Day: November 11, 2004

CyberAlert, an online clipping firm has announced BlogSquirrel, a new service specifically designed to monitor over 100,000 blogs.

According to the press release:

“By searching and reporting on a comprehensive cross-section of blogs, BlogSquirrel (http://www.cyberalert.com/blogmonitoring.html) offers an effective �early warning system� to identify problems and issues that may threaten corporate or brand reputation, or that present new opportunities for product development or business growth.”

The growing number of “blog monitoring” services is probably a good (if early) indication of the interest around blogs. 

An interesting new blog…

Leslie Bunder has created journalistic.co.uk.  It’s a blog that aimes to provide a:

“…dedicated site for journalists to help them understand the benefits of digital media and technology and how they can make the most of it to improve reporting, writing and publishing.

From how to make the most of mobile communications through to understanding word processing, Journalistic.co.uk aims to cover those areas and more including reviews of software, hardware and other services.”

Elizabeth Albrycht and Guillaume du Gardier have unveiled New Communications Forum 2005. 

The forum is targeted at PR, marketing and communications professionals and it promises:

“…provide you with an in-depth, hands-on exploration of the future of communications. Our instructors are PR professionals, marketers and journalists who have pioneered the use of these new tools and technologies. They will share their in-the-trenches experiences as early adopters of these new communications tools.”

The conference will take place in Silicon Valley on January 26-27, 2005 and a second event will take place in France in February 2005.

There’s even a rumor circulating that I might be in France in February….

The importance of search engines in driving web traffic and promoting awareness and leads continues to grow. Because search engines are (through technology) independent in nature, this is a tailor-made opportunity for PR.

Make no mistake, you need to embrace Search Engine Optimization (SEO), understand how it works, understand how to maximize listings, use Google AdWords, Overture etc..

With that in mind I recommend you take a look at MarketingSherpa’s research report on how B-to-B buyers use search engines.  The report is available as a PDF. 

“You definitely should adjust the keyword phrases you’re optimizing for and offers you’re advertising to reflect this. Instead of just trial offers or direct orders, promote white paper downloads, canned webinar viewing, tech spec documents, and the killer-app, comparison charts of you versus your competitors (optimized for all their names of course.)”