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From time to time, we get the question “what’s the risk of not having a social media monitoring tool?” The question reveals a perception that “social media is just an add-on to other media outlets”. It’s not. Social media has a different set of rules and is reshaping entire markets.

With social media, people are engaging and interacting around context, not necessarily personal relationships. Whereas we used to connect around place (neighborhood, community, schools, associations, etc.) we now link to online personas that share our intellectual interest and emotions. For many, traditional media is no longer the main source of information. Increasingly people turn to social media looking for “someone just like like me” and consequently, many blogs and forums discussions are more important in shaping opinions and perceptions than traditional media outlets.

Likewise, PR and marketing campaigns are no longer about one-to-many communication by distributing press releases and pushing “call to action”. Via social media monitoring tools, companies connect and interact with people that have expressed interest in a particular topic.

Still, the strategy of reaching out to people of influence has not changed. PR and marketing efforts still try to connect with “trust agents” that are likely to pass on a particular message to their networks. In effect, successful campaign management is engaged in one-to-one-to-many communications. The PR or marketing message gets forwarded from one-to-one-to-many if it connects with the interests of the person receiving it, AND if it provides value to his/her network.

The main challenge for companies using social media is therefore the blurring between marketing and communication. Marketers want to use it to sell, communicators to build relationships. Of course, social media is very much about being a real member of a community and providing value, rather than just chasing the next sale. That increases the number of people a company has to deal with, requiring more time and investment in building relationships.

The effect of social media monitoring and interaction will have a profound effect on the PR and marketing industry as we know it. PR and marketing efforts is increasingly about connecting with real people and because everyone is involved in a network, it’s not just up to the people working in the PR and marketing departments. A well thought out strategy will leverage the connections of the entire organization, leaving a more profound, valuable and documentable impact than any traditional campaign could ever hope for.

Want to start listening in on social media conversations? Sign up for the free trial of the Imooty social media monitoring tool today.

Looking back at 2009, it was decidedly the year to get started with live search media monitoring. If you don’t know what “live search” is, think Twitter.

Never understood what Twitter was all about? Well, then think about this: If I was to go on a little R&R skiing vacation in Bad-Gastein (Austrian Alps), I could do one of two things: Check Google for pages mentioning Bad-Gastein, or search Twitter for the same term.

For the better part of 2009, Google would return a bunch of Bad-Gastein sites optimized for selling travel packages, hotels, spas etc. That’s where live search media monitoring comes into play. Although commercial service providers are relevant for my planning, I’d first of all want to know what the snow conditions were like, preferably from some unbiased source. The hotels, skiing resorts and service providers are unlikely to give me that, which is what makes people so exited about Twitter. It returns real life impressions from people who are there right now!

Google is of course not passively sitting back and has already struck a deal with both Twitter and Facebook which includes search results from them alongside their index and adwords.

This has significant PR implications and companies increasingly need to pay attention and interact with social media users. If a customer service representative is stonewalling customers the word will soon be out on Twitter, which in turn will reveal an unfavorable impression in Google search results. On the flip side, speedy interaction and online reputation management may have the opposite effect.

In other words, now more than ever, it pays to set do live search media monitoring of company and product names. And not just proprietary names, other keywords associated to the products and services should be monitored too. For my Bad Gastein example, it would make sense to monitor, “Skiing vacation in Austria”, “Skiing in Hohe Tauern” and “Austria ski resort guide” too.

For a comprehensive live search media monitoring system, take this opportunity to try out the FREE Imooty.eu trial.

The first step step beyond social media monitoring is developing listening skills. Needless to say, companies have a lot to gain from understanding the customers problems. By providing solutions and sharing knowledge, content is likely to be passed on and advocated by consumers.

So what’s the problem?

When you say that you have an open and receptive online presence, it creates an expectation. Specifically, an expectation of being heard. Active social media monitoring and a policy for when/how to respond to feedback, is priority number one for building customer relationships and trust. Do not make the mistake of ignoring a customer who expects being heard.

Most companies hesitate to take the step from social media monitoring to active interaction because of perceived risks. A fear that everything will spin out of control if people start communicating via Twitter. However, there are also risks associated with not participating.  The indecisiveness is an expression of sticking with the status quo and keeping with the old hierarchical communication structure. However, adapting to social media is unlikely to undo the company. Mistakes will be made, sure, but that is part of what makes social media appealing.

