It's tough to compare social listening tools with the factors that matter. So Publicis Groupe did it for you.
When it comes to social media listening technologies, there are several key factors that really matter to anybody who has delved seriously in social media intelligence. Ranking among the top factors usually includes price, breadth and quality of data sources, search prowess, and various data analytic features and automation. However, it's not always easy to compare functionality and factors side-by-side, and there are few resources to help us do so.
Over the past several years, The Forrester Wave: Social Listening Platforms reports have been persistently and correctly pointed out that vendors have continuously invested in stronger analytics, deeper tech integration, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Image Recognition. Unfortunately, this functionality race has made social listening technologies more commoditized.
As a result, on the receiving end, we, the end-users – PR practitioners, brand managers, media planners, and marketing researchers, have been facing a ubiquitous set of tools.
Established vendors like NetBase and Crimson Hexagon (now Brandwatch Consumer Research), and challengers like Pulsar and YouScan have been offering access to marginally different data sources, analytic functionality, and bold claims about their AI and NLP. It's difficult to differentiate between these claims to work out what is hype and reality, and what solution best matches your needs. What’s more, vendors often have complex and confusing price models with prohibitively high price tags.
We've also found that the new AI gizmos created to make our analysis easier often fall short of what has been advertised. If you've been working in media analytics for three months or ten years, by now you know the feeling of pre-Christmas elation and excitement when a vendor starts strutting it's AI and NLP gadgets, and the quick dejection that usually sets in once you get your hands on the platform.
Don’t get me wrong, the social listening industry has made great strides when it comes to data analytics technology. This has provided us with widgets that enhance and speed our work. However, the NLP offerings keep leaving a bitter aftertaste.
With all this said, tool comparison and selection can be a very daunting task, and we are often left at the mercy of the likes of Forrester and individual vendors with little opportunity to run actual head-to-head benchmarks.
This is why Publicis Groupe – Sofia Social Media Intelligence team embarked on a journey to test vendors in terms of data sources and volumes gathered, and NLP/Sentiment scoring. We ran our study on how Crimson Hexagon, NetBase, Talkwalker, Sysomos and YouScan.