While the level of discussion about a product/company is never the full story, it does provide insight into how well a company is doing in getting its message out, how far the message is travelling, and, in my opinion, the likelihood of the product/company to be successful. At this moment in time I still have evaluation access to the Scout Labs and the Alterian Techrigy SM2 products and decided to give both a try to answer this simple question: Which of the five Social Media Monitoring (SMM) solutions that I have been reviewing has generated the most discussion over the course of the last six months?
Here are the solutions I have been evaluating:
- Radian6
- Alterian Techrigy SM2
- Scout Labs
- Filtrbox
- Synthesio
Scout Labs Results
Setting up the searches within Scout Labs was very simple, generating some useful information. Answering my simple question was simple and I was able to generate this pie chart of the results.
Scout Labs Comparison of SMM Chatter
This chart represents all searches for these products, based upon my search setup. Radian6 leads the way with 57%, Techrigy is second with 19%, Scout Labs has 14% of the total, Filtrbox comes in 4th with 9%, and Synthesio has 0% of the total. Key points to keep in mind, however:
- While easy to set up, the searches were for a simple search term in each case. For example, Radian6, Scout Labs, Synthesio. This type of search is incomplete, but probably covered the majority of the important searches.
- Scout Labs is not necessarily performing a complete search of the known universe. For example, Synthesio, a European provider of SMM solutions, is likely being short-changed in the overall volume of searches.
- The 0% of results returned for Synthesio does not indicate that no search results were returned. Conversations were returned, just a much smaller percentage of the total.
- Scout Labs is relatively new to the market, only coming onto the scene this year and should be excited about hitting the 14% mark with less than a year of public awareness.
Alterian Techrigy SM2 Results
I spent a lot of time trying to set up a similar search but was unable to do so. While I am certain it is possible I have yet to figure it out. Once I do so I will update this post with the results from an alternate data set.
What’s next?
Ultimately I would love to have access to all of these solutions all of the time so that I can share with you a completely view, maintaining as unbiased an attitude as I am able to. I will let you know if I am able to set up this sort of arrangement with each of the companies as I know it will benefit all of us.
John
January 4, 2010 at 6:17 pm
[...] My original post shows results from the perspective of Scout Labs. [...]
December 29, 2009 at 1:53 pm
[...] } If you read my post from a couple of days ago on this topic you saw that I was able to share data based upon [...]
December 28, 2009 at 8:40 pm
John, we’re very flattered by your “easy to use” comment. We are always working on usability because so many users told us that the unnecessary complexity of competitors’ tools got in the way of organizational adoption of social listening platforms- and we feel pretty strongly about delivering a solution for the whole enterprise. Keep the feedback coming!
I suspect that graph would tilt even more our way, if you used both spellings of Scout Labs/ Scoutlabs, with and without the space. And thanks again for the mention.
December 28, 2009 at 6:56 pm
Hi John – thanks for the post. Sooooo many variables to consider in trying to do an apples to apples so appreciate you trying to get full access. I’d be happy to discuss with you on behalf of the Alterian SM2 team.
@jimschwab pls contact me.
The free version you used for this test is limited. You could also try searching for “Social Media Monitoring” and then filter by vendors mentions…….perhaps a more unbiased method???
Jim Schwab
VP Business Development, Social Media
Alterian
December 28, 2009 at 7:59 pm
Would love to chat Jim. Feel free to follow me back on Twitter (@JohnFMoore) and we can discuss further.
John
December 28, 2009 at 5:15 pm
John, interesting post. Like you say, the level of discussion about a product/company is never the full story. @KenBurbary performed a pretty detailed analysis of two of the tools this summer, “The Dirty Little Secret of Social Media Monitoring”, http://www.kenburbary.com/2009/07/the-dirty-little-secret-of-social-media-monitoring/ It’s definitely worth a read.
December 28, 2009 at 5:23 pm
Thank you Warren. Great information, I appreciate you passing that along.
-John
December 28, 2009 at 2:55 pm
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by JohnFMoore: My latest, Which #Social Media Monitoring Solution is most discussed? http://bit.ly/90Jng2 #smm #cmo #cio…
December 28, 2009 at 2:41 pm
Hi John,
Our service is based on the number of search results. The account had maxed out using full historical. It was gathering data back to 2007.
Let me know when it is convenient to talk & I’ll be glad to help.
Connie
Community Strategist, Alterian
@cbensen
December 28, 2009 at 3:19 pm
Thank you Connie, I appreciate the note. I sent you an email but would also ask, if possible, could you setup the search I mentioned so that I can also report the results from Alterian’s perspective.
My goal is always to provide unbiased data and not to be influenced by one vendor or another. This does mean I will not share post ahead of time with vendors, just so everyone is clear, as I do not want my posts biased.
Thanks, looking forward to seeing results from SM2 next.
John
December 28, 2009 at 12:53 pm
John,
This was a major factor in my evaluation, and ultimate selection of Radian6 for our standard SM platform. As I think I shared, and I still hold this to be true, feature sets are still in their infancy. So, if you’re really looking for an enterprise-type solution, other factors need to weigh more heavily in the analysis.
Radian6 is clearly ahead in practicing what they preach. Their thought leadership (with folks like @ambercadabra) and activity in the social space demostrates to me that they ‘get it’ (I hate that expression) and are in this thing for the ling term. This will translate directly to their role in increased M&A in thisbspace over the next 24 months.
Thx
Barry
December 28, 2009 at 1:15 pm
Thanks for the feedback Barry. I do maintain that buzz must be considered, glad to hear that in your evaluation it was something you took into account.
John
December 28, 2009 at 8:26 am
Hi John,
Building and maintaining a decent amount of buzz is an enviable goal of any company, and it is certainly interesting to see ours compared directly to that of some of our competitors. Although I was disheartened to see Synthesio as having a “0%” level of buzz, Scout Labs does not support non-English content which indeed might mean a “shortchanging” the results, as you point out.
I am glad, however, to be in connection with you and your blog and to be able to receive feedback that can only help us in our search to boost buzz about Synthesio’s monitoring solutions, and we would also like to congratulate our fellow companies on their communications efforts. They have some great teams that we are only starting to develop, ourselves, and look forward to collaborating with many of their members and watching as the industry develops.
Best of luck in your future testings, we look forward to the results!
Michelle
@Synthesio
December 28, 2009 at 7:54 am
[...] Link: Which Social Media Monitoring Solution is most discussed? « Random … [...]
December 28, 2009 at 2:45 am
John,
I was wondering if you had access to hubspot technology as well? I know that they might be doing much more than just monitoring but I bet monitoring is one of the components of their product as well?
Also, curious to know if you had setup Radian6? How easy was it to set it up if you had access to it?
Vish Agashe
December 28, 2009 at 11:45 am
Thank for the questions. I do not have access to the Hubspot technology, will follow up though to see how to get access.
The Radian team had me take an hour long training session prior to beginning to use the product. It was not difficult to use, althought Scout Labs is still, in my opinion, the easiest to use application I have been hands on with. Let me know what else I can share.
John
December 28, 2009 at 2:38 am
[...] the original: Which Social Media Monitoring Solution is most discussed? « Random … By admin | category: cto | tags: moore, most-discussed, personal, posted-on-december, [...]
December 28, 2009 at 12:27 am
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