I’m sitting in a session here at New Media Nouveaux which is geared toward PR types and marketers. A statement is made by one panelist that using blogs effectively is about knowing what people are talking about and suggests Technorati as the source of market research.
While Technorati is A source, a better idea would be using Google Alerts or Google Blog Search. These really have become key for me in the past year as I’ve moved away from favoring Technorati. Many niches also have sites devoted to “following the conversation”. For technology bloggers, there is Techmeme and it’s sister site for politics, Memeorandum. Tailrank attempts to track the “long tail” of conversation on many topics including entertainment.
There’s many ways to track conversation. My advice to marketers is to not be an outsider. When you join the conversation, the conversation will develop in front of your eyes. You’ll spend far less time doing “market research” and far more time cultivating relationships with your consumers and partners.
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Aaron, I agree wholeheartedly.
Google alerts and blog search are a key part of understanding the intelligence of the masses, in addition to other tools, including BlogRovr, of which I’m CEO, a tool for keeping your finger on the pulse of the blogosphere. One of only 25 officially recommended Firefox addons, and has been called techmeme on steroids by some.
One on one relationships can be created incredibly easily nowadays using blogs, comments, and email, and are in the end why people trust and do business with others.
Aaron – thanks for pointing this out. I (we all) have some issues with Technorati! I’m also trying out Blog Pulse.
BlogRovr sounds like another one for the mix.
It was great to meet you at Friday’s event, and I look forward to staying in touch.
Qui-
I too have issues with Technorati and we’ve moved away from using it at b5media as a result.
It was great meeting you as well. Coffee sometime?
You bet! I’ll shoot you a note.
Thanks for pointing these out – can’t wait to try them as I too am pulling my hair with Technorati. There just seems so few ways to sort & distill the massive amounts of info.
Great meeting you at the New Media Nouveaux conference. Are you taking bets yet for your sink/swim predictions?
I’m not familiar with all of those Technorati alternatives, but I will have to check them out; however, I have some experience with Techmeme and do agree it is a solid source for getting an idea of what is “hot” in terms of technology discussion out in the blog-o-sphere. I’d highly recommend anyone that hasn’t gone to visit the site, wander over and have a look around.
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