What’s new in communications measurement tools? It seems every vendor in measurement has tweaked or redesigned their tools this year. And of course, all the announcements were timed to coincide with the recent annual meeting of the clans at PRSA International in Indianapolis. So we have rounded up all the news, and provided highlights below. (Spoiler alert: Our favorite new tools, those from Glean.info and Proof, are reviewed separately. And the AMEC Integrated Evaluation Framework, an extremely useful new resource that we think of more as a theory than a tool, will get special coverage in next month’s issue.)
New media monitoring tools
Salesforce’s Social Studio gets our Most Improved award. Its core is Radian 6, which went from being a pioneer in the industry (back when there were no good tools) to a pretty dreadful product when the competition heated up. But when Salesforce threw Buddy Media into the mix and redesigned the interface, it became the much-enhanced Social Studio. Its tight integration with Salesforce’s CRM analytics is obviously a huge benefit for those wanting to tie results to actual sales leads. It also offers integrated traditional news feeds, which isn’t that unusual these days but puts it head and shoulders ahead of those who do not offer that seamless integration.
TrackMaven is another up-and-coming platform that I’ve been hearing a lot about. It can track 15 different owned and paid media channels, as well as an “earned media” feed that captures what other people are posting about you. It is also one of the few platforms that claims to bring email, web traffic, and paid media into the mix. However, you can’t export their data into Excel, which is a major drawback if you want to take a deeper dive than their platform allows. Also their website sucks, so don’t expect to find a lot of answers there, but their live support team is good.
Talkwalker walked me through its latest version, which in reality just made a few minor improvements, but gave them something to talk about at PRSA International. It’s gotten a lot of traction with agencies because of its ability to set up specific reports, but it is not the easiest to learn. However, their support team is stellar, and will get back to you in minutes if you have a question.
TrendKite is pushing its new image recognition system that enables brands to track logos and visuals in social media even if names or brands aren’t mentioned. While the technology isn’t new, implementing it in media monitoring is. They have certainly raised the bar for the competition.
iQ Media is a measurement provider that I have named a “Menace of the Month.” Why? They frequently use ad value equivalency (AVE) calculations to determine the “value” of publicity. For that reason I have a very hard time recommending them. However, their CEO, Kye Strance, has a long track record in the industry (including a very successful stint at Vocus), and he has put together a robust offering around TV monitoring. If TV is critical to your metrics, you might want to check them out. Just tell them you do NOT want AVEs.
Cision unveiled its newly-integrated platform called “The Cision Communication Cloud™” and seems to be positioning itself against Adobe and Salesforce. Early reviews from clients have found it full of good ideas and promises, but not quite ready for prime time. The problem is that the customers Cision acquired when they bought Vocus are very attached to that platform, so they aren’t ready to make a switch unless it’s easy and saves them a ton of money. It’s not clear yet if “The Cloud” is either one.
Reputation is in the eyes of your stakeholders
Another new development in communications measurement tools is on the reputation tracking front. Right now, everyone’s fantasy is an instant Net Promoter Score (NPS) for every piece of content they produce. I don’t know about you, but I almost never take those instant surveys unless I’m unhappy. So the overuse of instant polls like NPS and others is exacerbating the validity problems that instant surveys have always had: self-selecting participation, small sample size, etc. Our recommendation is to create your own customized survey that will deliver the information you are seeking.
For years RepTrak has been the go-to source for reputation tracking, mostly because it has the strength and resources of the Reputation Institute behind it. And, if you buy into RI’s definition of reputation drivers, it works just fine. But there are a lot of organizations out there that may not buy into those definitions because they don’t fit their business model or they just aren’t the right drivers for their target audiences.
Which is why the folks at ReputationInc have been able to put together a better alternative. Their focus is far more holistic, looking not just at external drivers, but internal employee perceptions as well. So if “improving our reputation” or “increasing trust in our organization” is one of your goals and you need a benchmark, these guys are worth checking out. ∞
