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Hi there! My name is Duane Brown.
I am a digital strategist helping clients connect with their communities and stakeholders online. I've a strong passion for digital marketing and video games. Read my full bio or contact me if you wish to hire me for your next campaign or project.
You may have also come here because of my popular post: Paid Social Media Monitoring and Measurement Tools: The (almost) Complete Guide
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Social media analysis reports are a ripoff
This morning I had the pleasure of talking with Katie Delahaye Paine (@PKDPaine) about my social media monitoring & measurement tools list. She pointed out a site that had a social media analysis report that was more comprehensive then my tools list. The cost of the report was $300. Since making my social media monitoring & measurement tools list last June. I’ve come across a few other social media analysis reports like this one that wants money for their information. I know it’s how Forrester & others make their money but it’s a rip off in my opinion. Let me tell you why.
I original made my list because I want something that focused on paid social media monitoring tools and I couldn’t find anything out there at the time for free. A lot of the lists I found mixed paid & free tools and made it seem like they were equal sometimes. I don’t think free tools are a good starting point for clients. You’re not going to get the data and information you need from the free tools to help you make an informed decision. A lot of the free tools can’t show you the history of your brand or company as you engage in social media like the paid tools do as you move past your launch date. We don’t yet have an equivalent of Google Analytic, from a robust & feature standpoint, for monitoring a brand or company online. Social Mention is great but is not quite there yet.
The reason I think these social media analysis reports are a rip off is because many of the firms producing them haven’t been in business that long to begin with. Many don’t have the history to back up how they came to certain conclusions in their report. Also each social media monitoring tool is very different in how they go about gathering date to presenting that date to you as a client. Each clients needs are going to be different and I think it’s key for clients to get a feel for the different tools and how they work. I can see some clients using the report as a crutch and not doing the critical thinking to make sure they are picking the best tool based on their needs, goals and organizational structure. As I’ve said before, these tools are not a one size fits all and we need to challenge clients to put in the effort for picking the best tool for them.
My other issue with these reports is that I find they try to group all these tools into groups of similar features. Of the 9 tools I’ve demoed over the last 8 months, I can tell you that no two tools are a like. It’s a challenge to group them because each tool gathers data a different way and some go as far back as 2005 and others don’t. Also how these tools look at areas including sentiment & buzz are calculated in a different way. Just take a look at Ken Burbary’s post The Dirty Little Secret of Social Media Monitoring. I can see some clients trying to fit their organization into the tool then working hard at finding a tool that fits within their organization. It takes some time but you’ve to put in this effort and research up front to get the value from picking the right tool in the begining. Simply holding yourself and your team up in a room reading these social media analysis reports is not going to do that.
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