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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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Pricing

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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

(1-25 of 71)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
Julie Collins | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 2 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I do not recommend working with Meltwater. I currently use their Explore tool. While the tool itself is fine, I think the company's business practices are problematic. In my experience, sales reps will push you into signing multi-year agreements to avoid steep year over year price increases. In my experience, there is no flexibility to terminate early if your circumstances change or you are dissatisfied with their service.
  • Robust data sources
  • Easy to build queries
  • Nice visual representations of mentions/conversations
  • In my opinion, too expensive
  • In my opinion, contracts that lack transparency and are unfavorable to customers
  • In my experience, sales reps are not responsive
Large corporations or agencies that are not price sensitive and can afford to absorb the cost if tools are not being used.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Meltwater to pitch stories for clients by developing up-to-date media lists from national and international outlets. It is very useful in searching by outlet, beat, media type, etc. instead of having to rely on Google and publicly sourced information to reach out to reporters.
  • Media Contacts
  • Pitching
  • More updated contacts
  • Expanded templates for emails
Meltwater Media is well suited for developing media lists and keeping them organized within a large database. However, it is not as suited for wider email campaigns or ongoing conversations with reporters. It is good for large email blasts, but not targeted pitching.
July 08, 2022

Yes and No

Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
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 and satisfy researchers and managers that pillars are being achieved.
  • Picks up radio interviews
  • Date range options are good
  • Media contacts are handy
  • There are limitations on the product, for example only 100 items in a PDF. Our stories regularly record more than 100 hits.
  • It misses items if the name of the institution is not said out loud, but is included in the story, as in supers in a TV story.
  • It sends repeated versions of the same radio interview at various time intervals
  • There are no report options that include everything I want in a report
It's good to look at media coverage first thing in the day. Quicker than going through clips. Although Google also can often pick up these things too. As mentioned in reporting, you cannot have an analytics dashboard without a PDF of coverage. I like the analytics dashboards and the level of detail.
Maya DeJoie | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We were looking for a platform that served a variety of needs for our Engagement team. At the time, we were using different platforms to serve those needs and realized it would be better to consolidate if we could find something that would serve as an "all-in-one" platform. Upon discovering Meltwater, we felt assured our needs would be met, and they have been great to work with ever since. We utilize them for social listening, content management, reporting, public relations, and influencer relations. They have a great team who works with us closely to ensure our needs are met, and they are very responsive to our feedback as well. I'd recommend them to anyone looking for an all-in-one service to fulfill a variety of social media and public relations needs.
  • Social listening, their Explore tool provides us with access to a variety of analytics that gives us a solid snapshot of trending narratives across news and social media.
  • They have a variety of analytics that help diversify the metrics we report to clients.
  • Community management is made feasible and effective through the Engage tool.
  • They are actively working through enhancing their reporting templates so they are easier to use.
  • They are adding new tools that enhance analytics to better understand different audiences following a need for more audience insights.
  • The platform can feel like a learning curve with lots of different ways to get analytics, but they have worked to divide tools to have a particular focus.
Meltwater is well-suited for agencies that have an engagement team who is looking to service a variety of client needs such as social media reporting, public relations outreach, and community management. If you're looking to have a platform serve just one need, you can still use Meltwater but will get more bang for your buck if you are needing a variety of tools.
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We used Meltwater Media Intelligence Platform for media and social listening, to monitor the conversation around our work, and to inform our brand's messaging and outreach to journalists and other thought leaders. We also used it to establish metrics through the reach and impressions of media mentions that included our company's name.
  • Media intelligence
  • Social listening
  • Media outreach
  • Impression numbers are fabricated and imprecise
  • Returns false mentions at times
  • Misses mentions from less mainstream publications
The platform is reasonably priced and fairly well suited for a more passive application, but a user who wants more detail and better features will be better served to look elsewhere.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
In my work with clients, I research journalists and pitch stories. Meltwater helps me do that research and create media lists. I also use Meltwater to search for earned media coverage on my clients.
  • Media research - you can search for relevant publications and journalists to add to your media list.
  • Earned media coverage - you can search for coverage of your brand and find news stories that also include data that may be useful (how many people did the story reach for example).
  • Building media lists - if you have no current existing list, you can build and export one in Excel for example.
  • I think one of the biggest misses is that the media database isn't as up-to-date as it could be. It often has outdated information on journalists who have changed roles, for example.
  • When you search for coverage, it can be difficult to pinpoint only the relevant stories you need. I think this could be improved.
  • It does A LOT of things - but I don't even understand all it does. I feel as though it could be made easier to use or at least more clear about the way the layout is so you had a better understanding of what it can do.
If you practice media relations in your role, Meltwater is helpful. You can do research to find relevant publications and journalists, build media lists, export them to share with a team or client and you can also keep notes on your campaigns. I like using it for research, although I do research outside the platform, as well, to be sure to be thorough (and some of the info in the database is outdated). I would say if you don't practice media relations, it's probably not as useful. There are other tools that do a better job if you want to search for media or social media mentions, for example. If you are looking for an all-in-one media relations tool that's relatively easy to use, Meltwater is probably a good fit.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I use Meltwater Explore for social listening. This platform lets me see what is being said about the brand and our competitors. It gives me a deeper search than a traditional Google one since I am able to monitor social mentions. The insights gained are valuable and the data retrieved is used in several departments throughout the company.
  • The Meltwater Academy
  • Quick customer service
  • Expert on-boarding representatives
  • Quick search results
  • Monitoring mentions
  • It takes a while to become proficient on this platform
  • Too many a la carte items for the sales teams, which starts to price out the client
  • Add more courses in the Academy
Meltwater Media Intelligence Platform's Meltwater Explore is great for following industry chatter and keeping up with brand influencers. As interesting as it is to find out what is being said about your brand, I find that monitoring the competition is valuable in seeing trends in the industry. As a content maker, monitoring content on Meltwater Explore has been a great source of inspiration.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We utilize Meltware Media Intelligence Platform for media monitoring and business intelligence activities.
  • Automated media monitoring newsletters
  • An intuitive graphical user interface
  • Regularly updated with new features
  • Good customer support
  • The AI for selecting stories to include in the newsletter can be refined
  • Easy to provide feedback to feed into the selection algorithm should be enabled on a per article basis
  • Make the advanced search more intuitive to use.
Meltwater is suited for simplifying regular media monitoring activities. It is also relatively straightforward to utilize for beginners in the media monitoring space which is a great advantage. Meltwater Media Intelligence Platform also provides strong customer support.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Meltwater Media Intelligence Platform primarily for its Klear influencer list, as we are able to identify content creators and influencers through it. Our social team uses the Klear tool. The media tracking tool is a "free with purchase" service that we also take advantage of. It's a nice complement to our Cision tracking tool.
  • Identifying influencers that match our clients' needs (Klear)
  • Media tracking
  • Customer service
  • More detailed media tracking
  • Better functionality on their dashboard
Social media is rapidly changing, with more emphasis being placed on working with influencers and content creators. As we all know, there's one on every corner (or two or 50!) Klear, a service from Meltwater Media Intelligence Platform, provides our social media team with an easy way to navigate the saturated influencer marketplace by identifying content creators that best fit our clients' needs. This includes identifying metrics like engagement rate and estimated pricing to work with them that makes it easy to compare.
Sara Sayed | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I use Meltwater Media Intelligence to distribute press releases, to measure results, to create lists, and to locate journalists on various beats.
  • Maintain a current list of journalists
  • Press release distribution
  • Measuring results
  • Reports dashboards
  • Pricing
  • Sometimes additional charges
  • Aggressive salespeople
It’s great for medium-sized to larger businesses that do a lot of press releases and news services like media monitoring. I would not recommend this for small businesses that do the occasional press release.
Kristen M. Kirst | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Our mission is to uphold and strengthen Seattle University's reputation, image, and values. We seek to raise awareness about the university, elevate its academic profile and draw attention to the impact our students, alumni, faculty, and staff have locally and globally. Meltwater serves as a key tool for us to monitor and gain intelligence to inform our strategy.
  • Social Media monitoring.
  • Media monitoring allows us to quickly and easily see mentions in local, regional, and national media.
  • Build focused topic lists so that we can pinpoint media outlets and writers based upon key priorities and initiatives we want to promote.
  • Broadcast media, we would prefer to use one platform however currently Meltwater does not have all of the features we need/want and have had to also secure TVEyes to support.
We have found Meltwater to support our strategic focus on the placement and promotion of key initiatives in the media for the university. We have also used the tool to help target news/media mentions we want to promote and share on social and our own university newsroom platform. There is room for improvement on broadcast news.
December 12, 2021

