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BuzzSumo

BuzzSumo

Overview

What is BuzzSumo?

BuzzSumo is an influencer marketing platform focused on influencer location, author reports, content analysis for locating trends, and domain comparisons, useful for competitor analysis. The analysis engine is intentioned to track and optimize content marketing efforts. BuzzSumo was acquired by Brandwatch,…

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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

Buzzsumo has become an essential tool for social media specialists and marketing agencies, providing a range of use cases to enhance …
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My BuzzSumo Review

6 out of 10
July 14, 2021
Incentivized
It is being used by our marketing and content team mainly for content research. It greatly helps us in generating new content ideas for …
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Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

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Pricing

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Content Creation

$199

Cloud
per month

PR & Comms

$299

Cloud
per month

Suite

$499

Cloud
per month

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee
For the latest information on pricing, visithttps://buzzsumo.com/pricing/

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Starting price (does not include set up fee)

  • $159 per month
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Product Details

What is BuzzSumo?

BuzzSumo is an influencer marketing platform focused on influencer location, author reports, content analysis for locating trends, and domain comparisons, useful for competitor analysis. The analysis engine is intentioned to track and optimize content marketing efforts. The product was acquired by Brandwatch in 2017.

BuzzSumo Video

BuzzSumo Integrations

BuzzSumo Technical Details

Deployment TypesSoftware as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

BuzzSumo is an influencer marketing platform focused on influencer location, author reports, content analysis for locating trends, and domain comparisons, useful for competitor analysis. The analysis engine is intentioned to track and optimize content marketing efforts. BuzzSumo was acquired by Brandwatch, which is now a Cision company (acquired February 2021).

BuzzSumo starts at $159.

Mention, MarketMuse, and NewsWhip Spike are common alternatives for BuzzSumo.

Reviewers rate Usability highest, with a score of 9.

The most common users of BuzzSumo are from Small Businesses (1-50 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(73)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

Buzzsumo has become an essential tool for social media specialists and marketing agencies, providing a range of use cases to enhance content marketing strategies. With its ability to analyze billions of pieces of content, Buzzsumo allows users to identify relevant and trending content for clients' social media platforms. This feature not only helps establish meaningful influencer connections but also uncovers new opportunities for brands. Users appreciate the dashboard that consolidates all information in one place, facilitating cross-collaboration among teams, streamlining the process of building an SEO strategy, and searching for topics of interest. Furthermore, Buzzsumo aids in influencer outreach, shaping blog titles to attract more traffic, researching topics, generating content ideas, and identifying influencers. Moreover, it simplifies content strategy by providing ideas for webinars, blog posts, videos, and other forms of content. Additionally, Buzzsumo is invaluable for planning social media content effectively, identifying trending topics, monitoring brand mentions, and conducting media monitoring and reporting. It also enables tracking of content shareability and acquired backlinks to assess the impact of work. Users appreciate the tool's performance analysis features in assessing popular and trending topics, aiding in research, analysis, and planning editorial calendars for content marketing teams. Furthermore, BuzzSumo has proven to be helpful in competitor research by analyzing competitors' social media profiles, top-performing content, and best times to post on different platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn. The software has been praised for its ability to find out what is popular online concerning content marketing and social media. It also helps users understand influencers better while allowing them to track competitors' social media activities and gain insights into their strategies. Moreover, BuzzSumo is a go-to platform for influencer marketing as it allows users to find influencers across various social media platforms and establish relationships with them. Additionally, customers have used BuzzSumo for content curation on social media channels and marketing research. It has been found helpful in generating new content ideas for blogs and social media sites while facilitating competitor analysis. BuzzSumo has also been used to analyze the performance of topics and content online, identifying the best social channels and months for content promotion. Moreover, it has been effectively used by marketing and content teams for research, generating data insights about social media pages, comparing the social reach of their content with that of competitors, checking backlinks, and identifying keywords. The software helps track web mentions and measure the social shares of own content, providing accurate data for KPI measurement within the marketing team. One of the key benefits of BuzzSumo is its ability to change and direct marketing strategies based on insights from social media and beyond. The platform has been a valuable source for high-engagement content ideas and has facilitated content curation, driving content calendar ideas and engagement analysis. It has helped users determine which content has the highest likelihood of better engagement, solving the problem of content optimization. In addition, BuzzSumo enables teams to keep track of online activities, especially on social media platforms, and make informed decisions to improve social media and blog engagement as well as overall content performance. Overall, BuzzSumo offers efficiency and multiple use cases that are essential for both social media specialists and marketing agencies in enhancing their content marketing strategies.

