Social Media Aggregator – What it Is & Why You Need It
Table of Contents
- What Is a Social Media Aggregator?
- How to Use a Social Media RSS Aggregator
- Features to Look For in a Social Media Aggregator
- Benefits of Social Media Aggregators for Your Website
- It Saves Time
- It’s Cost-Effective
- It Works as Social Proof
- It Increases Engagement
- It Helps You Stand Out from Competitors
- It Makes Everything More Organized
- It Gives You Valuable Insights
- Examples of Brands Who Use Social Media Aggregators
- Retail: VOX
- Education: Harvard University
- Key Takeaways
Your customers are already scrolling Instagram, TikTok, or wherever they are, sharing what they love and talking about the brands that they buy from. But did you know that you can bring that content straight over to your website, turning UGC into a tool for connection and sales?
A social media aggregator can be that missing keystone in your strategy – if used correctly.
What this kind of tool does is pull real, positive posts about your business into one spot, which makes it much easier to connect with your audience and drive sales.
But we get it – the term sounds serious and maybe a little intimidating, so we put together this article to tell you all about it. We’ll also share examples and tips to get you started!
Ready to see how it works? Let’s jump right into it.
What Is a Social Media Aggregator?
If you’re managing multiple social media accounts for your brand, you know how hard it can sometimes be to keep track of engagement across all the different platforms you use. It’s even harder to figure out what to do with that engagement to improve your online strategy.
This is exactly the problem a social feed aggregator can solve.
A social media feed aggregator collects posts from platforms – both by your brand and by your customers – and brings them together in one place.
It organizes content by tracking hashtags, brand tags, and mentions to create one central stream of posts that you can use for your website, emails, product pages, and all the other marketing channels your strategy relies on.
This process isn’t just about saving time (though it definitely does that); it’s about adding value. By using real customer stories and photos, you can build credibility and trust, which you already know is one of the biggest benefits of UGC.
Potential buyers are more likely to engage with your brand when they see others using your products & services in real life than if they were to just see an ad.
For example, if you’re running an eCommerce store on platforms like Shopify, Adobe (which you might know as Magneto), or WooCommerce, a social media aggregator can integrate UGC into your site. Think product pages featuring real-life customer photos rather than just polished, professionally-done images.
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1771/9077/files/2.Frank_Body_Shopify_Plus_store_2048x2048.gif?v=1704773744 source: https://thehopefactory.com/blogs/ecommerce-insights/16-shopify-plus-stores-in-australia https://www.frankbody.com/au/
How to Use a Social Media RSS Aggregator
Gathering content from social media is one thing, but using it creatively to fit your brand’s aesthetic, engage your audience, and actually improve your ROI is another.
That’s where a good social media aggregator comes in – it doesn’t just help you collect content; it also makes it easier to put that content to work in meaningful ways.
The capabilities vary depending on the social aggregator tool you choose, but if your brand relies heavily on digital commerce, investing in an advanced solution might be your best option.
Here are just a few ways these tools can help:
- Unified feeds – they combine content from different social platforms into a single stream,
- Real-time updates – they pull in new content automatically as it’s posted, so you’re always showing the latest and greatest,
- Customizable displays – they match the look of your aggregated feed to your brand’s style in order to make your aesthetic more cohesive,
- UGC curation – they highlight photos, testimonials, and posts from happy customers, building trust and social proof,
- Hashtag campaigns – they collect content from specific hashtags you choose to create a central overview for events or promotions,
- Data-driven decisions – they gather analytics from your aggregated content, which you can use to make your strategy better,
- Influencer content – they feature posts from influencers or brand advocates to boost your reach,
- Brand monitoring – they help you stay on top of mentions and discussions about your brand so you can respond quickly to feedback and comments,
- Interactive displays – they create real-time social media walls for events or websites.
Here’s one example of what this might look like, taken from the HubSpot-recommended tool, Embed:
https://knowledge.hubspot.com/hubfs/social-media-aggregators-4-20240912-567368.webp Source: https://embedsocial.com/ https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/social-media-aggregators
Features to Look For in a Social Media Aggregator
When you go out looking for a social media aggregator, you’ll find that there are a lot of options and that they differ in terms of the features they offer.
Of course, you’ll want to focus on tools that align with your brand’s goals, but some features are just must-haves.
Here’s what we mean by that:
- Multi-platform support – the ability to pull content from as many platforms as possible or at least all the ones you use,
- Cross-site functionality – the ability to manage content for multiple websites with one account,
- Automated updates – like a self-refreshing Instagram feed,
- UGC collection – which will help you gather posts where users tag your brand or use your hashtags,
- Shoppable content – the ability to connect user posts directly to your product catalog, which is especially important for eCommerce brands,
- Content moderation – so you can filter out anything that doesn’t meet your standards,
- Analytics – real-time data insights to measure content performance and ROI.
