Lately, I've been quite frustrated with some of the tools we use for monitoring.  With the rise of social media and web 2.0 tools I felt the need to explore further. My aim is to ensure that our clients receive the best that there is to offer and that our research, as well as analysis are as in depth as possible. The one disadvantage to most monitoring tools, is that they are too linear.  As we are based in the UK, most of our clients are interested in either UK or European mentions. As you can imagine, it's a hefty job and very time consuming. We have to comb the entire internet - which is global, as we all know - and filter through relevant mentions. 

I posted the question on LinkedIn and Twitter. I was not surprised to see that through LinkedIn, I received about 10 answers!  I recently stumbled upon www.silobreaker.com, and awesome trend monitoring tool. It shows networks in relation to entities as well as related topics.

I thought I'd share with you some of the recommendations:

www.andiamosystems.com
http://www.techrigy.com
www.serph.com
http://www.radian6.com 

To understand the role of reputation in the global War for Talent, Hill & Knowlton commissioned Penn, Schoen & Berland to conduct a survey of more than 500 students from some of the World’s leading business schools.

We wanted to understand the role of reputation in this war for talent. How important is corporate reputation in
attracting today’s brightest and best?
 
We interviewed MBA students at some of the World’s leading business schools and some very clear trends appear.

– Reputation matters, and the reputation of the company is based on far more than just its financial performance
and the quality of its products and services.

– The employee experience matters deeply. Talent is not prepared to sit and wait for the golden opportunity
of 20 years hence; they want it now.

– Values matter too - everything from ethics and corporate governance to environmental policy and social
responsibility. The reason it matters so much is that the leaders of the future have a clear understanding of the
link between reputation and financial performance. 

You can download the survey research results from our website -

http://www.hillandknowlton.com/crw.

We've had some interesting discussions covering various topics today.  We began around 8:30am introducing everyone. It's great to meet more of our European counterparts who are active Digital consultants.  Below is a list of some topics, both Niall and Guy have been blogging about them.

1. David Muir, CEO of The Channel (WPP) - The New Marketing Environment
2. Paul Gillin, Author and Consultant - Coping with a World Where Messages Don't Matter
3. David M Scott, Author and Consultant - The New Rules of PR
4. Paul Taaffe, CEO H&K Worldwide - The Importance of H&K Digital
5. Peter Imbres, James Gregson and Niall Cook - Social Media 101
6. Claudia Husemann, Director  H&K New York Technology Practice - What Clients Want Now!
7. Melissa Robinson, H&K SVP Marketing Communications - Marcomms & Digital
8. Brendan HOdgson, H&K VP Digital Canada - Digital Crisis Issues Management

Then dinner and I'm sure some party!:-)

I've been wondering how long it would take for a social media guru to not only create a site that could incorporate all your social networking profiles into one profile but also incorporate feeds of you and your friends on your profile!  I've become a Facebook addict and love seeing who is doing what on the social corner. Never mind my MySpace profile, Flickr account with all my 'forget-me-not' photos, my business network, a definite must on LinkedIn, it goes on and on and on...

It seems the answer thus far is Wink - The people search engine! Wink specifically targets their search engine to find individual people who are active web and social network users. A few others such as 8hands, ProfileFly, and Tabber.

The Wink feeds pull in information about your friends from del.icio.us, Twitter, which has recently been added to Wink’s search tools, Flickr, Jaiku, MySpace, Facebook, Wordpress and more. You can find more on the subject on Mashable.

There is still a long way to go before it becomes 100% integrated, as I'm still playing with it and it's not exactly where it should be. However I do feel it's a good step in the right direction.  I look forward to seeing what happens next.  Below is a widget from Wink which will be placed on all my profiles shortly...

Much of Soho to our west is currently suffering with a power cut, leaving officies emptying onto the street, restaurants closed for business and an eerie feeling about the place.

