Blogs, Board and Posts

Nathan Weinberg
“When users search for companies, 18% of the results are corporate info and 12% are media coverage, while consumer generated content makes up 26% of the results. Companies spend so much money making sure the media likes them, but it also needs to work to appeal to online pundits, from bloggers to consumer reviewers. One in four engage with "informal media". 34% chat, 23% post or read message boards, 16% read personal pages, 11% go to financial info sites, 8% go to their own created site, 6% read blogs, and 2% blog.

Apple is great at reaching brand advocates. We were shown an iPod ad that looked like one of the professional, broadcast quality, and (most importantly) fun ads Apple runs, and then Gary revealed it was made by a regular guy for his own site, not by Apple.

Final thought: Youth culture is adept at taking what's done by marketing and remixing it in their own way. Nothing makes that possible like the internet.”
http://google.blognewschannel.com/index.php/archives/2005/02/28/search-engine-strategies-blogs-board-and-posts/

Blogs, Boards, and Posts: Capturing Consumer Buzz Online, By Greg Jarboe
A new category of software tools has emerged that uses search engine technology to find and organize consumer-posted thoughts and opinions. These tools not only help marketers discover what is being said about their companies and brands, they also allow them to use that insight to drive new campaigns and even develop new products.

You can't use Google News or Yahoo News to find this content, typically posted to blogs, message boards or opinion sites. The major news search engines don't consider most of these types of sites to be news sources.

This was the main topic addressed by "Blogs, Boards, and Posts: Capturing Consumer Buzz Online" panel. The session featured five speakers: Two bloggers who talked about why monitoring consumer feedback sources such as blogs and message boards is becoming an important task for marketers, and three vendors who talked about how to use their tools to better integrate consumer opinions into marketing and advertising plans.

The two bloggers were JupiterResearch senior analyst Gary Stein, who also moderated the session, and Steve Rubel, Vice President of Client Services at CooperKatz and author of the Micro Persuasion blog. The three vendors were: Jonathon Carson, President and CEO of BuzzMetrics; Mark Fletcher, vice president and general manager of Bloglines at Ask Jeeves; and Mike Nazzaro, Chief Operating Officer at Intelliseek.

Stein opened the session by presenting research that found when users search for companies, 26% of the results are content generated by consumers, 22% by experts, 18% by corporate sources, 12% by media, and 22% by other sources. In other words, when prospects search for your company, the top 10 listings are likely to include:

• 3 listings from consumer posts to blogs, message boards, and opinion sites
• 2 listings from experts
• 2 listings from your own corporate site
• 1 listing from an online publication
• 2 listings from other sources

While virtually all SEO's monitor the ranking of the two corporate listings and most PR departments monitor their press clippings, very few marketers monitor what is being said by consumers on blogs, message boards and opinion sites. What is needed, said Stein, is a Dynamic Attitude Analysis Tool, a way of making opinions measurable and actionable for marketing.

http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3495851