Buyers Guide:

How to Choose the

Right Social Media
Listening Tool

1 | Buyers Guide: How to Choose the Right Social Media Listening Tool
Table of Introduction 01

Contents Pricing, Search & Result Volumes 02

Sentiment Analysis 03

Data Sources 04

Historical Data 05

Reporting, Dashboards and Alerts 06

Visulizations 07

Exporting Data & API Integration 08

User Management 09

Costumer Support 10
 01

Introduction

Social listening is a vital tool for many organizations, with several Social listening tools can be used for a wide range of applications, but it’s
important applications. At its most basic, social listening enables you to important to pick the latform that’s best suited to your requirements in
know when people are talking about you online, and to analyze those order to get the best value from it. A common scenario across the industry
conversations. But there are many more use cases: is that businesses invest in a listening tool that isn’t right for them, so they
eventually have to switch to a new supplier, which means spending more
• Spot and react to crises
time and money in a new procurement and implementation process.
• Reputation management
• Identify new opportunities The purpose of this guide is to explain all of the different considerations
involved in choosing a social listening platform, to help you choose the
• Competitor analysis
best tool for your needs.
• Market research
• Customer service
• Security monitoring

3 | Buyers Guide: How to Choose the Right Social Media Listening Tool
 02

Pricing, Search And Result Volumes

Price is, of course, one of the biggest factors in vendor selection, It’s also important to think about how many users will need to work with
so it’s important to understand the different pricing models on the tool at the same time and how the supplier will charge for that.
offer. Some listening platforms base their price on the number of Some providers require each user to have an individual login, and will
different searches you want to set up in the tool, which can be quite charge based on the total number of users. Others will charged based
limiting as any additional searches need to be carefully planned and on the maximum number of users who can be logged into the tool at
budgeted for. the same time so, for example, if you have paid for five concurrent
users, only five people from your organization may be logged in at the
Some suppliers also place limits on the number of search results same time and one of them will need to log out should another user
you can access within a particular price bracket, charging extra if you want access.
want to access higher numbers of search results. Again, this can be
limiting for big consumer brands which get large volume of mentions,
or anybody who wants to research topics which generate a lot of
search results.
Meltwater Social Search lets you set up as many different
searches as you want, and has no limits on the volume of results.

Learn more at meltwater.com/social

4 | Buyers Guide: How to Choose the Right Social Media Listening Tool
 03

Sentiment
Analysis

Automated sentiment analysis has improved sentiment trend over time, to understand how tag the sentiment of posts, to aid with
a lot over recent years, thanks to advances in its campaigns are affecting opinions of the analysis, so make sure your tool allows this if
deep learning and AI technologies. It’s most brand. A sudden decline in sentiment can also it’s something you need.
useful for researchers who want to quickly serve as a warning flag for a potential crisis.
understand sentiment in large volumes of Don’t forget to ask about foreign language
search results where manually assessing the If automated sentiment analysis is important sentiment analysis if you work in non-English
sentiment of each post would be impractical. to you, make sure to ask for a close-up speaking markets. Most platforms will provide
demonstration of how the feature works, and automated sentiment analysis for English,
For example, a consumer brand with ask to test it on some sample tweets, so you and maybe major European languages - but
housands of weekly mentions on social can judge for yourself how accurate it is. In not all of them cover Mandarin, Cantonese,
channels might want to keep an eye on on the some situations users may want to manually Russian, Arabic or other global languages.

5 | Buyers Guide: How to Choose the Right Social Media Listening Tool
 04

Data
Sources

It’s important to understand what data sources are available in social general guideline, any social media content that is public and open is
listening tools, as this is often an area of confusion. likely to be available for analysis in social listening tools.
Twitter is one of the most popular social data sources to analyze in
Typically, tools are able to provide data from open, public sources. listening tools. Twitter provides some listening platforms with an API
So, for example, most Twitter content is published openly so that that delivers full, live access to every single tweet that is posted. This
anybody can see it, and it’s therefore available to analyze in most API is known as the Twitter Firehose. Some listening tools provide
social listening tools. On the other hand, Facebook accounts are “sampled” Twitter data, which means they use a limited version of
considered private, and there are no social listening tools which can the API containing just a random 10% sample of tweets, and this is
provide access to data from people’s personal Facebook profiles. As a referred to as the Decahose.