Companies seem to have a hard time speaking about anything else than their products. To avoid looking pushy, or worse, boring, find topics that connect to the bigger picture. Kodak’s photography blog for example isn’t just about their products.

Also, users increasingly expect websites to be interactive, not just an online version of the company brochure. They’re looking for fresh content, articles, videos, podcasts and links to the latest developments in your industry. Content generation is unlikely to work very well in a top-down structure. If the IT department needs to recode the website every time someone wants to contribute, social interaction will never happen. It is important to have an easy to publish CMS. Once the new PR and communiation policy is in place, everyone should be able to share and contribute.

Taking the step from social media monitoring to participation doesn’t have to be a major undertaking. It doesn’t take hi-tech tools to connect with your customers. Think corporate blog, Twitter and a Facebook page.

Many still think of business intelligence as secretly spying on someone, surveying and somehow unfairly obtaining information about a competitor. Well guess what, if you’re to stay relevant in the market place, its your duty to know what the market is up to!

Welcome to the information age, knowledge is power and anyone doing business online will have to get used to it. Quick. The good news is that you don’t have to subscribe to an overpriced media monitoring service to find good business intelligence anymore.

Does democratized business intelligence applications sound better?

It used to be that business intelligence applications were reserved for large corporations with fat budgets. Armies of people were scanning newspaper articles and listening in on radio & TV programs looking for particular brands, names or commentary on particular issues. Obviously quite a labour intensive process, which is why we can now talk about a democratization of these services.

So what is behind this trend? Well, increasingly, publications are moving online and information searches are being automated. Meanwhile, speech recognition software makes the creation of transcripts possible. This facilitates automated audiovisual searches too (more to come on this).

So, what can you do with business intelligence applications? Limited knowledge of potential new revenue streams will obviously impact your business and these tools will give you a concrete possibility to access important updates on your industry. Knowing the different cycles and where to look for key pieces of information automatically gives you an edge; changes in regulations, promotions, acquisitions etc.

You’ll also want to know a bit about your competitors, who are providing similar products and services as yours? Location, size, offer and if they could represent a threat. Or is there a possibility of a strategic partnership? Sure, you’ll be tempted to ignore the competition, but sooner or later you’ll have to deal with it, one way or another.

You can also use business intelligence to find out about your target customers. Who are they, what are their likes and dislikes, what websites are they currently visiting, what’s their budget?

This information will allow you to tailor your product to them. The more needs you can fill, the higher likelihood for repeat business.

In short, by being aware of the latest trends in your field you’ll find the advantages and disadvantages of each. This is information you can act on! Listen, learn and turn business intelligence into new revenue streams.

Give the Imooty business intelligence application a try today!

Yesterday it was time to thank our interns for their efforts over the past few months. Edward and Ana came to us via “Leonardo”, a program which helps young professionals find internships abroad. Edward worked on our visual media monitoring system whereas Ana did a great job with research of online reputation management services in Spain.

Kristina has also done a terrific job over the last few months. Her awareness of the particular PR needs of the Web 2.0 generation, helped us develop an online monitoring service for the next generation media monitoring professionals.

Together we all went to a Biergarten by the river, across from the Bode Museum. It was one of those nights when people clearly had not been out for a while… It has been a crappy summer so far and instead of constantly checking mobile news, folks could finally bake in the sun, have a drink and dance tango as the boats went honking by.

It turned out to be a good start of the summer and we hope we’ll be as lucky with our next interns as with Ana, Edward & Kristina.

Thank you!

What media content do you consider trustworthy? Are online information sources part of your online monitoring? According to eMarketer and TNS, a recent survey finds that online news sources, rank high as trusted information sources. The most trusted information source is friends and word-of-mouth recommendations. TV news and newspapers are considered to be about equally trustworthy.

Especially interesting is the comparison from country to country. Whereas private blogs overall are considered the least reputable, Chinese consumers rank them notably higher. In Scandinavia the most trusted information source is TV news, whereas in Germany and Italy it is Wikipedia (!).

As a online monitoring service, it’s definitely surprising to find Wikipedia as the most trusted information source in Germany and Italy. We’re reminded of Merriam-Webster’s word of the year 2006, namely Stephen Colbert’s adaptation of “truthiness”:

“We’re not talking about truth, we’re talking about something that seems like truth – the truth we want to exist…”

For our own part, we notice a spike in visitor numbers and online monitoring registrations every time a major event takes place. From earthquakes to political scandals, visitors swarm to Imooty for trusted information anytime a big news story breaks.

