Skip to main content
TrustRadius
Meltwater

Meltwater

Overview

What is Meltwater?

Meltwater Media Intelligence platform is a set of public relations software tools for media monitoring, social media monitoring, and collecting brand insights. The four areas of functionality are Monitor, Analyze, Distribute, and Engage. (Note that this product combines features from…

Read more
Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

Meltwater has proven to be a versatile platform for a wide range of use cases, as reported by its users. Organizations have relied on …
Continue reading

Yes and No

7 out of 10
July 08, 2022
Incentivized
I use the platform for media monitoring and reporting. It allows me to see the coverage of stories created by the University to meet KPIs …
Continue reading

Expensive but efficient

6 out of 10
December 01, 2021
Incentivized
We use Meltwater [Media Intelligence Platform] as a search and monitoring tool within our marketing department. It allows us to see when …
Continue reading
Read all reviews

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

Reviewer Pros & Cons

View all pros & cons
Return to navigation

Pricing

View all pricing
N/A
Unavailable

What is Meltwater?

Meltwater Media Intelligence platform is a set of public relations software tools for media monitoring, social media monitoring, and collecting brand insights. The four areas of functionality are Monitor, Analyze, Distribute, and Engage. (Note that this product combines features from the vendor…

Entry-level set up fee?

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

Offerings

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

Would you like us to let the vendor know that you want pricing?

63 people also want pricing

Alternatives Pricing

What is Brandwatch?

Brandwatch, from Cision (acquired February 2021) is an enterprise social intelligence platform that is designed to allow brands to listen and analyze online conversation to extract meaningful insights, inform their business decisions and understand more about the return on their marketing spend.

Return to navigation

Product Details

What is Meltwater?

Meltwater Media Intelligence platform is a set of public relations software tools for media monitoring, social media monitoring, and collecting brand insights. The four areas of functionality are Monitor, Analyze, Distribute, and Engage. (Note that this product combines features from the vendor Meltwater's former Buzz, Press, and News products.)

Meltwater Technical Details

Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

Cision Communications Cloud, Agility PR Solutions, and Mention are common alternatives for Meltwater.

Reviewers rate Support Rating highest, with a score of 7.5.

The most common users of Meltwater are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
Return to navigation

Comparisons

View all alternatives
Return to navigation

Reviews and Ratings

(164)

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!

Meltwater has proven to be a versatile platform for a wide range of use cases, as reported by its users. Organizations have relied on Meltwater for media monitoring, allowing them to track media mentions for their own organization, competitors, and the industry as a whole. By utilizing keywords and sentiment analysis, users have been able to stay up-to-date on specific topics of interest, such as technological advancements or industry sentiment. Meltwater's comprehensive coverage has also allowed users to identify placements on obscure trade or science sites that don't show up in traditional search engines' alerts.

Additionally, Meltwater has served as an all-in-one solution for various marketing and communication needs. Users have utilized the platform for social listening, content management, reporting, public relations, influencer relations, and even newsletter distribution. The platform's ability to compile targeted media distribution lists has proved valuable for corporate PR efforts, while the clipping component has helped users generate comprehensive reports by compiling relevant clips. The user-friendly interface and extensive media contacts database have made Meltwater a go-to choice for organizations looking to streamline their marketing and communications efforts.

Furthermore, Meltwater has played a crucial role in enhancing brand presence and engagement on social media platforms. By utilizing Meltwater Buzz, organizations have been able to listen and evaluate diverse audiences across different regions and cultures. The scheduling capabilities have allowed users to plan and promote events effectively while the tool's social listening capabilities have facilitated tracking social mentions and engaging with a large social audience. Moreover, Meltwater's Media Intelligence Platform has provided valuable insights into influencer marketing efforts with its extensive influencer database.

Despite some users experiencing glitches or dissatisfaction after prolonged use, Meltwater has received positive recommendations from customers who appreciate its continually improving services. It has been praised as a great tool for finding influencers and managing influencer marketing efforts efficiently. Educational institutions have utilized Meltwater to educate students on digital analytics and monitoring online conversations, further highlighting its versatility. Organizations across industries have found Meltwater useful for monitoring media coverage, tracking online presence, compiling comprehensive reports, and staying updated on trends and topics of interest. Overall, Meltwater's Media Intelligence Platform has proven to be an indispensable tool for media research, outreach, distribution, and monitoring.

