Social Media Aggregation
Social media aggregation software is a great way to consume social content generated by your business and the public. Here we talk about the service Juicer and how you can use it on your site and compare it to a number of other popular services.
What Are Social Media Aggregators?
Social media tools such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Tumblr and many others provide a great way to talk directly to your customers and are an essential part of any business marketing strategy. All these services combined are a rich source of content that can be used to engage your users in ways more than just on the service itself.
Using the content on your web site for example is a great place to promote customer activity but with so many services adding multiple widgets is not very practical, doesn't always provide a great look and can result in a sub-par user experience.
A number of services offer a free plan which can be a great place to start if you're on a very tight budget or would like a way to trial a service.
A great way to gather and consume the user generated content and content you create is to use a social media aggregator. This software can look at all your different accounts for content and creates feeds you can curate based on @ usernames and # hashtags.
I won’t go into more detail on why you should use a social media aggregator or how they are useful. Instead I'd like to talk about the option I use for Blue Sun Digital and how it can present your social content on a web site so you can see real-world examples of what this kind of tool does.
If you want to know some of the benefits of using a tool like this then this taggbox article can help you: Top 5 Benefits of using a Social Media Aggregator.
Many Services Available
A quick google search for "Social Media Aggregator" will show you there are many tools available in this space now. The services used to be quite expensive a few years ago but now there are some great entry level options.
If you'd like some help reviewing options or using social media aggregation software on your web site don't hesitate to Contact Us
The entry level of the market is especially busy and plans start from around US$30 a month to around US$500. The higher the price the more features you get. Critically, the more frequently you need your feed updated, the more the service costs. This rules seems to apply to many if not all of the options out there.
A number of services offer a free option which can be a great place to start if you're on a very tight budget as a great way of trialling a service. These free plans are limited in the number of services and hashtags you can look at and how frequent they update but can still provide useful service.
Essentially, if you don't need your feed to be up to date to within an hour then one of these more cost effective options provide a great solution.
Juicer
My current favourite service and the one I use here on Blue Sun Digital is Juicer - www.juicer.io.
I use the "Small" plan which is free and it's great. For this you can have 2 sources/hashtags which is fine for me as I only really use Twitter and Instagram and it's updated every 24 hours which again, works for me.
However, for just US$19 a month you can have 5 sources/hashtags and have your feed updated every hour which would be my recommendation. This plan also offers moderation and filtering tools so perfectly suitable for any small business.
Their most-feature rich plan at US$99 a month allows 15 sources/hashtags and updates every 10 minutes. It also allows 3 embeddable feeds. Compared to their competitors this offers great value for money.
Even with the free plan you can customise the look and feel of your feed to suit the content, your site and brand. The images at the end of this article give some examples of the different layouts you can choose for your feed.
Alternative Services
As mentioned, there are a large number of services available so here's a quick overview of a hand-full of other options including a mid and high level option.
These services offer similar features to Juicer at similar prices. Where entry level, I'm purely making that statement based on price, generally these services provide a product that is suitable for all but the largest companies or most complex requirements.
Curator
Offers a free account with limited but useful features. Other plans vary from US$10 to US$50 a month depending on the features and update frequency you need. Enterprise customers who require very frequent feed updates need to contact for pricing. https://curator.io
Flockla
The basic account starts at 99 Euros per month and goes up to 499 Euros per month with features. Their customers include: Expedia, Intel, Royal Mail. https://flockler.com
taggbox
With a free "Startup" plan and more advanced monthly plans for US$49-US$299 a month taggbox is another viable alternative. https://taggbox.com
Sprout Social
Plans from US$99 to $249 per month they offer a good value service, particularly at the lower end with a nice set of tools and a mobile app to help you manage your feeds/boards. https://sproutsocial.com
Tint Up (Mid-Level)
Starts around US$500 a month and a good option for medium sized businesses that require more advanced features but don't need the power (and cost) of Stackla. https://www.tintup.com
Stackla (High-End)
High-end solution with features and prices to match. Customers include: Disney, Sony, Toyota and MacDonald's. https://stackla.com
Juicer Feed Example: "Modern"
Juicer Feed Example: "Night"
Juicer Feed Example: "Polaroid"
