Critical Mention vs. Topsy

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Critical Mention
Score 5.2 out of 10
N/A
Critical Mention headquartered in New York offers their eponymous media monitoring platform for public relations and crisis management.N/A
Topsy
Score 7.5 out of 10
N/A
Topsy is a full-scale index of the public social web. Apple acquired Topsy in 2015 and sunsetted the product.
$12,000
Per User Per Year
Pricing
Critical MentionTopsy
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Topsy
$12,000
Per User Per Year
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Critical MentionTopsy
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Best Alternatives
Critical MentionTopsy
Small Businesses
Cision Communications Cloud
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Score 7.6 out of 10
Simplify360
Simplify360
Score 7.8 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Cision Communications Cloud
Cision Communications Cloud
Score 7.6 out of 10
Mention
Mention
Score 9.4 out of 10
Enterprises
Cision Communications Cloud
Cision Communications Cloud
Score 7.6 out of 10
Social Suite by Reputation.com
Social Suite by Reputation.com
Score 9.3 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Critical MentionTopsy
Likelihood to Recommend
1.9
(21 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(7 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
10.0
(1 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Critical MentionTopsy
Likelihood to Recommend
Critical Mention
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.
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Apple
Based off the price, I'd be hesitant to blindly recommend Topsy unless there is a need for the kind of big data it provides access to. If access to every single Tweet ever sent about your brand is important, then there is nothing else out there will do what Topsy does. At $12,000 per user, this is definitely not a product for the small social team, but if you manage a larger brand where reporting and brand sentiment mean a lot, then you owe it to yourself to evaluate Topsy Pro
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Pros
Critical Mention
  • 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.
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Apple
  • Access to every single tweet ever sent since the start of Twitter.
  • Immediate access to results - extremely easy to generate search queries.
  • Multiple ways to visualize data.
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Cons
Critical Mention
  • 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.
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Apple
  • Pricing is steep and on a per-user basis.
  • Limited amount of data sources - Twitter, links and videos.
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Likelihood to Renew
Critical Mention
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
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Apple
Quite simply, there is no other option out there with the amount of data we can get from Topsy. Others (like Radian6) have a large amount of data, but it isn't as easy to find, and creating reports is too cumbersome. Report generation in Topsy takes seconds, not minutes
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Usability
Critical Mention
It's great for quickly looking up a specific clip, but this platform makes it difficult to select and accurately report on a high volume of clips
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Apple
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Critical Mention
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.
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Apple
The few times we have asked questions, they were answered instantly by our own account rep
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Implementation Rating
Critical Mention
Critical Mention implementation was easy and fast. Their support and training were awesome.
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Apple
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Critical Mention
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
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Apple
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Critical Mention
  • 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.
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Apple
  • Immediate access to campaign performance data in social. Our sales team regularly requests metrics from campaigns several years old, and with Topsy, we can dig in and find it. This assists in helping them in their sales pitches to new clients and renewing deals with previous clients.
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