Syften — Best Social Monitoring Tool? (Reviewed)

Marketing a product is one thing, and tracing how often it is mentioned on Social platforms is another thing.

Social Media Monitoring has become a vital part of the selling game.

Many industries have leveraged it, and it is now a recommendable task to enhance a product's reputation and patronage.

Thankfully, big social media platforms like Twitter and Reddit have made it possible for developers to gain API access, which will allow them to uncover discussions and specific product mentions.

The Twitter Search Engine is the biggest social engine; it's possible to comb through the big data locating relevant matches with supported operators and filters.

The great news — it isn't limited to X alone.

Reddit, Quora, and even Facebook groups are now monitorable.

You can configure search queries to match Product's mentions, leads, and even the competition.

What's Syften and What does it do?

Syften is an all-in-one social media monitoring tool that searches the web, fetching relevant results as per given search queries. The result is finally sent to the user, allowing them to enter the conversation in real-time.

The software seems to be the one with the most social platform coverage. Therefore, if you're looking for a social listening tool that supports a good number of social platforms, Syften is all the way.

The platform supports Twitter, Quora, Reddit, Hackers News, Lobsters, Indie Hackers, Stach Exchange, and even Facebook Groups which is a kind of secretive with its data network.

Syften browses these social platforms and fetches results that are matches to a given search query. The search term can be configured to catch Product mentions, Competitors or even Leads.

The owner of Syften is always saying that – a good number of their users are traceable from replies they made through social media monitoring with the tool.

There's a mileage hidden in Social Monitoring. We'll uncover it in this review of Syften.

Syften Review: Features and Functionalities

The giant of social monitoring tools has the following features.

1. Twitter Keyword Monitoring
2. Facebook Keyword Monitoring
3. Reddit Keyword Monitoring
4. Quora Keyword Monitoring
5. Forum Keyword Monitoring: Hacker News, Product Hunt, Newsletter, Upwork, Indie Hackers, Stack Exchange, Lobste.rs, Dev Community, Steemit, etc.
6. Newsletter Monitoring

Let's quickly go over them one after the other. We'll ensure that this post is concise while containing every detail.

1. X/ Twitter Keyword Monitoring

Syften is currently the best tool for social monitoring on Twitter as per our usage analysis.

The tool uses exactly the same Twitter search syntax. For this reason, you no longer have to master another system given that you're abreast with the X Advanced Search.

The Boolean Logic (And, OR, Not) works there. You can also utilize Twitter's native search operators like the “-filter:links” (which filters out links from your result) and it will work with no flaws.

Syften offers a separate section for Twitter Monitoring. This is because the platform is unique.

If you're good enough with Search query construction, then you'll make the most from the platform.

Instead of using Twitter's advanced search directly, you can relax on the couch and receive alerts/matches directly to your inbox.

Syften sends notifications through Email, API, Slack, and RSS fields. You can also connect the tool to Zapier for Automation.

2. Reddit Keyword Monitoring

Reddit is the next platform after Twitter where one can get tons of match alerts.

Syften uses the official Reddit API to browse the site.

You aren't only allowed to track keywords and terms, but also can do advanced filtering, ensuring you're leaving the noise aside.

The “NOT” Boolean operator can be inserted in the filter to separate a particular subreddit from the matches.

Aside from supporting Boolean Logic, Syften allows fuzzy matching when Asterisk (*) is appended to a search filter.

For example, the following Search query will match both “VPN Recommendation” and “VPN Recommendations”.

“VPN Recommendation*”

Tracking Reddit through Syften is a reliable process.

Some tools might omit several appearances, but Syften is attentive to details, making it unlikely to miss important details.

In contrast to F5bot (which is free and is commonly used), Syften gives you more options for the Notifications. Instead of just emails, you can receive matches through Slack, API, or RSS feeds.

You can also connect Zapier to the tool for automation.

Rooms for Automation include sending automated replies to matches using pre-built answers, etc.

