There are lots of tools available in the market, some of them are for free, some are paid, some are very expensive!
Internet is full of information, guides, comparison tables and so on.
Where to start from?
Well, first thing I did was reading my bible (http://www.smartinsights.com) and I came across very interesting articles, I would highlight one in particular about "Requirement for Social Listening tools".
Then I shortlisted 3 tools and tested them for few hours each and this is my feedback:
- Radian 6: although is considered to be one of the most popular tool, especially after it was acquired by SalesForce, I haven't tested it because I was very disappointed with the sales team. I sent them an email requesting info and trial account and they replied with few lines about the the features and the different product they have with relative price. They also added link to 1 minute Youtube videos in case I was interested in getting more details. Poor customer service, very expensive product: Radian 6 out!
- HootSuite: I use it every day and I think it's one of the best social networks management tool, I would go for a pro account ($9.99/month) just to have the possibility to upload content by using the bulk uploader. In terms of report, I have found it a bit poor and sometimes not accurate.
- Sysomos: it was suggested to me by my colleague Simon and so far it's my favorite tool. Michael, the sales guy who came to give me a face-to-face demo (different type of service compared to Radian 6), in less than 60 minutes, gave me a complete training on how to use to
he tool. I had a trial for few days and I have found it easy to use and useful: the amount of data offered, coverage, data latency, data export, and types of reports available were exactly what I was looking for. Unfortunately Sysomos doesn't have yet an alert system, but I am sure they are working on it.
Anyway, the budget allocated for the Social Media tool was not enough to buy Sysomos, so next week I have to test 3 different tools: I think I will go for http://simplymeasured.com/, http://sendible.com/ and ... do you want to suggest the 3rd one?
My advice to you is: before testing any tool, make sure you know what you want to listen, measure and report on, then test the tools accordingly.
