lucindigo.com

Media and communications habits of people have and will continue to rapidly change. Consumption of media is moving towards social media, where people can converse and collaborate, and away from traditional media which is more of a one way conversation. This is no longer the realm of teenagers, businesses need to reframe this very quickly or will be left behind.

Historically a lot of money has been poured into market research to understand consumers and their drivers. Now, with social media channels this information is much more freely available and beyond this companies can invisibly find out more about peeves and positives about their product and services and refine as such.

Communities are formed around specific interest areas so these kinds of insights companies can gain are now available at their fingertips, in much higher volumes and are likely to be of greater quality and relevance.

I. Why?

• Powerful, cost efficient communication tools.
• Reaching fragmented, targeted audiences.
• Understand consumer behaviors.
• Knowing shifts, trends and being up to date with news.
• Building  interactive networks.
• Listening to consumers.

II. Who?

Globally, businesses are appointing people specifically for this critical function for example:
Head of Social Media, Director of Consumer Generated Media, Head of Online Brand Equity, Consumer Insights Manager, Director of Social Media, Director of Social Media Analysis, Voice of the Customer, Director of Social Networking, Head of Interactive Content, Director of Online Customer Relations, Chief Networking Officer, Director of Social Marketing, Chief Relationship Officer, Marketing Director Emerging Media, Chief Media Officer, Social Media Officer, Manager of Online Contact, User Created Content Guru. * - TNS Media Intelligence/Cymfony.

An example, see today: BBC’s Huggers Confirmed Future Media & Technology Director
“He will control a 2008/09 budget of £114.4 million ($228 million) for BBC.co.uk alone, but Huggers’ responsibilities encompass all internet, interactive TV, mobile, broadband and emerging platforms operations, including iPlayer, totaling around £400 million ($797 million).”
Read more @ Paidcontent.org here

III. What?

-A Company blog, Facebook, Twitter, Pownce, Jaiku, Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Delicious, Diigo, FriendFeed, Ning, Mixx, Bebo, Get Satisfaction, Google and Yahoo Groups….. And by tomorrow, or in an hour, more would have emerged.

IV. How?

I think a good way to do this is:

• Firstly start reading blogs and social media channels where your consumers interact (listening to conversations).
• Then start commenting & responding within these channels. This is if agreed with management that this is the right social media policy for your company & benefits outweigh risks (participating in conversations).
• Next step is creating content, whether on a company blog or within other social media channels (initiating conversations)

But in saying the above there is no prescribed method. If you have something to stay straight away and you understand the audience then this is right for your business. Some may prefer just to listen, gain insights and feedback and silently implement solutions based on this.

V. When?

If last week didn’t work then now is good!

I am a huge fan and supporter of channels that give everyone a voice and expose us to a much wider range of information and insight into what is going on in our world.

Heard today of the launch of AllVoices.com which is a “new citizen media start up” which allows anyone to report from anywhere. You can upload your own news, videos, images and add views, commentary and opinion as it happens. Very cool concept.

• “It’s the first true peoples media, providing eyewitness news and perspective that is free from editorial filtering and censorship.”
• “The Allvoices community provides eyewitness news and perspective that is free from traditional editorial oversight and censorship characteristic of global media organizations.”

Take a look here (and submit some breaking news if and when you have it!)

Scott of Regator has sent me a log-in to the private beta of their service - a start up blog aggregator. Have had a look around and it looks really good. Nice user interface and interaction design. I think a lot of work has gone into the categorisation of channels, despite the fact I could not find a “New Media Communications” channel to log Lucindigo and had to settle for Occupations –> Media –> Publishing. I may have overlooked this though.

What I like about it is the exposure it provides to fresh, high quality content. A good service to use if you want to work on expanding your reading list.

The What’s Hot function is cool. Shows you what those interested in any particular topic are talking about in the Blogosphere at any one time E.g. Today in SEO… Today in Pop Culture…

I recommend checking it out when it opens up to public, especially if you are new to Blogging and don’t obsessively use and adore a specific RSS Reader. Readwriteweb called it “mainstreaming RSS” which I thought captured the concept well.

Read some coverage on the private Beta of Regator:
Techcrunch

ReadwriteWeb

I wrote the note below to media monitoring providers yesterday so I can create a white paper that will help businesses navigate the very wide range of media monitoring providers currently in the marketplace. This spans traditional media, blogs, social media, forums, audio, video etc where applicable for each service provider. It is much different than the days of straight press clippings with a vast range of channels and content types that it is in business interests to monitor.

I have already received responses from Integrasco, MarketSentinel, SentimentMetrics and Verbie.

If you did not receive this request and would like to submit the info below about your media monitoring solution please email me.
———————————

Hello,

For the readers of Lucindigo, a blog focused on online media for PR, IR & Communications professionals, I am undertaking a review of Media Monitoring (news, blogs, social media - the lot) providers in the marketplace.

Multi-channel media monitoring
I am aiming to focus specifically on solutions that take a multi channel focus with coverage right across news media, blogs, forums, newsletters, audio, video and more.

I am wanting to provide a review of media monitoring solutions to these professionals that provides them with a wide view of what is out there on offer and enables them to have confidence in the service they select for their organisation.

Relevance
PR, IR & Comms professionals need a service they use they will not miss content relevant to them. With media monitoring as just one of many tasks to be done during the day, Comms people need to be spared irrelevant content, with a solution that has strong and intelligent filters.

Timeliness
For this group timeliness is of utmost importance. I am looking to undercover a media monitoring solution that provides breadth and depth of content with as close to real-time delivery as possible.

Indexing and Archived by Topic
It is also important to be able to call back upon historical media with ease as it is requested by internal or external parties. I would like to hear what type of indexing and archive services are provided, with services I have come across this is not the norm.

This information will be published both to www.lucindigo.com and collated into a white paper so PR, IR & Comms professionals can get insight in one place about all-channel media monitoring offerings in the market place. This white paper will be regularly updated as new providers enter the market and as current providers evolve and develop their services.

I would love to hear from you about your media monitoring service offering, both on the points below and on any additional features and benefits of your solution that are not highlighted above. If you could keep points I-V under 200 words each that would be appreciated, as this content will be published to my blog and then collated for readers and made available as a downloadable PDF. Concise is good!

I. Your reach
E.g. What, where and why? Do you cover all channels that are relevant for organizations today? Is there a risk you could miss a mention of your company that stakeholders were reading? What number of sources to your cover? What technology do you use?

II. Relevance of items delivered
E.g. How is the topic & environment search brief set up? Can it be altered as business evolves & develops?

III. Timeliness & Delivery of monitoring
E.g How often are items delivered and what are the format options for delivery? Are there archiving/indexing services available? Are these at extra cost? Where are archives hosted if applicable? What are guarantees on security? Can the information be exported?

IV. Pricing & Subscription Options
E.g. The clincher. What are subscription options? How does this stack up against competitors?

V. Google News & Alerts vs You
E.g. A lot of people ask - can’t you just get this for free on Google News or & get them delivered with Google News/Blog alerts? Why is your service better and what value does it add?

Please contact me if you have any questions at all and I look forward to receiving your response.

Best,

Lucinda
www.lucindigo.com