Convenient Email Reports: Users appreciate the convenience of receiving morning and afternoon media monitoring reports via email, saving them time and ensuring they are always informed about mentions of their company or competitors in the news. This feature has been praised by many reviewers.

Efficient Content Curation: The ability to archive relevant stories directly from the monitoring report and easily add them to company newsletters is highly valued. It streamlines the process of curating content for newsletters, making it more efficient for users. Many reviewers have found this feature beneficial.

Customizable Monitoring and Automated Newsletters: Users find it beneficial to be able to customize the frequency of media monitoring reports and set up automatic newsletters based on archived stories. This flexibility allows them to tailor the monitoring to their specific needs and automate their content distribution. Several reviewers have expressed appreciation for this customizable and automated feature.

  1. Limited database coverage: Some users have mentioned that Meltwater's database lacks coverage of non-traditional media sources such as bloggers and social media influencers, which are important for picking up niche content.

  2. Disjointed experience with integration: Several users have found that the platform does not seamlessly integrate with the Engage platform, leading to a disjointed user experience when using both tools.

  3. Expensive for non-profits: Some users feel that Meltwater is expensive for non-profit organizations, making it less accessible for those with limited budgets.

Users commonly recommend the following when using Linkfluence:

  1. Utilize training sessions: Joining training sessions offered by Linkfluence is advised to better understand how to effectively use the tool. This recommendation highlights the importance of investing time in learning the features and functionalities of Linkfluence.

  2. Define scope and choose keywords wisely: Users suggest defining the scope of use and selecting keywords carefully to avoid getting lost in the data. By narrowing down the focus and choosing relevant keywords, users can reduce noise and increase the meaningfulness of their analysis.

  3. Configure dashboards effectively: Users emphasize spending enough time on configuring dashboards in Linkfluence, especially when choosing keywords. This recommendation aims to reduce irrelevant information and enhance the accuracy of social media analysis.

