Analytics Reporting Tools

Reporting tools exist within the field of social media analytics. These refer to specialized pieces of software, platforms, or features whose purpose is to execute the collection, processing, and presentation of data around the performance of social media accounts, campaigns, and activities. Tools in this category do all of the above with not just one social media platform but with many—indeed, simultaneously in some cases.

The reason these tools tend to be specialized has to do with the nature of the raw data at hand (which is big and varies widely even when it doesn’t seem to) and the key performance indicators (KPIs), which guide the effectiveness of the content and strategies in play. These reporting tools also have the appearance of specialized dashboards or visualizations, which is anything but simple as the next section will show. Indeed, a good reporting tool allows a user to not just see a series of up and down arrows, performance trends, and KPIs; it should also allow the user to at least attempt to interpret the significance of what is 'presented' to them.