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Corporate Blog Monitoring

Corporate Blog Monitoring

At /Message, Stowe Boyd comments on the rise of the corporate blog monitor:

I think it is more likely that a role analogous to press relations will arise: blog relations. These folks will keep tabs on Blogpulse and Technorati, to see what is going down, but they will also maintain and active and on-going relationship with the major bloggers in their sector.

I know of several major corporations in the midwest that are doing something similar to this currently.

At least one Fortune 500 company I’ve advised recently is using Buzzmetrics in order to monitor blogs and produce a daily intelligence report that is shared amongst a few hundred senior executives and decision makers within the corporation.

Another Fortune 500 company I’ve talked with recently is using Bloglines along with a large list of query feeds from sites like Technorati, Feedster, and Pubsub to monitor thousands of keywords and then distill this into daily intelligence and “pulse” information that’s useful to them. This is a large corporation that has its own business intelligence team to track this information down each day.

I’m more of a fan of the in-house solution rather than outsourcing the process – I think one good business intelligence anlayst is worth their weight in gold.

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While many corporations are doing blog monitoring in various ways, I’ve yet to see a corporation truly engage the blogosphere in a way that gets me hot and bothered. Sure all of the Web 2.0 groups do it – but when is a Fortune 500 CEO going to hit the blog and do it consistently – without the media handlers? When will the Executive Vice President, Marketing get up and talk about what they’re doing on a blog.. or perhaps more interesting, when will a major CFO start blogging and tell the truth about Sarbanes-Oxley and the serious pain in the arse it is to comply with…

The opportunity is there… waiting to be seized.. Don’t be afraid…

View Comments (3)
  • Hi Matt,

    You say:

    “Another Fortune 500 company I’ve talked with recently is using Bloglines along with a large list of query feeds from sites like Technorati, Feedster, and Pubsub to monitor thousands of keywords and then distill this into daily intelligence and “pulseâ€? information that’s useful to them. This is a large corporation that has its own business intelligence team to track this information down each day. I’m more of a fan of the in-house solution rather than outsourcing the process – I think one good business intelligence anlayst is worth their weight in gold.”

    There’s no doubt there’s a lot you can do with free tools, like the F500 company you mention. And there’s no arguing that a good business intelligence analyst is worth his weight in gold. The intuition around social media that a good business analyst is worth even more than gold — presuming that business analyst is able to communicate that intelligence to those that matter internally.

    However, there is a major difference in the depth, breadth and efficiency when it comes to pro tools and free tools used by in-house analysts. Which is why, in addition to our custom and consultative research services, we also offer do-it-yourself dashboards, which are set up specifically for the client and his industry, along with training by our experts.

    Moreover, no matter how good an internal business intelligence analyst is, that asset is just funamentally and qualitatively different then what’s provided by the combination of advanced text-mining and natural-language processing technologies, coupled with seasoned market researchers and time-tested, industry-sanctioned quantitative and qualitative methodologies (which makes up a company like Nielsen BuzzMetrics). Sorry. There’s just no comparison.

    One last note…doesn’t Bob Lutz of GM write his own blog? He may have support in managing it, because it is so popular and high-profile, and therefore needs technical and administrative support to keep it running. And it’s a major comment and feedback machine, so support staff help to deal with issues, such as quality issues with existing owners that come in through the blog. I’ve also heard of him sending in his posts to support staff, to then post. But the bottom line is that it is his voice.

    All that said, it’s great to hear your perspective on all this.

    Max Kalehoff
    VP-Marketing
    Nielsen BuzzMetrics

  • I will confess that while I’ve seen some of your reporting (which is good, by the way) – I’ve not seen your dashboard.. and I love dashboards..

    Lutz does indeed write his own blog as Vice Chair focused on design at GM – and he’s always been one of my favorite automobile executives – colorful to say the least.. but I’d love to see a major CEO write a blog. Dreaming, I know.

    Max, I think your group is in a great business right now – the cutting edge of business intelligence – and I don’t know many others that have the client base or reach that you do.. but as more companies start to ride this gravy train, it will be interesting to see how many bring this work inhouse..
    .
    Thanks for commenting
    ~Matt

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