Meltwater Reviews

best monitoring media software

Comments: best tool for monitoring media outlets in latin america!

Pros:

sysomos is a great combination of automated software that look into media outlets news in digital and keep a look into social media. Also, they have a robust database of latin america. Before wans't so great but they keep updating it. Now, it is hard to find adicional news outside sysomos.

Cons:

i have problems sharing my monitors and querys with other users and customer suppport couldn't help me. Also time to timee they have a breach or something working wrong and you dont receive and alert by email and they are very slow to solve it. I have issues in the past with my clients because of this.

Simplest listening and Monitoring tool i ever used

Comments: When I was a fresher I first used Sysmos and it helps me in understanding basics about listening and monitoring, It is very easy to use and query formation in Sysomos is very simple. One thing which i like about it is that its data tagging accuracy is far better than other tools

Pros:

First of all, it is very simple to use, user-friendly and quite good for small and medium companies. Data mining is very simple in it and one can extract data very easily. It covers almost everything like hashtag analysis, Demographics analysis and word cloud analysis. Data accuracy is also quite good than others. Data extracted from Sysomos has multilayer topics, it provides much information. In short, it is a very important tool for a newbie, it will help in understanding the basics of listening and monitoring

Cons:

there was a time when it used to extract data from many sources but now it only provides a chunk from twitter. Sometimes it has issues with data accuracy and time zone and the last thing is that it provides a limited amount of data.

I will never recommend any Meltwater products or services

Comments: Overall, I will never recommend Meltwater as a product or service. Their staff aren't knowledgable and their salespeople sneak auto-renewals into their contracts to keep people on as customers. As a company no one is able to take responsibility and they don’t offer genuine support for their customers

Pros:

Some of their employees genuinely want to help (which is what I like best) however, Meltwater as a company doesn't give them the tools to do so.

Cons:

Terrible customer support: If you try calling Meltwater's customer support number often times they simply don't pick up. No ownership: One of their employees openly admitted to a high turnover rate of employees and as such, no one was willing to take responsibility for what someone who no longer worked at Meltwater had done. Search results are not accurate: I worked with three account representatives to get accurate results about my company and they never fully worked out. They both missed several key results (the whole purpose of using this service was so I didn't have to dig to find them) and they also brought in incorrect results. Mediate database is out of date: I used their media database several times and it was always difficult to use plus there wasn't updated contact information for reporters. I had better luck looking for emails and phone numbers myself. !!They sneak auto-renewals into contracts and do not notify you!! Even if you tell them you are not planning on renewing it has to be in written form or else they will force you into another year. I no longer trust this team or company to care for their customers.

Robust Social Media Monitoring at a Price

Comments: We tend to use Meltwater in times of social media crises — and it cuts down on manual data compilation and creates easy-to-understand reports for all stakeholders.

Pros:

Robust social monitoring capabilities, easy to set up, really great customer support, easily customizable, and easy to export reports.

Cons:

It's pricey, but with social media monitoring that is to be expected. In this realm, you get what you pay for, and Meltwater is worth the price because it just pulls in way more intel than any other solution available.

Great Spreading the Word

Comments: Overall, Meltwater has been an easy tool to use to distribute information and also see the analytics of how it's being received, opened, clicked, etc. We also use the tool to create a Daily Digest of hits that mention our business in the media or on Twitter.

Pros:

This software is completely user friendly. It is easy to upload press releases and sent to various distribution lists.

Cons:

Sometimes there are glitches or issues where if there is a lot of traffic happening via Meltwater which makes your particular information experience a delay. Usually, Meltwater staff are able to identify log jams pretty quickly.

A Product in Development

Comments: Meltwater is providing excellent support and their media data and reporting seems to be very reliable. We have been able to use it to make some very productive media in-roads. The software seems to be underdeveloped but hopefully they will continue to add the features needed to make it a mainstream offering.

Pros:

Meltwater is easy to use and their employees pay a lot of attention to you as a client. Especially in the set-up stages, they are very attentive and schedule their follow-up effectively. The basic tools are adequate and their data seems to be reliable.

Cons:

The platform for Meltwater seems to be very immature in terms of its development. It can send newsletters but you get almost NO functionality on analytics or member tracking. Like all other SaaS companies, everything is an add-on and it is not always easy to determine what you get for the price you are being quotes. The software simply feels rudimentary in design and immature in implementation.

Meltwater does the trick

Comments: We continue to renew our contract with Meltwater, because, compared to competitors, the service is financially feasible. The interface upgrades have also kept us happy. Overall, Meltwater helps us distribute news effectively and that's exactly what its supposed to do.