3. Quora Keyword Monitoring

In our review of Syften, its ability to search Quora data is one of the unique things that we rarely see on social monitoring tools.

Tools that can monitor Quora are few, and guess worth — Syften is the best currently.

You can just enter your search query and wait for the notification from your selected communication channel.

The platform lets you choose the right content type which should be fetched. The operator “type:questions” (without the quotation mark) only puts Questions in consideration. The operator “type:answer” only matches content types that are Answers.

Tracking the mentions of your brand on Quora will let you attend to any question that comes your way. Plus, you get to know when someone is giving out the wrong details/answer about your product.

4. Facebook Keyword Monitoring

Unfortunately, Facebook has been kind of restrictive when it comes to sharing their data with developers.

For that reason, social monitoring on the platform seems nigh impossible. But Syften is here for us, as monitoring Facebook groups is now possible.

Syften lets you monitor your Facebook groups so that you can catch the discussions that are right up your alley with ease.

The tool supports these two groups by default (IT support group and the IT/MSP Entrepreneurs). To monitor your own group, you'll have to pay an additional $10/mo, unfortunately.

Before you commit, you should first identify the group that is relevant to your interest. One with huge followers is recommended. After identifying the right group to join, you'll then need to ascertain common terms or topics that you can monitor.

You can opt-in to receive notifications when a competition is mentioned, your product, or even keywords that make leads.

In the end, you'll notice that tracking Facebook for mentions is vital especially when you want to take advantage of everything.

5. Forum Keyword Monitoring:

Syften monitors a good number of platforms including forums, News, and blogs.

Hacker News is entirely supported and is helpful for those in the developers' field.

You can listen to Keywords like “Who's Hiring” to get notified when it is posted. You can track Authors to be the first to see their new Posts.

You can also monitor replies to your content on Hackers News.

Syften comes with the flexibility you need.

The same functionality goes to Product Hunt, Upwork, Indie Hackers, Stack Exchange, Lobste.rs, Steemit, Slack, and Dev communities.

Syften's objective is to cover all the social presence so that nothing goes unnoticed.

6. Newsletter Monitoring

Most people won't need this one, but some might still find it invaluable.

Newsletter monitoring on Syften will help users to track certain Keywords or terms across their favorite Newsletters.

This can save you time and direct you to your sweet spot easily.

Syften comes with a long list of Newsletters, particularly popular ones that it tracks. You can contact them if your favorite list is missing and they will likely get it onboard.

Syften Pricing – is it worth the money?

The Syften monitoring tool is priced as follows:

The Annual Plan

1. $16.62/mo × 12 for SMALL
2. $33.29/mo × 12 for MEDIUM
3. $83.29/mo × 12 for FULL

Note: The SMALL plan allows only three search queries. The MEDIUM allows 20 of them whilst the FULL plan gives you the ability to create 100 filters.

The SMALL plan unfortunately doesn't support notifications through Slack. Also, Twitter and Quora monitoring is unavailable with the plan as both social platforms cost a lot to run.

The MEDIUM plan permits notifications through all the channels (Slack, API, RSS feeds, etc) and is in full support with Twitter but not Quora.

The FULL plan houses all the things in MEDIUM. Plus, it allows Quora Monitoring.

If the yearly cost of running Syften is too big for you, you can always go with their monthly plan.

Syften Monthly Plan

1. $19.95/mo for SMALL
2. $39.95/mo for MEDIUM
3. And $99.95/mo for FULL

Remember, the things we noted for each plan type still apply here.

Syften is currently running a free trial access for 14 days.

You can safely try it out and see what level of result the tool can deliver before spending anything.

You can always learn how to create a good search query for your business [Coming soon].

Syften Review: Alternatives and Competitors (Free and Paid)

Glad to hear, Syften is not the first to enter the side of social media monitoring; there are tools that came before it, some also after it, that are worthy to be called Syften alternatives.

