Meltwater is a global Software as a Service (SaaS) company specializing in different kinds of media monitoring.

The aim of this thesis is to ascertain how and for what purposes five different small and medium sized organizations operating in Finland use Meltwater’s social media monitoring service Buzz, and what its most useful applications for them might be. The organizations that took part in this study were Fondia, Korkeasaari zoo, Kalevala Koru, Fenix Outdoor Finland, and Vivago.

This study was conducted by using the qualitative research method. Face-to-face interviews were conducted in February 2013 with representatives from the above organizations, using a semi-structured questionnaire.

The most explicit applications of social media monitoring that stood out in the interviews included determining how consumers perceive the organizations’ brand, crisis management in its various forms, monitoring the competitors and the general field of business, as well as ascertaining consumers’ perception about the companies’ products and services. In addition, it was found out that the service has facilitated cooperation with various content creators, and helped to define the terminology used by the consumers.

These organizations also shared ideas on how this service could be applied in situations where there is no discussion about the organization itself. In addition, specific areas for improvement, such as the service’s visual appearance and certain technical details, were also discovered during the interviews.