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Pattern research,
in the open

AI marketing strategy, how teams actually use buzzabout, and behind-the-scenes notes from the build.

22 Oct 2026 comparison 14 min read

The 7 Best Audiense Alternatives in 2026, Compared

The 7 best Audiense alternatives in 2026, compared: what each tool knows about an audience, what it costs, and which one tells you what to say back.

22 Oct 2026 comparison 15 min read

The 7 Best Awario Alternatives in 2026, Compared by Job

The 7 best Awario alternatives in 2026, compared by job: why teams leave over noise and coverage, where research fits, and which alert tools cost less.

22 Oct 2026 comparison 17 min read

The 7 Best BuzzSumo Alternatives in 2026, Compared

Seven BuzzSumo alternatives for 2026, priced and sourced. Share counts show what already worked; here is where content teams find the next angle.

22 Oct 2026 comparison 18 min read

The 7 Best Exploding Topics Alternatives in 2026, Compared

Seven Exploding Topics alternatives, priced and sourced. A trend list shows what is rising; buzzabout shows why, and what your brand should say about it.

22 Oct 2026 comparison 18 min read

The 8 Best Foreplay Alternatives in 2026, Compared

The 8 best Foreplay alternatives in 2026, priced and routed by job: ad libraries, swipe files, ad-account analytics, and research that starts from buyers.

22 Oct 2026 comparison 14 min read

The 7 Best GummySearch Alternatives Before the 2026 Shutdown

GummySearch shuts down on December 1, 2026. Seven GummySearch alternatives, the questions to ask any Reddit data vendor, and what to export first.

22 Oct 2026 research 16 min read

LinkedIn Social Listening: A B2B Research Guide for 2026

LinkedIn social listening for B2B: what posts reveal, what they hide, and how to pair LinkedIn with Reddit and forums to build an honest buyer brief.

22 Oct 2026 research 16 min read

Reddit Social Listening: A Research Guide for 2026

Reddit social listening done as research: find the subreddits, read the replies, extract pains and buyer language, profile who talks. Plus the 2026 tools.

22 Oct 2026 comparison 15 min read

The 8 Best Sprinklr Alternatives in 2026, Compared

The 8 best Sprinklr alternatives in 2026: research tools if you bought it for insight, care platforms if it ran your inbox, with sourced pricing.

22 Oct 2026 comparison 15 min read

The 8 Best Talkwalker Alternatives in 2026, Compared

The 8 best Talkwalker alternatives in 2026: Vendr contract data, who sells video and image analysis self-serve, and when to keep Hootsuite Enterprise.

22 Oct 2026 research 16 min read

TikTok Social Listening: A Research Guide for 2026

TikTok social listening done as creative research: read the speech, on-screen text and comments, pull out hooks and objections, and write the creator brief.

4 Aug 2026 research 12 min read

AI UGC Ads: Production Is Free Now. The Angle Is Not.

We read 500 posts and 3,500 comments about AI UGC. Exactly one cluster in each room is about what the ad should say: 1 in 8 posts on Reddit, 1 in 17 on LinkedIn. Everything else is avatars, tooling and cost.

31 Jul 2026 research 17 min read

Mastering Audience Research With AI: A Step-by-Step Guide

A practical two-pass method for audience research with AI: read the content your market rewards to find your angle, then profile the people behind that engagement on the Big Five to find the register they trust. Ends in copy you can ship.

23 Jul 2026 research 27 min read

Average Instagram Engagement Rate: Benchmarks From 245,559 Measured Posts

The average Instagram engagement rate across the 245,559 posts where a view count is published is 3.52%, the median 2.41%. Full percentiles, breakdowns by intention, call to action, hook and niche, and why no published image benchmark is a measurement.

23 Jul 2026 research 21 min read

Average TikTok Engagement Rate: Benchmarks From 460,483 Posts

The average TikTok engagement rate across 460,483 posts we measured is 5.38%, the median 3.95%. Full percentiles, breakdowns by intention, hook and length, and the one variable that actually explains a post.

22 Jul 2026 comparison 10 min read

The 8 Best Brand24 Alternatives in 2026, Compared

The 8 best Brand24 alternatives in 2026: normalized pricing, what each tool really does, and why social media research is replacing keyword tracking.

22 Jul 2026 comparison 11 min read

The 7 Best Brandwatch Alternatives in 2026, Compared

The 7 best Brandwatch alternatives in 2026: real contract prices, metered-query limits, and self-serve research that answers on demand.

22 Jul 2026 research 18 min read

Google Trends Alternatives: They All Count the Wrong Thing

Fourteen of the 22 tools recommended as Google Trends alternatives measure the same thing: search demand. But search is where a trend ends up, not where it starts. Here is how to read a trend at its source.

22 Jul 2026 comparison 11 min read

The 8 Best Hootsuite Alternatives in 2026, Compared

The 8 best Hootsuite alternatives in 2026: schedulers if you post, research tools if you need insight, with sourced pricing.

22 Jul 2026 comparison 9 min read

The 7 Best Meltwater Alternatives in 2026, Compared

The 7 best Meltwater alternatives in 2026: real contract numbers, what each tool is actually built for, and the self-serve research option.

22 Jul 2026 research 17 min read

Reddit Marketing, Done Without Wrecking the Place

Two legitimate routes into Reddit marketing, buy the ads or earn the comment, measured against 1,560 Reddit posts and 21 first-party ad campaigns. Plus why automated posting spends down the channel.

22 Jul 2026 comparison 13 min read

The 9 Best Sprout Social Alternatives in 2026, Compared

The 9 best Sprout Social alternatives in 2026: seat prices, the $3,000/mo Listening add-on, and where audience research beats both.

21 Jul 2026 research 8 min read

Is Marketing a Good Career? 1,100+ Reddit Mentions Say Yes

A year of r/marketing career talk, 1,100+ mentions analyzed with buzzabout, plus ten years of our own work. Short answer: yes. The long answer is about attention, precision, and AI.

21 Jul 2026 research 5 min read

We Mapped Every Argument in r/marketing. There Was One.

A year of r/marketing, 1,105+ mentions mapped for genuine controversy. Five candidate debates, one real fight: whether marketing automation survives contact with production.

20 Jul 2026 research 11 min read

The Best Time to Post on TikTok and Instagram, in Views

Nearly 1M posts, measured in views: TikTok peaks 16:00 to 21:00 UTC (+77% median views), Instagram mid-afternoon (2x) and Sundays.

20 Jul 2026 research 13 min read

Is Direct Mail Dead? We Analyzed 287 Posts to Find Out

287 LinkedIn and Reddit posts on direct mail, classified by stance and by who profits from the answer. The practitioners with nothing to sell lean 10 to 1 that it works.

2 Apr 2026 case-study 5 min read

How Dog Accessories Brand Got 139% Increase In Their Revenue

How dog accessories brand turned their business into a money-making machine.