By following these recommendations, users can make better use of Linkfluence's social listening capabilities, gain deeper insights, and improve their monitoring and analytic efforts.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(26-50 of 71)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
Sophia Joffe | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I worked with Meltwater to help get the word out about my distance learning site, eLearn.fyi.
  • You can easily find the right journalist at the right publication that will help your company grow.
  • The automated outreach tool (that is connected to the database) makes outreach fast and easy.
  • Big win for me was Meltwater's account team. They helped me every step of the way, not just with tactics but big picture strategy.
  • Really none that I see. I love the software and services.
The depth of Meltwater's database is incredible. You can easily find the right journalist at the right publication that will help your company grow. The automated outreach tool (that is connected to the database) makes outreach fast and easy. (Before using Meltwater, I tried a manual outreach, and it was impossible to manage and scale.)
Matthew Simms | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use Meltwater News for marketing and public relations. Meltwater was purchased to monitor the USCAA and affiliated brands across news and social platforms across the country. We attempted to use the platform for trends and to assist monetization of digital and and event assets.
  • There are few applications that the platform performs exceptionally well above and beyond what is possible through SEO and general searches through online databases.
  • The platform is not user friendly, and the company lacked training for users.
Meltwater binds users into contracts that have automatic renewals, though this was not made well-known at the time of signing. When our company experienced serious financial burdens due to COVID-19, we attempted to "pause" our contract for one year. The company refused and we will not renew with them again.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Our company mostly utilizes as a social listening tool. It gives one tool and provides automated reports for any social mentions.
  • Finding media contacts.
  • News in one place.
  • Quick response from their team when issues arise.
  • Implementation process.
  • Training.
Businesses who need real-time notification of public reviews, comments, or news mentions, especially in crisis monitoring situations.
Businesses who want to monitor competitor tracking and mentions.
Mark Anderson | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Meltwater is a great tool for finding, archiving and managing your Influencer marketing efforts. In just minutes, you can use their database of over 1 million influencer accounts to filter, sort and prospect new nano, micro, macro, and high profile accounts that correlate with your brand. They also provide additional packages with different social listening tools as well.
  • Easy to find new influencers.
  • Provides easy-to-use tags for updating status of current relationships.
  • Influencer profile count is set at 50 for basic account, would like to have much more.
  • Very expensive compared to beginner programs like Mention or Hootsuite.
I would ask to definitely research and way their options as well as budget before purchasing. The contract starts as a year-long commitment so make sure you chat in-depth with your rep about the different features you have available to you. It can be very helpful, but if your company isn't big enough, it may not be worth the cost for you.
Alexis Ramsey | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
My team (6 support specialists) and I used Meltwater Media Intelligence Platform to engage with a social audience of 2M+ and schedule LinkedIn posts on occasion. We switched to Meltwater Media Intelligence Platform from Salesforce, and that was a mistake. Setting up Meltwater Media Intelligence Platform was easy, and technical support was attentive, but within three months, glitches began to arise, and my team was unhappy with the software as a whole.
  • Setup of social profiles and adding users is a quick process that was easy to understand without any formal training or directions.
  • Scheduling content across social platforms is straightforward and utilizes a drag and drop option, which is quick and effective.
  • Technical support can be reached within the software, so putting in a request ticket from multiple users is helpful.
  • Software is glitchy when it comes to actions taken on native (i.e., liking posts) and having them register on Meltwater Media Intelligence Platform promptly. This made for a lot of "double-tapping" from our team for engagement.
  • The reps for Meltwater Media Intelligence Platform are not helpful and continued to be pushy about selling more services, getting a contract renewal, and contacting team members that were not the point of contact.
  • The number of users for the cost you pay is limited. With other services, the number of seats is usually enough, but with Meltwater Media Intelligence Platform, it was constantly "for another $1000, here's another user" even though the software cost was well above competitors.
If you are already familiar with Meltwater Media Intelligence Platform and switching to a competitor would cause a hardship for your team in terms of labor, then stick with it. However, if you could use more ODC budget, want reps (we went through 3) that are not pushy and listen to your concerns, or want a software that has more training capabilities built-in for your team, then I can't recommend Meltwater.
Score 2 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We are using Meltwater for a couple of clients who have had a relationship with them for multiple years. It is only being used in our digital team's department. It does address a reporting need, but only by specific use cases.
  • The publications pulled are relatively good.
  • There is limited stock noise that pulls through.
  • Meltwater is a media intelligence platform based on keywords and Boolean search strings that most media analytics professionals in Public Relations are familiar with. It does do a good job of pulling in quality publications, but the UI and platform restrictions are so frustrating. You cannot overwrite the boolean like many other providers, you have a search cap limit as well as a metric limit on a particular dashboard, and the reports are not interactive.
  • You cannot overwrite the Boolean.
  • The UI is not visually appealing and there are many restrictions.
I've used tons of other flexible platforms with way more capabilities for a cheaper price. It may be a great secondary tool to have, but definitely not a primary tool.
Jason Mollica | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Meltwater's dynamic digital and social media analytics platform to help educate and prepare students in American University's School of Communication to stay on top of today's ever-changing world. In 2017, we launched a digital analytics class to address specific student requests to be more versed in how to understand the billions of online conversations.
  • Easy to learn and use
  • Clear and customizable graphs for analytics reports
  • Customer service is top-notch
  • None to speak of at the time of submitting the review
Meltwater's platform is really effective for any sized business. However, your client and/or business should be aware that any intelligence platform is not cheap. That stated, my students have used Meltwater for digital and social communications campaign projects, monitoring how wide our class chats spread, and digging deeper into conversation data on Twitter.
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use Meltwater for media monitoring purposes in order to identify new leads for our Sales Reps, observe competitors activity in digital and social media & measure the impact of our publications. The tool is used solely by the Marketing department that feeds all the above info to the Management and Sales Director.
  • Interaface is very user-friendly
  • Dashboard
  • Nothing More...
  • Customer Service
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Search Engine
Deceptive auto-renewal clause in their contract which was never communicated by the company nor the Sales Rep who actually throughout the first year of the contract tried to renew our subscription on multiple occasions, indicating that they need our permission to extend the length of the contract.

Very poor Customer service that is focused only on the gains for the company. Appalling e-mail contact.

