This morning I read Dave Chaffey’s post on Online brand reputation or listening software – a review of 26 tools and found a lot of richness in the list, including the idea of segmenting the list of Social Media tools by function (see below):
Category 1 – Wide scope analytical and reporting tools for all aspects of monitoring customer opinions and campaign effectiveness
Category 2 - Blog based influence assessment tools, designed to gain access to influential customers/commentators
Category 3 - PR and media management tools for reputation management and assessing opinion forming influence
Category 4 – Social media tracking and intervention including free tools
Category 5 – Fraud protection, security and threat detection
Category 6 – News media tracking
Category 7 – Social media within sales management – for identifying B2B prospects
I don’t think the categories are hierarchical, and the list is far from complete, even though most of the top solutions are on it.
Also excited about 2010 and what Dave Chaffrey predicts Social Media Tools will evolve into:
- Capability for image tracking, video, logo, photos etc
- Integration with workflow, ERP systems, etc
- Range of report formats, styles, configured as ‘products’
- Chart and analysis integration – mapping, 3D, tag clouds, visualisation techniques, etc
- Actionability -direct intervention in dialogue, development ofadvertising, web campaigns, etc
The points I highlighted are big ones, and match up with what I predicted in the Future of Social Media Monitoring presentation I gave in London last month (see below) ..
Meanwhile, here’s the list – i’ll take a closer look soon, I just wanted to make sure my readers knew about this list of 26 Tools for Social Media Monitoring.
Name | Positioning | Analysis | Reporting/Products |
| * Radian6 - in partnership with Web Trends | Social media monitoring platform for marketing, communications and customer support professionals Billing is tied to results, not the parameters used | Sentiment, engagement, reach, inbound links, vote count or comment count Post and source tags to create a “social web caller ID” system, and segment results for in-depth reporting and analysis Supports filters | Flexible dashboard and as-it-happens alerts enable monitoring of all forms of social media and related comments in real-time Results can be filtered by country, by source and by media type, within date range or for pre-set days Email, IM, communication tools WebTrends integration filters social media content with web stats like site visits, conversions, or purchases |
| Trupulse(Visible, founded 2005; strategic partnership with WPP) | Online brand management – Repair, protect and proactively promote brand or corporate reputation in search engine results | Powered by the proprietary truCAST engine – discovery, collection, processing, analysis and engagement architecture for social media content | truREPUTATION – online reputation management service truPULSE – RSS based web monitoring truINSIGHT truVOICE – allows participation with consumers truSEARCH – SEO tool |
| * Scout Labs | Relatively low cost ’self service product’ Costs range from $100 to $750 a month (Feb. 2009) depending upon how many platforms, or “workspaces,” and how many concurrent text searches clients need, there is no limit on nos users per workspace | Proprietary tools | Create graphs, forward, bookmark, initiate discussions, download graph data or copy graphs The dashboard offers real-time metrics for buzz volume, customer sentiment, and competitive share of voice across the web Agencies can ‘white label’ the reports |
| SEER (VML, part of WPP group) | Defines a brand ‘ecosystem’ | System built on 1) a focused crawler; 2) custom dictionaries and parsing; 3) a web-based control panel; 4) a three-dimensional visualization tool Constantly updated | Builds a model over time of the patterns of communication within the target audience Every relationship is mapped out three-dimensionally, with ‘hot spots’ and tag clouds to identify areas of interest |
| * Nielsen Buzz Metrics | Real time market intelligence and brand metrics, with expert input and support | Text-mining, analytic technologies and expert analysts | 30 report formats Customisable dashboard Threat Tracker alerts by email Brand Tracking, Audit and Scorecard reports for regular information Brand Association maps |
| Feedback Ferret | Voice of Customer Platform to gather, analyse and report on customer feedback | Contextual analysis engine extracts topics, themes and sentiment from unstructured feedback; can build in customer data files | Interactive dashboards supplied; capability to share across organisation |
| Interwoven(acquired by Autonomy 2009) | Interwoven web content management uses Autonomy’s Intelligent Data Operating Layer (IDOL) to provide a powerful solution for profiting from social media | Uses Meaning Based Computing technology; IDOL gives clustering, pattern matching techniques, and probabilistic modeling | Dashboard data delivered within the content management system TeamSite, LiveSite, and Optimost automatically deliver dynamic, targeted, and optimized content and offers to consumers based on social media sentiment and emerging trends |
| Nielsen BlogPulse | Blog tracking and management for individuals and bloggers as well as corporates | Based on machine-learning and natural-language processing techniques Search by link (URL), keyword, phrase, boolean query, and date range | “Performs a unique kind of text mining on blog data to help reveal topics and themes within blog entries every day” Statistical reports, produced daily Trend analysis and charting Blogger profiling Conversation tracker |
| * Market Sentinel | A range of tools for sentiment monitoring, identifying key influencers and campaign buzz tracking. | Based on machine-learning and natural-language processing techniques Search by link (URL), keyword, phrase, boolean query, and date range | “Performs a unique kind of text mining on blog data to help reveal topics and themes within blog entries every day” Statistical reports, produced daily Trend analysis and charting Blogger profiling Conversation tracker |
