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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.
David Miller | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Meltwater is used to track our media placements and to build distribution lists for press releases and media pitches. It's currently used by strategic communications, the primary marketing and communications hub for the University of Alabama. Our athletics department is also a Meltwater client.

We switched to Meltwater News roughly three years ago because of the platform and the amount of media contacts provided. The ability to see what reporters have written in the last six months helps build more effective distribution lists than our previous service. The clipping component of Meltwater also finds placements on obscure trade or science sites that don't show up in Google alerts.

I compile our clips each morning and generate a report for our department. I also provide support for colleagues who use the service.
  • Meltwater does a tremendous job of locating domestic and international placements of research-based stories we promote, particularly from science and trade websites.
  • The most beneficial to me is the media contacts dashboard. It's simple to search for reporters via name, beat or outlet. I'm able to organize distribution lists and retrieve them in the future. The option that really sold me was the ability to see what reporters have recently written. So much more efficient than assuming a reporter is actually on the beat, and having to Google multiple keywords to vet them.
  • The dashboards are so easy to navigate and customize, and the analytics are so detailed now. We get daily reports and get graphs to determine trends in coverage, which helps shape our expectations for coverage of annual events.
  • While the platform has seemingly unlimited options, it takes a while to learn. Our product support representative has been really helpful in web tutorials, and the Knowledge Base documents explain some things in detail, but it may be helpful for Meltwater to publish videos of them navigating the site.
  • Meltwater finds obscure placements, but it misses many on prominent web sites. In the last month, it's missed stories on Forbes, New York Times, Huffington Post and Bloomberg.
  • Meltwater can improve its updating of media contacts. I think they do this annually, but I average six or seven dead email addresses for every 25 reporters whenever I build a distribution list.
If you're looking to build a distribution list quickly and correctly, Meltwater is tremendously helpful. If you're a communications specialist tasked with tracking multiple facets of your brand, Meltwater's customizable dashboards and organization will shave significant time spent tracking placements and social media. Our office hasn't made the transition to using Meltwater to distribute our releases, but the option will allow us to track the number of opens and for how long, which will help us determine the success of our distribution. We're really excited about this feature.
  • The number of out-of-state students in our student body continues to increase, and as we promote stories of student achievement, it's important those stories reach media across the country. Meltwater's deep database of national media members has helped our office increase its reach, which, in turn, aids other offices, like admissions and alumni affairs.
  • The news and social media tracking and reporter database combined in one platform has shaved valuable time off our schedules, as we previously had two separate services for clipping and contacts. We get more bang for our buck, too.
  • I'm a bit disappointed, though, that we were offered a detailed annual report of our placements, social media sentiment, etc. at an additional cost. Daily analytics are offered, so why can't the platform compile these into annual report? And since Meltwater misses placements in prominent outlets, that report wouldn't truly reflect our university's reach through media. I'd like to see those two issues addressed.
It's been roughly two years since we've used MyMediaInfo, and it appears the service has been bundled into Nasdaq's services. It appears MyMediaInfo now offers more services, but we only used the reporter database, which was hit or miss and didn't provide a snapshot of what the reporter had written in the past six months. There's a much lower rate of "dead" email addresses in Meltwater, and it's much easier to vet a reporter's credentials.
Ultimately, we chose meltwater because it combined the clipping service and the media contacts database into one dashboard, and the additional services, like customizable distribution and metrics to measure the success rate of our pitches and distribution, are unique options we didn't previously have.
We've had two different Meltwater reps, and they've each done a fantastic job of conducting training sessions and keeping us abreast of updates to the platform. My schedule is hectic, so I've had to postpone some training sessions, and they've been accommodating of me. There are times, though, when it takes a few days for our rep to get back to me, but once we link up, I get everything I need.
While I spend the most time in Meltwater, my colleagues use it to track placements for specific stories and build media contact lists. The web tutorials are super helpful, but our staff could not meet at the same time. Mallory Noland offered to set up multiple training sessions and tailor each to address issues unique to my colleagues and different features that may aid in their work. She was extremely patient as I coordinated scheduling for 8-10 people on our end. This relieved the stress of me having to build a report and train colleagues.
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