Jordan's Meltwater Review

Jordan Wilhelmi | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
As a public relations professional, every day is spent researching and finding contact information for the latest press send. Meltwater [Media Intelligence Platform] allows you to intuitively build reporter lists that are finely tuned to your subject matter. If there's one thing I've learned about reporters, it's that they don't like to receive irrelevant press releases. The confidence I have in Meltwater's ability to help me accurately target those reporters is invaluable.
  • Reporter list building
  • Client media monitoring and analysis
  • Seamless outreach for press sends
  • Speed of platform
  • Real-time updating of reporter contacts
  • Advanced search features
My everyday day-to-day work is almost entirely accomplished on Meltwater. It is vital to have an all-in-one platform where you can compose press sends, build reporter lists to send to, and then collect reports on coverage of your work. I'm not sure what we would do if we didn't have Meltwater, as it would require us to be on multiple platforms and constantly [transfer] information between them. The only thing it is less suited for is if we need to do a super-targeted or niche subject search for reporters – I might just use Google or Cision for that.
December 01, 2021

Expensive but efficient

Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Meltwater [Media Intelligence Platform] as a search and monitoring tool within our marketing department. It allows us to see when our business is mentioned in any PR articles, etc. We also used it to make connections with other professionals for collaboration to enhance and grow our business.
  • The account support has always been great. Technically & for best practices.
  • Media contact lists and reports are good.
  • Instant alerts for articles & social media hits.
  • The platform is a bit complicated to navigate. It takes quite some time to learn and it can be frustrating and time consuming.
  • Very expensive.
For how expensive this program is, I'd recommend it only after serious thought and understanding of what your organization's needs and priorities are. If you don't currently have a way to track brand mentions and this information would grow your business, then I'd say make the investment or try it. Otherwise, I'd pass and look at other options [from my experience].
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Our department uses Meltwater [Media Intelligence Platform] to identify potential media contacts and track media hits. We use it for quantitative and qualitative analysis of our media relations efforts and use its tools to improve how we communicate with reporters.
  • Media tracking and tagging
  • Media contact database
  • It's not the most user-friendly platform I've ever used from a UX/UI perspective.
  • The media contact database could use some more consistent updating.
  • Sometimes its tracking does not track certain TV stations' or news outlets' media hits.
Meltwater [Media Intelligence Platform] is helpful if you measure your goals based on earned media hits (reach or impressions).
October 18, 2021