The search feed received is way over the top and doesn't always correspond to set up the search. This is in order to boost the number of results so the end Customer has the feeling of good investment. In the end, your reporting will take much longer as you have to go through a lot of noise news which normally wouldn't appear in there in the first place.
Matar Gueye | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We are using Meltwater to monitor the media coverage that is generated around the freight railroad industry across the nation. We use the platform to compile comprehensive reports that we share with internal and external stakeholders. We also use the platform to monitor our online presence, particularly social media. We use the engage program to proactively push out content as well as pull reports and measure authority and engagement rates.
  • Assesses the scale of an event: When there is a major event that earns media, especially national media we need to know how large the story is going to get. We are able to aggregate coverage across the nation to determine the level of effort we will need to push back or shape a particular story. This is a valuable insight that allows us to prioritize our efforts.
  • Clips: We need to know what is being said about our industry at all times. Meltwater allows us to have real-time insight on mentions and stories that are being published across the nation. We are able to share this content with our subject matter experts daily who alert the communicators of potential issues. This content also helps us proactively create content.
  • Monitors social: We need to know what is being said about our industry on social media, particularly important for our industry as we operate in communities small and large across the nation. Meltwater allows us to aggregate the thousands of messages and mentions we receive so that we can focus on monitoring those accounts that have a higher authority and influence level.
  • Logins: If you have more than one product from Meltwater you have to login into different portals. Not a huge deal except I cannot save my password for each one because my computer recognizes both portals as the same website, so if the passwords vary it won't save them.
  • Dashboard: There could be more modules to choose from that could enhance the reporting capabilities.
  • Add-ons: I know it is the name of the game but there are a lot of added paid features. Meltwater could benefit from beefing up their basic package with more features for their users.
Meltwater is well suited for any organization that wants to know where it stands in the world it operates. Reputation is everything and with an ever-evolving media landscape, it is important to invest in a tool that can keep up.
Brianna Zambrano | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Meltwater has been very helpful in catching social posts that mention our brand. Most of them may have included our name misspelled or not tagged properly. This has helped stay ahead of the curve for good and bad exposure.

