The Plumtree Marketing Minute April 2, 2009

Do you know what people are saying online about your company and products - or your competitor's company and products? Are you managing to keep up with the latest news in your industry?

If you're feeling overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information out there and looking for an easier way to sift through it, it's time to sign up for some of the free information-gathering services. This month's article tells you where to start.

Linda Coss
949-699-2749

Keeping Up with the Buzz

Back in the old days, companies would subscribe to "clipping services" that scoured the news for articles that mentioned the subscriber's company name, product, industry, or other chosen search terms. This was considered to be a vital way to stay informed.

Now, thanks to the explosion of digital information, many of us find it difficult to keep up with industry trends in general, let alone follow what's being said online about our company or product. Blogs, discussion forums, and other social media have become huge opinion and purchase influencers. It behooves you to keep up with the buzz, so you can join the discussion, thank those who speak favorably, or put out any fires that may arise.

Here are 8 free tools to help you do so:

Monitor the Blogs - www.Technorati.com will keep you informed when your chosen search term is mentioned in a blog post, and www.BackType.com will let you know when it's mentioned in a blog comment.
Monitor the Discussion Forums - Both www.BoardReader.com and www.BoardTracker.com will send you alerts whenever your search term is mentioned in a discussion forum.
Track Your Industry - You don't have to hunt for all of the news that relates to your industry. Sign up at http://www.google.com/alerts to receive email updates of the latest relevant Google results based on your choice of query or topic, or create a custom RSS news feed at http://news.yahoo.com/rss or http://w.moreover.com/public/free_services/rss_feeds.html.
Avoid Brand Jacking - Consider registering your company username at all of the social networking sites, to prevent others from "hijacking" your chosen name in case that site takes off in popularity. www.UserNameCheck.com allows you to quickly see if anyone else is using your brand as a username on any of the major - and many minor - social networks.

With these tools your business intelligence gathering program can run on autopilot, automatically delivering vital information directly to your inbox.

About Linda

Linda Coss is a freelance marketing writer who helps businesses become more profitable by writing persuasive, targeted and effective messages for their brochures, websites, letters, ads, fliers, press releases, newsletters and other written materials.

Whether you need something written "from scratch" or want a professional to edit what you've created, Linda is your on-call marketing writer.

For more information

click here or call 949-699-2749!