| Buzz Logic | Blog based media agency – tracking influential conversations on the web and aligning ad campaigns Costed on monthly subscriptions | Algorithms calculate the expertise and credibility of conversational media, and map the social graphs emerging around each site’s content Based on analysis of: -traffic and number of inbound links -contextual relevance to a customer’s specified area of concern, such as key words. -frequency of content publication on such topics -the traffic it sends back to the marketer | ?? |
| * Cymfony(acquired by TNS Media Group in 2007) | PR management tool with customer service and marketing applications, especially crisis management | Powered by Cymfony’s InfoXtract(TM) technology, an information extraction and analysis engine used by US government and intelligence agencies Proprietary Natural Language Processing engine automatically identifies, classifies, quantifies and benchmarks important people, places, companies, concepts, relationships, and events in documents from both traditional and social media. Based on detailed grammatical analysis of the text | Orchestra – a model centred on metric views, reports, and clippings. With interface tools to help users build custom views, create and share reports and structure complex queries to sort though massive amounts of data Cymfony’s Professional Services team delivers customized reporting services, specializing in integrated media measurement programs with corporate six sigma initiatives |
| Marchex Reputation Management (in development) | Customer insight tool for SMEs | Standard charts on positive, neutral or negative reviews | Checks business listings Identifies keywords for differentiation Competitor comparison Capability to share positive news and reviews with customers and employees through email, Twitter, Facebook, Digg or other sources |
| Reputica | Reputation management and recruitment support Claims to be able to predict where stories will go as well as track where they came from | Powered by iFeed, a discovery and aggregation engine for social media Self-learning capability Inbuilt ranking and scoring system with sentiment analysis | Dashboard capability for online reputation monitoring Search related tool for recruiters |
| Jodange | Opinion based reputation management Targets publishers of online content | Uses linguistic analysis to extract opinion data from documents and identify the opinion holder and topic each opinion expression Ignores factual statements to focus on opinions and score sentiments | Defines the relationship between Opinion Holder, Opinion, and Topic Capability to correlate opinions to outcomes over time |
| Converseon | Social media agency with proprietary tool for listening | Advanced proprietary natural language processing and related technologies plus human interaction from the set-up phase through to report delivery and engagement | Conversation MinerTM Conversation Manager Conversation Monitor SERM Analyzer |
| * Who’s Talkin | Free tool for individuals or organisations wanting to monitor their own or competitors presence in social media conversations | Search and sorting algorithms | Search strings |
| * Social Mention | Free social media search and analysis platform that aggregates user generated content | Analysis based on:Strength is phrase mentions within the last 24 hours divided by total possible mentions. Sentiment ratio of mentions that are generally positive to those that are generally negative. Passion is most frequently used keywords and number of times mentioned. Number of mentions by sentiment. Reach the number of unique authors referencing your brand divided by the total number of mentions | Search strings Delivers daily social media alerts |
| * Trackur | Tracks sentiments and trends in social media mentions with alerts via email and RSS | Boolean keyword based query with option to exclude some sites | |
| * Viralheat | Viralheat aims to be a one stop shop for understanding social media Effectively a search engine Monthly subscription (10 profiles for $10 and 50 profiles for $40) | User generated profiles. Operate on a proprietary, custom-built cloud host. Includes Compete and Quantcast numbers. | Generates dashboard charts Insights delivered in real time Exports to Excel or pdf Daily email alerts can be shared |
| NetBase Consumer Insights | Market and consumer insights in real-time to identify actionable consumer opinions | Content Intelligence is able to read every sentence of every document, linguistically understand the sentences, and provide market and consumer insights | |
| Envisional | Fraud and piracy protection for logos and trademarks Patented A31 visual search technology | Built in filters with user defined parameters Unique, patented search technologies alongside a team of experienced analysts “sentiment monitoring” system, using fuzzy logic and self-organising maps | ?? |
| KnowEm | Brand protection and security | Identifies users of brand names and their contact details Tracks multiple metrics to determine which networks are gaining (or losing) traction in the social media landscape | ?? |
| Reputrace(Repumetrix formerly CoreX) | ‘All purpose’ but focus on security applications | High speed reporting on latest mentions and references Reporting tool sends summaries from the site that include company logos | |
| Mark Monitor | Brand security, particularly domain monitoring | ||
| FiltrBox | News tracking system | Looks at multiple dimensions to generate a score (1-10 scale) for each article Can be user defined | Rapid alert system Email, web dashboard, and custom RSS feeds (FiltrFeedsTM) Daily briefing emails |
| Newssift | News media based search tool exclusively focused on business | Identifies the people, companies, places and connections common across all stories; scores sentiment within stories | User defined queries |
| NewsLive(ebiquity) | Completely automated digital service plus all the benefits of a traditional, tried-and-tested manual clippings agency | The Newslive editorial monitoring service 3 different scores, allocated by trained readers. Scores can be weighted according to the size of audience | An email alert is sent as soon as a relevant news story breaks; the latest headlines and content transcripts are included by a team of specialist news readers and précis writers working 24/7 Users can track the scores |
