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Using RSS to Monitor your Name and Brand

monitordocklandsboyThere is a lot of information being published on the web every minute.  Some of it may be about you, your company or your products.  It is important to keep track of what’s being said about your business so that you can both respond effectively and learn from what your customers are saying.

Hopefully you know what RSS is.  You may not be aware that you’re using it – if you subscribe to a website or blog and then read their posts in iGoogle, Google Reader or Bloglines, etc., you are using RSS.  RSS can be a very easy way to monitor what is being said about your company.  By using various search services that provide RSS feeds for their results, you can monitor what is said about your company, products, etc. right from your RSS reader.

Here’s a few places to start :

  1. Google Blogsearch: Type in your company name.  On the bottom of the left column click on the RSS link to subscribe to this feed.  Now you’ll be able to monitor whenever a blog mentions your company name.  Add separate searches for brand and product names.  Having one for your name isn’t a bad idea either.
  2. Twitter Search:  Enter your company name.  On the upper right click on “Feed for this query”.  Repeat for product names, etc.
  3. Technorati: Again search for your company name, etc.  In the upper right of the search results there is a small Subscribe link with a RSS icon.

There are many different places to monitor what is said on the Internet.  If you have other favorites, please share them in the comments below.

(photo by Docklandsboy @ Flickr CC)

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Best of 2008 – Advantages & Disadvantages of Rich Media Ads

Rich media ads with which viewers can interact and may contain animation, audio and video. Rich media ads can be powerful way to convey your message, but these types of ads have some advantages and disadvantages:

Advantages

  • Communicate more information – through different types of media (audio, video, interaction). Rich media ads can have video, audio, animation and even small applications or games.
  • Collect more information – either by programming in more sophisticated analytics or simply by asking for information.
  • More clicks – As annoying as these ads are, they are more likely to be clicked on because they catch people’s attention (please follow IAB guidelines), at least during the first week or so.
  • Powerful branding – Even if the ad isn’t clicked on, viewers are still more likely to see and remember the ad than traditional display advertising.

Disadvantages

  • May slow down a website – These ads tend to be larger in file size, which takes longer to download. Even with faster Internet connections being more prevalent, you should be aware of your audience and how many are on slower connections. Even with faster Internet connections, an overly large file or many rich media ads can still slow down a website. If your website is too slow, people will just go elsewhere.
  • May annoy – Since these ads tend to be more visible to viewers, they also can quickly become more annoying. So stick with the IAB guidelines and place ads for short time periods (no longer than a month) to maximize the effectiveness of the ad.
  • More expensive – They are more difficult to create and require a higher skillset. These types of ads are usually more expensive to place on a website as well (because of the larger file size and annoyance factor).
  • May be blocked – Although most people have the software installed necessary to view these ads, it is fairly easy to turn off this option in most browsers and in some ad blocking software. However, as more websites use the same technology to increase their interaction and functionality, viewers are less likely to block the ads.

If you are aware of these advantages and disadvantages, you can make an informed decision about purchasing these types of ads (or allowing them to be displayed on your website or blog).

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Finding Twitter Influencers to Follow

influence4rbReader Steven Woods had a great question that I think might be useful to others, so I’m sharing it in a post (thanks for the question,Steven!):

Have you seen any good tools for understanding who is the most influential in a given subject? Measurements and/or ranking of network/relevance/retweets?

Here are a few tools that can help find the influencers for a subject or in your network:

Mr. Tweet will analyze your network and followers and suggest who you should be following back as well as influencers outside of your network.

TwitterGrader will give you a suggested list of people to follow based on keywords in your own tweets.

Twellow won’t necessarily give you influencers, but it is a directory of tweeters by subject, so it can help you find people in an industry to follow.

TweetScan, TwitScoop, TweetDeck and Twitter all give you the ability to search on a keyword and see what people have said about it. I happen to monitor a few keywords using TweetDeck and have found it useful for finding new people to follow and connect with.

If anyone has any other tools or methods, please feel free to share.

(photo by 4RB @ Flickr CC)

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