  • Building dashboards is very simple
  • Communicating with the Meltwater support team is easy
  • Monitoring social channels and media channels is simple
  • More reporting functions for growth management on social channels
  • Better auto identity of positive and negative sentiment
  • Cheaper pricing for buying the whole monitoring and social planning packaging
I think pricing is a little high for most companies but the options for monitoring both social and media channels is great. Adding pieces onto your package is simple but it does come with a cost. Meltwater was great at building a package for everything but it is still generally the most expensive company on the market for monitoring.
Stacy Howard | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use the platform as a media contact and outreach hub, and to monitor our media coverage. We also use the platform to run detailed reports to present to our employees and board.
  • Great customer service, staff are very knowledgeable and helpful.
  • The platform saves us a lot of time and energy by creatively organizing our contacts so we can quickly and easily send releases.
  • We appreciate the platform staying updated and relevant, constantly keeping it user-friendly and to fit our organization's needs.
  • We would love to be able to "select all" when we send releases to our contacts. We have so many groups and currently have to check off each one.
Perfect platform if you have hundreds + contacts and if you need reports and specific news monitoring.
Abbey Dufoe | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use it across the whole organization to track media pickups about our organization and our programs. It addresses how we're seen in the media and social media. We also track trends with keywords to see how other organizations are writing about topics we care about so we can stay ahead.
  • Tracks media mentions
  • Tracks social media
  • Exports journalists and sources
  • The ability to edit things within the platform. I have to export all my searches, which is cumbersome
It's great for tracking how your company is doing in the media, across social media channels, and for figuring out how to reach people through their listening tools. By tracking certain keywords, you can see what your competition is writing about, which is very helpful. However, it's not helpful in sentiment analysis if you're writing about something negative like "climate change", which is mostly always negative. We just ignore that part of the platform.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
The Meltwater Media Intelligence Platform is being used by the Public Relations/Social Media teams. We use the platform to monitor mentions of our company and of our company's partners on a daily basis. We look for mentions in the media - online, broadcast, print, etc. We track all mentions, evaluate sentiment, exposure and themes, and share mentions that need to be escalated with the appropriate teams (internally or with our partners). It helps us more effectively monitor the conversations happening about our company or our partners.
  • The dashboards make it really easy to present data with easily digestible visuals.
  • The ability to save dashboard settings makes it easy for us to pull reports on a day to day basis.
  • Allows us to monitor multiple partners in the same platform.
  • Include more non-traditional media contacts in the media contact database.
  • We also use the Engage platform - it would make it simpler if both Engage and Intelligence had a more similar layout or if they mirrored eachother in some way. They seem like two completely separate entities.
  • The Sentiment reported through Intelligence isn't always accurate. One of our partner's names is a common last name and people often tag them on social, however it is completely unrelated to our partner. When this is reported as negative, we have to manually adjust.
It is well suited for monitoring trending conversations happening with our partners. It sometimes informs us about happenings that are going on with our partners that we didn't even know about before finding it on Intelligence. Though not always accurate, the sentiment helps us measure what types of conversations are happening about our partners. The influencers and media contacts tool could be more intuitive.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use the Meltwater Media Intelligence Platform to monitor brand mentions daily, for reporting monthly, as well as to find traditional media contacts for our media relations efforts. The tool is used by our Public Relations and Social Media team. This allows us to manage brands, share engagement with our clients and find valuable, targeted media relations opportunities.
  • It captures and lets us clip broadcast mentions simply and efficiently, whereas other tools are not as accurate and easy to use.
  • The customer support is great, the team is responsive and helps find a solution to any issues you run into.
  • The interface is easy to use and is pretty intuitive. It is easy to catch on to and cuts the time it takes to do monitoring a reporting in half.
  • The media influencer database should include more non-traditional media members including bloggers and social media influencers as these are the types of contacts that are more likely to pick up niche content.
  • The platform does not play super seamlessly with the Engage platform making the experience using both a bit disjointed.
  • I wish the number of inputs for the Share a Voice dashboard widget could be larger.
The Meltwater Intelligence Platform is great if you have multiple clients and keywords you are looking to monitor for. It is great if you want prompt and customizable access to metrics. It is a less impactful tool when looking to find relevant contacts for media relations and content outreach efforts.
Wesley Polk Lucas | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
The Meltwater Media Intelligence Platform is utilized by the Marketing Department at Visit Frisco. It allows us to track media mentions of not only our organization, but our media efforts to promote our events and tourism partners here in Frisco.
  • The Meltwater platform is extremely user-friendly. I like the simplicity of the navigation, layout and search functions.
  • The search capabilities are great. I can narrow my search of a particular media contact down to topic, location and event see previous published works to determine if they're a relevant source to our efforts.
  • We utilize the Dashboard and widgets within them daily. We love to see our potential reach, estimated ad value, content stream, etc. It really shows us in real time that our efforts are achieving real results.
  • The ability to create more searches without added cost would be nice. Or the ability to freeze/hold searches in order to add more without adding to total... we have annual events that we only track for a certain amount of time, so I'm having to save those search terms and delete them in order for us to track new things that are upcoming.
  • When sending an alert/release through outreach, I wish there was a way when selecting recipients, to see and select individual names from saved lists (without having to know the name). Sometimes we have something to send out that we want to send to a few specific people from several lists. We end up having to go back to saved lists, selecting those people and creating an entirely new list, which we end up deleting because it's never always the same people.
The usability and reporting are the biggest things I share with colleagues when asked about the platform. Meltwater's customer service is also extremely high and something worth noting.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Our Public Relations Division uses Meltwater to select media outlets and journalists for public relations efforts across the U.S. We've found their database to be very robust and easy to search. When we find potential influencers, it's easy to add them to a list. Also, Meltwater makes vetting journalists easy - when you select the journalist, the software pulls up recent articles to help ensure he/she is writing about subjects relevant to what we're pitching. One of the greatest features of Meltwater is that for some contacts, Meltwater provides information regarding how to pronounce the influencer's name and on how he/she prefers to be contacted/ Additionally, we use Meltwater to monitor media mentions of our clients and to research industry trends and topics. Their monitoring system catches twice as much as our previous PR software did, which is extremely helpful. Additionally, Meltwater's system consistently provides us with more data (reach, AVE, etc.) than our previous PR software. Finally, Meltwater's customer service is outstanding. From their sales reps who are truly helpful instead of pushy to their account services team, Meltwater sets the standard. They are responsive, efficient, and friendly. Love their team!
  • Customer Service
  • Media list building
  • Media monitoring
  • Meltwater seems to miss the smaller outlets we're pitching in smaller media markets. However, every time I ask them to add the outlet into their system, they get it done.
Meltwater is excellent for PR professionals who are looking for a full solution to finding media contacts and to getting information quickly on the outlets that are covering industries and topics relevant to your clients. If you are only working in small markets, Meltwater may not be worth the investment.
Courtney Glode | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Our organization uses media monitoring tools daily, and were sold Meltwater on the promise that it would replace our current media monitoring subscription with real-time results. This was false advertising as this was not the product we received.
  • Social media monitoring
  • Online news monitoring
  • Poor customer support
  • Service is not as described by sales team
  • Very poor broadcast monitoring
  • Ineffective software
Meltwater's social media monitoring and online web monitoring is useful. However, if you're looking for reliable and timely broadcast monitoring stay far, far away.
Janet Van Pelt | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We purchased Meltwater to help identify potential prospects in our area. We found it difficult to use for that purpose. Then we found out that we had been misled by our sales rep into going past a 60 day auto renewal provision and despite repeated communications with them well in advance of our contract expiration that we didn't wish to renew they are trying to force us to use their software (which we DO NOT want) for another year at a cost of $10k.
  • We didn't identify anything particularly distinctive about the Meltwater solution, and the difficulty of doing business with them far outweighs any potential benefits.
  • The results were cluttered and the search process was not intuitive.
While the Meltwater platform is probably adequate, their business practices are non-standard and deceptive. The value of their tools is absolutely not worth the pain of trying to work with the company. They bury a 60 day auto-renewal in their terms of use, which is normally reserved for how to interact with the site not business terms. Their sales rep contacts you suggesting that they send over renewal paperwork, which further obscures the auto-renewal provision. Once you are 1 day past the 60 days, they hold on like grim death and refuse any effort to terminate the contract, even if you provide notice well in advance of the end of your contract period. I have never seen a company operate this way; I'm assuming that because of the new and much better offerings from Cision and others they are bleeding customers and taking desperate measures to hang on to those they have. But it's not a pleasant experience if you're one of the poor companies that made the mistake of getting into business with them. I would avoid them at all costs.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Meltwater is used throughout the entire business. It is used for editor outreach and influencer searches. It doesn't necessarily address problems, however it is an asset to the business to ensure we are contacting the appropriate reporters and editors for the success of our clients. I'm relatively new to Meltwater, so far it's been working well.
  • Keyword searches
  • Influencer searches
  • Creating lists
  • When searching keywords, deeper searches could be helpful. Not just the top publications.
  • Updating the database more frequently when editors change publications or positions. I want to know that I can trust that I am sending my pitches to the correct people.
My business is small, so my budget doesn't allow me to engage in all of the features of Meltwater for tracking. I would need additional information and access to more areas to be able to confidently suggest the platform to other potential users. I'm pleased with the parts that I currently use.
February 10, 2017