| Inside View | Identifies B2B sales companies prospects from intelligence gained from social media and traditional editorial sources | Continuously aggregates and analyzes personal, executive, and corporate information | Delivers contact lists, exports leads, manages watch lists, |
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Comments
 I work with Sm2 techrigy and sysomos and they both provide cool dasboards. |
Hi Marshall, Thanks for mentioning RepuMetrix and including RepuTrace™ on your list of tools and would encourage anyone with questions relating to our tools and service scope to contact us or stop-by our blog. On the reputation management front, we have a new addition to our product suite called RepuTrack™ which we would be happy to demonstrate to anyone with an interest in managing their online brand reputation. Joseph @RepuMetrix |
 Thank for the comments, Marshall, and great presentation. I'm planning to update the list over time so any more suggestions of tools to be included are welcome. As you say, the categorisation is not hiercharchical. It's pretty subjective at this stage, as well. The competitive landscape is slowly emerging, driven by various factors. The categories came out of thinking about which customer type these tools are targeted at and what strategic goal they address. One other thought for the future - many consumer focused organisations want to link their social media monitoring to voice based customer interaction. Autonomy make this possible now in technical terms. Working out how to define and manage the processes for acting on such information will be a key challenge. |
Great list of social media tools. Personally I have used Truckur before which is a very basic, but a robust monitoring tool. Its great for monitoring keywords or brands across the web. Currently I am trying out a free trial of Radian6, which has many more bells and whistles. This tool is def geared towards the fortune 500 companies. Lots of advantage filters, different ways to segment data, and reporting. I also wrote a post recently, 9 Professional Social Media Monitoring & Reputation Management Tools. Feel free to check it out. |
Hi Marshall - I recently attended MSM09 in London in which you were kind enough to speak at (albeit at very late notice!). Although I appreciate and value your thoughts, there is one tool which you have mentioned and the absence of which does devalue your comparisons - Alterian/Techrigy SM2. Is there any reason for this? |
 Hi Marshall, I'm surprised that you didn't notice that Alterian SM2 (Techrigy SM2) is missing. Your slide deck includes many screenshots form SM2. I commented on Dave's original post. And I'm curious as to your opinion? I believe that Alterian SM2 fits in the first category. It has the most comprehensive charting & analytical abilities on the market. It also has automated sentiment with a customizable dictionary, workflow and many other aspects (geomapping, etc). And it was great to meet you in person! Connie Bensen Director of Community Strategy, Alterian @cbensen |
Where is all the other providers? By no means is this list expansive. Their are much better tools out there. And none of which am I affilliated with. What about Networked Insights Social Sense platform. My company just sat through one of their webinars and it seems like they are leaps and bounds ahead of any of these. Listening platforms have so much more to offer than monitoring ones. Its analyzing for strategic insight versus counting for tactical shortcomings - In the end, the value isn't even close. |
 Social media is a long-term commitment, in terms of both analytics and engagement. Don’t be fooled into thinking that listening to social media is as easy as a push of the button. It’s a messy, messy, messy world out there in the blogosphere – meaning that you need to have the patience and resources to accurately dissect and measure the conversations that matter, not just any incidental, commercial or irrelevant mention of your brand. Right now I think the lack of familiarity with the social media environment is making it possible for agencies and brands to pass off analytics that lack the depth and precision required to accurately measure the true promise of social media – a medium defined by peer to peer discussions with the potential to influence perceptions and purchase behaviour. Patrick Gladney Director Social Media Northstar Social Currency http://socialcurrency.nsresearch.com |
 Thank you for the information -- this is a very good list. Another good free app to consider is tweetbeep. Eric |
 Very interesting post and I do appreciate the seeming comprehensiveness, but I too am surprised that the Aleterian/Techrigy SM2 tool is not even mentioned. The sentiment montoring abilities alone make it a standout in the field. Will you be updating the post? |
Good list of Monitoring Tools. New apps for Monitoring, Measuring and Contributing to Social Media and Marketing are popping up every day, and it is difficult to keep track of all the different players. If you need to know about the best and most innovative Social Marketing apps. Follow the "Social Marketing Apps - Clutter Buster Daily Tweet" @ www.twitter.com/grahamlubie or search on the hash tag: #socmktgapps Here's the general format: [AppName]-[Bit.ly URL]-[Type of App]- [Blurb abt the app] . |
Hi You can also take a look at the reputation market map with a lot of monitoring solutions http://www.demainlaveille.fr/2009/11/16/e-reputation-market-map-v2-marche-de-la-e-reputation-v2/ |
No Alterian Techrigy SM2?? This report #fail "SM2 has been recognized by TechCrunch, Mashable, Forrester Research and Aberdeen as the leading SMM tool in the marketplace today" Cheers, |
Thank you for including Visible Technologies in your post and round up. @bcahill @visible_tech |
Thank you for including us in this list of tools. This is a great resource for those organizations preparing to delve into social media monitoring. It is important to note, that no matter the tool, it is essential the selection be made by factoring in an organization's culture and overall business goals and measurable objectives. Lauren Vargas Community Manager at Radian6 @VargasL |
 Good post. I will study which one can I use for my start up Inspiradores.com. Thanks. |
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