Good Value for the Price

Jenna Carpentier | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Meltwater Media Intelligence Platform was used by our communications department. If we saw anything (such as certain articles) that would be of particular interest to other folks in the organization, we'd share it with them. Our market development department also received the Daily Digests so they could keep up with what was going on in the industry and be well-versed on hot topics. We used Meltwater Media Intelligence Platform to monitor media mentions for our organization, our competitors, and the industry as a whole. We advocated for the use of structural steel as a building material, so we were interested in tracking new steel buildings/bridges that were being built, advances in steel, the overall sentiment of the steel industry, and any time steel was negatively mentioned (such as a structural problem with a building or bridge, including cracks/failure/collapse). We were also interested in tracking our competitors' materials, like concrete and mass timber, for any advances with those materials or any new/innovative structures being built. We also tracked government affairs and the overall construction industry, with a heavy focus on infrastructure bills and funding. Meltwater Media Intelligence Platform greatly helped us identify the correct articles of interest and filter out any unrelated noise.
  • Dedicated customer success team
  • Monitoring of online/digital articles
  • Intuitive, user-friendly interface (after the initial set up)
  • Print publication monitoring
  • Social media monitoring
  • Difficult to set up
Meltwater Media Intelligence Platform is great for monitoring digital publications. My favorite part of Meltwater Media Intelligence Platform was the Daily Digest emails (again, have your customer success team set these up). Twice a day, I'd get an email that had a wrap-up of our media mentions and top stories from the day. This made it extremely easy to keep up to date on the main topics without having to constantly go into the platform. Additionally, you can set up alerts in case there's a sudden influx of articles or mentions of particular keywords. For instance, one thing we wanted to receive instant alerts on was if there was a bridge or building failure/collapse. Once the customer success team got the initial framework built out, it was easy to go in and make minor updates. Of course, they are always happy to help make the changes if you'd prefer. One thing Meltwater Media Intelligence Platform seemed to lack was the ability to monitor for print-based stories. It was able to pull them in if the article also lived online. But if it was only in print, Meltwater Media Intelligence Platform wasn't able to report on it. Therefore, we had to do print-based media monitoring manually. There were also quite a few publications pulled in that lived behind paywalls and we weren't able to actually see or read the articles. I know some of Meltwater Media Intelligence Platform's competitors offer better options for accessing articles behind paywalls. They have agreements with the publications that allow you to see the article since you're a paying subscriber to the media monitoring platform. Additionally, I liked how Meltwater Media Intelligence Platform was able to pull in Twitter mentions and comments. However, I'd advise against using it as your social media monitoring platform, as it doesn't do a great job at pulling in posts from the other social channels. They tried to implement a social listening portion of the platform, but we didn't have much luck when we did the trial of it. Instead, we just stuck with Sprout Social for all of our social listening and monitoring needs. Although, occasionally, Meltwater Media Intelligence Platform would pull in tweets that Sprout Social seemed to miss, so it was nice to have all of our bases covered from different angles to make sure we weren't missing anything.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Media monitoring based on keywords. Tracking sentiment and topic volume. Using the Influencer database to contact journalists. It is being used across the accounting staff to monitor for client mentions or competitor mentions, as well as industry trends to position clients as thought leaders on a subject. Its immediate alerts address the problem that would happen if we missed a story or the client saw the story first.
  • Provide reporter contact information
  • Instant alerts for earned media and social media
  • Daily or weekly newsletters on a specific topic delivered directly to inbox
  • The dashboards are not user-friendly, customizable (color, font size, etc.), or worthy of presenting to a client. All of the insights from a dashboard get pulled from the platform and placed into a more client-friendly presentation.
  • Paywalls for certain publications connected to who-knows-what. DowJones racket limits media monitoring capabilities and results in manual searches for a growing number of publications.
  • TVeyes, the broadcast monitoring arm of the media monitoring capabilities, just needs TLC and to become more client-facing. Currently, the links produced to share clips look sketchy, and they have a relatively short shelf life.
Meltwater [Media Intelligence Platform] is perfectly suited for monitoring the news. It is not perfectly suited to understand sentiment. The audience insights are incredible, and that helps for marketing, but for media relations, it's all about capturing every single mention of the article to understand the context. I like that it can monitor all of social media - even deleted tweets.
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