A bad day for business you would think. However, I received an unexpected email from the Leon healthy fast food restaurant in Carnaby Street. It explained their dilemma:

"The power in and around us here at our Carnaby Street restaurant is down. Electricity, it has been confirmed today, plays a useful role in our restaurant. We can’t open as normal, but want to make sure you don’t go without. We have the where-with-all (is that the word?) to make sixty packed lunches, and we want to take care of you."

A nice way to notify their regulars as to the problem and a great way of making them, and me, feel special and more loyal. In the interests of 'research', I went down with the email in my hand as instructed and claimed one of the 60 free salads and piece of cake and fruit. Delicious.

No doubt they had already made the salads, but the generosity to add cake and fruit turned it into a neat piece of marketing and a great way of making the best of a bad circumstance.

I'll be back when the power's back on.

If things have been a little quiet on here lately, there's a good(ish) reason. No, I haven't fallen out of love with the blogosphere - quite the reverse. It's all down to Chocolate, you see.

For some weeks now my affections have been elsewhere as one of the Chocolate bloggers, a blog our Netcoms team set up to amplify a blogger relations programme we are running for the LG Chocolate phone.

While it can be considered poor form to post about client work (I think this is my first), I have been itching to share some observations into the programme so far. Observations which probably don't have a natural place on the Chocolate blog. So, here we are. Sorry.

My colleague Niall has already blogged about some of the more mainstream insights he has gained, so let me just make a few personal observations:

1. Bloggers don't bite, as long as you ask nicely and do your homework.
2. It helps if you have an interesting product to talk about. A lot.
3. Prepare to learn something. Despite mugging up on the phone for a good week, almost every review has taught me something new.
   
4. Bloggers don't follow the classic 'press review' formula. Reviews are personal, passionate and go in unexpected directions. Little things matter.
5. Take a deep breath. This kind of activity makes people nervous.
6. Be yourself and try to have fun. It shows.
7. The higher profile an activity, the weirder emails you get.

In the interests of full disclosure in case I haven't made it clear, LG is a client of ours ;)

Never one to miss a trick (or a little publicity), Jamie Oliver A.K.A. 'The Naked Chef' is adding his voice to the Podcasting phenomenon.

In between running his restaurants, selling his books and doing his charitable works, the ever energetic Oliver will be answering 'the very best and funniest' questions from his loyal fans. Questions are sent in by leaving a 30-second message on the 'Podcast' hotline and Oliver will answer them via the Podcast in a 'cross-media' phone-in show.

Quite whether this is the right medium for him is another question. Given the myriad specific challenges facing the amateur chef, a Q&A style session may well be better handled via the messageboard format that he already has on the site. Also it would prove somewhat impractical to be scribbling down any recipes while listening to the Podcasts themselves.

This smacks more of a 'bit of fun' and the chance for those that like the sound of his voice to enjoy his unique cockney charm than the new pillar of the Oliver empire.

I'd be surprised if this one goes the distance.

No, not a misty-eyed post about Badly Drawn Boy's songwriting genius, but instead the launch of a new blogging portal, 2TalkAbout.

Its first incarnation is a Honda-sponsored site where customers and in theory Honda engineers get to mix and talk about Honda. Consumers can sign up and post their thoughts into the portal for others to comment on and respond to.

At the time of writing, there is an interesting mix of branding, praise and criticism. Branding through the Honda logo and an ad for the Honda Civic; praise on the likes of fuel efficiency; criticism on topics such as the blog itself and of car defects like the Civic ES fuel flap (no sign of the engineers just yet though).

All in all a promising start for a community conversation and there is certainly an active community of Honda advocates online to tap into. The question remains the level to which Honda themselves will actively participate in the conversation and act upon requests made by their customers. It's good to listen, but also important for customers to feel that they are being heard.

In the interests of transparency, I am an active follower of Honda's moves in the digital world, having worked on the Honda account for a number of years at my previous digital agency. I was interested to read the thoughts of my old client John Goodbody on the portal: "We like people talking about our cars. And now there’s a blog site where you can discuss your Honda experiences with others or get a useful insight into Honda ownership. We encourage our customers to interact, and this is a great medium for doing just that." It certainly is, John.