Meltwater - Detailed Review
Communication Tools
Meltwater - Product Overview
Meltwater Overview
Meltwater is a comprehensive AI-driven platform that specializes in providing consumer, social, and media intelligence to businesses. Here’s a brief overview of its primary function, target audience, and key features:
Primary Function
Meltwater’s primary function is to transform vast amounts of unstructured data from various global sources into actionable insights. This is achieved by applying AI, data science, and market research expertise to a live feed of social media, online conversations, and other data sources. The platform helps businesses make informed decisions by analyzing what customers think, want, and need.
Target Audience
Meltwater is targeted at large, global organizations and marketing professionals who need deep consumer insights to drive their strategies. Its tools are particularly useful for market research specialists, PR managers, marketing directors, and any team member involved in strategy and decision-making.
Key Features
Consumer Intelligence
Meltwater provides AI-enabled consumer insights that help businesses understand their audiences better. It analyzes social data to identify trends, preferences, and opinions of different customer segments, including demographic, geographic, and psychographic details.
Audience Segmentation
The platform offers advanced audience segmentation capabilities, allowing businesses to divide their target audience into smaller, more specific groups based on criteria such as purchasing behaviors, browsing data, interests, engagement levels, and the platforms they use.
Social Listening & Analytics
Meltwater enables social listening and analytics, helping businesses hear relevant conversations online, even when their brand is not mentioned. This feature provides insights into what people are talking about and how they are discussing it, including trending topics and sentiment analysis.
Media Intelligence
The platform includes tools for media intelligence, allowing businesses to monitor their brand mentions, manage media relations, and engage with key journalists.
Data Integration
Meltwater offers data and API integration, enabling businesses to connect their existing data sources and create a unified view of their market and customer insights.
360° Reporting
The platform provides comprehensive reporting to measure the success of PR and marketing strategies, offering a full view of how these efforts are impacting the business.
By leveraging these features, Meltwater helps businesses increase marketing efficiency, boost net sales value, and make data-driven decisions with greater accuracy and speed.
Meltwater - User Interface and Experience
User Interface of Meltwater
The user interface of Meltwater, particularly in its AI-driven communication tools, is generally praised for its user-friendliness and efficiency.
Ease of Use
Meltwater is described as very easy to use, with a user-friendly interface that allows users to quickly find the features they need. Users appreciate the daily digests and robust reporting dashboards that make it simple to see key information at a glance.
Interface and Features
The platform consists of several applications within one platform, making it easy to move around using the navigation bar and home screen. Users can connect their social channels to Meltwater for various functions such as social listening, competitive benchmarking, and analyzing. The interface also supports multiple languages, time zones, and other personalization options.
Real-Time Insights and Alerts
Meltwater’s social listening capabilities provide real-time insights into social media performance, allowing users to track engagement and adjust their content strategy accordingly. The platform offers real-time alerts and sentiment analysis, keeping users informed about current and past conversations related to their product or brand.
Learning Curve
While the interface is user-friendly, there is a learning curve to fully utilize all the advanced features. It can take some time to get accustomed to the various tools and functionalities available, but users generally find it worth the investment.
Data Presentation
One of the minor drawbacks mentioned is that the dashboards can sometimes be complex due to the vast amount of data collected. However, users prefer having too much information rather than not enough, and the overall user interface remains good despite this.
Customer Support
Meltwater is highly praised for its exceptional customer service. The support team is quick to respond and offers thoughtful, helpful solutions, which helps users maximize the platform’s potential and stay ahead of their social media strategy.
Conclusion
In summary, Meltwater’s user interface is designed to be intuitive and efficient, providing users with easy access to valuable insights and tools. While there may be a slight learning curve, the overall user experience is positive, with strong support from the customer service team.
Meltwater - Key Features and Functionality
Meltwater’s AI-Driven Communication Tools
Meltwater’s AI-driven communication tools offer a suite of features that leverage artificial intelligence to enhance various aspects of media, social, consumer, and sales intelligence. Here are the main features and how they work:
AI-Powered Platform Assistant
Meltwater’s 2024 Year-End Product Release introduces an AI-Powered Platform Assistant. This assistant helps teams complete tasks more efficiently across the Meltwater platform. Users can ask the assistant how to perform tasks, and it will guide them through the process, saving time and increasing productivity.
