Item: Sysomos, now part of Meltwater
Rating: 6
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I work on a small team at a mid-size advertising agency, where we manage and lead our clients' influencer marketing strategies and programs. We use Klear on a pretty regular basis (at least 2-3 times per week) to help identify influencers, execute programs and measure results. Before we started using Klear our team was doing all of our influencer identification manually (searching on Instagram, reading articles about the best "lifestyle" bloggers, etc.) so we really wanted a platform to help us streamline that process. We also liked Klear over other similar products because it was a self-service platform and it isn't an opt-in network, making the pool of influencers to vet as large or small as we need it to be. This was important because some of our clients run hyper-local campaigns, so we needed to be able to filter down and see results in a small city.

Pros and Cons

It's a very intuitive and user-friendly platform.
It provides the ability to gather actual, verified data (including IG Stories).

It rounds numbers to the nearest hundred (for instance, will report "1.4K Story views" rather than the true number).
I am based in the US and my representative is based in Israel, so there is a delay in response at times.

Return on Investment

Klear allows us to optimize our time spent in other areas, like strategy or execution, rather than manually looking for influencers.
Klear has helped us be more data-savvy and stand behind our influencer recommendations/programs with tangible numbers like audience demographics.

Alternatives Considered

From a price standpoint, Klear was more reasonable than competitors, and definitely a factor in our decision last year. We also liked that Klear was mainly a SaaS platform and allowed us to manage our own campaigns from start to finish. A lot of other influencer marketing platforms/companies offer services where they manage the campaign and influencer relationships. This is definitely handy, but by having the ability to manage programs in-house, it allows us to be more profitable.

Key Insights

Do you think Sysomos, now part of Meltwater delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Sysomos, now part of Meltwater's feature set?

Yes

Did Sysomos, now part of Meltwater live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Sysomos, now part of Meltwater go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Sysomos, now part of Meltwater again?

Other Software Used

Cision Communications Cloud, Asana, Mavenlink

Likelihood to Recommend

Klear is great for doing some preliminary research when building out an influencer list. We've used it a lot for this and overall had pretty good success. We sometimes supplement with manual searching, but overall Klear has helped save a lot of time and labor on our end. I do prefer to manage influencer programs myself though, so I don't take advantage of the program's chat functionality, payroll capabilities, etc.

Support Rating

Unfortunately, we have not had a great experience with customer support from Klear. In the sales process, they were very responsive and helpful, but when onboarded, it definitely changed. We are based in the US and our customer service rep is based in Israel, meaning our work hours barely overlap. Oftentimes we're waiting 24+ hours for a response, and when it's a time-sensitive issue (like the platform not pulling in Instagram Story data) we want it to be resolved as quickly as possible. Klear also has a chat feature for more immediate help, but we've experienced a similar situation there where it takes 12+ hours to get a response and it's usually from our customer service rep. Our rep is very nice, but also doesn't seem very knowledgeable about the platform, and usually can't provide an immediate answer to a question we ask and has to "check with her team."

Klear: A Good Influencer Solution for the Price

Overall Satisfaction with Meltwater Social Influencer Management (Klear)