Meltwater does the trick!

Avery Harris | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Our public relations department uses Meltwater for tracking media mentions as well as sending out press releases. We track media mentions from syndicated writers, bloggers, and websites as well as social media mentions on Facebook and Twitter. Press releases are sent out monthly to journalists and editors. We are able to construct a list of contacts to reach out to with our release based on their company, their role, their genre of writing and even a keyword search allows us to find journalists who have written about a certain keyword/topic recently.
  • Keyword Search - We are able to find who has recently written about a topic. This allows us to target those who have been recently interested in what we are writing about in our release. It is also a way for us to expand our contact list to reach people who may be writing outside of their normal beat/genre.
  • Search Function - We take advantage of several saved searches that track media mentions. This uses boolean logic to get us the exact results we are looking for. The search function is also great for searching for mentions of our competitors, narrowing our search to a specific product we may have done a campaign on or a more broad topic outside of our company alone.
  • Reporting - Meltwater allows us to set up our own customized reports that are emailed to us on a regular basis that we request.
  • Dashboard - Each user is able to set up a dashboard (homepage) for the platform with the reporting functions that are specific to what we are interested in or need to be aware of. This is a great day-to-day update of our media mentions.
  • Their tracking system for media mentions isn't perfect - we have stumbled across several posts mentioning our company/product that were not picked up by the platform. While frustrating, we send these URLs to our rep and their tech team ensures that that website will be monitored moving forward.
Meltwater is great for pulling together reports of our media mentions - both on the web and social media. It is great to report to management and the entire company where we are getting visibility on the internet.