Here are some of them:

1. F5bot — Monitors Reddit, Hackers News and Lobsters (Free)
2. Mention
3. Brand24
4. Awario
5. Talkwalker
6. Hootsuite

Syften Review: Pros and Cons

In this section of our Syften Review, let's take a look at the Pros and Cons associated with the platform.

The truth is that everything on Earth has both Upsides and Downsides.

Syften Pros

1. You have a full knowledge of what people are saying about your product or brand online.
2. Through intelligent filters, you can uncover leads in your industry and direct them to your service
3. You can spy on the competition and derive their customers
4. You easily find Haters that are always against your product.

Syften Cons

1. Ruinously expensive
2. Not for everyone
3. Slight Learning curve

FAQs and rich Answers

We have spotted some questions associated with Syften – Here are the important ones and good answers to them.

Does Syften include LinkedIn for Social Monitoring?

Absolutely not.

Syften does not monitor LinkedIn as of this time.

Who will find Syften useful?

The following classes of people will find Syften useful to their businesses

1. Enterprises with a large network of customers who want to take their social monitoring game to the next level.
2. Startups looking to make their first few sales
3. Startups and established businesses who want to increase the rate of sales
4. Startups and established businesses who want free leads and are not relying wholly on PPC advertising.

1. Syften for Enterprises – Reputational Control

Big companies can take advantage of Syften in exploring unseen discussions and judgements that are going behind their backs.

Sentiment Analysis and Crisis Management are doable with the platform.

Regardless to say, enterprises should have an ultimate eye over the affairs of their customers. This is where Customer Service Monitoring kicks in.

Let's use Hostinger for example, to define the importance of Syften when it comes to social media monitoring.

For Reputational control, we can construct a strong filter like the one below. That will uncover areas and discussions that would have been apparent even when a trained Social media specialist is on the pilot seat.

Hostinger (avoid OR disappointed OR experience OR bad OR issue OR bummer OR horrendous OR scam OR thiefs OR terrible OR awful OR frustrating OR poor OR unreliable OR unstable OR unresponsive OR Error OR crash OR crashed OR slow OR caused OR charged OR down OR downtime OR "loading times" OR "core web vitals") lang:en -filter:replies -filter:links -@Hostinger

If you're observant enough, you'll see that we removed mentions pointing to Hostinger with the operator (-@hostinger) from the result, which is why the results are few.

The social managers at Hostinger only attend to tweets that mention them. We know, not all person is familiar with tagging. So the folks that didn't tag Hostinger will be left behind, regardless of whether they have awful or good experience.

Now, consider when Hostinger is listening to everything at all costs. The Reputation of the company will not easily fall short.

When we take the Filter we constructed to Syften, it becomes a set once and forget process. Now the teams at Hostinger only need to configure their communication means.

Matches are sent to them as soon as they happen, so that they can play their part of regulating their reputation from social media.

2. Syften for Lead Generation

Targeted social media leads are converting incredibly well.

Imagine someone who has searched the web entirely for a particular subject and when he's about to make the final decision, he comes to his page and says something like this — “I have read some reviews about AI Voice Generators, and wanted to hear from the public before making my final decision”.

This is the finals! The person has already absorbed the information he was looking for from Review websites. Now he wants to hear about what Redditors, X users, etc., want to say.

We have observed the biggest conversions for these kinda texts.

Your 2 minutes of writing can potentially increase your ARR by $200+.

You can find free leads using Syften. Just configure your filter and wait for the hits via your preferred communication channel.

Always remember that notifications on Syften can be received either through Email, Slack, API, or RSS feeds. Running automation through Zapier is also supported.

Let's see another filter below

("What is the best" OR "What's the best" OR "What are the best" OR "Which is the best" OR "Which are the best") ("Car Rental" OR "Car Rentals" OR "Car hire" OR "rental dealership" OR "Bike Rental")

This particular search query is for those in the Car Rental industry. They can use it to drive customers who are one step from booking a rental car.