6 | Buyers Guide: How to Choose the Right Social Media Listening Tool
 If you’re only interested in light research and Discussion forums are often overlooked when most popular website in the world - so it doesn’t
analyzing general trends, the Decahose might we talk about social media, but they remain a make sense to ignore it.
be fine, but most brands will want full access hugely popular channel for consumers to share
to the Firehose to make sure they get the whole their opinions and can provide a lot of valuable Finally, have you considered whether you
picture. intelligence for brands. As well as the millions need conventional news sources included
of online forums which are focused on vertical alongside social media data? Particularly in
Data from personal Facebook accounts markets and niche topics, there are also huge, PR and communications applications, it can
generally isn’t available, but some listening all encompassing discussion sites like Reddit be valuable to understand how social media
tools will be able to access data from public which can be goldmines of insight. Any good discussion tracks alongside coverage of stories
Facebook Pages and Groups. social listening tool should include discussion in mainstream news media.
forums.
In 2018, Facebook and Instagram changed If access to news media coverage is important
and limited what types of information can be Equally, blogs aren’t quite the social superstars to you, make sure you check how well this is
accessed by social analytics providers. They they used to be, but nevertheless they still help implemented in any choice of tool. Because
have also deprecated several capabilities millions of amateur publishers to share their of copyright issues, it can be costly for social
brands depended on for accessing user- ideas and opinions with the world, and should listening tools to include news media coverage
generated content. With the recent changes, be included in a complete social listening in their platforms, so this is an area where some
Instagram is shifting to be a competitive program. vendors cut costs by providing sub-par data
benchmarking and industry research tool rather which often doesn’t include many of the biggest
than a consumer research platform. Brands now Don’t forget video, and specifically YouTube. news sources.
have access to more data about their own posts Over 400 hours of video content are uploaded
and content in Instagram. to YouTube every minute, and it’s the second

7 | Buyers Guide: How to Choose the Right Social Media Listening Tool
 05

Historical Data

Most social listening tools will start collecting data once you
have set up your search terms. So, you could build your query to
monitor for mentions of your brand, and then it will begin collecting
new data from that day forward.

But what if you want to analyze social media conversations that

have already taken place in the past? Being able to search through
historical social media data opens up a much broader range of
research possibilities, such as being able to benchmark older
campaigns, analyze how opinions or perceptions have changed
over time, how events shaped public discussions and much more.

While several vendors offer access to historical social data

(primarily from Twitter) it’s important to understand how that data Meltwater Social Search provides access to a 13 month historical
is delivered. Is it full access to a complete archive of the Twitter archive of social data, including the full Twitter Firehose.
Firehose, or just a sample of that data, and can you access it
Learn more at meltwater.com/social
instantly, or is there a delay in retrieving each search request?

8 | Buyers Guide: How to Choose the Right Social Media Listening Tool
 06

Reporting,
Dashboards
and Alerts

Most social listening tools will start collecting analyze how opinions or perceptions have
Meltwater Social Search helps you
data once you have set up your search terms. changed over time, how events shaped public
agregate data from multiple sources,
So, you could build your query to monitor for discussions and much more.
alongside social, to provide deeper
mentions of your brand, and then it will begin insight
collecting new data from that day forward. While several vendors offer access to
historical social data (primarily from Twitter) Learn more at meltwater.com/social
But what if you want to analyze social media it’s important to understand how that data is
conversations that have already taken place delivered. Is it full access to a complete archive
in the past? Being able to search through of the Twitter Firehose, or just a sample of
historical social media data opens up a much that data, and can you access it instantly,
broader range of research possibilities, such or is there a delay in retrieving each search
as being able to benchmark older campaigns, request?

9 | Buyers Guide: How to Choose the Right Social Media Listening Tool
 07

Visualizations

Second only to the quality of data, visualizations are one of the most Good visualizations in a social media listening tool will help you
important components of a social listening tool. Very few users will quickly identify trends and patterns in the data, and drill down into
want to manually analyze raw data, and visualizations provide a more specific areas to understand them with greater detail and
quick and simple way of understanding the data. nuance. So it’s important not to be dazzled by showy graphics. While
nice looking visualizations are great for presentations, they also need
Also, many users will want to export charts directly into presentations to be functional. Are they interactive in a way that helps you explore
to share with colleagues who might not have the same level the data more intuitively? Do they communicate useful information
of understanding of social media data, so it’s important that clearly?
visualizations not only look good but also help communicate
information clearly. When you’re looking at the visualizations in a tool, think carefully
about what they communicate and whether or not they will prove to
be genuinely useful for your research and listening requirements.

