Social Media Analysis for Workgroups (The Net-Savvy Executive)

Social Media Analysis for Workgroups

If you're building an in-house social media capability—whether in an agency or corporate environment—your needs for social media monitoring and analysis are a bit different from other companies. The basics of collecting data and generating metrics and reports are the same, but hands-on workgroups have special requirements.

On some level, many social media analysis companies can help you build your own capabilities. The nearly ubiquitous interactive dashboard is a hands-on tool for clients who want to interact with the data, but they're a better fit for individual analysts. Some companies really focus on developing platforms for companies building their own capabilities.

What's different
On top of the core analytical and reporting capabilities, social media analysis platforms for workgroups tend to include features like these:

Multi-user environment
User account management
Multi-client awareness (for agencies)
Delegation and tracking features

There's more, of course—especially when you get into the secret sauce that these companies cook up. Features vary wildly, and even the basic philosophies differ, but those are the basics that set workgroup platforms apart from the more numerous dashboards.

The other distinction is harder to see, because it's embedded in the business: these companies are oriented toward supporting in-house social media capabilities. Many dashboards, on the other hand, are a secondary service from companies whose clients typically want finished reports from their vendors.

The list
Vendors with monitoring and analysis platforms for the in-house social media team:

You'll find profiles of most of these companies (and a lot more) in the second edition of the Guide to Social Media Analysis, which is now available.

I can just hear people shouting, "you missed us!" Go ahead, leave a comment, and I'll add you to the list.

Posted by Nathan Gilliatt on August 7, 2008 7:08 PM | Permalink

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Comments (14)

Hi Nathan,
Thanks for your work in this space. I like the distinction you are pointing out with in house (corporate or agency) workgroups and their needs. Looking forward to the report.
Marcel

Posted by Marcel LeBrun | August 7, 2008 9:32 PM

Thanks, Marcel. I'm editing the Radian6 profile at this very moment.

Posted by Nathan Gilliatt | August 7, 2008 9:39 PM

Yo missed us!! :-)

www.analisisdemedios.es
www.smmart.es

Posted by Antonio García | August 8, 2008 5:32 AM

Hey Nathan,

Thanks for including dna13!

Alecia has been telling me all about it. We are looking forward to reading it.

Thanks

Katie

Posted by Katie Boland | August 8, 2008 8:01 AM

One thing I'd add is whether the service enables the user to export the data with user-configurable fields so it can be added to existing enterprise dashboards or analysis systems.

Posted by Martin Edic | August 8, 2008 8:22 AM

Hi Nathan:

Thanks for your hard work and for putting together this great resource!

- ReputationHQ Team

Posted by Jeff | August 8, 2008 2:43 PM

Hi Nathan,

Thanks for this post and the list of vendors. We're launching a "social media analysis platform for workgroups" (that's a mouthful!) next week. It includes the multi-user environment, user account management, multi-client awareness, and delegation and tracking features you've mentioned, as well as annotation, export, bookmarking, and more.

http://startpr.com

-Alex
@alexdc
@startpr

Posted by Alex de Carvalho | August 8, 2008 6:07 PM

Hi Nathan, you forgot us. Our web portal "linkscape" includes all the features you mentionned. Furthermore we're opening an office in Washington very soon (january 2009).

Posted by Guilhem Fouetillou | August 10, 2008 11:22 AM

Hi Nathan,
Thanks for the mention, we are looking forward to the release of your guide

Leon Chaddock
www.sentimentmetrics.com

Posted by Leon Chaddock | August 11, 2008 9:21 AM

Hello Nathan,

Thanks for including us. Looking fwd to reading the guide !

Posted by dominic | August 11, 2008 9:29 AM

Nathan, thank you for adding linkfluence to the list. Looking forward to the publication of your guide!

Posted by anham | August 11, 2008 4:37 PM

Thanks for your comments, everyone. I've been reading them, but I hope you understand that I've been a bit swamped with the release of the Guide. So I've been lax in responding (although I have been updating the list). I'm back now, and sanity will return soon (I hope). ;-)

Posted by Nathan Gilliatt | August 12, 2008 10:01 PM

Judging from the sample profile they had on their website, I can't say the "Guide to Social Media Analysis" gives you anything more than what you can find on the web. Pretty superficial analysis. I can do better...

Posted by J. Dix | October 16, 2008 11:12 AM

J.,

Remember that there's more to the Guide than the profiles (which are not evaluations). I promise that there is plenty of information in there that is not on web sites, but you're right in that you could collect the information yourself. It would be a big project, and the Guide is intended to help people make more effective use of their time in finding the right vendors.

There's also a money-back guarantee if it's not what you need, an option that has been exercised once in two editions.

Posted by Nathan Gilliatt | October 16, 2008 11:02 PM

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The Net-Savvy Executive

Social media and market intelligence for non-technical business leaders