We are very excited to be mentioned by Forrester as one of the top third-party web data providers in Forrester’s recent report on social listening platforms! The report describes the social marketing platform as being in a state of rapid growth. It seems that not a day goes by without a new player springing up in the marketplace. Organizations are starting to rely on them more and more to monitor their brand, track and monitor trends, and provide competitive intelligence that gives them an edge.
“…most vendors in this evaluation tap into the same third-party aggregators such as Webz.io for web content…”
The Forrester Wave™: Social Listening Platforms, Q3 2018
But is there a place for all these social listening platforms in the marketplace, or is the market becoming saturated with too many similar products? And if so, are there ways for each of these solutions to stand out in a competitive marketplace?
To stand out in the competitive marketplace, Forrester suggests several different approaches a social listening platform can take: offering an all-in-one solution that includes both listening and acting on insights; combining with business intelligence platforms to integrate social listening data with other data; and offering top-notch consulting services.
It also suggests that many of these platforms’ heavy investment in analytics, deep tech integrations and machine learning demonstrates their commitment to strive to contribute to the strategic direction of larger organizations, including enterprises. But although these platforms may tout extensive AI and machine learning services, they are not yet able to produce tangible results. Nevertheless, these social listening platforms are poised and ready to deliver more to these organizations when their technology is advanced enough – and that day is fast approaching.
The Future of Data Consumption for Social Listening Platforms
As a leading data provider, we have our own perspective on the future of data consumption for social listening platforms. In an era where big data is an emerging and fast-growing sector, we envision a future where different industries need different types of data consumption. As the threat of compromised data on social networks becomes more rampant, companies need to look to other verticals to access the true sentiments of the public, be it via news, blogs, online discussions, or new networks.
The bottom line? Social networks aren’t going anywhere. So if companies want to truly monitor impact, they’ll have to rely more heavily on alternative sources of data, such as Webz. We believe that as more and more companies look towards using data in their products, they’ll need to work with a data provider that can supply them with the relevant data for their specific industry. And as this trend continues, Webz.io will continue to meet the needs of different clients in a growing number of industries.