Brand Analytics Tabs
The Brand Analytics Tabs automate the analysis of thousands of conversations and news stories to deliver quick insights into a brand’s performance. These tabs provide metrics on volume, narrative, sentiment, and engagement, giving users a comprehensive view of their brand’s presence and reputation in real-time.
AI Journalist Search
The AI Journalist Search tool uses AI to find the most relevant journalists for any given story. It goes beyond simple keyword searches by analyzing the meaning and messaging of content to recommend the best-fit contacts. This feature saves users time and ensures they are targeting the most relevant journalists for their outreach efforts.
Social Listening and Media Monitoring
Meltwater’s social listening suite allows users to monitor unlimited keywords, ensuring they never miss relevant conversations. AI analyzes these conversations to detect sentiments, tone of voice, and the actual topics being discussed. For example, it can differentiate between conversations about the movie “Titanic” and the historical ship. Users receive real-time alerts on topics that matter, enabling quick action.
Sentiment Analysis
AI-powered sentiment analysis detects nuances in language to determine how people feel about specific topics. This feature helps users understand whether conversations are largely positive, negative, or neutral, providing valuable insights into public opinion and sentiment shifts.
Data Integration and API Access
Meltwater offers API access and data integration capabilities, allowing users to integrate Meltwater’s data into their own or third-party software platforms. This integration enables centralized and automated reporting, tying social media and PR activities to business outcomes. Users can connect to preferred BI tools like Looker Studio and Power BI without needing a developer, and automate data retrieval to avoid manual downloading.
Combating Misinformation and Narrative Attacks
Meltwater has partnered with Blackbird.AI to combat narrative attacks and misinformation. This partnership combines Meltwater’s AI-powered media and social intelligence with Blackbird.AI’s narrative intelligence platform. It provides real-time insights into harmful narratives, underlying influences, and bot manipulation, helping customers make better strategic decisions and safeguard their brand reputation.
Consumer Intelligence and Trend Analysis
Meltwater’s platform uses AI consumer intelligence to identify and understand online conversations. It helps users learn what people are talking about, how they are discussing it, and their sentiments towards various topics. This allows for the identification of trending topics and the ability to capitalize on emerging trends and sentiments.
These features collectively enhance the efficiency, accuracy, and strategic value of communication and marketing efforts by leveraging AI to analyze vast amounts of data and provide actionable insights.
Meltwater - Performance and Accuracy
Meltwater as a Communication Tool in the AI-Driven Product Category
Meltwater offers several notable features and capabilities, but it also has some limitations and areas for improvement.
Performance Highlights
- Social Listening and Media Monitoring: Meltwater is praised for its strong social listening features, which help users analyze and engage with their audiences effectively. Users appreciate the deep analytics and the ability to filter listening results by location, vertical, and other elements.
- AI Integrations: The platform’s AI capabilities are a significant strength, enabling users to stay ahead with features like sentiment analysis, data visualization, and real-time alerts. These AI tools help in analyzing conversations, detecting nuances in language, and providing actionable insights.
- Customization and Integration: Meltwater offers high customization of alerts, including the time, frequency, destination, and type of alert. It also integrates well with other tools like Microsoft Teams, which enhances its usability in a collaborative environment.
Accuracy and Insights
- Sentiment Analysis and Data Visualization: Meltwater’s AI can accurately analyze sentiments in news articles and social media posts, providing valuable insights through various data visualizations such as word clouds, bubbles, and charts.
- Real-Time Alerts: The platform sends instant alerts on relevant topics, allowing users to take quick action. This real-time capability is crucial for trend monitoring and crisis management.
Limitations and Areas for Improvement
- Irrelevant Data: One of the significant issues reported by users is the presence of irrelevant data in the social listening results. This can lead to additional work in filtering out incorrect or irrelevant items, which can be time-consuming and inefficient.
- Data Processing Delays: There have been complaints about data delays, with some users experiencing a 2-hour delay in receiving data. This delay can be a setback, especially for real-time trend monitoring and crisis response.
- Noise in Data: Some users have mentioned that the social listening tools sometimes produce a lot of “noise” in the data, which can make it challenging to extract meaningful insights without additional filtering.
