, and content ideas aligned with their goals while effectively measuring the performance of marketing campaigns.
Pricing: Starts at $9.6K/year
Best For: Large enterprises needing comprehensive historical and real-time data
Digimind
Key Features
- Monitor customer experiences
- Conduct competitor analysis
- Find influencers
Digimind is a powerful tool for tracking consumer behavior and market trends. Digiminds utilize key demographic data insight, which helps businesses to know their audience better, and even helps to find relevant influencers.
Pricing: Price upon request
Best For: Comprehensive data tracking and audience analysis
YouScan
Key Features
- Global tracking of brand mentions
- AI-driven image and video analysis
- Track 500 million daily data points
YouScan is a top-tier social listening platform that tracks both written and visual data. It goes beyond analyzing consumer opinions by identifying which elements resonate with audiences and highlighting areas that need improvement.
Pricing: Starts at $299/year
Best For: Visual brand monitoring and sentiment analysis
Google Analytics
Key Features
- Identify trends and patterns
- Access comprehensive analytics
- Seamlessly integrate with Google Suite
Google Analytics tracks website performance and provides social listening through brand mentions online. Its machine-learning capabilities enable businesses to monitor website performance and link brand visibility to overall business outcomes.
Pricing: Free
Best For: Website performance and basic social listening
Hootsuite
Key Features
- Monitor brand mentions and hashtags
- Perform sentiment analysis
- Manage multiple social media platforms
Hootsuite is a popular choice for social media managers, marketers, and teams of all sizes. Its social listening features, "Streams" and "Insights," allow users to track keywords, hashtags, and brand mentions across platforms like Reddit, Google My Business, and review sites. Apart from social listening, it’s highly rated for its scheduling features and ability to manage multiple accounts seamlessly.
Pricing: Starts at $99/month
Best For: Social media teams needing both management and listening tools
Brand24
Key Features
- AI-driven mention tracking
- Monitor engagement and reach
- Generate detailed reports
Brand24 stands out as a powerful yet cost-effective AI-driven social listening tool. It tracks mentions across major platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter, Telegram, Twitch, Reddit, and Quora, in addition to blogs, news outlets, forums, podcasts, and newsletters. Its real-time notification system ensures users are alerted via in-app messages, emails, or Slack whenever new mentions appear.
Pricing: Starts at $79
Best For: Small businesses and agencies needing affordable social listening
Brandwatch
Key Features
- Geolocation tracking
- Image recognition
- API access and demographic data
Brandwatch is an enterprise-level tool providing deep insights into brand performance, competitor analysis, and market trends. Brandwatch provides extensive coverage of platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitch, as well as blogs, forums, and news sites.
Pricing: Starts at $1000/month
Best For: Enterprises requiring extensive data visualization
Meltwater
Key Features
- Sentiment analysis
- Media monitoring
- Influencer identification
Meltwater delivers sophisticated media monitoring and analysis across social platforms, forums, online publications, podcasts, and review sites. Its AI-powered platform tracks brand mentions, analyzes sentiment, spots trends, and extracts insights from social conversations. This makes it an invaluable tool for marketers, PR teams, and social media professionals seeking a deeper understanding of the market and audience engagement.
Pricing: Contact for price
Best For: PR and media monitoring
Mention
Key Features
- Real-time alerts
- Competitive analysis
- Team collaboration tools
Mention can help business monitor their brand mentions and audience conversations across social media and news sites. Mention is more on the budget-friendly side, so it’s very great for small businesses looking to better understand their audience without requiring a larger budget.
Pricing: Starts at $49/month
Best For: Startups and small businesses
How to Choose the Right Social Listening Tool
Choosing the right social listening tool is a crucial decision that can significantly impact a business’s ability to thrive in the digital landscape. The tool you choose will shape how well you can track, analyze, and respond to what people are saying about your brand.
Some of the things you should consider before choosing social listening tools are as follows:
- Choose a tool that fits within your budget while offering the necessary features
- Prioritize tools that provide key features your business need
- Ensure the tool monitors all relevant platforms for your industry
- Tool that uses a user-friendly interface
Investing time in selecting the right social listening tool ensures you not only protect your brand’s reputation but also position your business for long-term growth and stronger customer connections.
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