BuzzStream works for anyone that is working in the SEO field! It has literally saved me hours of time and is my go-to tool for all link building needs. The speed that I'm able to research a site, save the key information and launch a pre-crafted email is head spinning (In a good way)! This is one of the SEO tools that I can't live without--it makes link building and link tracking a whole lot easier. BuzzStream likely wouldn't be a good fit for anyone that isn't particularly working in the SEO field. I can't imagine this would replace a dedicated email tracking system or be used to send email drips.
Critical Mention is great for schools/businesses/etc. that want to know when they are in the news. Sometimes a brand's reputation can suffer greatly if you are not aware of an issue that was posted by a competitor or media outlet If you are not in the news a lot, there is no need for this product.
Communication Organization: It provides a simple communication format for even the most novice of users to understand. All messages are kept in nice order, even placed in folders if needed, to alleviate the pain of losing messages in normal email.
Locating Contact Information: I love that BuzzStream aids in finding additional contact information for people. From social accounts to other emails, we can make sure we reach out to people via the correct channels.
Building a Consistent Voice: BuzzStream allows you to save templates that have worked or failed when conducting outreach. These templates can have autofill parameters added to them and are accessible to all users.
Critical Mention's customer service is excellent. Any time we've had a challenge finding a clip or anything, they are on top of it and go above and beyond to make sure we have what we are looking for quickly.
The ability to create tailored clips of each mention and quickly share them is unparalleled.
The reporting feature is fantastic. It makes it very simple to pull detailed reports and share them with interested parties.
The search function needs to be more accurate in returning results when searching for existing prospects the platform only display exact match results - www.websitename.com vs websitename.com. In reality, the two websites are the same prospects.
Customer service assistance needs to be more instantaneous when seeking out help a response can take up to 24 hours.
Importing large CSV files of websites takes time as well.
I believe the one frustration I have with searching in general that if the closed captioning is not correct on the broadcast end Critical Mention will miss that data. Which is not a Critical Mention issue and does overcome depending on the search. Also, it would be great if you wanted to capture a complete 30 minutes newscast, it could be done by using the search. The clips need to be about to handle 30-minute programs.
One nagging issue when using Critical Mention is that it does not save e-mail addresses when sending a report and this requires a waste of time having to type in e-mails that should be able to be pulled from the customers' contacts.
Also, it would be great if you wanted to capture a complete 30 minutes newscast, it could be done by using the search. The clips need to be able to handle 30-minute programs.
I gave this a 5 only because I do not make the decisions to renew. When I used this at my previous company, I also recommended to the decision maker to renew this tool as it was a crucial piece to the overall client objective
Buzzstream is great to help identify sites to get links from, and it makes this process so efficient, easy and personal to all, the ones who are using it and the ones that are receiving. Flawless navigation, good outlook, 10/10!
Support is one of the best aspects of BuzzStream. I know their support team is small and somehow they are able to get back to us right away in a super helpful, friendly fashion. I've had many questions - sometimes they release a new feature, sometimes a feature isn't working correctly and they are quick to answer but also help explain it in a way that makes sense.
Look, Critical Mention follows up on an or phone call immediately or in the AM the following business day. I have called them after hours and get a live person to work through any issues that may have come up. Support seems to be job one with Critical Mention.
BuzzStream stacks up quite well compared to its competitors. In particular, Hootsuite and HubSpot. BuzzStream has many of the same capabilities that its competitors do, at a fraction of the cost. We selected BuzzStream because it had a fairly flexible contract, and it was sufficient for our needs. It was a good intermediate-level tool.
Burrelles is confusing and outdated. Critical Mention works on the side of the account team and understands our needs better. I was able to share hundreds of outlets that I wanted to be included in my online search and Critical Mention added all of them in less than a day I was seeing better results in my searches. The possibilities with Burrelles seem limited while Critical Mention's online monitoring service really lets me craft reports the way I want to
It's had a positive impact in keeping our entire agency organized. Especially when employees leave, all of their communication is in one place, so it's pretty easy to have someone take over the process.
You can test different messaging for prospects and then determine the most successful.
Every week the department I am a part does dozens of searches on Critical Mention. We use it as our primary search engine for all things broadcast.
One negative aspect is that we do not know where Critical Mention gets their audience viewing numbers from so we just have to take it as their word.
Another negative aspect is that we are limited on the amount of time that one clip can be so we have to share several clips of the same show with our clients.
