PR Measurement: New Tool to Gather Web Metrics
Monitoring and measuring PR is a constantly evolving part of our day-to-day life here at 360 and one that depends heavily on a number of variables including the client and the project itself. Another key variable is the tools – websites and services – that make monitoring and providing metrics possible. There are a number of advanced monitoring and measurement services available, like Cymfony , Nielsen or Visible Technologies . We rely on resources such as social media monitoring service Cision , Radian6 , and CustomScoop , and also tap into a variety of free tools, such as TweetBeep , Google News/Blog Search, Google Trends , Compete.com , Quantcast.com , and Alexa.com , among a number of others.I was delighted to hear about the launch of a shiny new tool, Dataopedia.com , which just launched this month and aggregates many of the free measurement (not monitoring) services we use into one site, streamlining the process of gathering web metrics and other info about a particular site or blog. Instead of going to each of these sites individually, you can, for the most part, visit just one! Dataopedia pulls info from Alexa, Compete, Quantcast to show site traffic as well as provides Google Page Rank and info from social media sites like YouTube, Twitter, Google News, and Technorati to illustrate popularity, among other sources. For some reason the "Tour" video for the site wasn’t working for me, but if you want to learn more about the specifics, click here or visit www.dataopedia.com ….
Quarkbase.com is very similar, but it looks like Dataopedia.com actually pulls from more sources, which is great. It would be even more helpful to see additional features incorporated into the interface over time, like a Google Trends comparison feature or blog search engine results (in addition to the news search results). I would also recommend providing links to the corresponding Quantcast, Compete, and other source sites, so users can quickly click over to see more data from these sources and also to learn more about the actual metrics – i.e. what the Alexa page rank actually means, etc. An explanation of all of the metrics that are included within the interface are key for measuring PR campaigns as an agency, we have to validate the metrics for our clients and explain their implications.
I look forward to watching the site improve in the coming months! It could become a valuable resource to 360 and other PR agencies, no doubt.
Thanks for the mention Elicia. You’re right, there are many exciting new tools and developments in the social media space, and next year that momentum is expected to continue. I hope everyone at 360 has a great holiday.
Mike
Hello Elicia! First, thanks for the CustomScoop mention. Collecting information and metrics on blogs and other sites to determine reach, validity, and other aspects of measurement are so important, and yet so fragmented. Dataopedia looks like it is off to a good start. I hope all is well with you and others at 360,
Best, and Happy Holidays,
Jen
Thanks for the comments Mike and Jen. It’s so true – gathering metrics (and monitoring, for that matter) can be a fragmented task with all of the tools available and so many sources. Hopefully we’ll see even more developments towards more effective monitoring and measurement in 2009. Happy holidays!
Great post, Elicia. There are so many great tools out there for companies that need help monitoring and measuring their social media presence. We provide a service very similar to the companies you listed, except we focus on small and medium-sized businesses. We monitor, measure and engage in relevant online conversations for companies that may not have the time or knowledge to do it themselves.
We are currently working as an agency, but we will be releasing a consumer version of our software that will allow companies to self-serve.
Cari
Buzz.io
Great post, I wasn’t aware of some of these tools. (Shame on me!) I really appreciate you passing along some really useful info!
Best regards,
Glen
Thanks for your comment Glen! It’s difficult to stay up to date on new tools and features – no need to shame yourself
Hi! I have found another website traffic and value estimator site. I’m talking about http://www.estimix.com. The estimation provided by estimix is the result of a complex analysis based on factors like: the age of the website, the demographic structure of the traffic, the countries where the website is popular and sources of the traffic.