© 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission.

Social Media Monitoring Tools Benchmarking the Competitive Landscape Eric Anderson, VP of Emerging Media Jamie Beckland, Emerging Media Specialist © 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission.

The reality is, most brands are NOT using social media monitoring tools right now. And generally, their reasons for holding back are valid. © 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission.

For one thing, any social media investment faces scrutiny right now. © 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission.

And the space is still very confusing and unsettled. © 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission. And dashboards. Lots and lots of dashboards. Lots of new proprietary terms to learn… Online Promoter Score Sentiment Analysis Brand Association Map (BAM) Community Health Index

Nevertheless, we believe that a modest investment in monitoring is the single most important step for brands to take in social media. Why? Four reasons. © 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission.

1. The risk is far greater when you don’t monitor every day. Just ask Domino’s. © 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission.

1. The risk is far greater when you don’t monitor every day.

Just ask Domino’s.

2. It’s a very efficient way to measure your brand equity and impact. © 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission.

3. It’s the best way to do field observations on your target audience. © 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission. Tough to do here Easy to do here

4. If knowledge is power, monitoring will allow digital marketers to rule the world. You become the hub of vital information that others in your organization—PR, HR, Branding, and Sales—can use. © 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission. Competitive Insight -- Marketing 5 Testimonial – Marketing/PR 3 Brand Defense – Marketing/PR 1 Employee Issue -- HR 2

4. If knowledge is power, monitoring will allow digital marketers to rule the world.

So, how do you choose a social media monitoring tool? First, two general observations: © 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission.

In general, all of the tools do a good job of scraping content.. . © 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission.

In general, all of the tools do a good job of scraping content.. .

And, in general, all of the tools do a poor job of analyzing content. All analysis is keyword-based. Keywords are great for sorting, but nearly useless for picking up the emotional nuances of a conversation. © 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission.

So, in evaluating these tools, we view their ability to find, sort, present, and export social media content to be much more important than their analytical abilities.* *If you need human analysis, call us instead. © 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission.

So, in evaluating these tools, we view their ability to find, sort, present, and export social media content to be much more important than their analytical abilities.*

Competitive Set © 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission.

Social Media Monitoring Tools Cost vs. Feature Set Cost Feature Set © 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission.

Evaluation in three main areas: 1. Listening activities 2. Capacity for insights 3. Responding capabilities © 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission.

1. Listening activities

2. Capacity for insights

3. Responding capabilities

Listening Activities Real-Time (incl. keyword alerts) Time-Delayed Only “currently relevant” © 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission.

Real-Time (incl. keyword alerts)

Listening Activities But Real-Time is only useful in some situations: Crisis management/monitoring Customer support Not necessary for: Trend analysis Conversation influencers Sentiment © 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission.

But Real-Time is only useful in some situations:

Crisis management/monitoring

Customer support

Not necessary for:

Trend analysis

Conversation influencers

Sentiment

Listening Activities RSS-based Web Scrapes -includes corporate sites, voting sites, Yellow Pages/Yelp, etc. Data collection method causes a huge price difference. © 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission.

RSS-based

Listening Activities Apart from RSS caveat, sources are broadly similar across products. Blogs Blog Comments Forums Boards Community Sites Twitter Publically-available Facebook/MySpace data Scout Labs is adding a number of boards through summer 2009. © 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission.

Apart from RSS caveat, sources are broadly similar across products.

Blogs

Blog Comments

Forums

Boards

Community Sites

Twitter

Publically-available Facebook/MySpace data

Scout Labs is adding a number of boards through summer 2009.

Listening Activities Data set may be slightly different from one product to the next… But this is not a cause for concern because it is a representative set; major hubs are included for all. Big gap: No product has a good handle on video or audio. Can index text around video assets, e.g., titles, descriptions, and comments. No product offers mobile conversation data. © 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission.