Clean and Intuitive Interface: Users have consistently praised BuzzSumo for its clean and intuitive user interface. Many reviewers have mentioned that the platform is easy to navigate, allowing them to quickly find the information they need. This positive sentiment indicates that a significant number of users appreciate the user-friendly design of BuzzSumo. Accurate Data and Wide Variety of Suggestions: Several users have expressed their satisfaction with the accuracy of the data provided by BuzzSumo. They appreciate that the platform offers a wide variety of topic/query suggestions, which helps them in their marketing research and content creation efforts. This feedback highlights how users value the reliable data and comprehensive insights offered by BuzzSumo. Identifying Popular Content and Trending Topics: The ability to identify popular content and trending topics is highly valued by users as it allows them to stay up to date with what resonates with their target audience. Numerous reviewers have mentioned how this feature enables them to create relevant and engaging content that drives engagement. The positive feedback emphasizes how this functionality enhances users' understanding of current market trends. Overall, these three pros - Clean and Intuitive Interface, Accurate Data and Wide Variety of Suggestions, Identifying Popular Content and Trending Topics - are frequently highlighted by users when praising BuzzSumo's effectiveness in helping them achieve their marketing goals.

Costly Pricing: Many users have expressed dissatisfaction with the pricing of the software, particularly for non-profit organizations, schools/students, and small businesses. They have found the price to be costly and feel that there should be discounted pricing options available for these groups.

Limited Free Version: Users have mentioned limitations of the free version, such as a limited number of search results and the inability to add negative keywords in search results. Some users also feel that the software could offer more robust SEO tools and provide more free services.

Poor User Interface: The user interface UI of the software has received criticism from users who find it clunky, not user-friendly, and lacking in smart features compared to other platforms. They suggest improvements to make it easier to use and more intuitive.

Users recommend Buzzsumo for its ability to generate new and creative content ideas. They appreciate the tool's features that allow them to see what topics are trending and what type of content performs well in their industry. With this information, content teams can expand their reach and stay ahead of competitors by producing fresh and engaging content.

Many reviewers highlight the usefulness of Buzzsumo in providing insights into competitor strategies. The tool allows users to analyze their competitors' top-performing content, backlinks, and social media engagement. This information helps content teams understand what is working for their competitors and enables them to refine their own content strategy accordingly.

Customers often praise Buzzsumo for its comprehensive analytics capabilities. The tool provides detailed metrics and data on the performance of published content, including social shares, backlinks, and engagement metrics. By tracking these analytics, users can measure the success of their content campaigns and make data-driven decisions to optimize their content marketing efforts.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(26-34 of 34)
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Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Buzzsumo is used for multiple purposes. Media monitoring in real-time is the most common use case, followed by media research and reporting. It allows our team to find and address coverage for our clients in a timely manner and better understand the industries in which we operate.
  • Media monitoring. Alerts in real-time are crucial for news campaigns.
  • Media research. The ability to search by topic and discover influencers is helpful and quick.
  • Reporting. Pulling keywords or phrases to illustrate market interest is valuable to our teams and our clients.
  • The ability to remove job listings from keyword searches/monitoring.
Buzzsumo is useful as a point solution for media monitoring but is not as useful as a database.
Claire Vanner | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
As a content executive at a marketing agency, I was responsible for pitching and writing content for clients. I used Buzzsumo as part of my research process to see what was being discussed around a particular topic across Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest and Google. From this I could determine the topics and tone of content that would resinate with my target audience (as well as which channels would be best to distribute it through). It also identifies "influencers" in the industry, which helps with influencer outreach on social media. I have also used it to see what titles and keywords are popular so that I can shape my own blog titles to attract more traffic.
  • Identifying social influencers
  • Content alerts
  • Gathering popular content
  • Always brings up articles by the same authors (favours influencers)
  • Not always easy to search keywords - often get articles that are irrelevant
  • Cannot search for Instagram influencers
I don't feel like I often get the right information that I'm searching for. Perhaps I am not approaching the use of the tool properly, but these sorts of software should be really user-friendly. And I feel like it often takes me a while to source articles that I am looking for - usually because it turns up results from the same authors (the ones who Buzzsumo identifies as influencers)
But this negative is also a positive - the tool is great for finding influencers in the industry, so you can engage with them on social media, listen and echo their tone of voice and dig into what makes them successful so that you can emulate that yourself.
December 19, 2017

