Andrew Frank

I want to thank all of the social media monitoring and analytics vendors who responded to last week’s challenge.

First, the highlights.

This year’s challenge listed 61 company names, of which 15 responded, a nearly 25% response rate.  An additional 4 who were not mentioned also responded. Last year, 34 company names were listed, of which 23 responded, a 68% response rate. An additional 13 who were not mentioned responded last year. Of 36 who responded last year, 17 didn’t respond this year, even though they were all on the list.

Whatever the reason, some of the companies that didn’t respond remain on my list of top-tier players based on the work they’re doing for clients, which of course is the ultimate test.

Second, an observation. Even among those who responded quickly, I was surprised at how many neglected to take the step of mentioning their company’s name in the response. I’d suggest it’s wise to always keep SEO in mind and make it second nature when posting anything on behalf of your company’s brand. Search engines still matter, shankapotamus.

Contextual Bonus Awards (given to companies who were not on the list but responded anyway):

ImpactWatch (also noted for taking the opportunity to plug that they also monitor offline media)

Media Monitors (also noted for taking the opportunity to plug a newly released product: Mediaportal.com)

Waggener Edstrom (also noted for taking the opportunity to plug a newly released product: twendz)

VMS Info

Rapid Response Bonus Awards (given to companies who responded within fifteen minutes of the post)

InsideView  (special note as the respondent appears to be a client rather than a representative of the company)

Filtrbox (New to the list)

Responsiveness Awards (please note that some of these companies have taken pains to point out that they are not “watchdogs” or monitors in any limiting sense, but focus more broadly on strategic inferences from broad range of consumer conversations. However, their mention here at least attests to the fact that they are listening.)

BurrellesLuce

Cision

Converseon

filtrbox

InsideView

The McGraw-Hill Companies J.D. Power and Associates Web

MotiveQuest

Onalytica

Radian6 Technologies

Sentiment Metrics

Spiral16

Sports Media Challenge

Sysomos

Alterion Techrigy

Visible Technologies

Thanks again to all who participated and please don’t hesitate to let flow the feedback.

Final note: as MotiveQuest’s Tom O’Brien noted, Microsoft Advertising was in the news last week at Advertising Week in NYC with a social media monitoring product called LookingGlass (AdAge, ClickZ), which we’ll be evaluating in more detail shortly (though not necessarily on the blog).

Such a move clearly suggests there’s still play in the social media monitoring space, even as the table stakes go higher. Microsoft’s entry may tend to commoditize the brand monitoring function and shift value focus to either broader forms of analysis, characterized by more strategic service-oriented approaches. Will the incumbent agency space dominate these services, or can new approaches scale better working outside the agency legacy? Stay tuned…

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