Human Expertise and Context
While Meltwater’s AI is powerful, the platform also benefits from human market research expertise. This combination helps in structuring data intelligently and providing context-specific insights that go beyond basic social listening.
Conclusion
In summary, Meltwater is a powerful tool with strong AI-driven features for social listening, media monitoring, and data analysis. However, it faces challenges related to data relevance and processing delays, which can impact its overall performance and user experience. Addressing these issues could further enhance its effectiveness in providing accurate and timely insights.
Meltwater - Pricing and Plans
Pricing Structure Overview
Meltwater’s pricing structure is characterized by several key aspects, which can be somewhat opaque due to the lack of publicly available pricing information. Here’s a breakdown of what is known:
Pricing Tiers
Meltwater offers four main pricing tiers:
- Essentials: This is the basic package, suitable for starting out with general brand and market monitoring. It includes training resources to help users get started.
- Advanced: This tier is a step up from the Essentials plan, offering deeper analysis tools and unlimited search features. It is best for businesses that need media monitoring with detailed insights.
- Suite: This tier provides access to the full suite of Meltwater’s tools, including integrated tools across multiple products, advanced analytics, and a more unified approach to managing insights.
- Enterprise: This is the premium option, which includes everything Meltwater offers, such as advanced AI features and specialized services to help make strategic PR decisions.
Pricing Model
- Meltwater’s pricing is highly customized and not publicly disclosed. Users typically need to contact the sales team to get a custom quote.
- The average cost is reported to be around $12,000 per user per year, or approximately $1,000 per user per month. However, costs can range from $6,000 to $25,000 annually per user, depending on the tier and additional features.
Commitment and Trials
- Meltwater requires users to commit to annual contracts; there is no option for a monthly subscription. Additionally, there is no free trial available, but users can request a custom demo from the sales team.
Extra Costs
- Additional seats and features come with extra fees. The final cost of a Meltwater contract can increase substantially based on the number of users, customization, and training needs.
Feature Availability
- Lower-tiered plans may feel limited in functionality, with key features often available only in higher, more expensive tiers. This means users may end up paying for extra features they do not necessarily need.
Scalability and Transparency
- Meltwater’s pricing structure can be challenging for smaller or growing companies to scale smoothly due to significant cost increases between tiers. The pricing and additional costs can be unclear, requiring direct communication with the sales team for clarity.
Conclusion
In summary, Meltwater’s pricing is not transparent, requires annual commitments, and lacks a free trial option. The costs are substantial, and the feature availability varies significantly across different tiers. If you are considering Meltwater, it is essential to engage directly with their sales team to understand the full scope of costs and features.
Meltwater - Integration and Compatibility
Integration with Marketing and Analytics Tools
Meltwater integrates with a wide range of marketing, web analytics, and CRM tools through connectors like those provided by Improvado. This integration allows users to automate the process of importing Meltwater data into their preferred analytics software or marketing tools. For instance, you can connect Meltwater to your CRM, marketing tools, and web analytics platforms, enabling you to monitor campaign performance and gain valuable insights without the need for technical skills.
API Integration
The Meltwater API plays a crucial role in integrating the platform with other tools. It allows users to export or analyze earned media, fetch analytics for owned social accounts, and access platform data similar to what is available in the Meltwater application. This API can be used behind the scenes by BI connectors to fetch data using your API credentials. However, there are some limitations on the data provided through the API due to agreements with data providers.
Integration with Specific Tools
Meltwater integrates with several specific tools to enhance its functionality. For example, it integrates with Google Analytics API to serve data directly in media intelligence dashboards. Additionally, Meltwater has a Slack integration that provides AI-powered alerts sent directly to Slack, keeping users informed in real-time.
Data Import into BI Applications
Users can import data from the Meltwater API into various Business Intelligence (BI) applications such as Microsoft PowerBI and Domo. The platform also supports importing data into tools that read CSV or JSON data, making it versatile for different analytical needs.
Cross-Platform Compatibility
Meltwater monitors a vast array of sources, including over 270,000 news sources globally and more than 15 different social media channels, podcasts, broadcasts, and print media. This comprehensive data collection ensures that users can access and analyze data from multiple sources across different platforms.
