Grid℠ for Social Media Monitoring | Spring 2015

Viralheat is a platform for managing social media accounts and monitoring conversations throughout the social space. Users most enjoyed the ease associated with platform, both from an implementation and everyday-use points of view. Many users noted they had the tool up and running in no more than an hour or two and rated the ease of setup at 93% against a category average of 84%. With regard to ease of use, Viralheat topped the category with a rating of 99% - the average for social media monitoring products in this report was 85%.

Beyond this, users also indicated that the influencer identification feature benefited them greatly. This allowed them to target potential brand advocates and reach out to them if desired. A handful of reviewers also commented on the lead identification feature that provided them with warm leads based on phrases and keywords.

The downside of Viralheat that was touched upon by the vast majority of reviewers was the platform’s inability to customize reports. Many users recognized the benefits of the data provided through the platform, but wished they had the ability to segment and filter through it. As it is, many noted that this was only a minor flaw in an otherwise strong and easy-to-use tool.

Digimind Social is a product for monitoring, analyzing, and reporting on mentions and other social data from about the web. Users described it as a simple and easy-to-use platform with a clear and straightforward user interface. While Digimind has the power to pull in heaps of information, reviewers noted that the platform made it easy to narrow down the data through filters to locate the information that was most pertinent to them.

They also raved about the user-friendly interface, and commented on reports that were clear and visually appealing. Users were also able to add custom sources to the tool if they found important data was being missed.

Reviewers criticized the platform’s inability to pull in historical data and noted that the platform needed to run a couple of days before being able to provided useful information. Furthermore, as with many other tools in the social media monitoring space, users observed that the sentiment analysis functionality was not always accurate. Implementing Digimind also caused issues for some, though many reviewers mentioned that the support team was always available and quick to provide assistance, and was rated at 93%, 5 percentage points above the category average.

Mention is a cloud-based solution for social and web listening. The tool is also integrated with the social media management platform Buffer to allow users to publish and schedule responses when needed. In short-answer responses, users liked the tool’s alert features that notified them whenever their brand was mentioned. Mention also provides users with daily or weekly digest emails that give a comprehensive overview of what is being said. A handful of users noted that the digests were a nice alternative for those who do not want to receive constant, real-time alerts.

Reviewers also commented on Mention’s simplicity and ease of use. They noted that the platform was straightforward and easy to understand and use. With that said, reviewers mentioned that this simplicity does come at the cost of more advanced features, and they noted that Mention's stats and reporting feature could be improved to include more advanced options.

While easy to set up and start using, the product does take some time to fine tune. It is up to the user to train the tool as to what is pertinent and what is irrelevant, and this is a particular issue with companies that have a common name. Users recommended diligence when setting up keywords and terms to avoid in order to smoothen the machine learning process. A handful of reviewers also suggested that an upgraded version is needed to see real value; according to them, while the free version gives a glimpse of the platform’s capabilities, the number of allowed mentions is simply too low to use the tool effectively.

Crimson Hexagon is a platform for social monitoring and analytics. What was most prominent to users of the product was the innovation ingrained in the platform. They noted that the tool is constantly evolving and improving, and, as noted above, when asked if they believed the product is going in the right direction, 96% of them answered yes.

There were elements of Crimson Hexagon that users cited as innovative. The first is the plaform’s machine learning capabilities. This feature allows the platform to learned based on the context of particular mentions, which in turn leads to more accurate and trusted data. The second factor is the Affinity function of the platform which categorizes sentiment beyond simply positive, neutral, and negative. In feature questions, users rated Crimson Hexagon’s Sentiment Scoring at 88%, tied for the highest in the category and 15% higher than the category average.

Because Crimson Hexagon is constantly innovating and improving their product, reviewers noted few dislikes with the tool. That said, a handful of users mentioned that the demographic information could be more detailed. Many also observed that the tool was rather time consuming for those wanting to get the most out of it. Furthermore, reviewers noted that it took time for the machine learning functionality to kick in and provide accurate data. Reviewers recommended that a company using Crimson Hexagon would be better served to have a few power users, rather than have many light or occasional users.

To date, a response has not been provided by Crimson Hexagon.

Geofeedia is an open-sourced, location-based social media monitoring tool. When asked what they most liked about the product, users overwhelmingly referenced its geolocation features. Because of this, a handful of reviewers used Geofeedia in law enforcement or journalistic purposes to keep an eye out for crimes or breaking stories. They noted that it can be crucial in helping to identify potential eyewitnesses of crimes or targeting potential sources for a story.

Users went on to mention that Geofeedia is also a good tool for curating content. With the product, they were able to pull together a plethora of information and quickly feed it onto their websites to keep their visitors interested.

Some noted, however, that they disliked the lack of engagement capabilities within the tool. They noted that there is no way to reach out through social media to the people they target with Geofeedia, and commented that having such a feature would make the workflow more efficient. The lack of a boolean search function was also a downside for handful of reviewers. Nonetheless, Geofeedia users were very satisfied with the tool overall.

Synthesio is a platform to help find valuable social insights through social listening. Users of Synthesio most benefited from its vast, global coverage. This offered them a comprehensive view of what people were saying around the world in multiple languages. A handful of users specifically mentioned Synthesio’s access to China as being particularly impressive.

