The Best Social Media Aggregators in 2023: The Ultimate Guide

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The Best Social Media Aggregators in 2023: The Ultimate Guide

A social media aggregator will help your brand pool the positive conversations about your brand into one place – so that you can use them to increase your online revenue and engagement. In this blogpost, we’re going to talk all about how you can use a social media aggregator to take the social influence that your customers are sharing and use it to increase your online revenue, and show you examples of aggregators in use.

Creating a presence online can be far more successful when you create an imaginative and interactive website for people to engage with your products and services with the use of a social media aggregator. This can help pique the customers’ interest far more than just the expected staged product or service shots.

Meanwhile, you’re well aware of the amount of time that customers spend on Instagram (the daily average is 29 minutes). This time is spent scrolling through the feeds of friends, influencers, celebrities, and – let’s not forget – brands to discover the latest trends that they can be influenced into following.

When the content is good, it’s great. In just a few taps, clicks or push of a button they can easily and directly engage in your community, whether that be by making a booking, buying a product, or simply leaving a review.

This kind of social media magic is not something of fairytales. Online customers like to feel that they’re finding a new, exciting trend that they too can show off to their networks of friends, family, admirers, and more. Call it social proof, social influence, or the power of User Generated Content.

And there’s more to this social power than just what exists on social platforms. It can also be used to improve the entire structure of your online presence. Take a look at our examples of fashion and apparel UGC to learn more about how they benefit from adopting this kind of marketing strategy.

Contents:

  1. What is a social media aggregator?
  2. The benefits of social media aggregators
  3. How can I use a social media aggregator to increase online engagement?
  4. What to look for in a social media aggregator
  5. Flowbox: Europe’s top social media aggregator
  6. How can I enhance my social media engagement further, specifically on Instagram?
  7. Examples of social media aggregators
  8. Why these companies chose Flowbox over other social media aggregators

What is a social media aggregator?

Are you managing multiple social media brand accounts? It quite quickly becomes exhausting to maintain a full understanding of the engagement you’re getting on each platform. Combine this with keeping track of how to further leverage that engagement within your online presence and it just becomes overwhelming.

With a social media aggregator, you have the ability to pool together all of the social content on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Then, you can bring it all to one place and various eCommerce platforms, like Shopify, Magento and WooCommerce to name but a few.

We don’t just mean the content that your brand is posting on corporate channels. We also mean the content that includes your products and services posted by satisfied customers and community members. This is an added benefit as it saves time creating original content, as you can simply re-post authentic content from the community.

A social media aggregator will find this content through hashtags, brand tags, and mentions. Then, it will bring it into a single stream of social gold that you can use to enhance other sides of your online presence.

Interested in boosting your email marketing with images of your customers engaging with the brand? What about enhancing product pages with real-life examples of customers using those specific products?

All of this can be done with a social media aggregator. We’re going to explain exactly how and why.

How do social media aggregators function? 

For social media management aggregators to operate, they need to be enabled by an application programming interface (API) provided by social networks. So, for an API to access the user’s actions from another platform, the user will have to permit the platform that conducts the social aggregation to pull the social content from that user account.

Social media aggregators for websites vs. personal use 

Although social media aggregators are predominantly used by businesses on websites, they can also be adapted for personal use. It’s worth noting that social media aggregators are versatile tools that enable individuals to efficiently manage their online presence by collecting and displaying content from various social media platforms in one centralised location. This can prove particularly advantageous for personal branding, as users can curate and showcase their diverse online activities, interests, and achievements, offering a comprehensive snapshot of their digital identity. These aggregators can empower users to stay updated on their social feeds without the need to constantly switch between different apps or websites, streamlining their online interactions and enhancing their overall digital experience.

The benefits of using social media aggregators on websites

Social media aggregators are essential to the success of your eCommerce brand. In this competitive field, implementing UGC in your marketing strategy is a no-brainer and will help you boost your sales as well as gain the trust of your customers. Here are some of the ways in which social media aggregators can help you:

Massive time saver 

One of the most significant advantages of using a social media aggregator is the massive time-saving it offers. The days of manually and tediously uploading social media content to your website are over. With a social media aggregator, this process is streamlined and facilitated. This not only frees up your valuable time but also ensures that your website is consistently updated with fresh and relevant social media content. You can focus on other important aspects of your business knowing that your online presence remains dynamic and engaging. 