Great Tool for Newsrooms

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We compare the social reach of our content to the social reach of our competitors. We also check backlinks and identify keywords.
  • Identifies key influencers
  • Helps content creators develop keywords
  • Identifies backlinks
  • None - it works very well
A must-have in any newsroom or content organization.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We used Buzzsumo for competitor research, which included taking a look at their social media profiles (Facebook and LinkedIn specifically), seeing their top performing content on social, top times to post, and what types of posts performed well on which platforms. In addition, we used it for backlink research for my client's websites along with their competitors and for influencer research.
  • Link building research
  • Great user experience, easy to navigate and great visuals
  • Great for identifying influencers on a particular topic or in an industry
  • Increasing their range to include more information for smaller sites
  • Being able to export more robust data
  • Suggested influencers, or topics that make sense for your audience
Buzzsumo is well suited for medium to large sites looking to track their backlinks chronologically. It's also great to do competitive research and look into a competitor's social media profile, what kinds of content they're putting out and where they are succeeding. It's less appropriate for smaller sites because Buzzsumo lacks robust information for these sites.
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I utilize Buzzsumo to tracking the shareability of my company's content as well as backlinks that are acquired. I am currently the only one using the tool, but I have proposed it to our PR person to help her track pick up of press releases. This tool helps my content team gauge the impact of their work and titles they use. They can see how social friendly they are as well as what influencers share their work.
  • Showcases backlinks acquired per link.
  • Breaks down the number of shares per social channel.
  • Shows you the influencers who share your content.
  • Brand Mentions of your own brand, words, and competitors.
  • Showing influencers who have shared: They only show Twitter followers and only if more than 20 (I believe) people have shared it.
  • The brand mention tool, like most, picks up mentions close to your company's name. If you have a relatively common name, you'll get a mess of results.
  • The influencer tab is a little bit of a mess as well as they go based on Twitter profiles and I've found bot account mixed into the results at times.
Very well suited for companies looking to showcase the impact social media makes and those who are trying to improve the shareability of their content marketing strategy. It's less appropriate for companies who are just sharing just to share. If you don't have a social media strategy built out yet, do not integrate this tool into the mix as you want receive the full ROI.
August 16, 2017

Super BuzzSumo

Meyrick D'Souza | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I use BuzzSumo to help me with my social media and content marketing. It really is invaluable. I use it daily to research topics and find content to share or to find ideas for new content. It is very difficult to find content that works i.e. engages my audience so BuzzSumo is a great shortcut and time-saving tool. I also use it to find influencers to reach out to, to help get my content more visibility and links.
  • Researching and finding content to share - it is very difficult as a content marketer to figure what will engage your audience. It's easy to say, be relevant and entertaining, but to do that takes research. BuzzSumo takes a great deal of the time-consuming slog out of the process.
  • After coming up with content to share, it's a great tool for researching topics. If you see a number of popular articles on a similar topic, you can use them to research it. Then write your own version but adding in more details. It helps you to add your voice and ideas to the "content conversation".
  • It could be better at suggesting topics that will work well. Trending topics is fine, but everyone uses those. When you enter a topic, it could suggest related ones that are also engaging people.
  • It would be great if it could provide a prediction tool for how well your content will do.
  • It would also be great if they had a mobile app.
BuzzSumo has established a really strong role in the content marketing process. It is always present in any list of tools to help operationalize content marketing. Which is what most companies struggle with - how to operationalize content marketing and how to do it well.

The functionality BuzzSumo provides is well thought out, and it covers the main things you need: content research and ideation, brand monitoring, influencer outreach and link-building, content insights and competitor research.

It is probably not so appropriate for finding thought leadership content. This is about content that is popular and engaging.
June 23, 2017

Good but not great

Stephanie Reed | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Buzzsumo is used only by me as the sole person responsible for marketing. We have started using it after the need arose for scheduling and tracking more social media posts and develop a social media strategy. However, we have used it only at times, not all the times, due to other apps being more immediate and easier to use.
  • Scheduling messages
  • Monitoring threads and keywords on social media
  • It's quite clunky and not user-friendly.
  • It should be a bit smarter, especially in terms of scheduling times, etc. I feel that other platforms have smarter features.
If you are a small business with very little money, then I would consider using its free version, as it does the job, but it will not shorten your time for doing social media marketing really. If you were a bigger company looking for a more solid solution, then I think there are better alternatives on the market.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use it for content curation for our social media channels but also for marketing research. We investigate how a topic/piece of content is performing online. We check what social channels perform better along with the best months for content promotion.
  • Content curation
  • Content marketing
  • Marketing research
  • You can find cheaper tools - doesn't feel you are getting enough for the price you pay
If you want to do marketing research - especially for content marketing campaigns, buzzsumo is ideal. You can also review seasonality and how popular a topic is on social media channels. Great also for content curation.
September 01, 2016

The Buzz around Buzzsumo

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Buzzsumo is used extensively by our content marketing team, and it is one of my favorite tools for content research and analysis. Personally, I use Buzzsumo for two main purposes:

  • To look up a certain topic and see what has been published and what has been popular and trending regarding this topic
  • Assess the performance of certain content pieces
  • Buzzsumo can show the engagement (likes, shares) for different content pieces across different social media platforms (Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter).
  • Buzzsumo can show the most popular content piece on social media for any given topic.
  • Buzzsumo can be used to search for the most trending topic at a given moment.
  • Sometimes Buzzsumo doesn't show data for individual pages on a blog with specific URLs.
Buzzsumo is perfect for content research and analysis, and even for comparing the content performance between competitors. It's also great to see how well the content for your website has been performing over time on social media, and assess what topics audiences care about so we can curate content accordingly. The backlink function on Buzzsumo is a great addition, even though I typically rely on other tools for backlinks.
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