Pulsar review

Pulsar TRAC is built around a question most listening tools skip: who is talking. It combines social listening and media monitoring with audience segmentation, so a team can see how different communities, such as tech journalists, parents or sports fans, discuss the same topic. Its social panels recreate personas and track them over time, and more than 50 filters slice the data by segment, demographics, behaviors, affinities and keywords. Coverage is broad, from Instagram, Pinterest and Twitch to online news, print, TV, radio and podcasts, with data from 195 countries and regional sources such as VK, Naver, Weibo, Little Red Book, WeChat and Baidu. Pulsar is part of a group that includes Isentia, Vuelio and ResponseSource, which reach further into PR and media relations. There are no published prices, and the platform rewards teams with analysts who will use segmentation. For simple mention alerts it is more than you need.

Who it is for

Strategy, research and comms teams that want to see which communities drive a conversation, not just how many mentions it has.

Price

See vendor pricing (USD check pending).

US price check pending. See the vendor pricing page.

Key features

• Social, search, news, print, TV, radio and podcast coverage from 195 countries
• Audience segmentation of the people taking part in a conversation
• Social panels that track custom segments such as journalists or doctors over time
• Over 50 filters by segment, demographics, behaviors, affinities and keywords
• Regional sources including VK, Naver, Weibo, Little Red Book, WeChat and Baidu

Strengths and weaknesses

• Strength: Audience segmentation that most listening tools lack
• Strength: Broad media coverage including TV, radio and podcasts
• Strength: Chinese and other regional data sources
• Weakness: No published prices
• Weakness: More analytical than a simple alerts tool
• Weakness: Several products (TRAC, CORE, TRENDS) to choose between

Key facts

• Coverage: 195 countries
• Filters: 50+
• Group: Part of Pulsar Group with Isentia, Vuelio and ResponseSource

Where it ranks

Pulsar is No. 10 in our Best Social Listening Tools verdict.