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Looking to brush up your skills on search creation, metrics reporting or how to use the newest features in Scout Labs? We’ve got a webinar for you!

We’re announcing four new webinars we’re running each week through March. We’re keeping them small and intimate, so you’ll have the opportunity during the webinar to work one on one with the Scout Labs team to learn tips, tricks and get your burning questions answered. Space is extremely limited so sign up now!

Search Creation Fundamentals Webinar
Mondays 3/8, 3/15, 3/22, 3/29
1:00 - 2:00 pm PST

Creating the proper searches is the cornerstone of social media listening. Search is more than just inputing your company name. In this webinar you’ll learn how to set up your workspace to search for industry trends, competitors, campaigns and uncover the desires, wishes and likes of your customers.

Metrics and Reporting Fundamentals Webinar
Tuesdays 3/9, 3/16, 3/23, 3/30
1:00 - 2:00 pm PST

Uncover quick and easy tips for how to get the most out of Scout Labs reporting features. Learn how to create customized graphs, export data and set up weekly email alerts.

Assignments and Saved Items Webinar
Wednesdays 3/3, 3/10, 3/17, 3/24
1:00 - 2:00 pm PST

Two of the most exciting new features in Scout Labs, Assignment and Saved Items, are critical to organizing your team around social media listening and outreach. Learn how to use these features and see real live examples from some of the world’s biggest brands.

Configuration, Customization and Co-branding
Thursdays 3/11, 3/04, 3/18, 3/25
1:00 - 2:00 pm PST

Agencies, this is for you. If you need to brand a Scout Labs workspace for your clients or create multiple workspaces under one account you’ll learn how easy that is.

And as always, every Tuesday and Thursday at 11am PST we will continue to run our Live Demo. Get an overview of Scout Labs and see how to start your own social media listenting campaign. Sign up here.

We do ask that you register for these events, so to ensure your space, please sign up!

As many of you know Scout Labs recently introduced some new product tiers, both in number of concurrent searches and data/functionality. A detailed plan comparison can be found here, but since many of you are asking for guidance on which plan type should select, let me offer a perspective on what functional needs each plan type is best suited to meet.

You should buy a Standard plan if:

• You are part of a small team of 5 members or less that is unlikely to expand in the near term
• You rely primarily on digital dashboards and in-application/ email alert delivery of information
• You can use saved items and screenshots to prepare reports
• You are concerned primarily with the very recent past- last 3 months or less- and do not need more longitudinal tracking
• You either use other tools for workflow and assignments, or are in the listening/ insight gathering mode rather than a response function

You should buy a Professional plan if:

• You are part of a team of 5 or more members, or if driving organizational awareness and adoption of social media across functions and groups is of paramount importance
• You need for data export in .htm or .csv to prepare custom reports or unique visualizations
• You desire longer timeframes of data to baseline against, or are tracking phenomena that exceed a 3 month timeframe
• You need a response platform that spans all mention types- video, Twitter, blogs, etc.

A couple of notes about both plan types:

• In both plans saved items are saved indefinitely- by virtue of having saved something, it remains available even if the mention is outside the 3M or 6M timeframes  
• Automated sentiment and Quotes come with all plan types
• Co branding and customization come with all plan types

With Scout Labs’ recent pricing changes, we wanted to keep as many options available in the sub $500/month category as possible for the budget conscious, while making sure that the additional data and functionality are available for the enterprise.  

Immediacy Matters in Social Media

New York-based strategic communications firm Fortex Group specializes in public relations, reputation management and business development for a client roster that spans media, technology and health services. Fortex not only delivers client services, but also operates its own community and news properties, such as Play the Music for the digital music industry.

An important part of the firm’s focus on best-practice planning and measurement includes a keen awareness of emerging market data sources and the tools and technologies that put them to good business use.

When social media began to reveal itself as one of the richest sources of market data yet, it came time to start shopping for a social media analysis platform. True to its data-driven nature, the firm explored a number of solutions and in the end became an enthusiastic participant in the Scout Labs Beta program.

“We’re always looking for new tools that are easier and faster—and Scout Labs is one of the easiest and fastest we’ve seen yet,” said Ephraim Cohen, Fortex Founder and Managing Partner.

“Scout Labs data sources are as good or better than any other vendors. On a price to performance basis, Scout Labs is a clear frontrunner—easy to use, easy to set up, very cost effective.”

Fortex Group uses Scout Labs for customer service, brand monitoring, competitive analysis and crisis communications, turning searches on and off around their campaign calendar and using Scout Labs as their primary tracking tool. “Scout Labs is one of the few reports we look at and include in client reports on a daily basis,” said Cohen.

Mr. Cohen cites ease of use, robust data and the clean user interface as among the reasons for his enthusiasm for Scout Labs, but also enjoys its immediacy. Just after the recent, sizeable launch of an iPhone app, the firm was able see results immediately in Scout Labs. “Two days after the launch, we were able to go into Scout Labs, pull charts and quotes, cite metrics and compile a nice visual representation of how the market received the launch.”