Map is a great listening tool with a few expected caveats
November 14, 2014
Map is a great listening tool with a few expected caveats
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Software Version
Sysomos MAP (legacy)
Overall Satisfaction with Sysomos MAP
It is primarily used by the firm marketing team for brand research. We also use it on a limited basis for client research. On the client side, we use it most frequently for share of voice research. That means when we are doing a RFP or something, we'll show a client how they stand in their competitive environment. Most clients at this phase aren't doing any social efforts (or poor ones), so the results can be quite startling.
- It's good for major brands and research (especially consumer facing)
- It's good for establishing share of voice
- It's good for identifying trends over time - focusing in on what caused conversations spikes.
- Their influencer/klout score algorithm is worthless - it caps out at 10 so the New York Times and Jo Schmo gamer dude and Justin Bieber all have the same score.
- The Boolean builder can be frustrating, it will tell you there is an error, but gives you no indication of where. In a complex string it can take forever to figure out what you messed up.
- Twitter listening only goes back one year. If you ever need to compare something year over year, without anticipating the need in advance and downloading reports, you're screwed.
- No proven ROI at this point, but clients have liked the information provided from share of voice.
- It has cut time in identifying massive trends, spikes and potential hashtags for campaigns from a manual process to a much quicker/shorter one.
Map is much much better and friendlier to use than Radian6. With Radian6, I remember I had to filter through an absurd amount of noise, garbage and results to get to anything interesting. Granted I used the tool about 4 years ago, so it might have improved. When I first encountered Map I was skeptical because of a worthless experience with Radian6, but then once I got into the demo, I was much more impressed by the ease of the user interface and the customer service.
Using Sysomos MAP
Marketing mananagers and specialists, and consulting teams. We send the reports to marketing directors. Then at the consulting level, the client research goes to partners and principals.