Cost-Effective solution 

Managing social media content manually demands a substantial amount of manpower and resources. Tasks such as sourcing, curating, and uploading content can quickly become overwhelming and costly. Social media aggregators present a cost-effective solution by automating these tasks. The financial resources that would have otherwise been spent on labour-intensive content management can now be allocated to other business needs. This efficient allocation of resources makes opting for a social media aggregator a financially prudent choice for businesses of all sizes. 

User Generated Content and social proof

The power of User Generated content (UGC) cannot be understated in the realm of marketing. Customers seek authenticity and validation from real people when considering their purchasing decisions. User Generated Content serves as social proof, offering evidence that your products or services have satisfied customers. Social media aggregators enable you to showcase UGC prominently, harnessing the persuasive impact of peer recommendations. By featuring real-life experiences and testimonials, you enhance your brand’s credibility and encourage prospective customers to convert. 

Community engagement and brand validation 

Building a loyal and engaged customer community is a goal for every business. Social media aggregators play a pivotal role in achieving this objective. By consolidating your social media content and interactions, these platforms foster a sense of community. Customers feel valued when their content is shared or acknowledged, creating a positive feedback loop. This engagement not only validates your brand but also encourages ongoing participation. As your community grows stronger, your brand’s online presence becomes a hub of interaction, strengthening customer loyalty. 

Stand out from competition

 In the fiercely competitive landscape of online shopping, differentiation is key. Social media aggregators offer a unique advantage by helping your brand stand out from the crowd. By curating and presenting a diverse range of content from various sources, you create a multi-dimensional online identity. This identity captures attention, fosters curiosity, and sets your brand apart. The curated content showcases the breadth of your offerings, expertise, and customer experiences, establishing a compelling narrative that resonates with your target audience. 

Centralised content curation hub 

Advanced social media aggregators provide a centralised hub for content curation. This feature proves invaluable for brands aiming to gather and showcase User Generated Content, event-related posts, and hashtag campaigns. Instead of navigating multiple social media platforms to collect these assets, the aggregator brings everything together in one convenient location. This streamlined approach simplifies the curation process, ensures content consistency, and enhances content discoverability. As a result, your brand can create a comprehensive and cohesive content showcase that reflects the richness of your online presence.

Actionable insights for refinement beyond content curation

Social media aggregators that provide analytics offer a wealth of insights into customer behaviour and brand perception. These insights empower your business to refine its marketing approach. By analysing data on engagement patterns, sentiment, and interactions, you gain a deeper understanding of what resonates with your audience. This knowledge informs strategic decisions, enabling you to tailor your content, messaging, and campaigns for maximum impact. The ability to fine-tune your approach based on real-time feedback ultimately leads to enhanced interaction and a higher return on investment across various social media platforms.

What can social media aggregators be used for?

It’s one thing to collect the content from social media that customers and community members have posted. But doing something interesting with that content that’s attractive, matches the brand’s aesthetic, and will actually help you increase ROI is a whole different game.

But luckily a good social media content aggregator also covers this side of the job for you!

It’s worth noting that the capabilities of your social media aggregator will depend which one you’ve opted for. For brands that rely heavily on digital commerce it can be especially useful to adopt a more advanced aggregator, here are some of the things an advanced aggregator can be used for:

  1. Unified social media feeds: Combine multiple social media sources, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and more, into a single feed. This streamlines content consumption and provides a comprehensive view of your brand’s social presence.
  2. Real-time content updates: Receive automatic updates and notifications when new content is posted on your social media platforms, ensuring you stay up-to-date with the latest trends and interactions.
  3. Customisable displays: Tailor the appearance of your aggregated feed to match your brand’s aesthetics, including colours, fonts, and layout, to create a seamless integration with your website.
  4. User Generated Content curation: Curate and display UGC from your audience. Showcase customer reviews, testimonials, photos, and posts, enhancing social proof and building trust.
  5. Hashtag campaigns: Aggregate content related to specific hashtag campaigns, events, or promotions, creating a central hub for audience engagement and participation.
  6. Visual displays that up engagement: Showcase multimedia content like photos and videos alongside text-based posts, creating a visually appealing and engaging experience for visitors.
  7. Data-driven decisions: Utilise the insights gathered from aggregated data to make informed decisions about content strategy, audience targeting, and engagement tactics.
  8. Influencer collaboration: Identify and aggregate content from influencers or brand advocates, amplifying their endorsement and expanding your reach.
  9. Brand monitoring: Monitor mentions and discussions about your brand across various social media platforms, enabling you to respond promptly to customer feedback or concerns.
  10. Social media walls: Create interactive displays that showcase real-time social media content from various platforms in a visually engaging manner. These walls can be used at events, conferences, and on websites to foster engagement and amplify brand messaging.

