A feature article by Moreover’s Senior Product Manager, Brian Mackie, appears in the latest issue of IntranetsToday explaining how companies can find and exploit opportunities within the challenges of Big Data.
His article, “Actionable Media Intelligence: Delivering a Competitive Edge”, argues that companies should be using the proper tools to turn unwieldy “mass media” into actionable “meaningful media”.
Great companies make decisions driven by data, not by gut feelings alone. The problem is that available “big data” is increasing very quickly. How does an organization make sense of it all and get it to the relevant people?
Employees are going to talk- to each other and to people outside the company. Are they informed? They should be reading targeted and relevant news every day without spending too much time seeking it out. Do you know how to get them there?
In the feature, Mr. Mackie gives a checklist of points to consider while evaluating tools for internal communication to solve these problems.
What media sources does the service cover, does it match your particular industry needs, and can new ones be added on request?
Check the news filtering options to make sure they will support the precisely tuned results you need (test with real-life news requirements)
Look for flexible media distribution options: A user portal, newsletters, RSS feeds, possibly an API to integrate news search directly into an intranet
Ensure it includes editorial control features to manage the content that flows out to the organization (e.g. the ability to quickly remove articles from an RSS feed on the intranet)
Confirm whether customer service includes editorial support for building out searches
Ask about their software development processes and how often they roll out new features (ideally at least monthly)
Know the pricing – avoid ballooning content licensing costs, and beware the sweet entry level deal that is followed by a sudden not-quite-explained price hike in year two!
Lastly, always run a trial and push the vendor to prove, not just promise, targeted business news that demonstrates value. If they can’t provide this during a trial, it’s probably because they can’t provide it full stop.
Companies can leverage their internal communication to gain an advantage in the marketplace. It is difficult, but there is opportunity in this challenge to rise above the competition:
Turning mass media it into meaningful media intelligence is a fascinating challenge – it is for vendors, publishers, and especially for the companies chasing productivity gains and competitive advantage. And therein lies the good business news: It is not too late to be an early mover and gain that edge.
The Financial Times today broke the story that Thomson Reuters is to offer traders a service that analyzes millions of websites for signals to trigger trading strategies, led by growing demand for investment firms to leverage online news and discussion. The service will rely on information delivered by Moreover Technologies.
Our own Fareita Udoh discussed how many companies operate in a complex media and information landscape and are dependent on a large number of information outlets for media content such as content aggregators, press monitoring agencies and free media tools. Read how Moreover Technologies offered Bond Pearce LLP the ability to easily create and configure customized RSS news feeds from editorially controlled sources … Click here to download
A story about a Florida bank being foreclosed on by a homeowner has recently gone viral. Noah Seidenberg of The Evanstonian has a good summary of this crazy turn of events:
So here’s what happened. A couple in Naples, Florida bought a home with cash (no mortgage) in 2009. In 2010, Bank of America began foreclosure proceedings against them. This was Bank of America’s mistake, of course. This couple, the Nyerges, hired an attorney to help defend them against this foreclosure, and then Bank of America realized their mistake and dropped it. Well, it’s great that it’s been dropped, but the Nyerges are out $2,534 in legal fees. So they’ve requested that Bank of America cover the cost multiple times over the phone and in writing. They finally get a judge to order that Bank of America pay the fees. When they still haven’t gotten their check after five months of more calls and letters, they obtained an order of foreclosure against the bank.
While this has been reported in the news, Social Media has really run wild with the story. Using Newsdesk 4, I plotted out the mention of Bank of America and foreclosures (in their various permutations). You can see the huge spike of blog posts vs traditional news coverage.
For the last 30 days, Social Media and News coverage have been trending together rather evenly. For this story, however, blogs blew the news sites out of the water.
A lot of people are chasing after the nature of what makes a story viral. In this case it seems rather clear that the populist angle in this story is appealing. It is human nature to celebrate the little guy winning over the big guy.
Moreover Senior Product Manager, Brian Mackie, got a chance to weigh in on the quality of the information experience in the June issue of EContent Magazine. In an article by Nancy Kho headlined, “On the Road to Improved Information Experiences,” Mackie discussed the importance of information experiences that don’t disrupt work routines.
Mackie pointed out that information categorization is key to users being able to find what they need and want to share without having to go to great lengths to get it. The article explained that Newsdesk 4 users can share customized newsletters and emails straight from their dashboard, and set up direct feeds to corporate intranets or other information products.
Mackie emphasized that Newsdesk 4 users can share stories of potential interest with groups they set up, including product team colleagues or a marketing department.
In the rest of the article, Kho described how content consumers’ expectations about acceptable information experiences have changed. Simplicity, speed, flexibility and accuracy are priorities. Drivers of major change include increasing use of mobile computing, aim to provide users with more interactive and engaging experiences, capability to customize user experience, and a requirement for tools that integrate with workflow to ramp up productivity—especially now, as budgets have tightened.
Rossen Roussev, VP Strategy & Business Solutions at Moreover Technologies, has been chosen to participate as a speaker at the Measure Up Conference, taking place June 6-8, 2011 in Boston, MA.
Hear him discuss best practices and real-life case studies about how a simplified and standardized global media monitoring capability can save your company millions, generate new value, bring much needed business insights, and ultimately improve your reputation and competitive advantage. Learn about how to utilize different analytics techniques to realize global business benefits while delivering tangible cost savings.
As a speaker at the 2011 Measure Up Conference, Rossen is pleased to be able to offer a 20% discount off the standard rate to join him at the event. Mention priority code SPKRM2308RR to have your discount applied. Register Today.
He will be in good company at Measure Up, billed as the world’s most comprehensive cross-dimensional view of marketing measurement best practices. According to Aneta Hall, Emerging Media, Corporate Marketing, Pitney Bowes, “Measure Up is THE event for one-on-one conversation and knowledge sharing in the field of marketing measurement.”
The Conference will focus on such issues as: Gleaning valuable intel about how to integrate the many pieces of measurement analytics into one cohesive and clear and marketing strategy; discovering ROI-enhancing tips and tools for online activities, especially social media; and learning how to maximize your competitive edge by leveraging the best-of-the-best from the world of increased analytics.
Other speakers include:
Jean Paul Isson, Vice President Global BI and Predictive Analytics, Monster Worldwide
We ran a quick search on the Microsoft Skype deal through our Newsdesk 4 analytics engine, to produce the following theme cloud. The search is over approximately 10,000 news articles from the last 4 days, from about 25,000 English language sources, any country.
The analysis picks up on products mentioned across these articles. The graph simultaneously highlights why Microsoft purchased Skype -witness the iPhone and all the Google related services- and how it plugs into its own line of products: Windows Phone, Xbox, Kinect, etc.
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