Want to have your create your own online monitoring service? Try Imooty for FREE today!

Technorati Profile

Imooty attended Berlin’s 4th conference multimedia start-up’s yesterday. We were pleased to present our mobile news application at the conference, which is a forum for multimedia and technology start-ups to network with prospective investors. It took place in the former DDR movie theater “Kosmos” in East Berlin.

This year’s motto was to collaborate and succeed in a time of economic crisis and Mr Kaczorowski, Director of Internet Business Solutions at Cisco Systems AG, held the keynote address. He told us how Cisco, one of the world’s largest networking equipment and network management suppliers didn’t had to cancel its annual leadership conference. Instead, new ‘live size’ video conference applications enabled them to organize a 3 day online conference for top level management world wide. Later, we were pleased to share Imooty’s collaborative mobile news features with the conference participants.

Another presentation by Dr. Martin Kupp, from European School of Management and Technology in Berlin, dealt with the fundamental question: how to stay longer on the market? The Queen of pop, Madonna would serve as an example for success as her biography is a textbook example for marketing and PR strategies.

In short the reccomendations were as follows;

1. Move with the flow and endorse new technologies; Madonna boldly promoted MTV’s use of music videos already in 1983.
2. Break some rules; Madonna has questioned sexual and religious tabus her entire career.
3. Blend with the up-and coming, Madonna has collaborated with young artists and got good coverage as she kissed Britney Spears in the MTV Video Awards in 2003.

As for the exhibition, we had our own stand somewhere in the middle, presenting Imooty’s Media Monitoring solutions. As expected, the financial crisis dominated the general mood at the conference, and proved to be an excellent occasion to present Imooty as a concrete way for companies to save money on online reputation management services in trying times.
And the Gummy Bears at our stand, courtesy of Profund, FU, was a huge hit among fellow exhibitors as well as investors.

Create your online monitoring tool and start following mobile news today!

Imooty is pleased to announce that Jasper Dencker-Hahn has joined the Imooty team. Jasper has 20 years experience in the media monitoring field and will assist Imooty in business development. His most recent engagements include Mediaclippings, Picturesafe and Xerox. To celebrate the collaboration we invited Jasper to Olympia Stadion to watch his favourite soccer team, Werder Bremen, play Hertha BSC. An excellent game which ended with a 2-1 favor for the home team. With his characteristic optimism Jasper maintained that Werder were not giving its best because of preparations to the UEFA cup!

Set up your free online reputation monitoring system with Imooty.eu today!

Imooty.eu is proud to announce its membership of the European Knowledge-Intensive-Services-Innovation-Platform! News flash; our media intelligence tool was selected following our participation and presentation at the KIS Partnership Forum in Brussels last month.

The platform, a.k.a. KIS 100, brings together the most interesting and successful “knowledge” companies in Europe. It was established to promote exchange of ideas and to promote partnerships between cutting edge innovators, among others in the mobile news area.

The KIS 100 CLUB and Europe INNOVA are initiatives financed by the European Commission’s Directorate General for Enterprise and Industry.

Want your own news flash? Start using Imooty today!

The result of financial downturn and crisis is a “shake out” of unsustainable business models and unhealthy companies. The media sector is going through a period of major restructuring and Darwin, born 200 years ago today, would probably see this as a natural development.

The internet started to change how we access information over a decade ago. Different media formats, text (newspaper articles), audio (radio programs) and video (TV programs) are merged in a single browser.

The consequence for ‘old media’ is devastating; old business models are going out of business! For newspapers the problem is sinking subscription sales, dwindling interest in their classifieds and advertisers who increasingly become aware that they’re being overcharged. And News Flash; Broadcasters face similar struggles as users access the internet for audiovisual content.

Meanwhile, the question of how to monetize on the web remains unanswered. Today Youtube announced a system of micro payment for offline content on their blog. Would you pay for content on Youtube?

So far conventional wisdom show that it is difficult to charge for media content on the web. Part of the problem is diversity, why should I pay here when I get it for free over there? YouTube’s efforts will be interesting to follow…

Locate market intelligence with Imooty.eu today!

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