Software: Meltwater

Category: Media Intelligence & Social Listening Platform

Primary Use: Media monitoring, social listening, PR analytics, and brand tracking

Developer: Meltwater

Starting Price: Custom pricing (quote-based; varies by features and data volume)

Free Trial/Plan: Demo available

Platform: Web-based (cloud)

Official Website: meltwater.com

Meltwater is a cloud-based media intelligence and social listening platform designed to help organizations monitor brand mentions, track media coverage, and analyze consumer sentiment across digital channels. The platform focuses on public relations (PR), communications, and marketing analytics.

What Is Meltwater?

Meltwater is a SaaS media monitoring platform founded in 2001. It enables businesses to track online news, blogs, social media, and other digital sources to measure brand visibility and reputation.

The platform aggregates content from news publications, online media outlets, and social networks. It provides analytics tools for understanding audience engagement, media impact, and sentiment trends.

Meltwater operates entirely online and integrates with enterprise systems.

Who Uses Meltwater?

Meltwater is commonly used by enterprise brands, public relations agencies, government organizations, nonprofits, financial institutions, and global corporations. It is particularly suited for communications teams managing brand reputation and media outreach.

PR professionals use Meltwater to track press mentions and campaign impact. Marketing teams use it to monitor social conversations. Corporate communications teams use it for crisis management and brand monitoring.

Core Features

Meltwater provides media monitoring tools that track news articles, blog posts, press releases, and online publications mentioning specified keywords or brand names.

Social listening tools allow businesses to monitor conversations across platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), YouTube, and online forums.

Sentiment analysis categorizes mentions as positive, negative, or neutral to measure public perception.

Media database tools allow users to search for journalists, influencers, and media contacts for outreach campaigns.

Analytics dashboards provide insights into share of voice, reach, engagement, and campaign performance.

Reporting tools enable users to create customizable reports for internal stakeholders or clients.

In certain plans, Meltwater includes influencer marketing modules and social media management tools.

Integrations and Compatibility

Meltwater integrates with CRM systems, marketing automation platforms, and analytics tools. It supports API access for enterprise data integration.

The platform connects with major social networks and online news sources via official data partnerships.

Meltwater is accessible via web-based dashboards and may include mobile app access for monitoring and alerts.

Pricing Structure

Meltwater offers custom pricing based on feature modules, data volume, number of users, and monitoring scope. Pricing is typically quote-based and not publicly listed.

Packages may include media monitoring, social listening, influencer marketing, analytics, and media database access.

Billing terms are structured through enterprise agreements.

Advantages and Limitations

Meltwater provides comprehensive media monitoring and social listening tools. Its media database supports PR outreach and journalist discovery.

However, pricing is generally suited for mid-sized to enterprise organizations. Implementation may require onboarding support. Feature availability depends on selected modules.

Alternatives to Meltwater

Several platforms provide similar media intelligence functionality. Brandwatch focuses on social listening and consumer intelligence. Cision offers PR monitoring and media database tools. Sprinklr includes enterprise listening and engagement management. Talkwalker supports media and social analytics.

Each alternative differs in pricing structure, data coverage, and analytics depth.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does Meltwater do?

Meltwater is a media intelligence and social listening platform that tracks brand mentions across news and social media.

Is Meltwater cloud-based?

Yes. Meltwater operates as a web-based SaaS platform.

Does Meltwater include a media database?

Yes. Media contact database tools are available in certain plans.

Is pricing publicly available?

No. Pricing is custom and quote-based.

Who typically uses Meltwater?

PR agencies, corporate communications teams, and enterprise brands commonly use the platform.

Key Takeaways

Meltwater is a cloud-based media intelligence and social listening platform designed for PR and enterprise communications teams. It includes news monitoring, social listening, sentiment analysis, media database tools, and analytics dashboards. Pricing is custom and structured for mid-sized to enterprise organizations.