The Radian6 vs. SM2 Death Match

Management consultant Peter Drucker is attributed with saying “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” I don’t know about you, but having worked in PR for more than a decade, where measuring impressions from “hits” inside fat clip books was how we proved our worth to clients, the need to accurately measure social media efforts is now even greater. The sheer volume of online chatter, and proving your ROI in a recession, are forcing measurement to the forefront.

But even so, according to a recent Babson and Mzinga survey of professionals using social media worldwide: “Despite widespread adoption of social media, measurement still lags. Only 16% of those polled said they currently measured ROI for their social media programs.”

What’s happening with the 84% of respondents who aren’t measuring their social media marketing efforts? I can say with certainty that they’re not using either SM2 from Techrigy or Radian6, two major monitoring and measurement tools that I’ve used extensively over the past year. Now, it’s no longer a question of whether you should or shouldn’t measure your social media marketing efforts. It’s a question of which tools are the best. Over the course of three blog posts, I will break down the strengths and weaknesses of both tools for you, comparing functionality, ease of use, and price.

Continue reading here

Tagged as: Alterian, Death Match, Ease of use, Functionality, Measurement, Price, pricing, Radian6, ROI, SM2, Social Media Monitoring, Techrigy

marcstlouis2

Very interesting. We are actually considering both. Do you have an opinion in terms of performance, speed of research execution? I'm wondering if they are both powerful tools.

Buzz Bishop

The simplest way to track ROI in social media is to measure it one customer at a time.

Social media should not be treated as a scattershot approach, it's a dedicated way to empower your P1 consumers to become brand advocates by listening and super serving their needs. Social media is a way to offer personalized, customized service.

Companies just need to be willing to spend the money to make it happen. Here's a breakdown of putting an ad in Times Square vs tossing some money at a social media customer service campaign:

http://www.cyberbuzz.com/2009/11/05/times-squar...

AmberNaslund

Hi there Michael,

Thanks so much for the post and the thorough review. A few things of note:

1) You're absolutely right that technology being what it is, sentiment analysis will always, always require a human element. Most importantly, the subjective nature of what's "good" or "bad" in light of your business goals requires a person to really evaluate.

2) Regarding web analytics, we're working harder to connect all those dots and provide deeper data through things like our WebTrends web analytics integration, in addition to other upcoming partnerships and alliances with web-driven data. Sites like Compete.com are part of the picture too.

3) Regarding Facebook and other social networks, at this writing, there is no monitoring tool that can get into private data. It's part of FB's terms of service for their users that they have an expectation that their personal information and posts remain private, and crawlers of any stripe can't get there for that reason. Until and unless FB makes individual status updates public (which personally I don't think is likely), searches and tracking will be limited to public areas like Group discussions, which we cover. Likewise with sites like Ning; members join with the expectation that they can control access to their information, and unless the structure of those kinds of social networks changes, it's not a matter of coverage but access to information.

Thanks, also, for writing such a clear explanation of the availability of historic results within the pricing structure. That's an important distinction, and I'm thrilled that you pointed it out.

Really appreciate your thorough feedback and all of your thoughts about usability, data coverage, and the like. You can bet we're capturing this kind of feedback all the time to improve and enhance the platform for our users.

Thanks again, and please keep the feedback coming!

Amber Naslund
Director of Community, Radian6
@ambercadabra | amber@radian6.com

Aaron Newman

Michael,

I love the death match analogy! Reminds me of the TechCrunch posting on SM2 - "like google analytics on steriods".

Great to see people writing and even comparing use to Radian6. Until a few months ago we were a boot-strapped start up winning customers by "wanting it more". Our first customers were bought with blood, sweat, and tears. We were the David, Radian6 the well-funded Goliath.

As most people likely know by now, that hard work paid off and we are now part of a great company called Alterian (thanks David and Bob!). We have been working on doubling our technology team by year end, hired professional data center people, a UI design specialist, a DBA, we are upgrading the data center hardware and a ton of other investments. The Alterian guys are very serious about social media.

Your feedback is great, but not surprising. Our front end was designed by developers and has needed the face lift we are working on.

Social media monitoring industry is just finishing up round 1 of the Death Match. I expect we are going to some awesome advancements from us and the other leaders in the next few years.

Aaron
Founder, Techrigy
VP, Social Media, Alterian

Brian Dunphy

Hey Michael,

Enjoyed reading your detailed review. Thanks for the kind words and feedback on our product!

I've passed your thoughts on to the rest of our UX team. We are dedicated to maintaining the ease of use in our product and we look forward to any future ideas you have.

Cheers,

Brian Dunphy
User Experience Team Lead | Radian6
@BrianDunphy on Twitter

Bourne Social Archives

Disclaimer