Pros:

Meltwater has made A LOT of improvements to their user interface recently. Building lists has gotten a lot eaiser and quicker. I'm able to quickly scan and select thousands of contacts.

Cons:

Meltwater's customer service leaves something to desire. In the four years that I've used the platform, my service rep has changed at least a half-dozen times. Each new person wants to connect to see how things are going, but most of the time they just try to sell us on something new. They are not concerned with understanding our business.

Easy Contact Lists

Comments: Great option for press release distribution. I like being able to create targeted media lists and scheduling releases.

Pros:

I like how easy it is to gather lists of relevant media in my area and field. Depending on who I want to target I am able to modify a list and make sure my release and information is reaching the right group of people.

Cons:

My only cons come from the other side of the software. I receive a fair number of releases that aren't relevant to what I cover. It isn't a software error, it is user error with people not knowing how to create their lists.

Awesome PR and social media tracking

Pros:

Used this to track client placements, as well as find contact details for reporters / editors. Easy to navigate, and our team could easily customize the specific dashboards.

Cons:

Definitely can need some training to get up and working. We had our account managers come in to train up the team.

Great article filtering for PR!

Pros:

The filtering of relevant articles is unmatched by competitors. Also able to track multiple brands in the same account.

Cons:

The report dashboard isn't as intuitive as I would like. There are lot of analytics that can be done but a bit difficult to set up exactly as I wanted the data to present.

Excellent customer support

Comments: Overall our marketing communications team loves Meltwater. It took a while to set up our account, but once that's done, it is extremely easy to pull analytics for our Board of Directors.

Pros:

The best part about Meltwater is how easy/user-friendly it is compared to our previous product (Cision), and our account rep is FANTASTIC. We had a terrible experience with switching reps at Cision and it was extremely clunky and took literal hours to pull metrics, but Meltwater has blown us away with how seamless it is.

Cons:

I will say the media database is not as robust as Cision. It is clear where each company focuses. As a medical non-profit, we work with very niche publications, and many of them were not in Meltwater (or had staff missing) and had to be uploaded manually, which means you are in charge of knowing when the reporter changes companies.

Best Option in the Market

Comments: With nearly 10 years working in PR, I have had experience with Cision, Vocus, and Meltwater. There is no question that I will continue to use Meltwater in my career because it is most powerful, in my opinion. I also think that their PR distribution (which is integrated into the platform) is better than what the other players have to offer.

Pros:

I use Meltwater primarily for its media database and PR distribution. The media data seems to be pretty well updated and when I request changes/additions, they are made very quickly.

Cons:

As they have updated the software, I lost some of the key features that added value to how I use it. I wish you could filter search results better, gain better snapshots of individual outreach performance from the overall list, and create news searches based on specific media lists, to name a few. Also, beware of their contract because there is an autorenewal clause no matter if your account rep has reached out to you beforehand or not. Make a note on your calendar ahead of time so that charge doesnt come as a surprise or ask them to remove it from your contract.

Meltwater is a Capable Social Monitoring Tool!

Comments: We primarily use Meltwater as a social media monitoring tool. We're a global organization, so it can be difficult to have a full picture of how our business is being referenced across the world. But Meltwater solves that problem!

Pros:

Meltwater is very useful in being able to monitor what is being said about our company on a global scale on social media. I get an email every morning that shows me exactly who is saying what and on which platform. It links out to these references as well! From here I can take action and ensure that I'm staying ahead of any negative - and positive - remarks.

Cons:

Meltwater's platform can be a bit tricky to learn. It's not a very simple platform - though it's relatively drag-and-drop, but you have to be uber-aware of how to put together the lists you need so everything will be monitored correctly. That's where the Account Managers come into play. So, on the whole, if you don't have a lot of time to learn the platform. I have no doubt it's easy once you get the hang of it, but I don't have that luxury!

High level and getting better

Pros:

Meltwater is aquiring a lot of new companies which is giving their platform more functionality every day. It is not perfect when it comes to social platform API's and I tend to not trust the numbers but it is improving.

Cons:

I tend to find a lot of errors within my social media reporting. My account rep has said its due to the restrictive api's of the social platforms which I understand. However, it makes social scheduling difficult as I have to use multiple platforms to schedule posts.

Customer team is nice, but tool didn't meet our needs

Comments: Meltwater is an easy tool to present to a team that doesn't have media monitoring experience. However, when you have a team moving at a fast pace that needs a reliable tool, this doesn't quite meet the mark. There was a lot of extra work our team had to do that the tool should have been able to.