Users placed a high trust in the data provided through the product and noted that the information was of very high quality. They also liked that it was presented visually in a clear and easy to digest manner.

Synthesio users were generally very satisfied with the tool and mentioned few dislikes. The few negative comments, however, included the occasional slow operating time that was associated with large amounts of data as well as a desire to publish and schedule social media posts through the tool.

To date, a response has not been provided by Synthesio.

Owned by the social media intelligence company Linkfluence, Radarly offers a solution for monitoring social communities and social reputation. Radarly users realized many of the common benefits of social media monitoring products such as being able to track mentions, social reputation, and influencers. One function highlighted specifically by a handful of users was its Benchmark feature, which allowed users to evaluate their social activity and presence against that of their competitors.

Many reviewers also liked Radarly’s query options. Catering to both novices and more advanced users, the product offers query functions that can be easily used within the interface, as well as the option for more advanced users to write queries themselves if they desire.

On the downside, users desired more robust functionality with regards to influencer identification and sentiment scoring. A handful of users observed that both of these functions occasionally returned hollow results that were not helpful for their business. Furthermore, a couple of reviewers also mentioned they would like better alert functionality.

To date, a response has not been provided by Linkfluence.

Purchased by Salesforce.com in 2011, Radian6 is a the social listening component of the company’s ExactTarget Marketing Cloud. Salesforce.com is in the process of rebranding Radian6 into Social Studio, which will offer social media management capabilities in addition to the monitoring functionality. When users were asked what they liked most about the product, many of them commented on the power of the platform. They were referring to not only its ability to pull in large amounts of data, but also its granularity. With advanced filtering and search options, users can drill down into any datapoint they choose for a more in-depth look at conversations.

Users also commented on Radian6’s user-friendly interface. More specifically, they liked that the dashboards are very visual and utilize graphs and charts to give a clear depiction of results. A handful of users still noted, however, that the platform was not intuitive to use. This was reflected with an ease of use rating of 75% compared to an average of 85% for the category.

Many reviewers also disliked the platforms sentiment scoring functionality. Compared to a category average of 73%, Radian6’s sentiment scoring was rated at 58%. Furthermore, a handful of users were disappointed with the support provided by the company.

To date, a response has not been provided by Salesforce.com.

Sysomos is a social listening and engagement platform that is broken up into two variations - the Heartbeat platform is a cheaper, more limited option compared to the more expensive and robust MAP variation. In short-answer responses, users of the MAP variation said what they liked the most about the platform was the ability to perform unlimited ad hoc searches. Users praised this functionality for forecasting potential campaigns, running quick analyses, and calming spur of the moment curiosities.

Reviewers also benefited from the platform’s speed. Users could pull a large amounts of data without having to wait hours. Furthermore, the platform provided users with high quality demographic and geographic data. A handful of users also cited the word cloud as a favorite feature.

On a negative note, users noted that sentiment analysis within the platform was not up to par - even in a category that earned a relatively low average of 73% for this feature. Sysomos users rated sentiment analysis at 54%, which was the lowest in the social media monitoring category. Users also observed that the platform was much more useful for Twitter than for other social outlets. Integrations with other social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and Google+ were nonexistent to poor, and users warned to not expect much data from these sources. While the tool does provide in-depth data, reviewers commented that it is hard to slice and dice and is not presented in a visually appealing manner.

To date, a response has not been provided by Marketwired.

In addition to social listening capabilities, NetBase also provides solutions for engaging and publishing - these capabilities can be purchased individually or together as a suite product. Users benefited from the granularity of which the product was capable. This allowed them to easily dig into a massive amount of information and focus in on specific piece of data.

Other features that users liked included word clouds, competitor pulse, and the customizability of the dashboard. Furthermore, a handful of reviewers mentioned that they liked being able to analyze the sentiment of posts, though others noted the accuracy of this data was suspect. Nonetheless, NetBase users still rated its sentiment analysis feature at 77%, above the category average of 73%. Reviewers also liked that it was easy to construct queries, but that the ease of it did limit the complexity of the queries.

On the downside, users mentioned that the product could be more user-friendly, especially for new users. Many users also wished that the tool could pick up more data. While it has access to Twitter, Facebook, and blogging communities, any social information beyond that is not picked up using NetBase. Furthermore, many users expressed frustration with slow performance times.

To date, a response has not been provided by NetBase.

Meltwater Buzz is a social media marketing SaaS product that is built on top of Meltwater’s online intelligence platform. Meltwater offers a separate public relations SaaS product as well. With Meltwater Buzz, users were able monitor online mentions, filter online chatter, and report on what people said about a topic.

A handful of users mentioned that product’s tagging capabilities were useful. This helped them organize their data and made it much easier to find when wading through all of the information. Others mentioned that the daily reports sent via email were also beneficial.

Users regarded the platform’s performance more negatively, citing slow load times and a cumbersome query construction process. They also noted that the data was limited compared to other tools in this space. This prevented many reviewers from being fully confident when it came to them knowing what was being said about their brand.

To date, a response has not been provided by Meltwater.