Benefits of Social Media Aggregators for Your Website
So far, we’ve talked a lot about what this kind of tool can do and what its features usually are. Now that we’ve gone over the basics let’s take a look at the benefits it offers and the way it can help you and your brand.
It Saves Time
You won’t need to manually upload social media content to your site anymore.
Aggregators automate the process, which means that your website gets automatically updated with fresh posts, and your time is free to focus on other priorities.
It’s Cost-Effective
Manually managing social media content takes resources – and a considerable amount at that.
Aggregators streamline these tasks, saving you money and letting you reallocate your budget to other areas.
It Works as Social Proof
You already know how user-generated content builds trust – seeing real customers enjoying your products reassures potential buyers that they’re making the right choice. Aggregators make it simple to put these posts in front of them.
It Increases Engagement
Sharing your audience’s content also works to strengthen community ties.
When customers see their posts featured, they feel valued, which encourages more interaction and loyalty. Besides, who doesn’t love a good shout-out from their fav brand?
It Helps You Stand Out from Competitors
If you’re running a business in a competitive industry, you know how important differentiation is.
An aggregator can help with that by making sure your website & social feeds stand out – both by making sure everything is visually cohesive and by putting authentic content in the spotlight.
It Makes Everything More Organized
Like we already mentioned, advanced aggregators act as hubs for all your social content, from hashtag campaigns to event-related posts.
This keeps everything organized and easy to display, contributing yet again to that cohesion but also making it easier for you to stay on top.
It Gives You Valuable Insights
Aggregators with analytics let you see what works and what doesn’t. They have various capabilities, from tracking engagement to spotting trends, but make sure to look into which metrics exactly a tool tracks before committing to it.
Examples of Brands Who Use Social Media Aggregators
Some of the most successful brands today are using social media aggregators to connect with their audiences in different ways, depending on their industries.
For example, fashion companies often use UGC to show how their products look in real life, on different body types, and styled by actual customers.
Another example would be hospitality brands, which, on the other hand, might feature customer reviews, travel photos, and testimonials on their websites.
This all works to boost trust – like we said, customers trust their peers over brands. Let’s take a look at a few more examples.
Retail: VOX
VOX, a Poland-based furniture and home styling brand, discovered that their customers loved sharing how they styled their homes using their products.
They saw this as an opportunity to build on this engagement, and so the brand started using a social media aggregator to collect high-quality UGC.
This UGC was integrated into their eCommerce store, showing real-life reviews through images of their furniture in customers’ homes.
This strategy, naturally, made their website more engaging, but it also increased their conversion rate by 19%!
By encouraging customers to share their own styles, VOX collected thousands of images, which meant they had a steady stream of authentic content to tap into whenever they needed it.
https://getflowbox.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/screen_shot_2020_01__NA5VG.jpg Source: https://getflowbox.com/blog/social-media-aggregator/
Education: Harvard University
Harvard University, which you may have heard about for being one of the most prestigious institutions in the world, also uses a social media aggregator.
They use it to show curated content across their websites, campus screens, and event displays, which only goes to show just how versatile this kind of tool can be.
Their social media aggregator let Harvard design branded walls, grids, carousels, and slideshows that fit the university’s look and feel.
This also comes in super handy for events like welcome days and graduations – hashtag feeds encourage students and families to share their experiences, generating authentic UGC.
Another use is on course pages that use topic-specific feeds to highlight relevant discussions and on sports events, where fan-made content gets shared live during games.
https://fl-1.cdn.flockler.com/thumbs/sites/251/flockler-social-wall-case-study-harvard-university-1f49483e-7f0d-4104-9c3d-5df122a835c2_s1440x0_q85_noupscale.jpg source: https://flockler.com/case-studies/harvard-university
Key Takeaways
- Social media aggregators collect and organize user-generated content (UGC) from various platforms, both from your brand and from your customers,
- These tools help you manage content across multiple platforms while working to boost engagement and sales,
- When choosing an aggregator, look for must-have features like multi-platform support, automated updates, content moderation, UGC collection, and customization options to fit your branding,
- Aggregators save time by automating the process of collecting content, reduce costs, and provide social proof, which helps build & strengthen community,
- By showing authentic content, aggregators also help your brand stand out from competitors,
- These tools make content more organized, helping you centralize hashtag campaigns and event-related posts,
- Aggregators also provide valuable insights through analytics so you can track performance and adjust your strategy.
About Dan Ragan
Founder of UGC Factory and expert in user-generated content marketing strategies
