PR Tools And Bag Of Tricks
WebPro News, June 1, 2006 By Jeremy Pepper Okay, a lot of times I get people asking me what are the super-secret tools in
my blogging/PR
bag of tricks.
I usually refuse to tell them, because it is about me and my tools and my skill
set. It is not
about making the
industry better,
but about pushing
myself forward
as the numero uno
dude.
Oh,
wait, that is not
how I work. Damn.
Well, if it was,
I would totally
beat down people.
Totally.
Okay,
really, I work
with the interns
here and try to
teach them the
best tools that
I have found on
monitoring the
blogosphere. Why?
So they have the
skills here, so
I can send them
work to begin,
and then when they
go off to their
career, they will
be able to use
some of the tools
I taught them here,
and then pass on
the knowledge to
other PR people.
It's all about
learning.
So,
what do I use to
find appropriate
blogs? Easy: Blogpulse,
Technorati, PubSub.
Those three are
great free tools
to monitor and
find information
on blogs. Yes,
they are not perfect,
but they have been
perfectly good
tools to do what
I need to do when
finding and tracking
and monitoring
- they get the
job done, for free.
And,
there are other
tools that I love
to use, such as
Biz360 and Buzzlogic.
I got a demo of
Buzzlogic, and
think it is a great
tool for PR and
marketing folks
to follow the conversation
thread in blogs.
Because,
that is what it
is about - the
conversation. The
conversation can
start anywhere
- a bike messenger
board, a low-readership
blog, in the real
world - and it
can steamroll.
That is the whole
point with new
media - that it
is the conversation
that starts, and
can take a full
whole new life
on other blogs
with trackbacks,
which are easily
monitored.
But,
that is just half
the conversation.
The deeper conversations
are taking place
in comments, and
beyond the ego-fulfillment
to see if someone
has responded to
your comment, you
want to be able
to monitor comments
merely to see what
people are saying
and because now
too much happens
within comments.
And not much works
well there so far.
So
last night, I met
up with Assaf Arkin
who founded Co.mments.
We had a long discussion
on everything Web
2.0, dotcom boom
and bust, surviving
the bubble (and
surviving the next
bubble burst),
and Co.mments.
And
that is the interesting
part. He tracks
the conversations
through the comments
submitted through
his service. Instead
of looking at the
full ginormous
blogosphere, he
is able to look
at the conversations
that his users
are finding important.
Think about that:
he's getting a
magnifying glass
view of the blogosphere,
through the comments.
But
beyond ego-tracking,
the tool is a necessary
tool for PR people.
It's in my bag
of tricks, because
it is not just
enough to track
blogs, but you
need to track conversations.
Well, baby steps
for PR firms and
clients - first
let us at least
track the conversation.
Then we will get
to the next step
on tracking the
conversations within
the conversations.
|