10 | Buyers Guide: How to Choose the Right Social Media Listening Tool
 08
API Driven Integration with 3rd Parties
Exporting Data Loyalty

& API Integration Survey

MMM

Mobile Television

CRM Sales

CMS

Email

Ad Tech

Do you want to export the raw data from your social listening If you are planning to integrate social data into a CRM system or
platform so you can import and analyze it in a different tool, such as your own proprietary applications, you’ll need to be certain that the
Excel? Make sure that the vendor you select offers this option, and social listening vendor provides a stable, well documented API. It’s a
that it can export in a format that you need. Also good to look for good idea to make sure that technical staff who will be involved in
packages that provide flexible rate limit options based on volume the project are able to fully investigate the API during your selection
and demand. process, to make sure it meets their requirements.

11 | Buyers Guide: How to Choose the Right Social Media Listening Tool
 09

User
Management

Before making a buying decision you should have a clear idea of who in If you have a large number of users with numerous different job roles, it’s
your organization will use the tool, and what for, and make sure the tool important to understand how any social listening platform can help you
supports the kind of usage you expect. You’ll need to understand how manage that effectively.
many people will use the tool and what kind of features you want each
of those users to have access to. Have you thought about your future plans for social listening and
analytics? If there’s a likelihood that you’ll want to do a lot more of this
Some will only require high level access to reports or dashboards, while kind of work, then you should be sure that the tool you choose, and the
others will need to be able to create new searches and perform analysis. vendor’s pricing model, will scale up appropriately with your business
Does the tool enable you to assign access privileges to different users, needs.
with custom dashboards that are tailored to their specific roles?

12 | Buyers Guide: How to Choose the Right Social Media Listening Tool
 09

Customer
Support

Being able to get technical support quickly and efficiently is critical to ensuring that a
social listening platform delivers the most value to your business. Make sure there are ways
to get access to support materials when you need them, not just when things go wrong.
They key is to make sure your team is able to understand and use all of the available
features, helping you set up complex searches, and generally using the platform to its full
capability.

You should find out what channels customer service is available on (phone, email, live-chat)
whether it’s 24/7 or restricted to specific hours, and that support is available in appropriate
languages for your team.

13 | Buyers Guide: How to Choose the Right Social Media Listening Tool
 Checklist

Y N Pricing Model: Does the vendor’s pricing model match Y N Dashboards: Can you create custom dashboards? Are
your budget expectations, and will it scale if you need it to? there limits to the number you can create? Is it easy to
share access to dashboards with colleagues?

Y N Data/Search Volumes: Are there restrictions on the Y N Alerts: How flexible is the alert function? Will it work in
number of searches you can perform, or the volume of the way you need it to?
search results you can analyze? Will this cause problems for
you?

Y N Data Sources: Does the vendor have access to all of the Y N Sentiment Analysis: How accurate is the automated
social media and mainstream news sources that you want sentiment analysis, and does it cover all the international
to monitor? Is the data complete, or just a sample of the full languages you need?
data set?

Y N Historical Data: Do you want to analyze historical social Y N User Management: Can you easily manage multiple users
data and, if so, does the vendor provide it? Again, is it the full with different roles?
data set or just a sample? How quickly and easily can you
access this data?

Y N Visualizations: Does the platform feature all of the Y N Exports and API: If you need to use data in other
visualizations you need to quickly analyze data, and do they applications, can you get it out either through exports or an
function in the way you want? API?

Y N Data Aggregation: Do you want to combine social data with Y N Scalability: Will the tool, and the vendor, scale with your
other sources? Does the vendor facilitate that? business as it grows?

Y N Reporting: Is it easy to set up automated reports? Are Y N Customer Support: Can the vendor provide high quality and
there limits on how many reports you can generate? timely support to help you get the most from the tool?

14 | Buyers Guide: How to Choose the Right Social Media Listening Tool
 Conclusion

Meltwater empowers brands and agencies to turn data-driven

insights into actionable customer engagement opportunities.

Unparalleled Data Access

Analyze social media, news and other humangenerated content in a
Learn More About Social Listening
single platform Check out these resources or speak to one of our consultants to
find out exactly what social listening can do for your business.
Insights to Action
Uncover what customers are talking about then seamlessly engage in
real-time and analyze what actually has an impact
Meltwater Blog Meltwater Resources

Fast Time to Value

Get up and running in weeks, not months, to drive ROI and user Get In Touch
adoption

Scalable & Flexible

Choose from our pre-packaged bundles or customize a solution to
meet your needs

15 | Buyers Guide: How to Choose the Right Social Media Listening Tool