Sending out press releases is not only easy, but there is also great value in the ability to reach a wider journalist and editor base.

A list of media contacts is very beneficial for a search of current employees when looking for a contact to reach out to. This allows us to reach out to new contacts to form a relationship with.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
As a communicator in a federal Comms shop, I use it to track our news hits, and to distribute news releases to the media.
  • Large database of news outlets, easy to search on specific topics.
  • Large database of news media, makes finding relevant reporters easy.
  • Search capabilities robust.
  • Interface for news release layout and distribution works, but needs to be improved.
  • New interface remedies some of these problems, but needs to be fixed/tweaked to be usable for a large organization such as ours.
Well suited to rapid response efforts on breaking news. Interface could be smoothed and made more user friendly, and they're finally working on that.
February 08, 2017

Meltwater review!

Ahrim Nam | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Currently, the PR department here uses Meltwater to track any media and social coverage we get for our agency as well as our clients and campaigns. It's a great tool to have all of our press and social monitoring in one place. Additionally, it has tools like MeltwaterNews that allow us to find contacts with ease if necessary.
  • Meltwater churns out visually accurate and pleasing graphs that correspond with the numbers shown in our reports.
  • When you pair key words correctly, Meltwater is able to capture all relevant media/press mentions and makes our lives much easier.
  • The support that the Meltwater team provides whenever we have questions can't go unrecognized. They are always super quick and responsive to our needs.
  • Some articles do fall through the cracks on occasion and we wish Meltwater would catch those articles.
  • The impression numbers that Meltwater generations sometimes seem inflated and we'd like more accurate numbers, if possible.
  • Meltwater's broadcast search feature is great, but we would love for there to be a functionality where we can download the audio/press clips that mention us/our work.
It's well-suited for tracking media/social coverage, especially when it comes to big campaign launches. It's less useful for smaller work that goes out which we can track with Twitter or Google search.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Meltwater to track how many daily hits we receive for PR, what publications are talking about us, and social mentions.
  • Timely Analytics- I have email alerts notifying me of daily analytics.
  • Ease of connecting with key influencers in the space.
  • Track against competitors.
  • More social media capabilities-connecting and monitoring more platforms.
Very appropriate for marketing and PR tracking brand engagement, sentiment, and inserting yourself into the conversations.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I have used Meltwater with different companies for media contact list building and for distribution of press release. Distributing press releases allows for tracking of the PR. I have a little bit of experience with using the platform for social media. My last company was small and so it was just two of us using it.
  • Easy-to-reach customer support
  • Large database of journalists
  • Emails are easy to create and distribute
  • The formatting can be difficult to match branding standards
  • Last year, there were journalists still in the system who didn't want to be so they would reply angrily
  • It's expensive for non-profits
It is good for distributing press release and making media lists. It's not as good to use as a method to send marketing materials. Also, the formatting is limited so it wouldn't be good to send out full design emails with. Press releases are the best use of this software because you are able to easily track analytics on who has picked up your press release.
Jake Neeley | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
The communications team at my company primarily uses Meltwater for the media database. It has a few other functions but at the end of the day we hope to connect with specific people so Meltwater provides the data to do so. Currently it is used only by the communications team as no other team currently has a need.
  • Up to date contact information. It is actually relevant and active info, not always the case with others.
  • The user interface is better than most tools. While not perfect, it's pretty easy to figure out how to get what you want.
  • Their support is excellent. Anytime I've needed help I can call, but better than this, they proactively call and assist.
  • Their media monitoring leaves a little to be desired. I find Google Alerts gets as much as they do.
  • I wish I could use this more as a CRM but the only thing you can do is create lists and simple notes of your contacts.
  • They offer bulk emailing but it's very easy for a recipient to know if they are part of a mass email. Mass emails are not encouraged anyway but this is one of their "selling features."
Meltwater works if you need an easy way to find contact info for people of influence. That's where they excel. I would not get it if you are only working with the same individuals from the same places. Growing your network is where this tool really comes to benefit a PR professional.
Return to navigation