Pearl Information Services - Business Research for Marketing and Strategic Planning

Issue 8
November 2004

Pearls of Wisdom - Fall 2004

Reputation Management Software, News Alert Services and Blog Monitoring
The Internet has thrust private discussions into the public arena. A company's reputation can be damaged in these discussions and have a severe impact on the value of the firm and its brands. New categories of automated monitoring tools are coming out to help companies keep track of what's being said about them not only in the media but also in the millions of online discussion groups and blogs. Using them you will not only expose hidden views but also deepen your understanding and acquire nuances you might not otherwise receive.

News Alert Services monitor what's being said in the media and are based on a keyword matching process. They offer little analysis and are free or inexpensive. Corporate Reputation Monitoring (CRM) Services on the other hand are expensive software programs using sophisticated language analysis to find and extract patterns to determine the actual meaning of what's being said not only the media but also in online discussions.

Please email me if you would like a comparison of some of these monitoring tools. Click Here To Write Me

Some other suggestions for free low tech corporate reputation monitoring includes using Yahoo! Advanced search feature to limit to RSS feeds, the format bloggers use to publish their materials and visiting websites like PlanetFeedback and Complaints.com where people air comments and criticisms about companies and their products. There's nothing like reading your customers own words to help you recognize what you're doing wrong or right.

Can't make it to Davos?
Looking for a global perspective on key business and social issues identified by the major players on the world stage? The World Economic Forum's Knowledge Navigator http://digbig.com/4caan offers summaries of views and commentary from participants of the World Economic Forum's annual meetings usually held in Davos, Switzerland. The summaries quote participants by name and include biographical information on the participants as well.

Dialog's World News Connection Brings You To Where Your Suppliers and Partners Are
Dialog, A Thomson Corporation business and a leading worldwide provider of online- based information services, has added more than 200 media sources from hard to monitor countries to its World News Connection bringing the total number of sources to more than 1,750. The news reports are translated into English and compiled daily by US government's Foreign Broadcast Information Service. World News Connection is a partnership between Dialog and the US Department of Commerce's National Technical Information Service (NTIS).

Study Finds Billions Wasted on Inefficient Internet Searching
According to a study conducted by Find/SVP, a leading provider of business research, advisory and consulting services, business professionals are wasting $31 billion in conducting research online due to poor search results, inefficiency and the unreliability of web sources.

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