The Price of Knowledge: Free vs. Paid Monitoring Tools

Confidential & Proprietary • Copyright © 2009 The Nielsen Company

The Price of Knowledge: Free vs. Paid Monitoring Tools

Brad LittleBuzzMetrics, EMEA

Confidential & ProprietaryCopyright © 2009 The Nielsen Company


Preview

• Logical conclusions, based on my experiences

•Will try not to cover what others will today

• I actually know how these things work – warts and all (or at least like to think I do)



This would confuse anyone

Twitter: 364

Twitter: 1,392

Twitter: 706

Twitter: 22,365

Twitter data from twellow 8/11/09



Why are there so many approaches?

1. There are so many different objectives– Different tools for different objectives– There is no one type of ‘Social Media’ (nor ‘Traditional Media’)

2. Different investment levels drive various approaches

It is the ability to listen in this way, not WOM that is new– Do companies actually want to get to know their customers or

what they want?– Remember the 360˚ view of the customer or building a

consumer centric organization?



What is out there?

1) DIY 2) Free Tools 3) Software 4) Analyst 5) Consultant

Accessible & Free

Free Analysis Lots of Content Fast

Quality & Expertise

Relationships & Actionability

5

Strength

WeaknessPartial View Limited Scope Reduced Speed & Cost Using Tools

Accuracy From 1-3

Source: The Forrester Wave: Listening Platforms, Q1 2009



What are the steps involved?

6

•Harvesting or gathering?

•What data to include?

•How is the data prepared and cleaned?

• Insights

•Recommendation

• Strategy

• Engaging

• Technology or researchers?

• Local teams?

• Keywords or logic?

•Markets or languages?



What is actually being measured?

• “Oh, and can we please have the tech support phone number somewhere on the product just in case. Dyson does that and it’s how I know that the company believes and stands behinds its products.”

www.crunchgear.com 09/11/09 Matt Burns

• “Dyson has figured out how to remove the single working element of the fans we all know and love and replace it with a bill for $250. As the video shows, it’s a clever feat on the technical side. From a practical standpoint, however, it seems dumb. There will undoubtedly be some people who buy one – it is sort of pretty in a “Deep Space 9″ kind of way, but there’s something fundamentally silly about paying that much for a pseudo-fan just to avoid “buffeting.”

helltotheno.org 20/10/09



How do the features differ?

How searches are performed (keywords, classifiers, and other)saving reports workflow word clouds

automated sentiment scoring (and manual overrides)association mapping APIs mapping connections

external data data aggregation internal dataand features about how to slice and compare data

• It would take more than one full-time person to actually compare these

•Unfortunately, the tools are locked in a ‘feature war’–This distracts the marketplace from focusing on the best aspects–The tools will continue to commoditise and differentiation will remain in

data quality and breadth, services provided, & experience



What are (most) of these tools trying to do?

• Breadth of coverage - so you don’t miss important conversations

•Relevant and clean information - to save time

•Help manage process - so you save time and maximise effectiveness

•Customisation - so you can take control

• Liberate content - so you can uncover what you need without restrictions

• Support – so you can get more value and realise the other benefits listed



Who is more influential?

Person A

• 1,000 twitter followers

• 10 mentions of your brand last week

• 100 links to their blog post about your brand

•Daily activity on blogs, forums, and twitter

Person B

• 500 twitter followers

• 5 mentions of your brand last week

• 50 links to their blog post about your brand

•Weekly activity on blogs, forums, and twitter

Prediction: Measuring advocacy will be the metric, not influence

Answer: Neither (or both) – you have to read what they wrote!



A few fun questions...

1. Hold on Brad, can't we get this stuff for free?

2. Google search shows more results than your tool – is your tool missing conversations?

3. Is the best way to see which provider has the most robust data to have each run a search for something and see who has more buzz?

4. A trial is a very good way to compare services, right?



Social Media Process

•Research

•Monitor

•Track effectiveness

• Identify Threats

•Powered by Listening

•Enabled by good data input

•Delivers actionability

•Engage

•Listening & Learning to improve execution



When unlocking value, please remember

• All data is not created equal

•Dashboards have their strengths, but aren't the answers to every need

•Combine research methodologies (Listening & Asking)

• Active client participation is key

• Actionable insights occur when tools (technology) combine with good local market researchers (people)



That buzz is up over 5X is a fact (not an insight)



Final Recommendations

1. Determine who the stakeholders are and who will use it

2. Outline what you want to get out of it and what you may want to do with it

3. Look under the bonnet

4. Understand difference between monitoring, researching, & strategy

5. Remember Listen, Learn, and then Engage

6. An event, issue, launch, or specific (anything) tends to produce more interesting research

Final thought: WOM & SM are people based

The Price of Knowledge: Free vs. Paid Monitoring Tools

Technology

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