What to look for in a social media aggregator: Features

The best social media aggregators out there should have a myriad of functionalities to help you reach your goals for your eCommerce brand. With so many different options and tools to choose from, here are some social media aggregator features to look out for to help you pick the right social media aggregator for you.

  • You should be able to pull content from many different social media platforms – the more the merrier
  • The ability to only use one account for several websites is a big plus
  • A self-updating Instagram feed is vital!
  • Collecting content from users that mention your brand or use your hashtags
  • The ability to make your UGC shoppable and connect it to your product catalogue
  • Customisation, ease of use and sleek design
  • The ability to moderate content
  • The ability to gather real-time analytics on content performance

Flowbox: Europe’s top social media aggregator

Flowbox is Europe’s leading social media aggregator. The Flowbox platform offers competitively priced, high-performance features, including the ones listed above, all backed up by exceptional customer support services. Amongst the many social media platforms, Flowbox supports:

  • Instagram
  • Facebook 
  • Youtube
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter 

Our extremely reliable UGC platform compiles User Generated Content with a clean design interface that makes it easy to select the best images and videos. With trolls being a potentially damaging problem nowadays, our moderation features also mean that you can ensure that only the content you approve will appear. Our widget also helps you to directly connect each image with a product or service from your catalogue to create stunning ‘shop the look’ galleries.

From there, you can easily design and adjust how you want the content to appear on your website with our Widget Editor. Once this is all set, your website visitors will find User Generated Content examples with all of the best content from social media.

Then, they can interact with the content directly.

horsefit shop UGC shoppable widget Flowbox

If, for example, a customer were to click on a product, they would be brought directly to the product page. Here, you can show them even more shoppable galleries that feature solely the product that they’re interested in purchasing.

And – even better – all of this information is tracked to give you detailed analytics about which content is helping you to convert and by how much.

This information can help you do even more online: you could create social ads using specifically the highest converting content, and reach customers more effectively with email marketing featuring UGC, and much more.

But the key to all this is an efficient social media aggregator.

How can I enhance my social media engagement further, specifically on Instagram? 

This is where Instagram Aggregators come into play! 

Put simply, an Instagram Aggregator is a tool that achieves the fastest audience engagement, interaction, and conversion. 

It works through pooling all mentioned and hashtagged User Generated Content from Instagram into one, easy-to-manage area. From there, easy to produce, cost-effective, and stylish engaging content is right at your fingertips. 

This content can be used pretty much anywhere, not just Instagram. It can be used on your website through customised widgets or even as Instagram walls at events or live streams. The possibilities are endless and include avenues like social media walls

Examples of social media aggregators

How are other companies using this strategy to increase their revenue stream? It sounds great. But does it really work in practice? We can guarantee that it does, and we’ll prove it to you with four examples of social media aggregators in use. These examples come from eCommerce brands across various industries that have already trusted Flowbox.

Furniture Brands: VOX

VOX is Poland’s leading furniture and home stylings brand. They realised that their customers were interested in interacting with their products on social media by posting how they create the ‘VOX Lifestyles’ in their own home.

The brand saw this as an opportunity to take this engagement further.

By using a social media aggregator to collect all of the high-quality content from social media to post into their eCommerce store, the brand was able to entice shoppers with images of their products being used in real life.

These ‘visual reviews’ helped them increase their conversion rate by 18.76%

Social Media Aggregator Assisted Content of Furniture in Homes

Read the full story of how this furniture brand prompted customers to create social content they encouraged their customer base to post over 4,000 images of their products on social media, including step-by-step instructions of how you can do the same. Alternatively you can check out our guide to online furniture brands that explores how they are embracing UGC.

Fashion and Apparel Brands: Benetton

With so many unique designs, Benetton found that their customers were often posting content that features their products online. In fact, Benetton collected 294K user generated images and videos, something that would have been tedious without a social media aggregator. They were interested in doing more with this engagement with a social media aggregator.