Data set may be slightly different from one product to the next…

But this is not a cause for concern because it is a representative set; major hubs are included for all.

Big gap: No product has a good handle on video or audio.

Can index text around video assets, e.g., titles, descriptions, and comments.

No product offers mobile conversation data.

Capacity for Insights: Reporting Suites © 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission.

Reporting Suites One primary goal of these tools is to make meaning out of the information. Not surprisingly, the sophistication of reporting capabilities is a big factor in pricing. Baseline reporting features include: Sentiment Analysis (positive/negative) Topic Trending (conversations over time) Tag Clouds (most popular terms) Term Count Comparisons (bar/pie charts) Drill-down capabilities © 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission.

One primary goal of these tools is to make meaning out of the information.

Not surprisingly, the sophistication of reporting capabilities is a big factor in pricing.

Baseline reporting features include:

Sentiment Analysis (positive/negative)

Topic Trending (conversations over time)

Tag Clouds (most popular terms)

Term Count Comparisons (bar/pie charts)

Drill-down capabilities

Sentiment Analysis Machine-generated (max 75% accurate) -can be overwritten by user Manual Human-sampled None © 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission.

Machine-generated

(max 75% accurate)

-can be overwritten by user

High-End Reporting Cymfony: Human analysis Ethnographic analysis of sample data set leads insight generation Visible: BrandCloud Maps Mapping multiple data points against each other, e.g., sentiment/term density/competitive set Spiral16: Virtualization Shows interactive map of how sites are linked together, indicating high-influence sites © 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission.

Cymfony: Human analysis

Ethnographic analysis of sample data set leads insight generation

Visible: BrandCloud Maps

Mapping multiple data points against each other, e.g., sentiment/term density/competitive set

Spiral16: Virtualization

Shows interactive map of how sites are linked together, indicating high-influence sites

Responding/Engagement Capabilities No CRM Light CRM Full-blown CRM © 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission.

Responding/Engagement Capabilities Light CRM (Radian6 and Scout Labs): assign to internal contacts, follow up, mark complete Full-blown CRM (Visible): All sites’ usernames and passwords stored within system. Users can process engagement directly from Visible platform. No external CRM (e.g., Salesforce) integrations Most important engagement capability: Ability to assign follow-up to a specific user/department We expect this space to continue evolving rapidly as competitors add this functionality. © 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission.

Light CRM (Radian6 and Scout Labs): assign to internal contacts, follow up, mark complete

Full-blown CRM (Visible): All sites’ usernames and passwords stored within system. Users can process engagement directly from Visible platform.

No external CRM (e.g., Salesforce) integrations

Most important engagement capability:

Ability to assign follow-up to a specific user/department

We expect this space to continue evolving rapidly as competitors add this functionality.

Pricing Models Post Count (per subject) Search Count (per subject) High price point products are based on added service © 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission.

Post Count (per subject)

Search Count (per subject)

High price point products are based on added service

Final Thoughts Who will use this software in your organization? Your Agency Marketing PR Customer Service Product Development How quickly/widely will it be adopted? Scalability becomes important Multi-user/customized interfaces become crucial © 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission.

Who will use this software in your organization?

Your Agency

Marketing

PR

Customer Service

Product Development

How quickly/widely will it be adopted?

Scalability becomes important

Multi-user/customized interfaces become crucial

Questions? Thank you! Jamie Beckland, Emerging Media Specialist [email_address] Eric Anderson, VP of Emerging Media [email_address] www.w h itehorse.com Twitter: @whitehorsepdx Blog: http://community.whitehorse.com/profiles/blog/list © 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission.

Jamie Beckland, Emerging Media Specialist

[email_address]

Eric Anderson, VP of Emerging Media

[email_address]

www.w h itehorse.com

Twitter: @whitehorsepdx

Blog: http://community.whitehorse.com/profiles/blog/list

© 2009 White Horse Productions, Inc. Content may not be reused without permission.