Online presence monitoring has become a crucial asset for any company to grow in a competitive market.
Your business needs to be where your customers are. You must stay close to the ground and engage quickly with users, to grow a positive online reputation.
But with more and more channels, from social media platforms to online communities, it can quickly become time consuming to monitor mentions of your brand and check every source.
You need a platform that does all the monitoring for you, and keeps you updated on new conversations about your company. So that you can focus your marketing on engaging with your customers and creating good content.
To help you choose the right tool, we tested and compared 2 monitoring tools available today :
buska.io vs syften
So let’s dive in and see how they can help you :
How to signup
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- buska offers a very simple and quick onboarding (under 2 minutes).
When you sign up, you are asked to type the first keyword you want to monitor and get instant access to the latest mentions.
- buska offers a very simple and quick onboarding (under 2 minutes).
Syften is fast too; as soon as you signup you are asked to choose one / multiple keywords and select sources. (keywords = filters in syften)
Yet, “keyword” search is not that easy, and you receive an email with good practice, as well as a guided tour on the website. You need to follow a specific syntax to get specific results.
Conclusion :
Both tools offer a quick signup and onboarding. Buska is easier to setup, while Syften offers complex filtering options upon signup for highly targeted and specific monitoring.
– if you want a very simple onboarding and quick access to mentions of your brand, buska’s onboarding experience is suited for you.
– if you have a very specific research to do, targeting a precise social page or language, you can configure it when you sign up on mention.com.
What sources are monitored
Both tools monitor social media and the internet to find your keywords.
Sources available will vary depending on the plan you choose.
🔍 On buska , you get access to :
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- Facebook (Pro Plan)
- Youtube,
- TikTok (Pro Plan)
- Quora
- Medium
- Google Search
- Google News
- File Search (Ultimate plan)
Syften lets you monitor “online communities”, mostly for tech people like Dev.to or Stack Exchange :
The interesting feature from Syften is its Slack Public Community monitoring. It allows you to select through a list of slack communities.
Yet, those are mostly very tech-oriented communities.
It also allows you to track specific Facebook Groups.
And for an extra $40 per month, you can monitor Twitter/X mentions.
But Syften cannot track mentions from Linkedin .
The site doesn’t seem to track mentions from Tiktok, Instagram and other social media.
It doesn’t include FIle search either
Conclusion :
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- If you are looking for an extensive monitoring of your brand across multiple platforms, buska will provide more sources.
- If you want to target mentions on very specific Dev communitie, syften allows you to niche down.
How to get notified
Both tools let you setup notifications to be alerted when a new mention of you keywords pops up online.
🔍 buska allows you to easily setup notifications via :
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- browser
- slack
- discord
- whatsapp (soon)
Just turn toggles on and connect your accounts, and you are set.
You’ll receive alerts (weekly, daily, instant – depending on your plan) when it finds new mentions.
Syften allows you to define notifications via :
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- RSS Feed
- Slack
- API
Conclusion :
buska offers more “plug’N’play” options for notifications. You can receive alerts on many different communication channels.
Syften offers flexility to integrate through their API, while it’s limited to email and slack for common channels.
What other features they offer :
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- Sentiment Analysis :
Only Buska gives you access to sentiment analysis, to know how people « feel » about your brand. - Team Management :
🔍 buska lets you add members to your team and define management roles-
- 🔍 buska allows you to even create multiple teams in the ultimate plan
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- Key Metrics :
Only buska displays visual charts of your mentions and sources. - Zapier & API :
Currently Syften allows you to connect with other tools with Zapier and their API.
Buska will release their API and Zapier connection soon.
- Sentiment Analysis :
How social listening looks
The tools show very different designs :
🔍 buska opted for a sleak minimalist design, focused on showing the mentions of the brand.
– The Dashboard shows you the Key metrics and latest mentions.
– The Feed shows all the mentions you have. You can filter by source, language, or sentiment.
Buska also sends designed emails when there are new notifications of mentions of the brand.
Syften is focused on notifications, and displays them via emails for examples.
You can receive many emails with new mentions. You can access each mention through a link in the email.
There is a very limited “feed” displayed on the platform, called “matches”.
How much does it cost ?
🔍 buska targets startups, entrepreneurs and small businesses and aims for a self serve approach. It offers 3 plans :
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- Starter Plan – with the core functionalities and weekly updates.
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- Pro Plan – with 3 keywords. It adds Facebook, Tiktok as sources, and gives more notification options and Sentiment analysis
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- Ultimate Plan – with 10 Keyword, adding File Search, Team Management and more features.
The prices are aligned with the capabilities and needs of the target audience : from the Solo Founder to the fast growing Company.
Syften offers 3 plans : the Medium Plan allows to track 20 filters and adds Slack Notifications.
The most expensive plan add Quora Monitoring (which is included in every plan on Buska).
Twitter monitoring costs $40 extra.
Their Small plan is more expensive that Buska’s pro plan, although it lacks Twitter, Linkedin, Quora and more, and offers less features than buska.
Which tool to choose ?
We have seen that 🔍 buska and Syften have different approaches :
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- buska offers a comprehensive access to all the mentions of a brand across numerous platforms and all the social media. It offers real time alerts as well as an elegant feed to monitor everything in one place
- its competitor is focused on notifications and targets very “tech oriented” sources.
If you are looking for a comprehensive social listening tool for your company or want to track your competition easily, with a friendly experience. And get the best money to value tool to stay updated on your mentions and engage quickly with your audience, buska is clearly the way to go.
if you have very tech-oriented needs and focus on niche specific communities, and are only looking for notifications, then Syften appears has a good option.
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