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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…

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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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Awards

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Reviewer Pros & Cons

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Pricing

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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

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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.

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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).
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Comparisons

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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

(1-3 of 3)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use Meltwater as a News Aggregator tool and as a social media intelligence tool to a lesser degree. It helps business leaders to stay on top of industry news through a daily newsletter, and it allows the Marketing Department to monitor public sentiment of the brand.
  • Nothing
  • Big learning curve for minimal results with dashboards, filters and reports.
  • Very expensive for what it offers.
  • Appalling customer service.
  • Too many account limitations even with an expensive package.
  • Difficult to customize properly.
  • Irrelevant content is hard to filter out.
  • Shady business practices.
The product is difficult to use and quite expensive compared to alternatives on the market. It does its job well enough once you learn to use it, but given the price, the low quality of customer service, and the sneaky implementation of hidden clauses in the contract, I can only recommend to anyone considering using this tool to stay away from this product. Overpriced, difficult-to-use software with little value to offer.
  • None
  • Negative Impact. Very little value provided at a high cost.
Meltwater is the most expensive option with the worst customer service. Terrible experience.
5
Management roles
  • Company news sentiment monitoring
  • Following industry news
  • Social Media sentiment monitoring
  • Tracking PR campaign performance
  • Tracking Social Media Campaigns performance
  • None
  • None, we are stopping its use as soon as possible
Definitely not renewing due to bad support, sneaky contract clauses, and extremely high prices
Not Sure
  • Product Features
  • Product Usability
The decision was made by someone who has since left the company. We inherited the tool and decided to keep it because the sales team showed us lots of promising features that would had allowed us to monitor the competitive landscape quite easily. After using the tool for a few months, we lost confidence in it.
I would had ensured having a trial period with a money back guarantee to ensure satisfaction with the product before being on the hook for a long time period. I would had also focused on reducing the price drastically and evaluating alternatives.
Terrible responsiveness from the team except to up-sell services. The time dedicated to helping you set up a functioning account disappears once the money is in the bank and there is no hope for selling further upgrades.
No, suppliers should provide quality support to all users and not just those who pay extra for it.
No
No, never happened. Support offered was always subpar.
Hard to use tool with little value to offer.
  • None
  • Any minor task becomes painful to complete
They have a great sales team that is very cooperative and make everything seem easy. Sadly, this level of support disappears as soon as the money is in the bank.
The vendor would only try to sell us more services and products and was not very helpful in showing us how to extract value from the existing product and service we were contracting.
£4,000 for Meltwater Regular and Premium Social Package.
Don't waste your time. Find a different provider. If you still want to continue with the folly of working with Meltwater, then be extra careful when reading the contract terms as they tend to sneak autorenewal clauses and automatic price increases into the Terms of Service which are only referenced on the contract, but not shown.
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.
  • This software has literally saved me countless hours of research. I find contacts I need quickly, and they pull the data on the media hits in for me quickly. There are not words to describe how valuable this is to my team.
Meltwater is a far better solution for us. They are less expensive, their software is faster, their dashboards and user interface are easier to navigate, their data is more complete, and their customer service is far superior.
3
Public relations and marketing
We do not have any in-house support for Meltwater.
  • We used Meltwater's influencer database to target reporters across the U.S. to announce the opening of a community of high-tech, low-barrier tiny homes in Tallahassee, Florida. We scored national coverage as a result.
  • We used Meltwater's monitoring platform to track earned media stories of a national association in order to prove ROI to the client and retain the contract.
  • We used Meltwater's monitoring platform to showcase our PR team's listening ability for a tourism client pitch. We won the contract.
  • Meltwater continues to improve and evolve to meet our needs, and that was unexpected given our past experience with Cision.
  • Our support team at Meltwater has consistently helped us brainstorm and set up searches to use in both media pitches and new client pitches. They function as an extension of our team, and that's incredibly valuable to our small agency.
  • The social listening component from Meltwater has proved to be a time-saver when building PR reports. Instead of having to rely on our Digital Division's team to locate social mentions from media outlets through Sprout, I can pull them myself in Meltwater.
  • We hope to use their social influencer database in the next 6 months.
Meltwater's platform consistently out-performs others we trial when it comes to monitoring. Their customer support is unrivaled, and I've never seen anything like it from such a large company. Meltwater is on top of emerging trends and needs of PR practitioners both in terms of actually practicing PR *and* in terms of helping us show ROI to clients.
Yes
Cision. We got rid of Cision because their monitoring platform consistently missed stories we'd earned in the media, making reporting to our client nearly impossible. Additionally, Cision's customer support was absolutely abysmal. The only person who ever acknowledged there was an issue and tried to help resolve it was the sales specialist tasked with getting us to renew. We had a 30 minute conversation where I walked her through my struggles, and she immediately saw that the platform wasn't working for us. She reached out to the internal team, and even she was unable to get any help. I liked her a lot and wanted to be able to renew just to help her, but the poor performance and poor customer support simply made Cision a hindrance more than a help.
  • Price
  • Product Usability
  • Positive Sales Experience with the Vendor
Meltwater gave us a 2-week trial period so that we could put it head-to-head against Cision. Meltwater was easier to use, and it consistently found media mentions that Cision missed. Additionally, our sales rep, Lindsay, was incredibly helpful. She believed in her product but wanted to be sure that it actually worked for us. I felt like she cared about helping us find a solution, not like she was just trying to get me to sign a contract.
I wouldn't change a thing.
Jacy, my account rep, responds within minutes of my emails. When I send a note to general support (to update a media influencer's information, for example), that is responded to immediately, and they've never taken more than 24 hours to resolve it completely. They are attentive, they are fast, and they are effective. They don't just acknowledge that they've received my request - they actually resolve the problem. If the problem takes longer than an hour or so, they email me with updates, so I don't wonder if they're still working on it.
No
I wanted to add the main news desk emails to a media distribution list, but I couldn't figure out how to do it quickly and easily. There was a manual upload process, where I could do it one-by-one, but I wanted to just do an import. When I emailed my rep to ask her if this was possible, she replied and asked me to send her my list of emails and asked which list I wanted them added to. She was going to manually add each email to the distribution list. She's also offered to build a media list for me if she knows I'm pressed for time. That's the kind of service Meltwater provides, and Jacy is an incredible asset to their team.
  • Media monitoring
  • Influencer searches
  • Setting up dashboards
  • None, but perhaps the most complex (because it takes more than two steps) is wire distribution. But even that is only complex for the initial set up. Once the client distribution account is set up, it's an insanely easy thing to do.
Yes
This is the one area where I think Meltwater falls short. I find their app crashes a lot and requires me to uninstall and then reinstall to get it to work again.
Chris Vanasdalan | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 4 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use Meltwater News at a corporate level, primarily for media monitoring and newsletter distribution to internal stakeholders. We also use the tool to compile targeted media distribution lists to support corporate PR efforts.