Flowbox’s analytics reports are very helpful in tracking progress and prove that customers are interacting with the social content embedded in your website.

Benetton UGC inspiration page Flowbox

By incorporating social media content into their online presence, Fashion and Apparel brands provide style inspiration to potential customers who are excited to see how people wear the products in the wild. And the extra boost of social proof is exactly what buyers need to convert.

Travel Brands: VVV Zuid Limburg

A leisure and tourism company that has been connecting the Dutch province of South Limburg with the world, VVV Zuid-Limburg wanted to show their customers more authentic pictures of the scenic places they could be visiting in order to help them book their trips.

They already had an international base of customers posting their travel photography on social media, but it was through a social media aggregator that they could finally leverage this content within their eCommerce strategy. Through linking the experience of real passengers with travel routes on their websites they not only provided stunning visual content on their website, but also improved their online shopping journey.

The credibility and social proof the User Generated Content provides for VVV Zuid Limburg has helped them increase their click through rate by 7.3%.  Read the full case-study here!

Zuid Limburg  UGC inspiration page Flowbox

Cosmetics Brands: Maquillalia

Maquillalia is a Spanish cosmetics retailer that provides the best make-up brands to their international base of clients.

They know well that cosmetics are personal and depend on skin-tone, hair type, and sensitivity. For that reason, Maquillalia wanted to provide customers with a better understanding of how their products work.

So they turned to a social media aggregator to collect content of customers displaying their testimonials of how the products work with their skin or hair. This activation increased their conversion rate by 11.20%.

Maquillalia UGC community page Flowbox

If your brand doesn’t fit into any of these three industries, we have other examples that may be more appealing to you. Go to our full case study page here to find a story that relates to your brand!

ARTICLE: Cosmetics UGC – How top cosmetics brands leverage UGC to improve eCommerce performance

Pretty cool, right? You too can achieve this within your website with your very own social media content aggregator. And why not Europe’s leading platform, Flowbox?

Why these companies chose Flowbox over other social media aggregators

Of course you have some options when it comes to picking your social media aggregator – but it’s important to consider a few points before you make your selection. You don’t want to slap an integration onto your site and then suffer from slow load times and bad customer experience.

Here are just a few of the reasons why these companies (and more!) choose Flowbox over competitors.

User-friendly integrations in minutes with the best load-times on the market

“We came up with a checklist of all the things we wanted from a UGC solution, then we did thorough research with five UGC providers – including demos with all of them. We ultimately chose Flowbox because it offered us everything we wanted for the best value.”

Iris Teunissen, Head of Influencer Marketing at Omoda

With Flowbox’s easy-to-use plugins for all major eCommerce platforms, a UGC integration featuring widgets with the latest and most modern aesthetics will take mere minutes to install. Then, the extensive visual widget editor changes the behaviour and design of your widgets without writing one line of code.

All of this with the fastest load time in the industry, as Flowbox widgets are specifically engineered for high-trafficked sites.

Renowned customer success

“Their customer support is one of the best I had the opportunity to work with. Every question was answered in no time and a lot of my suggestions were implemented into the software right away.”

Damian Miziolek, eCommerce Marketing Specialist at Vox

Don’t settle for anything less than a stellar, proactive customer success team whose goal is to ensure your growth with our platform. One-to-one training, guided on-boarding, regular strategy sessions, helpful content and extremely quick response times is what Flowbox is known for.

Winning pricing plans to fit your budget

“The platform is working super well. Any problems we had, I spoke with the Flowbox team and they helped us a lot to change everything that we wanted to change. It was a good choice, and we are super happy to be working with this kind of strategy, and in particular with Flowbox.”

Simão Figueiredo, eCommerce & UX Specialist at Salsa Jeans

Flowbox offers unlimited widgets with all of our plans so that any company can integrate UGC across their digital marketing channels. This means they don’t have to worry about paying per widget, per domain or per country and won’t be sacrificing the quality that comes with our enterprise features.

What do you think?

Now that you have a better idea of what a social media aggregator is, consider why you should embed an Instagram feed into your website and integrating social content into your online presence can help increase your sales.

And if you have any questions or want to see what it would look like for your brand, reach out to us to request a demo. We’d be happy to explain further how a social media aggregator can help your brand increase eCommerce conversions.