September 24, 2008, Vol. 2, Issue 18

Welcome back! Welcome new readers (shout out to HARO!) and a hearty welcome back to Autumn.

Oh, and just a reminder that you’re receiving this email because you subscribed via our web site. If you ever want to unsubscribe, we’ll understand. (sob, sob) Instructions at the bottom.

While we make it a near solemn promise to keep this newsletter short, succinct and filled purely with useful and fun tidbits that we run across during our days and nights of researching, today we want to share a quick bit of news about ourselves. We recently introduced a new type of research; something we are calling Social Focal Reports. Think of them as focus groups, only backwards. We can very quickly canvass more individuals, in their natural setting online, talking amongst themselves. This allows us to mine what we believe to be more authentic information on what individuals online truly think and feel on topics and brands that matter to you. Curious? Call us to find out more, or read a more detailed description on our website.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled finds…

A little bit of flash

How we do rejoice when brains, functionality and beauty merge! This is the case with SlideRocket, a new, free, super-dynamic tool that will have you creating presentations that put your colleagues’ PowerPoints to shame. SlideRocket incorporates functionality like we’ve never before seen in a presentation tool. Check it out and see why our next presentation will be created with SlideRocket.

Hmmm, how should I say this?

Want to see which phraseology will return the most Google results? You have to try websource.it This is actually a much more useful resource than may be evident at first glance.

Not sure how a term is spelled? Enter it both (or up to 5) ways and see how the results come out. If you trust the wisdom of crowds, you’ll see which choice is the popular (correct?) spelling! (Or, here’s a practical tip: Does your client have a product with a name that’s difficult to spell? Use websource.it to get a more accurate idea of just how many people are actually talking about it – even if they can’t spell it correctly.)

Or if, for example, you’re looking for information on the history of chicken noodle soup, you could compare ‘chicken noodle soup’ to ‘chicken noodle soup recipes’ to see which generates the most results.

A new twist

Twitter is on fire these days. And if you work in communications, well, we don’t need to tell you how influential it’s becoming.

Twist.com is a site that compares trends (or “twittertrends” as we like to call them) on Twitter. For example, if you want to see how often people are discussing McDonalds vs. Burger King you can plug it in and voila. It’s a great way to find out how your product stacks up to the competition. Hmmm. Scherer Cybrarian vs. who? (Never mind, there is no competition.)

Stump the Researcher

A loyal reader asks: My company is courting a client in the pharmaceutical industry. What’s my responsibility in this process? To find reports that the government has written about one of their more obscure drugs. Any tips on how to tackle this quickly?

We know exactly where to send you. Check our blog for the answer.

TTFN

Thanks for reading. We’re grateful you spent three and a half minutes with us today! See y’all in 2 weeks…