Echobox is a management and publication system in social networks that promises increases of up to 20% in traffic from Facebook, Twitter and Instagram profiles to the media, something that according to what is promised is obtained almost immediately thanks to the Artificial Intelligence system that it incorporates. What is true? Is it possible that an AI system can exceed the results that a community manager can obtain by posting messages on social networks? Here we tell you about our experience with this company with British capital.
The proposal of this platform, based in London, part of a promise of “intelligent publication” on social networks adapted to its audience. It focuses its results on the media to obtain a substantial improvement in the impact and visits to its news with the advantage of being able to “forget” about managing social networks. We would love to be able to show you images of the tool, but as we currently do not have access, it is not possible and we will explain everything below.
How Echobox works
To begin with, it is not possible to test the system without going through a contact process with one of your sales representatives who, through different sessions, will indicate the possibilities that can be obtained with the tool. And on paper, they are promising – we’ll see if they deliver later.
It is necessary to connect the platform to your social networks, Facebook and Twitter profiles, so that the system takes control. From that moment, it is possible both to manually schedule our posts and tweets and to let the system recognize when is the best time to publish each item to obtain the best result. At the same time, you also have to give it access to Google Analytics and RSS Feed accounts.
During the first weeks you have to let the system “learn” from our networks and then put it to work. In theory, in 5 days the system analyzes the last 2 years of publications and presence in social networks to train the algorithm and model the habits of the audience.
But all is not so simple. After this training, Echobox still does not know how to do everything “alone”, it is necessary to give him some guidelines for action. At that time, the company assigns a technician, different from the person who has managed the management and contracting, who once signed, completely disassociates himself from the operation and, despite being contacted, declines all responsibility from that moment. This technician helps us to configure all the profiles, and although he does so diligently, he does not specify at any time in a safe and concrete way, for example, the number of recommended tweets per day or the level of recirculation thereof – if the ideal is that certain topics are shared again two or three times, etc. –
Another detail of the tool is that, supposedly, it is capable of detecting the “timeless” content of what is merely current, to know what to publish immediately and what can be expected or shared later. It should be said that although it is able to make this selection occasionally well at the beginning, it is something that has to be trained manually and, in the time in which we used the tool, which was about a month, it was not able to detect it well. altogether.
Instagram deserves special mention, a platform on which it is possible to both schedule publications and stories, a detail that few services of this type have. Now, they do it through a trick… not safe. And we will have to authorize a “supposed” mobile, which is actually a virtualized system that “tricks” Instagram into believing that it is a person’s terminal, to be able to launch messages to this social network from that virtual machine. Although it is useful, the process involves requesting a specific appointment one day so that, manually, the Echobox client and agent make the connection through the codes that Instagram offers.
Echobox hiring: beware of abusive clauses in your contract
Although, technically, the tool can be useful – we will see later if its results are as promised with real figures -, the problem comes in its hiring. It is a service that, at least, costs 250 euros per month per web , whatever the size of the FB and Twitter profiles that we want to integrate, being able to later reach higher ranks depending on the number of followers in the different social networks and if we add Instagram to the equation.
For a company like Grupo ADSLzone, the choice was 7 Twitter accounts, 7 Facebook accounts and 2 Instagram accounts for a price of about 1,400 euros per month in total, which was a supposed 25% discount compared to the total price that it would have been 1,870 euros per month.
Echobox is used by media such as El País, The Guardian, The Times or Le Monde, something that according to them gives them a “cache” and proven results. However, and from the beginning, they require a stay of 12 months without the possibility of canceling it at any time. For someone who is so confident in their service and promises such spectacular results, it is strange that they do not allow a test and the possibility of stopping using it when we talk about investments that can go above 20,000 euros a year.
Now, by insisting on this trial and withdrawal period, it is possible to get the company to include a clause in the contract but which could be classified as abusive – not to label it as poisoned -. And it is that the system is allowed to be “tested” for 30 days, but it is required to use it for those same 30 days, making it impossible for someone to request the cancellation of the service claiming that the stipulated time has not been met. Therefore, we are talking about a clause that, by not fulfilling its purpose or preventing it, is clearly a fraud that on the other hand they do not explain well, always alluding to the fact that it is included “out of courtesy” and that allows the cancellation of the contract without problem, thus adding a lie to the abuse.
Echobox results: nothing as promised
Trusting in the good faith, the word, the promises and the guarantees of Echobox, we tested the service for a month, convinced that they would honor their word and we could stop using it if it did not work for the company, but above all relying on their reputation, how can something like this not work?
Between November 23 and December 15, Echobox was active in our social profiles, therefore, we make the comparison with the immediately previous period, from November 1 to November 22, to see the results. Recall that it is a service with a cost of 1,400 euros per month to achieve results in visits to our websites that meant a total loss of traffic based on social media sources (FB + TW) with a drop of -21% of the total and average daily users, a loss of -24% in total and average daily page views and a -21% drop in total and average daily visits.
Echobox response to this data
Obviously, faced with the prospect of investing just over 22,000 euros in a year in a system that, clearly, gave indications of, at least, not being adequate or not serving the purpose and objectives that we had contracted, we asked Echobox the decision to leave to use it because we didn’t think it was right for us. Not that the system didn’t work, we just weren’t interested.
The immediate response of the person who carried out the management is that the conditions of the contract had not been met and that we could not retract, having the only option to use it – and pay for it – throughout the year. Several meetings, in which no option was raised other than to withdraw some publications – which we did on our part – and some offer in which a new contract was proposed – in which, given the results of the first, it was difficult to trust -, Again we decline the interest to continue using the tool and ask for the end of the relationship and, obviously, by not using the system since we cut the test, not incurring any expense.
The last step of the company, which seems that the only thing that interests it is to tie the companies and ensure annual turnover, regardless of whether its product serves and keeps its word, has been to demand the “friendly” payment of some bills for something we don’t need. For using the service for 15 days they ask for more than 20,000 euros, the payment for the full year. We hope that, at least, the situation we are going through will serve to ensure that no Spanish media outlet or influencer thinks twice before signing a similar contract.
