Not just a "social listening tool", but a "social intelligence solution".
November 14, 2014
Not just a "social listening tool", but a "social intelligence solution".
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Software Version
Pro
Overall Satisfaction with Brandwatch
One of the main problems I've been able to solve with the help of Brandwatch is correlation - so what you had spike in mentions last week? What caused it? So what you had a lot of mentions from a particular forum, more than usual? What caused that? Thanks to annotation and the ability to plot various metrics on the flexible Brandwatch graphs, I can easily identify what correlates and what causes spikes and/or dips, even before I export the data to Excel for a deep-dive. In fact, one of the benefits of Brandwatch is that, while I can keep some of the dashboards with basic and self-explanatory graphs based on the audience, I can also keep my "super dashboards" with all the metrics and widgets I need, and I can do all of my deep dives right from the dashboard. This leads me to the next problem I was able to solve thanks to Brandwatch - showing my various stakeholders that social listening (and social analytics in general) isn't daunting, it isn't boring, and just because it's often portrayed in an Excel spreadsheet it doesn't mean it's too scary for the business to appreciate. Brandwatch is so customisable and flexible that it's manager-friendly, analyst-friendly, data geek-friendly etc.
Pros
- Brandwatch is very flexible, customisable, it's great for beginners and it appeases the advanced users who are always looking for more and more data
- Brandwatch is the tool with the highest number of supported Boolean queries - something to keep in mind if you want to build really flexible and accurate social listening queries.
- Brandwatch is open - with open APIs, you can integrate it with other applications that you may already have (e.g. Hootsuite, so you can monitor mentions and engage with them).
- Brandwatch isn't stagnant - the platform is constantly updated, every 2 weeks, so I'm reassured that I'm with a solution that moves at the pace of digital marketing.
Cons
- I've used Brandwatch for quite a while, and I have to say that I'm thoroughly satisfied with it. However, if I have to point out a "weakness", I'd say the lack of an app. It would be great to have a view of mentions and analytics on-the-go, via an app. Having said that, it's not a big deal-breaker - I've tried using Brandwatch on my phone and a few more times on my tablet and it works just fine.
- Brandwatch doesn't directly generate money, but the insights I've gotten out of it have been able to help us deflect social media crises (hence saving costs and reputation), identify outages on the onset (hence saving call costs), and more. So more than ROI, Brandwatch is an intelligent solution that caters to Return on Business Initiatives first alongside the traditional ROI.
- Adobe Social,Adobe Analytics,Social Mention,Attensity
Unlike a lot of its competitors, Brandwatch has full access to the Twitter Firehose from the very first Tweet (instead of giving you a sample of Tweets from Twitter's API), it offers mentions in real-time instead of long time lags, and las (but definitely not least) it has open APIs, welcoming integrations from other social tools.
10 - We mainly use Brandwatch in the various social media teams, including the main brand social team (which also covers content marketing), and the social customer care team. That aside, we do supply social listening reports to several other teams in the company (from marketing to PR, branding and beyond) through Brandwatch. Having said that, we're soon going to expand our reach within the business, so that more stakeholders can create their own reports and have a hands-on feel of how social media can help them and their team.
Brandwatch Support
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Quick Resolution Good followup Problems get solved Kept well informed No escalation required Immediate help available Support understands my problem Support cares about my success Quick Initial Response | None |
No - I don't pay for premium support mainly because I can directly contact people at Brandwatch via the channels I feel comfortable with and I get a response in a matter of minutes. I know that if I need something they're just a call, a Tweet or an email away, but so far I haven't had any major issues to report, just minor feedback every now and then.
While I do have the option to report things to a customer care team, I also have the freedom to contact the people at Brandwatch. I put that in bold because I think it's extremely important - my relationship with Brandwatch isn't a customer-supplier relationship but it's more of a team relationship. I feel like I'm part of their team, like I can just email them or even Tweet them and I get a quick response, in a natural conversation, with no jargon or pretentiousness. That's one thing that Brandwatch users experience - not just the excellence from the tool, but also the warm culture from the people who work at Brandwatch, and considering how many suppliers miss that and how many just drop that as soon as you've signed a contract with them, I think that this is exceptional and exemplary from Brandwatch.
Using Brandwatch
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Like to use Relatively simple Easy to use Technical support not required Well integrated Consistent Quick to learn Feel confident using Familiar | None |
- Visualisations are pretty customisable and easy to use and export.
- The graphs and various filters used to segment data are pretty self-explanatory, and I've also seen non-analyst make use of them comfortably at work, without me having to train them on the tool.
- The whole look and feel isn't clunky - in fact, you wouldn't think it was an analytics solution, and that's why Brandwatch isn't daunting for non-analytical minded users.
Yes - While Brandwatch doesn't have a mobile-specific interface, or a mobile app, its layout is built to be responsive across devices, so it works just fine whether you're using it on a desktop, mobile or tablet (I've also tried it with different screen dimensions, and it works with no issues). The same applies to Brandwatch Vizia, their visualisation solution which was built specifically with mobile and tablet devices in mind.
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