Social Animal vs. BuzzSumo Review — Which Content Research Tool Is Superior?

Content marketing can be hard if you don’t know what kind of content works. This is why people often use content marketing research tools such as BuzzSumo and Social animal. At first sight, they both look the same but they have a lot of differences. In this comprehensive Social Animal vs. BuzzSumo review, we’re going to look at what makes both special.

So if you’re wondering…

  • What Social Animal and BuzzSumo have to offer
  • What makes both content marketing research tools special
  • Which of them will give you a higher chance to succeed

Good news!

In this comparison review I’ll show you:

  • What both content marketing research tools are all about
  • What the pros and cons of both BuzzSumo and Social Animal are.
  • Who can benefit from both content research tools
  • A comparison between the tool and features of BuzzSumo and Social Animal
  • A comparison between the support both content research tools provide
  • A comparison of the price of both content research tools
  • which one I perceive as the better content research tool

RealDigitalSuccess.com presents the…

Social Animal vs. BuzzSumo Review

Content research tool 1
Name: Buzzsumo
Website: www.buzzsumo.com
Founders/Owners: James Blackwell, Henley Wing
Price: Free Trial, $99/ month – $499/ month
Overall ranking: 8/10


Content research tool 2
Name: Social Animal
Website: www.socialanimal.com
Founders/Owners: Naren
Price: $41 — $499
Overall ranking: 8.5/10

BuzzSumo/ Social Animal, product overview

Both Social Animal and BuzzSumo are content research tools that can be used to optimize your content marketing campaign strategies through the information they provide you with. Find out what content already works on the internet and adjust your own methods to get the same kind of success.


The Good & The Bad

The good

BuzzSumo
Pro #1 Find out what content is relevant

BuzzSumo analyzes content all over the internet to see why it works. The moment you know the key elements to make content relevant you can incorporate it into your own content and improve your content marketing strategy.
Pro #2 Find who is sharing what content

By finding out who is sharing content in your niche you can increase the chances of your content being shared by targeting those people. This way you can expand your content’s reach in an effective way.
Pro #3 Mentions

Set up mentions and find out when anyone online is talking about a specific topic you’re interested in.

Social Animal
Pro #1 It’s a very simple tool

The tool is very simple. No huge manual needed to start your research.
Pro #2 Social Animal does it for you

Social Animal doesn’t only gather the information it can also draw a conclusion about what makes the content work so that you don’t have to do that yourself.
Pro #3 Social Account integration

It’s possible to connect your Facebook page to Social Animal to view your own performance.

The bad

BuzzSumo
Con #1 It’s expensive

Their plans aren’t geared to people on a budget.

Social Animal
Can’t find a con


Who is BuzzSumo and Social Animal for?

Both BuzzSumo and Social Animal are geared towards the same audience
You can benefit from these tools if you’re:

  • Freelance content marketers
  • Digital marketing agencies
  • Solopreneurs
  • Small Business owners
  • Graphic designers
  • Bloggers
  • YouTubers
  • interested in creating engaging quality content.

Tools & Training

BuzzSumo

Content Reseach Tools
The content research area has 4 different options you can use.

  • Content Analyzer
    Gather data about specific content ( likes, shares, and more)
  • Question Analyzer
    Scans the internet for specific question and answers
  • Trending Now!
    Find out what’s trending
  • Backlinks
    Track origins of backlinks

Influencer research
Look for influencers and the top authors in specific niches by using keywords. Search for:

  • Influencers
  • Top Authors

Monitoring Tools
Monitor events on the internet and get notified when there’s a mention. Look out for:

  • Brand mentions
  • Competitor mentions
  • Content from a Website
  • Keyword mentions
  • Backlinks
  • An author

Other features

  • Content analysis reports 
  • Domain comparison reports
  • Old content data research


Social Animal

Articles 
look up articles regarding your niche of interest and how it’s performing on social media platforms such as:

  •  Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Reddit

Insight
Use insight to go through the data found and find out:

  • What’s the best platform to post on
  • What’s the best day to post
  • The best length for the title of posts

Influencers
Find influencers in your niche and see who your competitors are and who you’d like to work with.

Facebook search
Get the most out of the content marketing on your facebook page.

  • Explore posts
    Explore posts makes it possible to maximize your engagement on Facebook by analyzing which posts perform the best.
  • Analyze posts
    Analyze post will show you the data that’s been assembled and the conclusions Social Animal came up with.
  • Top pages
    Find out which Facebook pages are performing the best.


BuzzSumo vs. Social Animal Support

BuzzSumo

  • Knowledgebase
    Database full articles to help you
  • Academy
    Free courses consisting of 52 lessons to train you
  • Webinars
    Webinars that’ll show you what you need to know about BuzzSumo
  • Blog
    Blog posts with tips to improve your content marketing

Social Animal

  • Blog
    Blog posts about creating content marketing strategies
  • Live Chat
    Chat with the social animal support team if you have a problem.
  • email
    Send an email to the social animal support team and they’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

BuzzSumo vs. Social Animal Pricing

BuzzSumo

Prices for every plan monthly:

  • $99/ month, Pro plan
  • $179/ month, Plus plan
  • $299/ month, Large plan
  • $499+/ month, Enterprise plan

Prices for every plan yearly:

  • $79/ month, Pro Plan
  • $139/ month, Plus Plan
  • $239/ month Large Plan
  • $499+/ month,  Enterprise Plan

Social Animal

Prices for every plan monthly:

  • $49/ month, Blogger
  • $199/ month, Agency
  • $499/ month, Enterprise

Prices for every plan yearly:

  • $41/ month, Blogger
  • $166/ month, Agency
  • $416/ month, Enterprise

Key differences between Social Animal and BuzzSumo

Honestly, at first sight aside from naming functions different they looked exactly the same but there are definitely a few differences.

  • Social Animal is cheaper
  • While BuzzSumo mostly looks for keywords in headings Social Animal also looks for the keywords n the body of the text.
  • With Social Animal you can find the top domains making content for your keywords
  • and more.

It’s clear when looking at the interface of Social Animal that they looking at what BuzzSumo has done well and try to improve that.

The only thing where I think BuzzSumo has an upper hand is that it’s older so it’s more of a proven commodity but if I personally had to choose one right now I would go with Social Animal.


Verdict

The jury of Real Digital Success finds Social Animal the superior content research tool.

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About Rogier

I’m an Affiliate Marketing and SEO veteran, Blogger, and Pinterest Marketer based in The Netherlands. On this website, I share my learnings about online entrepreneurship, and digital resources while enjoying life to the fullest.

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