As a PR group, we need a reliable resource for capturing [the] news coverage we earn on behalf of our clients. We tested Meltwater [Media Intelligence Platform] as a possible alternative for monitoring, capturing, and reporting media coverage. We are aware that Meltwater [Media Intelligence Platform] also features a media research database, but we are entirely satisfied with the current vendor we use for that. Only our PR department evaluated the platform.
  • The user interface is fairly intuitive and easy to navigate
  • Reports are impressive
  • Engaging the customer support team is fairly simple when needed
  • Whatever algorithm they use to automatically apply the sentiment to media coverage needs serious adjustment.
  • It seems like Meltwater is a sales organization that offers media monitoring. [In my experience,] I've never used a product that offers so many features as upsell opportunities.
  • Speaking of sales, [I believe] the front-line salespeople at Meltwater are the absolute worst. [I feel] I'd rather deal with a sleazy used car salesman in a cheap suit at a sketchy roadside lot than a hyper-aggressive, sell-anything-and-everything-at-all-costs Meltwater salesperson. [In my experience,] the salespeople we worked with were so aggressive that they bordered on sociopathic.
Meltwater [Media Intelligence Platform] could be a decent alternative for in-house or agency PR practitioners looking for reporting and research options. You really only learn about the platform's shortcomings when you use it, but fear not: they have a solution! [In my experience] the only issue is that you have to buy up into the feature that will solve the issue. [I believe] it seems deceptive, and the last thing any of us need is to do business with a company that's not up front with what they're selling.
Jackie Beckwith | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I use the platform on a daily basis to monitor news, create relationships with reporters, send press releases and track metrics, and create benchmarking against other peer groups to further refine strategy. It is just used within my department - the Advocacy department - though I do believe other departments would benefit if they integrated Meltwater [Media Intelligence Platform] into their daily tasks. We do not yet utilize the social media tracking abilities, but it is a growth plan for us, and I am excited to begin making use of Meltwater Media Intelligence Platform's capabilities in that arena.
  • Track and deliver metrics
  • Provide access to reporters
  • Great user design or UX
  • Organize identical headlines into one item with a dropdown option for source
  • Dashboard creation isn't instinctual to me
  • Dynamic clean-up of media lists when reporters move jobs, retire, etc.
The platform is excellent for a time-bound understanding of relevant headlines, and in fact, I utilize that capability on a daily, if not multi-day, basis. It is less appropriate when an organization has a need to send numerous wire releases because Meltwater [Media Intelligence Platform] allows customers only a set number over a specific time period.
Cathy Renna | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Meltwater Media Intelligence Platform is an indispensable tool in our toolbox for media research, outreach and distribution, and media monitoring. I have recommended it innumerable times to clients and colleagues. Meltwater Media Intelligence Platform services have only improved over time, particularly in the area of social media. And the customer service is excellent.
  • Database is thorough and easy to use
  • Media monitoring systems are excellent
  • Social media analytics
  • Limit on the number of releases per day
I recommend Meltwater Media Intelligence Platform on a regular basis as a key piece of comms infrastructure and well worth the use of resources.
Aaron Metcalfe | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I use this for marketing and business development purposes. I find it doesn't provide much assistance and often gets companies I want to monitor confused with others that are not in our industry. It even gets our company wrong with others that have Hogan in their name (which are quite a few). [In my opinion,] save your money and avoid this company/service. There are others out there that must do a better job. I'm planning to go back to doing research on my own. It takes more time, but it's more reliable.
  • Nothing
  • Nothing
  • Nothing
  • [In my opinion,] it's not a very good at doing what they promise.
  • It's not a very user-friendly program; [feels] convoluted.
  • Customer service is sub-par.
I can't think of why you'd want to waste your money on this company. [In my opinion,] you could have an intern do it for you at less cost.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We [use Meltwater Media Intelligence Platform] across our organization for media tracking and for their media database. A couple [of] core team members mostly operate the software, but we all benefit from it in different ways.
  • Media Tracking: As a PR firm, we rely on [Meltwater Media Intelligence Platform] to track media hits for our clients.
  • Media Database: We use [Meltwater Media Intelligence Platform] to track down specific media contacts, in both national and local contexts.
  • The user interface for their media database is cumbersome, and it can be time-consuming to find specific contacts.
If you're a PR or Marketing firm and want to track media exposure for your clients, [Meltwater Media Intelligence Platform] [scours] the internet, TV, [and] radio to track down specific media hits. They also have an extensive media database for tracking databases for journalists/producers in both national and regional/local contexts.
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.
August 19, 2021