Customer Support and Setup
Meltwater provides 24/7 live customer support via chat, along with in-product support articles and a personal support representative for professional and enterprise clients. This support ensures that users can set up and use the platform effectively, integrating it with their existing tools and services seamlessly.
Conclusion
In summary, Meltwater’s integration capabilities are extensive, allowing users to connect with a variety of marketing, analytics, and CRM tools, as well as specific platforms like Google Analytics and Slack. The Meltwater API facilitates these integrations, making it easy to import and analyze data across different tools and devices.
Meltwater - Customer Support and Resources
Customer Support Options
In-App Chat
For immediate assistance, users can engage with Meltwater’s live support team directly within the app. This is done by clicking the chat bubble in the bottom right-hand corner, selecting “Messages,” and then “Ask a question.” Responses are typically received within minutes, allowing for a continuous chat.
Email Support
The product support team is available 24/7 via email. Users can send their inquiries to help@meltwater.com and include details such as the product or service in question, a description of the issue, any error messages or screenshots, and other relevant information to expedite the resolution process.
mCommunity
This is a fully integrated knowledge hub that combines the Help Center, Academy, and other resources. Here, users can find instant answers to frequently asked questions, access training videos, how-tos, and FAQs organized by product. The community also allows users to post questions and receive advice from the Community Manager and other Meltwater users.
Additional Resources
System Status Page
Users can stay updated on scheduled maintenance windows and the performance status of Meltwater’s application by accessing the System Status Page. Subscribing to updates ensures notifications about any scheduled downtime or impacts on system performance.
Help Center
The Meltwater Help Center is a valuable resource that provides guides and tutorials. Users can search for specific help topics directly from the Meltwater platform by clicking the “Help” icon in the top-right corner of the page.
Training and Workshops
Meltwater offers tiered trainings from basic to advanced use cases, as well as OnDemand recordings of previous Product Workshops. These resources help users get up to speed quickly with the platform.
Customer Community and Office Hours
The mCommunity includes community-driven support where users can interact with the Community Manager and fellow users. Additionally, users can join weekly office hours, which are announced via email notifications.
By leveraging these support options and resources, Meltwater ensures that users can efficiently resolve issues, gain insights, and maximize the benefits of their AI-driven communication tools.
Meltwater - Pros and Cons
When considering Meltwater as a communication tool
When considering Meltwater as a communication tool, especially in the AI-driven category, there are several key advantages and disadvantages to be aware of.
Advantages
Powerful Media Monitoring
Meltwater is highly regarded for its media monitoring capabilities. It allows users to monitor unlimited keywords, and it includes advanced features like sentiment analysis, volume spike detection, and custom mention scoring. This makes it an excellent tool for managing extensive media coverage and gaining valuable insights.
Thorough Reporting
The platform offers comprehensive PR reporting, enabling users to create interactive dashboards and access custom reports aligned with their PR KPIs. For more complex reporting needs, Meltwater also provides a team of analysts for additional support.
All-in-One PR Platform
Meltwater can serve as a full-suite PR platform, allowing users to manage all their PR work from a single interface. This includes media intelligence, media relations, social listening and analytics, social media management, consumer intelligence, influencer marketing, and sales intelligence.
AI Integrations
Meltwater has integrated AI tools that enhance user efficiency. These include an AI writing assistant using OpenAI’s GPT model, an insight assistant for uncovering consumer and market insights, and a video analysis tool that uses computer vision to identify logos, scenes, objects, and celebrities in video content. These tools help in accelerated content creation and insight surfacing.
Real-Time Insights
The platform provides real-time alerts and insights, allowing users to take quick action on relevant topics and conversations. AI-powered summaries help in analyzing sentiments and understanding the context of conversations.
Disadvantages
Steep Learning Curve
Meltwater is known for having a steep learning curve, which can make the initial setup and onboarding process challenging. Users often require help from the onboarding team to get comfortable with the platform.
Hidden Pricing
One of the significant drawbacks is that Meltwater does not provide transparent pricing on their website. Users need to contact the company for a quote, which can be inconvenient and lacks transparency.