When the filter is placed on Syften for real-time monitoring, alerts are delivered and one can potentially claim the leads with ease.

Let's see this one as well.

VPN OR SURFSHARK OR SurfsharkVPN OR NordVPN OR ExpressVPN OR ProtonVPN OR AtlasVPN OR PureVPN OR PiaVPN OR Cyberghost OR IPVanish OR Astrill OR Astrillvpn OR "Private Internet Access"] [SUBSCRIPTION OR SUB OR SUBS OR CONTRACT OR PLAN OR LICENSE OR MEMBERSHIP OR "VPN Account"] [LAPSE OR LAPSED OR RENEW OR RENEWAL OR REACTIVATE OR REACTIVATION OR DEACTIVATION OR ENDED OR EXPIRED OR EXPIRE OR EXPIRATION OR RESUBSCRIBE OR RESUBSCRIPTION] -filter:links

The search query has been constructed to gather tweets about VPN Expirations and Renewals.

When someone's subscription to a VPN expires, he's an open target which means he can possibly try a new service out or still stick with his current one.

If you have a company in the VPN niche, this is an opportunity to direct that user to your own product. If it happens that the lead is already a customer of your product, you can provide reasons why the person should stay.

There are way more filters to come up with.

As you practice on constructing filters for your product, you'll open chances for more opportunities.

Is there a learning curve associated with using Syften?

There's just a slight learning curve when it comes to mastering how to create noiseless filters.

It takes a lot of time, but it is set once and forget!

After you set a filter, you will have to run it through the social platforms you're trying to monitor. If it returns lots of noise, you'll need to fine-tune it.

By adding filters that omit media like links or YouTube videos, you can rest assured that the right result is served.

Typically, content with links aren't usually leads. They are content creators themselves who are in the same quest as you.

So the question – Is there a learning curve with Syften?

It's slight like we said. The other work lies on filter construction which is a must-do in all social monitoring tools.

We can help you create noiseless filters for a cent. You can contact us here for more info.

Syften worth it? Question their claims?

Most definitely, Syften is worth it especially for established firms and startups looking to oversee social discussions about their brand.

When it comes to the price, the Software represents the exact cost of running its services.

Due to the recent Twitter API change, many X monitoring tools are no more. But Syften is still and will continue to operate.

The only thing that happened is that they had to change the pricing of Twitter Monitoring.

Before now, it's included in the main Pricing, but it now has its own separate pricing which you can see when you log in.

Social media APIs aren't equal in cost. The likes of Reddit are cost-effective and there's an app called F5bot that offers that for free.

If you're on the market as a Blogger or Affiliate Marketer, you may want to try F5bot as it's free. The app covers Reddit, Hackers News, and Lobsters.

Monitoring Twitter (which is the biggest social search engine) for just blogs or affiliate promotions is no longer a safe venture with Syften in 2024. Unless you can construct your query and run it through X advanced search directly without paying anything.

What am I trying to say?

While you can find a lot of leads from Twitter Monitoring with Syften, it's not a recommendable thing for those who don't have their own products.

Because, Affiliates don't get the full percentage and they might not earn a lot to cater to the cost of monitoring Twitter.

You might find a number of leads, but if you fail to drive them to an email list. They might not convert for you. Because the typical human will hold on for some time before meeting the goal of a business.

On the contrary, if the game is played rightly. One can still amass a lot of conversions though it costs time and effort.

The first step to subduing the stress of social media monitoring is to note down responses. This way you don't have to write separate pieces for every match; you just copy and paste and go your way.

In brevity, Syften is a useful application for social listening. Big brands will love it as well as their social managers.

Startups will also find Syften special for finding leads for their businesses.

The software is currently offering a free trial for 14 days.

Check it out and see if it's good for your business.

Ps. Please use the attached link anytime you're ready to go. It means a lot to us.