Meltwater Review

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We primarily use Meltwater as a search and monitoring tool for the entire organization. It allows us to know when our brand is mentioned in the news media and the potential reach for any of our proactive efforts. We have also recently started using Meltwater as a way to connect with journalists or other sources who may be interested in the content we are developing.
  • Meltwater has a good reach and makes it easy to add new media sources if they do not pick up brand mentions natively.
  • The account support has always been good with Meltwater and we can typically resolve problems quickly.
  • Meltwater has an easy-to-use interface that makes it simple to get started.
  • It would be nice to have more customization available with the dashboards and other widgets.
  • I recently learned that you can create influencer lists from the general search results. It would be helpful to make that more clear for users.
  • I wish there was an easier way to set up the boolean searches. Account managers are great to help but it seems like there has to be a way to make it easy for novices to get a search set up correctly.
As with any product or service, you need to determine whether Meltwater is truly going to meet your needs. It has a lot of features and the add-ons continue to grow. If you do not have a way to track brand mentions and to search news outlets for information that is relevant to your industry, Meltwater is a great option to consider. If this is not important for your organization, it may not be needed.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Meltwater is used to track and monitor the mention of our company in media outlets. We also use it to monitor key words that are important to our industry and the members we serve. It is used by myself as well as 3 other key employees.
  • Monitor key words chosen by us.
  • Produces great reports.
  • Provides key influencers.
  • Adding more influencers.
Meltwater is great for monitoring key words that you have identified as important to your company. The platform is user friendly and easy to navigate.
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We have attempted to use the tool for press and social media capture. We also wanted to leverage the dashboards to look at how we compare against competition and our % share of voice. We wanted to report these metrics to show how media efforts were paying off with increased results.
  • Right now it does nothing well and support has refused to help us.
  • The filters do not work against the numerous market research reports.
  • The tool does not capture media from the industry we are in. We are seeing major gaps in what it should catch versus what it is actually capturing.
  • The support is really horrible. The very first thing our customer service rep said to us was that he had to support over 80 clients and that we would not get any of his time. Well, he was right!
Don't expect for it to capture your industry's trade magazines. It only will do the big press like Forbes, USA Today, etc.

I am not sure what the Meltwater tool is well suited for. We are a medium sized company and it's turning out useless for us. I have actually used Meltwater for almost 6 years. There has been a HUGE decline in accuracy and support.
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