Complex Interface
The interface of Meltwater can be overwhelming due to the variety of tools and solutions available. This complexity can make it harder to navigate and use the platform efficiently.
Missing Essential Features
Despite its comprehensive suite, Meltwater lacks some essential features such as a site, newsroom, or press release creator, which are important for modern PR teams.
Slow Channel Adoption
Meltwater is slow to implement new social media channels or support their full range of publishing features. This can be a disadvantage, especially for platforms like TikTok, which may require additional costs to include in the current plan.
Irrelevant Social Listening Data
Some users have reported issues with the relevance of the data provided by Meltwater’s social listening tools. This can lead to additional work in filtering out irrelevant results.
Data Processing Delays
There are delays in data processing, which can be critical for social media monitoring. Users have reported a 2-hour delay, which can hinder rapid responses to trends or crises.
Unreliable Customer Support
Many users have expressed dissatisfaction with Meltwater’s customer support. The support process can be frustrating, and some users prefer direct human interaction over the AI chatbot.
High Prices
Meltwater is considered expensive, and the cost may not be justified by the features offered for all users. The platform often locks users into annual contracts, which can be problematic if budget changes occur.
In summary, while Meltwater offers powerful media monitoring, thorough reporting, and advanced AI integrations, it also comes with a steep learning curve, complex interface, hidden pricing, and high costs that may not be suitable for all users.
Meltwater - Comparison with Competitors
When Comparing Meltwater to Competitors
When comparing Meltwater to its competitors in the AI-driven communication and media monitoring tools category, several key features and differences stand out.
Meltwater’s Unique Features
Meltwater is renowned for its comprehensive media monitoring and analysis capabilities. Here are some of its unique features:
- AI-Powered Platform Assistant: This tool helps teams complete tasks more efficiently by providing guidance on how to perform common tasks within the platform.
- Brand Analytics Tabs: These automate the analysis of thousands of conversations and news stories to deliver insights into brand volume, narrative, sentiment, and engagement.
- AI Journalist Search: This feature uses AI to find the most relevant journalists for a given story, analyzing the meaning and messaging of content to recommend the best contacts.
- Social Listening and Media Monitoring: Meltwater can monitor unlimited keywords, analyze sentiments, and detect nuances in language, providing real-time alerts and essential data for decision-making.
Competitors and Alternatives
Mentionlytics
Mentionlytics is an AI-powered online media monitoring platform that tracks mentions, keywords, and backlinks across the web, review sites, and social media. It is known for its accurate sentiment analysis and mention tracking, making it a strong alternative for organizations needing detailed insights into brand mentions and competitor activities.
Brandwatch
Brandwatch offers advanced social listening and media monitoring capabilities, similar to Meltwater. It provides in-depth analytics on consumer conversations, sentiment analysis, and competitor monitoring. Brandwatch is particularly useful for large enterprises needing comprehensive consumer insights.
Hootsuite
Hootsuite is a social media management platform that includes monitoring and analytics tools. While it doesn’t have the same level of AI-driven insights as Meltwater, it excels in content scheduling, engagement, and team collaboration. Hootsuite is more geared towards social media management rather than deep media monitoring.
Sprinklr and Sprout Social
Both Sprinklr and Sprout Social offer social media management and monitoring tools with some AI capabilities. Sprinklr is more focused on enterprise-level solutions, providing a unified platform for social media management, customer service, and marketing. Sprout Social is known for its user-friendly interface and strong customer service features.
Competitors App
Competitors App is another tool that stands out for its real-time monitoring and comprehensive analysis of competitors’ online activities. It focuses on competitive intelligence, monitoring social media, email marketing, and SEO strategies. This tool is particularly useful for businesses looking to stay ahead of their competitors by analyzing their marketing strategies.
Key Differences
- Scope of AI Capabilities: Meltwater’s AI is deeply integrated into its platform, offering advanced features like AI Journalist Search and Brand Analytics Tabs. Competitors like Mentionlytics and Brandwatch also use AI, but their focus may be more on sentiment analysis and mention tracking rather than the broad range of AI-powered tools Meltwater offers.
- User Base and Use Cases: Meltwater is geared towards professionals in PR, marketing, research, and sales, providing a unified platform for managing stakeholder relationships and analyzing brand insights. Other tools like Hootsuite and Sprout Social are more general social media management platforms, while Mentionlytics and Brandwatch are more specialized in media monitoring and competitive analysis.
