Using Free Tools To Monitor The Web:
How To Collect Information
That Aligns With Your Business Goals
Social Media Summit
April 30, 2009
Mark Goren | PlantingSeeds.ca

TODAY’S AGENDA
• The different reasons to listen to online conversations
• Understanding the concept of RSS feeds
and how to set up a RSS reader
• The importance of keyword selection
• Knowing where to listen to online conversations
• Preparing to respond and initiate online
conversations when necessary

DEMONSTRATIONS
• RSS + newsreaders
• Twitter Search
• Other Twitter Tools: URL shorteners, BackTweets
• FriendFeed Search
• Comment tracking

WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA?

After 2/3 full days at this conference,
what does social media mean to you?

REALLY, WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA?
• Certainly not the static web
• It’s a living, breathing series of conversations
• That travel from one site to another to another to another to another...
• And it’s people driven, not company driven

CHARACTERISTICS OF SOCIAL MEDIA
More specifically:
• User-generated content
• Not traditional media
• Grassroots and unregulated
• Super speedy

PLANTING SEEDS + SOCIAL MEDIA
Three ways to think about it:
1. You’re planting seeds across the web
2. You’re asking others to plant seeds on your behalf
3. People are planting seeds – good or bad – for you

“Being in social media doesn’t mean anything
if you’re not listening.” – Sharon Hunter, my friend

SOCIAL MEDIA STARTS WITH MONITORING
L R I
1. Listening 2. Responding 3. Initiating
Taking baby steps, getting comfortable, finding your way.

SOCIAL MEDIA STARTS WITH LISTENING
LR I
Listening, Responding, Initiating
It’s all one activity, an ongoing process, an approach to commit to

WHY MONITOR ONLINE CONVERSATIONS?

Who here is already monitoring?

WHY MONITOR ONLINE CONVERSATIONS?
1. To understand what people are thinking in near real-time
2. To gain insights you can apply to your branding and messaging
3. To plan your online communications strategy
4. To gain business intelligence

WHY MONITOR ONLINE CONVERSATIONS?
1. To understand what people are thinking in near real-time
– Free focus group research
– Gauge what people are thinking “right now”
2. To gain insights you can apply to your branding and messaging
– Use insights to improve what you’re already doing
– Offline + online

WHY MONITOR ONLINE CONVERSATIONS?
3. To plan your online communications strategy
– To say, “Thanks!”
– To say, “Ah, not quite”
– To help others
4. To gain business intelligence
– Generate leads
– Learn about competitors, industry
– Product development

WHY MONITOR ONLINE CONVERSATIONS?
Basically to change perceptions
about your brand and humanize it

WHY MONITOR ONLINE CONVERSATIONS?
To think about:
• This is not a numbers game
• To create relationships, you have to read
• Conclusion: Be in it to learn, not to count

WHAT DO I DO WITH THIS INFORMATION?
Learn
Plan
Create
Adapt

WHAT TO LISTEN FOR
• The basics
Company name
Company URL
Campaign keywords
Public facing figures
Product names
Product URLs
Competitors
Critical issues
Source: http://www.thenewpr.com/wiki/pmwiki.php?pagename=WhatToMonitor.HomePage

WHERE TO MONITOR
• Social Networks
• Blogs • News
Twitter Search
Technorati Media mentions
FriendFeed Search
Google Blog News wires
Search Wikipedia
Press release
Bloglines pickups SocialMention
Blog Pulse Google news search Message Boards
Ice Rocket
Comments

WHERE TO MONITOR
General search engines
• Roll up your sleeves
• Set up “Alerts” (Demonstration coming up...)
• Read files, for example: PDFs

Remember, you are who Google says you are!

MONITORING TOOLS

WHERE TO START
1. Choose your keywords
2. RSS + Newsreaders
3. Expand your tool box

WHERE TO START
1. Choose your keywords
– Define listening objectives
– Keyword strategy development
– Trial and error
– Adjust and listen

WHERE TO START
2. RSS + Newsreader (or Google Alerts)
– Pull keyword search results into an aggregator
– Or have them sent by email
– Alerts that you choose
– You’re not visiting all these sites, they’re visiting
you
• LET’S DEMONSTRATE!