We originally purchased the tool to help us with our internal metrics and reporting too, but I'm finding that the features around tracking and reporting aren't as robust as I had hoped.
  • I like the fact that I get morning and afternoon media monitoring reports delivered via email, so I can quickly see when our company, products, brands, or competitors are mentioned in the news. I also like that I can archive relevant stories directly from the monitoring report and easily add them to our company newsletter.
  • Users can customize how frequently they receive media monitoring reports, and once stories are archived, newsletters can be set up to send automatically.
  • Keyword searches allow users to find members of the media that cover relevant topics or stories most often. This helps when developing a targeted PR campaign.
  • The reporting features are underwhelming and are not intuitive for users.
  • Meltwater allows users to create several newsletter distribution groups, so you can send content specific newsletters to different audiences like execs, sales teams, HR, customers, engineers, etc., but you are only allowed one email newsletter template. While the content may change, the look of the newsletter is always the same no matter what the audience. I find this feature very limiting.
  • There are no metrics around clicks, email opens, or other basic things you would normally track with an email newsletter.
  • It is difficult to customize or even edit headlines, so you're often stuck with a headline as it appears in the media monitoring report. There is is no way to run any kind of basic A/B testing around different headlines, newsletter designs.
  • I haven't even tried to send a press release via the "newsroom" feature, simply because it seems very difficult to do. Again, it's not very intuitive and there are no instructions, case studies, FAQs or best practices. Any support or training must be done over the phone with a Meltwater support rep.
If you are simply looking to keep tabs on media mentions, build basic email newsletters, and put a newsfeed on your website, then this tool works well. I also really like being able to search for reporters based on region, title and keyword. Make sure you've identified what specific metrics you hope to track and talk with the sales rep to see if you're able to track them. Reporting and tracking features are often underwhelming or non-existent.
  • I don't feel that the tool is worth the big sticker price. At the cost of $51k per year, I expect a much deeper set of analytics
  • It does save some time when it comes to building and distributing newsletters, but it is still fairly labor intensive overall. Often the results are not as accurate as one may hope. I find myself frequently tweaking the keywords we're tracking in an effort to get better results.
5
Corporate Communications (Public affairs team), Brand and Digital, Social Media team
1
No special skills required to support.
  • Media Monitoring
  • Keeping tabs on what competitors are doing
  • Building and distributing employee newsletters
  • N/A
  • We really want to explore the newsroom feature. Sending press releases via Meltwater will undoubtedly allow us to be more cost effective and targeted than using a wire service.
As a smaller sized communications team we would likely free up a lot of time and get better results by either subscribing to a more established clipping service, or engaging an outside PR agency.
  • Implemented in-house
No
Change management was minimal
Make sure you clearly define what your goals are for using the tool. Talk to the rep up front about your needs. We did see a demo of the product before we bought, but we didn't really have a clear understanding of what we wanted it to do. As we began to define are needs, we realized not all of them can be met through this product.
  • Coordinating with various employees around training.
  • Having a broad set of keywords that initially led to inaccurate results.
  • Training sessions were held over the phone and via webcast. Users watched the Meltwater rep walk through the features. I would have preferred on-site and hand-on training.
You are only allowed 15 users, so make sure you've identified who will have access to use the tool.
No
We have a good level of support for the features we use.
Our support contact is responsive and helpful. She takes the time to explain the different features and is honest about it's limitations. I would like to see more self service type training tools and more proactive support. We always initiate contact when we hit a roadblock. There is very little contact from Meltwater reps trying to pro-actively help us improve the overall usability.
No
  • It is easy to archive relevant stories and add them to a newsletter
  • You can keep track of basic metrics at a glance (overall media hits, stories by region, stories by keyword, etc.)
  • We do have a dedicated support person at Meltwater who is accessible and willing to help us when needed.
  • Manually adding content is cumbersome. For example we often try and incorporate internal news posted on our company's intranet portal. These stories must be added manually using a specific process.
  • I'm finding myself frequently tweaking key words in an effort to get better results and cut down on irrelevant hits around media monitoring.
  • The newsroom feature seems very difficult to use, although to be fair, I haven't explored it much.
Once you get some basic training it's pretty easy to use. I would like to see training manuals, or instructional videos to help me explore features I'm not currently using.
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