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Best listening tool for quick results and flexible Boolean queries
October 29, 2013

Best listening tool for quick results and flexible Boolean queries

Kristen O'Neill | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Software Version

Sysomos MAP (legacy)

Overall Satisfaction with Sysomos MAP

  • Utilizes Boolean queries which enables user to build very specific, complex searches.
  • Returns search results in near real-time (vs. several hours or days like competitor products).
  • Easy-to-understand, intuitive platform. Easy to navigate through listening results.
  • Fairly expensive.
  • Customer service response time can be inconsistent.
  • Complemented our media monitoring efforts, making our daily reports that we created for clients more comprehensive.
  • Enabled our agency to stay on top of market trends by listening to what topics/keywords were "hot", which guided our content marketing strategy.
  • Assisted our clients in understanding what was being said/written about them online so they could better develop a unique and effective POV for their brand.
For those new to listening products and/or Boolean queries, it would be smart to ask what kind of service level they could expect. And also to get a certain number of hours or predetermined number of training sessions in writing as part of the contract. With all listening tools, there is a learning curve. If your business or agency doesn't have knowledgeable people in house, you'll want some training beyond what's available in the FAQs section.

Using Sysomos MAP

There are two differentiating features that Sysomos MAP has that the competitor tools I have experienced (Radian6, Meltwater Buzz) did not: user-friendly Boolean queries for searches and near-real-time results. The former is important because, of course, your results are only as good as your search/campaign. With Sysomos, once you master Boolean queries (which isn't terribly difficult) you're set for creating any kind of listening report. I strongly prefer this to the "campaign creator" forms that other services provide.

Second, Sysomos MAP returns results almost immediately - like a Google search. So if you get your results and see that you need to tweak your query - no big deal. Or if you have a last-minute request for a client - not an issue. Meltwater can take up to 48 hours for a search to fully populate. This is a major issue if you get your full set of results back and see that you need to adjust the query; you're looking at another two days of wait time. A long wait on results can also prove problematic in agency settings where clients or prospective clients often need results with a quick turnaround.