WHERE TO START
3. Expand your tool box
– Twitter Search
– Other Twitter Tools: URL shorteners, BackTweets
– FriendFeed Search
– Delicious
– SocialMention
– BoardTracker

THE MOVING CONVERSATION

A PRACTICAL EXAMPLE
You create a blog post
• A case where you’re listening, responding and initiating
conversations
1. People comment on the post at your site
2. People link to your post on Twitter and Facebook
3. People link to your post on their blog
4. People bookmark your post on Delicious
5. People aggregate their content on FriendFeed

A PRACTICAL EXAMPLE
You create a blog post
1. People comment on the post at your site
– Moderation alerts
– BackType/CoComment/Disqus
2. People link to your post on Twitter and Facebook
– Twitter Search
– BackTweets
– Status/posted links
– Facebook fan page
3. People link to your post on their blog
– Keyword monitoring
– Google Blog Search, Technorati, Social Mention...

A PRACTICAL EXAMPLE
You create a blog post
4. People bookmark your post on Delicious
– Subscribe directly on Delicious
– Social reader
5. People aggregate their content on FriendFeed
– FriendFeed search

BUT REMEMBER, YOU’RE NOT THE ONLY ONE
WRITING ABOUT YOUR BRAND

THAT’S WHY YOU HAVE TO LISTEN.

FINAL THOUGHTS

THE NEXT LEVEL OF MONITORING
• Why go with a paid service?
1. More in-depth analysis
2. Watch trends develop
3. Drill down to in learn even more about:
– The influencer
– Overall sentiment

AGAIN, WHY MONITOR?
• Intelligence = power
• Know the good and bad
• Change perceptions, humanize
• Plan your response
• Plan how you’ll initiate

AGAIN, WHY MONITOR?
• Be in the game
• Next generation will only be on the web

MORE DEMONSTRATIONS?
PAID MONITORING?
QUESTIONS?

ABOUT MARK GOREN
Social Media Consultant
After 10 years working in marketing as a copywriter at several traditional advertising agencies, Mark turned his
attention and creative thinking to the field of social network marketing, all so he can help businesses reach people
on their terms.
Since starting his consultancy, Mark has helped launch a makeup brand at a national department store chain, been
retained to develop, plan and brand a careers website for the Canadian trucking industry, and formed strategic
partnerships with local agencies.
Clients he has worked with throughout his career include: Air Canada, Air Canada Technical Services, Michelin North
America (Canada) + BFGoodrich Tires, Aeroplan, Alcatel, and The Gazette (Montreal’s English language daily
newspaper). Non-profit work includes an award-winning campaign for The Youville Centre (Ottawa), Home Hospice
(Toronto), The Old Brewery Mission (Montreal) and The Gazette Christmas Fund (Montreal).
Mark is also particularly proud to have contributed to the groundbreaking “The Age of Conversation”, an
unprecedented book project that saw over 100 bloggers contribute one-page chapters related to conversational
marketing. Proceeds from the book, which launched July 16, 2007, are earmarked for Variety, the children’s charity.
To date, over US$11,000 has been raised. A second collaborative effort is due to be launched in September 2008.
In January 2008, Mark was invited to contribute to the MarketingProfs Daily Fix blog, the world’s fifth leading
marketing blog, joining industry luminaries from all different marketing disciplines.

ABOUT MARK GOREN
Mark can be reached:
• By phone: 514-969-1725
• By email: mark@transmissionmarketing.ca
• On LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/markgoren
• On Twitter: http://twitter.com/markgoren
• On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/people/Mark_Goren/565765090
• On Skype: TransmissionCC
• On MSN: mark.goren@hotmail.com
You can also read + comment on Mark’s blog:
http://plantingsseds.ca
Or even subscribe:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/planting_seeds