Pros:

The integration of media database and monitoring was a plus.

Cons:

The platform interface was difficult to interact with. The data was often lacking, both because of the publications missing from the tool as well as the way metrics were presented.

Meltwater = Too Expensive For Small Business, Good For Larger Operations

Comments: Overall, the algorithm changes on Instagram took away our use for discovering leads efficiently with the listening tool. The cost was no longer sustainable once it was not bringing in any additional revenue. It is a powerful tool, with great customer service, but I believe it is a little too pricey for smaller businesses.

Pros:

I liked how robust the listening side of the software was. You could really dive into the results and pick up conversations that were happening around your brand that you otherwise would not have been able to see.

Cons:

What I liked least about this software was that their social inbox was just Sprout Social. I was living within the engagement side of the software and saw little additional value. For those focusing solely on social listening, I recommend looking only at the component.

Keep tabs on your company online.

Comments: Meltwater has given me the ability to monitor what is being said about my company in one place.

Pros:

It provides a very useful spread of information regarding everything that is being said about your company.

Cons:

Not all packages are necessary and they will try to up-sell you. Granted that's just another part of business.

Great for social listening

Comments: Overall, this is a great tool for a PR and social media person to share and inform their work. Instead of doing a lot of manual searches online and on social media, you can get daily mentions in one simple email digest. It's a big time-saver.

Pros:

I primarily use this software to keep an eye on the brand in the media for social media purposes. I like that I get a daily digest every morning at 9:30 am that helps me identify opportunities to engage with online users during the day.

Cons:

The user experience design could use some improvement.

Meltwater makes media relations and PR easier

Comments: Meltwater really helps with media relations. It helps you target the right journalists for your news. If you do media outreach, you really need Meltwater.

Pros:

What you can do with Meltwater you can't do with Cision. It's much easier to use and allows you to see who viewed your pitch so you can decide how to follow up. It makes media relations less of a thankless chore by helping you decide where to focus your efforts.

Cons:

It's a little confusing to use. Once you have a tutorial, it's easier, of course, but I wouldn't say it's intuitive.

Social Listening made Easy and Fun

Comments: As a strategist in an international marketing and advertising agency, Sysomos was a crucial tool to gauge and extract information from social platforms and update our clients and also use the gathered insights for our campaigns. It is recommended as it gives an integrated platform to get social analytics and create actionable customer engagement opportunities.

Pros:

Sysomos is a comprehensive software that gives a complete overview to get insights from social listening. it also has features that enable visualising data in diagrams and charts to get more information from the data.

Cons:

Sometimes it can get confusing as the format and layout might get a little cluttered and not so easy to use.

Terrible for Analytics

Comments: I don't see how any analyst tested this tool. Doesn't include what I consider basic functionality. Requires multiple unnecessary steps to analyze data.

Pros:

Customer Service is responsive. Tool is very affordable.

Cons:

Social Analytics are awful. Problems include: • Data Exports – Have to email data exports through individual chart widgets. • Separate steps for creating queries and building dashboards with visuals. • Have to create separate searches for News and Social separately – Duplicates work. • Charts – Don’t have basic number labels, aren't usable. • Can't download basic volume trend. • Volume and Sentiment numbers do not match.

Meltwater does the job

Comments: Excellent service and support.

Pros:

Ease of use and data base capture. It’s easy to set up an automated process for newsfeeds and reporting.

Cons:

Exporting is not as advanced as I would like. Pdf and cvs are the main options. Formatting on export is less flexible.

I do not recommend Meltwater

Comments: Customer service is horrid. That alone causes me to highly discourage anyone from using this product.

Pros:

The daily emails with social media and article monitoring is useful but Google Alerts does the same.

Cons:

Unfortunately, the company's customer service leaves much to be desired.

The Best PR Tool on the planet

Comments: Super experience. Great tool.

Pros:

Meltwater is indispensable for any startup looking to gain insights into the PR side of marketing. We would be lost without it.

Cons:

There is a lot of information that sometimes can be overwhelming but once you get the hang of it it is easy to use.

Sysomos is great- if you have a lot of time for training

Comments: We used Sysomos Heartbeat for social listening and lead gen. It was useful but also difficult to learn.

Pros:

I liked the customized dashboards and reports for media clips and the way you could sync with social media. I used this for a real estate company and was able to follow conversations about moving to the area and ping people with the real estate company info. It was very helpful for lead gen.

Cons:

There are almost too many features. I found the customer support great but also necessary because the product could feel clunky and there is a lot to figure out. Steep learning curve for sure.