Just for the record, the argument over whether or not you need to track conversations in the blogosphere is done. It’s over. If you’re not already doing it, you need to start now.
[[did that sound obnoxious enough?]]
The real question is, if you aren’t already doing it, how do you get started?
FeedForAll’s “Ego Searches & RSS” is a great place to get your tracking activities off the ground.
Ego searches are free and simple searches designed to monitor blogs and news portals for mentions of your company, product, competitors or other specific keywords. Conducting ego searches not only allows you to stay informed, but also allows you to maintain a strategic advantage over competing companies. A number of new Internet services are freely available that make these ‘ego searches’ painless and easy.
Dynamically created keyword based RSS feeds, update in your RSS reader or news aggregators, each time new information containing the keyword appears in the searched resources. The dynamic feeds match requests against new information, as it comes online in real time.
The tools covered by this great post (with details, tips and locations):
- Google News
- BlogPulse
- PubSub
- Technorati
- Ice Rocket
- Find Articles
- NewsTrove
- BlogDigger
- DayPop
- Yahoo News
Ego searches, monitoring your image on the blogosphere, isn’t as hard as you think. But it will require a bit of learning and a step outside your comfort zone.
