15 replies to this topic

[Paul Wylie]

We have a new client who is concerned about the companies image. We need to collect what is being said, analysis, and influence. What are some good tools out there that can search through the net so that we track what is being said about the brand name.

[bwelford]

Welcome to the Forums, Paul Wylie. :wave:

One useful service is Web Alerts. Google has one as does Yahoo!.

Others may have other suggestions.

[vangogh]

I was going to suggest the same Barry.

Technorati has a watchlist you can set up. I haven't used it, but I think it's the same basic idea as the alerts except that it focuses on what's being said in blogs. I would imagine some other blog engines have something similar.

Edited by vangogh, 30 January 2007 - 01:55 AM.

[eKstreme]

I developed a tool to quickly search for keywords and brands: What's the Buzz?. It scours delicious, Technorati, Topix, and even Google trends. Example: pepsi.

It takes about 30 seconds to run as it collects the data.

Pierre

[egain]

I have been looking at a number of tools over the last couple of weeks as regards this self same issue (however with the aim of a mmore long term overvue.

We analysed a number of tools/companies in particular
E-Watch - from PRNewswire
New Media Intelligence - NMI
GoodTechnology Seers

We have currently decided on the NMI product, however the E-watch offering seemed very good - if a little pricy

[vangogh]

Pierre that's a nice tool. I might add the search box to the top of the results page in addition to having it at the bottom, but I like the results I saw.

[eKstreme]

I didn't realize you replied, vangogh! Sorry.

Thanks for trying it out. I added a form at the top as you suggested. It's a good idea. Thanks!

Any other suggestions and feedback are most certainly welcome

Pierre

[Karl Ribas]

One tool that's fairly new and making some waves is [url=http://www.serph.com/]Serph[/url. I believe they just started to allow people to sign up and test the product. On a side note: it's product of ACS... the same people who developed CrazyEgg. It certainly might be worth looking into.

[Cath]

I realise it's still in beta but I wasn't impressed with the serph tool this morning when I used it, for the phrase I tried it gave me 14 pages of youtube clips and the usual Richard Gere jokes. Pierre's What's the buzz for the same phase gave me considerably more information, for someone trying to find out what is being said about a certain word/phrase/company I think What's the buzz is a far superior tool right now.

[egain]

Have to agree with Cath, Pierres tool is a very good bit of kit.

Ran it on one of our clients, and the response was pretty much on the ball.

[eKstreme]

Thanks guys. It just collects a lot of data from multiple sources into one page. Nothing too special

Speaking of which: are there any sources you would like to see added? I'd be happy to oblige...

Pierre

[Cameron Olthuis]

Karl, thanks for your mention of Serph. Cath, thanks for your feedback. We go through many sources, so sometimes the results get filled with videos or photos, we are working on that issue. Serph is going to get better and much more informative before we publicly launch, we're still in beta and we know we have many issues to work. Thanks again for your feedback, it's because of people like you that we are able to improve issues like this and end up with a better product.

[Cath]

Admittedly I only tried one phrase this morning, I will try more and may get better/different types of results, I think this type of tool is really useful.

Pierre, you're too modest

[AbleReach]

I'll second (third? fourth?) the recommendation of Pierre's What the Buzz. :-) Something like Google Alerts plus What the Buzz will give you a heads up plus an overview.

[send2paul]

And, of course, you can go down the old fashioned route, (as used by many affiliate marketeer investigating a potential new product!), and go and Google "brand name" +....

review, news, fraud, scam, investigation, legal, report, disaster, good, etc etc - with as many other good descriptive words as you can imagine to get all kinds of results that automated searchy stuff may not pick up

Paul (it's a great name, isn't it? )

[eKstreme]

By popular demand: I just added Google Blog Search to What the Buzz? The pepsi example again.

Pierre