- Real-Time Monitoring and Alerts: Meltwater and Competitors App both offer real-time monitoring and alerts, but Meltwater’s focus is more on social listening and media monitoring, while Competitors App is centered on competitive intelligence across various digital channels.
In summary, while Meltwater stands out with its advanced AI-powered features and comprehensive media monitoring capabilities, alternatives like Mentionlytics, Brandwatch, and Competitors App offer unique strengths in areas such as sentiment analysis, competitive intelligence, and social media management. The choice between these tools depends on the specific needs and focus of the organization.
Meltwater - Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently Asked Questions about Meltwater
What is Meltwater and what services does it offer?
Meltwater is a global leader in media, social, and consumer intelligence. It provides a unified platform for PR, Marketing, Research, and Sales professionals to collect data from over 6 million sources and apply AI to turn unstructured data into actionable insights. The platform includes tools for media monitoring, social listening, brand analytics, influencer engagement, and more.How does Meltwater use AI in its platform?
Meltwater heavily integrates AI into its platform to analyze the meaning and messaging of content. For example, the AI-Powered Search can recommend the most relevant journalists for a story by analyzing the content beyond just names or keywords. Additionally, the Meltwater Copilot, developed with Microsoft, allows users to access real-time insights such as brand mentions, sentiment analysis, and competitive benchmarking using conversational language.What are some of the key features introduced in Meltwater’s recent updates?
Recent updates include the AI-Powered Platform Assistant, which helps teams complete tasks more efficiently through conversational commands. Other features include Brand Analytics Tabs for automating brand insights, AI Journalist Search for finding the best journalists, and updates to the Engage solution for better stakeholder relationship management. The Meltwater Copilot for Microsoft Teams also provides real-time insights directly within the Teams environment.How much does Meltwater cost?
Meltwater’s pricing is highly customizable and not publicly disclosed. On average, users reportedly pay around $12,000 per user per year. There are four pricing tiers: Essentials, Advanced, Suite, and Enterprise, each with varying levels of features and functionalities. Additional seats and features come with extra fees, and users need to contact the sales team for a custom quote.Does Meltwater offer a free trial?
Meltwater does not offer a free trial. However, users can request a custom demo from the sales team to get a better understanding of the platform and its features.How does Meltwater’s social listening and media monitoring work?
Meltwater’s social listening and media monitoring tools allow users to monitor unlimited keywords and analyze conversations in real-time. AI is used to detect sentiments, understand the context of conversations, and filter out irrelevant data. This helps users take quick action on insights that matter to their business. The platform also sends instant alerts for topics that are relevant to the user.Can Meltwater integrate with other tools and platforms?
Yes, Meltwater integrates with various tools and platforms. For example, the Meltwater Copilot integrates with Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365, allowing users to access insights directly within these environments. Additionally, Meltwater offers integration with other media monitoring tools and provides features like exporting media mentions and tracking social media performance across multiple channels.How user-friendly is the Meltwater platform?
The Meltwater platform is known to have a complex user interface with a steep learning curve. However, recent updates have aimed to streamline workflows and make the platform more intuitive. Features like the Platform Assistant and Copilot are designed to simplify tasks and make it easier for users to interact with the platform using conversational language.What kind of support does Meltwater offer to its users?
Meltwater provides standard support, with the option for additional premium support. The platform also includes training resources, especially in the Essentials and Advanced tiers, to help users get started and make the most out of the platform.How scalable is Meltwater for different business sizes?
Meltwater is highly scalable and suitable for large enterprises, but it can be challenging for smaller or growing companies due to the significant cost increases between different tiers. The platform is designed to handle vast amounts of data, but the pricing model may not be as flexible for smaller businesses.What are some of the new tools and functionalities in Meltwater’s recent releases?
Recent releases include new tools like the Brand Analytics Tabs, AI Journalist Search, and updates to the Engage solution. The Meltwater Copilot for Microsoft Teams is another significant addition, allowing users to access real-time insights directly within Teams. Other updates include enhanced email composition, social media post management, and improved influencer tracking.