Conversation-Monitoring Services
A handful of companies have emerged in recent years that listen in on online conversations, report on activity and even assess influence — for a price. These services range from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars per month and vary widely in the features they offer. Here are capsule summaries of a few of the leaders. Keep in mind that new competitors are emerging all the time.
Andiamo – Launched in early 2007, Andiamo provides an attractive dashboard and many reports to measure conversations on blogs and in some social networks. The service ranks authority of the authors, relevance of conversations to a brand, the sentiment expressed by their postings and competitor analysis, among other things. Pricing is on a per-mention basis, starting at $79 for up to 50 mentions.
Biz360 – Its Market360 line of services ropes in print and broadcast outlets as well as online conversations. Like others, it can be customized to specific topics and it features real-time analytics and drill-down capabilities. Pricing was unavailable.
Brandimenions – This company’s BrandIntel services identifies appropriate online communities, profiles discussion leaders, tracks content, and synthesizes all that information with a staff of human analysts. Pricing was unavailable.
BrandsEye – Developed by Quirk eMarketing as an adjunct to its marketing consulting services, BrandsEye scours the Internet for every mention of a brand and rolls that information up into a weighted “Reputation Score” that companies can use to compare their online image to their competitors’.
CyberAlert – A small media monitoring company founded in 1999, CyberAlert has added daily monitoring of more than 25 million blogs and 100,000 message boards. Prices start at a few hundred dollars per keyword per month.
Factiva – This Dow Jones subsidiary has a suite of products that monitor various media sources with a focus on mainstream media. It is less capable in the consumer-generated media area. Prices vary widely.
MotiveQuest - This is a marketing consultancy with a technology twist. The company’s tools for monitoring buzz and online trends are used to support a suite of brand development and positioning services. Pricing was unavailable.
Nielsen BuzzMetrics – Its BrandPulse and BlogPulse services have been around as long as anyone’s. The service excels at tracking overall trends in blogger conversations and reporting on the most influential sources. Pricing was unavailable.
Radian6 - A 2007 newcomer that generated quite a bit of buzz, Radian6 is an online service that provides customized monitoring of blogs, video-sharing, image-sharing, microblogging, discussion group and mainstream media sources. The company uses algorithms to determine influence based upon a variety of factors and its dashboard interface has been praised for being functional and easy to use. Pricing was unavailable.
RelevantNoise – This online service monitors more than 80 million blogs posts and applies algorithms that evaluate the importance of the bloggers and the tenor of conversations. It provides useful charts showing total activity, positive/negative tone and activity by influence level. The entry-level price is $5,000 per month for five licenses and varies depending on the level of service.
Shoutlet – Part of a suite of tools for content distribution and campaign management, Shoutlet is intended to measure the impact of marketing programs and content premiums on online communities. Pricing was unavailable.
TNS Media Intelligence/Cymfony – Cymfony’s Orchestra platform monitors online chatter to understand how companies are perceived and how trends develop. The service monitors not only blogs, but mainstream media outlets and provides a real-time dashboard, campaign measurement and influencer rankings. Individual services start at $25,000 annually but the average contract runs to about $90,000, according to the company.
Umbria – A relatively recent entrant to the market, Umbria uses conversation analysis to help clients with brand positioning and audience segmentation. Its specialty is in identifying new classes of customers and audience segments that aren’t readily apparent without this analysis. A typical single topic engagement costs around $25,000.
Visible Technologies – Described as the only solution that completes the conversation, Visible’s TruCast service monitors social media comments and context, allows for tracking over time, identifies trends and enables users to publish real-time responses. Typical engagements range from 12 to 24 months with monthly fees.
