You know what they say: You're not paranoid if they really are talking about you. Biz360 basically monitors what the world is saying about your company and serves it up to you in an online mission control center. It includes analytics that give you a sense of how positive (or negative) things are today and over time. The company monitors content providers such as magazines and newspapers, online sources (including blogs and newsgroups), television stations and the like. At the time of writing, Nielson/NetRatings data was added to Biz360's corporate reputation measuring system, called the MediaSignal metric. It provides a metric that analyzes the prominence of each mention about your company based on the circulation of the publication. By the way, all of this data is monitored and reported in "real time".
comScore is like the "Big Brother" of the Internet. They measure, in real-time, how people use the Internet
and what they are doing online, thanks to the 2 million+ consumers who have given them permission to track their
browsing/transaction behavior. All of that information will cost you to access, of course. But you can also learn from
the comScore Voices blog, which features posts from both the Chairman and the CEO of the company. We always like blogs
that don't simply publish news items taken from wire services and so on. We like original content, and that is what you
will find here. Marketing execs at these high levels have access to a lot of people and places that the regular Joe
doesn't... plus they have all that proprietary data to share, remember. At the time of writing, recent posts covered the
ROI of search marketing, SEO's role in branding, which consumers react most favorably to user-generated content sites and
the marketshare of various ISPs.
What are people saying about you, your product, your company or your competition? CyberAlert is an integrated news monitoring, press clipping and consumer buzz monitoring service that scans every line of news in more than 25,000+ newspapers, magazines, journals, wire services, TV networks and local TV stations (more than 1.8 million news pages each day, in 17 languages). It also monitors 100,000+ online message boards and forums and 5+ million blogs. You can choose the keywords, brand names or phrases you want to monitor, and you can customize media coverage. In return, you'll receive a daily report via email containing new citations found the previous 24 hours -- or, optionally, reports throughout the business day within minutes of publication. Each electronic "clip" you receive contains the source of the story, publication date, title, story abstract with your keywords highlighted and detailed media measurement data for media evaluation and analysis. The service starts at $195/month (US); a no-cost trial is available at the site.
E-consultancy is a UK-based online publisher of best practice reports, guides, conferences and the like for Internet
marketers. First of all, if you do subscribe to their complimentary newsletter, you will see for yourself how refreshing
it is to peruse Internet marketing information outside of the same old, same old US mass media. Registered site users
also get access to a plethora of interesting reports. At the time of writing, that included a 12-page overview of the
Web analytics marketplace based upon a recent E-consultancy roundtable discussion.
You will also find two of our favorite online pastimes here:
The E-Lucidator, a brief survey that shows you how similar or different your attitudes about online marketing
issues are as compared to other E-consultancy members such as Jim Sterne;
The E-Bore-ometer, a quiz that will definitively quantify just how much of an "e-bore" you
really are.
Google Video is, not surprisingly, Google's search engine for videos. But did you know Google publishes videos as well? The link above directs to a video entitled "Qualities of A Good Site" and features Google's own software engineer Matt Cutts answering questions about optimizing your site for Google. Be forewarned, this is not a Quentin Tarantino production. Matt stands against a blank wall and just talks away. But the information is incredibly helpful and it's a baby step toward the use of video as a marketing tool. You can watch the entire video or link to a particular question of interest, as each question and answer session is linked along with the session's length. You can also use the keyword links such as "SEO", "Cutts" and "Google" to click to more videos that are tagged with that keyword.
This marketing and advertising news and insight portal is published in collaboration with Reveries by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), whose members represent 8,500 brands and $100 billion in marketing spending. As such, it's a good place to find white papers, research reports, best practices and "big-picture ideas" on the problems faced by senior-level marketing executives. Much of the content is derived from thought-leader presentations made at the eight annual ANA marketing summits, each of which focuses on a different marketing issue. As a result, this is an excellent way to explore the current thinking of head honchos of multibillion dollar companies, who generally do not published online (until they ink their next book deals, of course).
ISEdb.com provides a guide to search engines and directories and search engine marketing and optimization. We use this site to explore the search engines and directories beyond Google and Yahoo!. Yes, they do exist. The link above will take you to the listings for Web directories, which are generally compiled by human editors on a range of topics (such as About.com) or on specific topics. At the time of writing, there were hundreds of local directories and more than 1,400 specialty directories listed by topic. You can peruse them to see if your site should be submitted to some of them. ISEdb.com also has a similar list of search engines, so don't miss it. You can subscribe to a complimentary newsletter which will send you a list of all the new search engines and directories that have launched or been categorized that week. By the way, ISEdb stands for Internet Search Engine Database.
If you are looking for or are a specialist in search engine marketing and optimization, then why dally in general or even mainstream marketing-focused job sites when you can go to specialized job search sites like this one? In addition to a straightforward search for positions, you can also find out who's hiring, read the blog, meet industry experts, peruse a list of SEO recruiters, find tons of related links and much more.
This resource contains reviews and links to the best marketing tools, service and resources according to the editors of Web Digest For Marketers. There are 40 categories, including: Who's Who In SEO Experts, Email Marketing, Internet Consultant's Toolbox, PPC, CRM, PR, Copywriting and Best Of Google Tools and Tips for Internet Marketers. If you're looking to lay your hands on a site review you read in Web Digest For Marketers, chances are quite good you'll find that review here. Disclosure: This site is owned and operated by the publisher of Web Digest For Marketers. The opinions expressed here are apt to be biased, especially when we say this resource is the greatest thing since carbon copy paper. ;)
Magilla Marketing is marketing curmudgeon Ken Magill's weekly email newsletter covering all things email. He's kind of like the Lewis Black of the email industry - just don't get him started or you're in for an earful. Magilla Marketing regularly covers the trials and tribulations of the "stupid media" which can't quite seem to get a grip on the business issues facing email marketers. For example, a recent headline read, "AND THE AWARD FOR THE most parasitic, calculated, industry-killing company that cynically plays on parents' fears to get business goes to..." You'll also find coverage of new email services and analysis of branded email marketing efforts and what went wrong (or right). This publisher considers it a must read.