News monitoring and the value of listening to social media are two key topics in this week’s issue of Media Monitoring News. This issue also includes two articles on qualities that distinguish a superior corporate blog and another article offers a checklist for an effective corporate or brand page on Facebook. There’s also some end of the year fun with articles that look at funny customer service stories and cell phone autocorrect gaffs.

Are You Listening?

Journalistics

Are You Listening examines the approaches to listening to customers on social media. The article makes a key point: the key purpose of listening is NOT to measure; listening is to gain insights and fix problems.

How Social Media Monitoring Can Grow Your Company’s Online Reputation

Input | Output (HP)

By communicating with customers through social media — by actually listening to their comments and then responding in kind — companies can grow incredible goodwill and impress upon their customers that they actually care about the issues people are talking about. That’s the thesis of How Social Media Monitoring Can Grow Your Company’s Online Reputation. “It’s impossible to do business effectively, especially in competitive markets, if you don’t have your ear to the electronic ground. You can’t manage what you can’t measure and you can’t measure what you can’t see,” maintains Michael Dortch, principal analyst of Dortch on IT.

22 Social Media Alerts Your Company Should Be Using

Social Fresh

22 Social Media Alerts Your Company Should Be Using describes the types of key words and phrases companies should monitor in three distinct categories: company, industry, and competitors. Monitoring services allow quite a few keyword queries for each subscription. Many client companies don’t use anywhere near their full allotment. This list will expand and enhance your thinking and the market intelligence you can gain from media monitoring.

Setting Priorities in Measurement

Institute for Public Relations

Setting Priorities in Measurement compiles an email exchange between members of the IPR Commission on Measurement and Evaluation. The email dialogue among leaders in PR measurement offers numerous “pearls” on evaluation and measurement of outputs and outcomes in PR.

How Sony Connects Social Media Monitoring to ROI (and You Can Too!)

Raven Blog

Identifying social media monitoring word trends can help guide your decision-making process and execution of email campaigns, content creation, content marketing and even search engine optimization. They can validate your product decisions. They can even draw a direct line from social media to ROI. How Sony Connects Social Media Monitoring to ROI suggests an effective approach, pioneered by Sony, to do all that — and more.

Which is Best? Vocus vs. Cision

Webbiquity

It’s a frequent question in PR circles. Which is Best? Vocus vs. Cision. The review and analysis article leads off with the following: Vocus and Cision are both powerful and popular PR monitoring and management systems. The article then grades each of the functions in both platforms — sometimes not too kindly. It’s a useful starting point for anyone planning on making a 2012 purchase of one of the platforms. Another alternative: assess the niche specialists in each of the different PR functions including media selection (MyMediaInfo), media distribution (Business Wire), media monitoring (CyberAlert) and media measurement (K.D. Paine, Carma International, Cymfony, Symscio, MediaProof).

How 3 Companies Built Their Twitter Strategies

Wall Street Journal

Even the stodgiest of companies have found their way onto Twitter, according to the Wall Street Journal. But most are badly mangling their presence and customer interactions. How 3 Companies Built Their Twitter Strategies examines how Southwest Airlines, Best Buy, and Whole Foods are utilizing Twitter effectively for promotion and customer service.

20 Social Media Marketing Do’s & Don’ts

Top Rank Online Marketing Blog

Ashley Zeckman offers 10 sensible Do’s and 10 fearful Don’ts for social media marketing programs in 20 Social Media Marketing Do’s & Don’ts. Bottom line: personality and attitude matter.

The Top 50 Marketing Blogs for 2012

The Entrepreneur Blog

Some of the most successful marketers share their insights and opinions in their blogs, providing marketers with an extraordinary learning resource. Evan Carmichael gives detailed analysis of The Top 50 Marketing Blogs for 2012 — and we generally agree with his choices. Pick the ones best suited to your needs and mark them as “favorites” in your browser. For Top Blogs in Public Relations, take a look at the selections in the CyberAlert Blog. Another list of Top PR Blogs can be found at All-Top PR Blogs.

The Best Social Media Campaigns of 2011

iMedia Connection

The Best Social Media Campaigns of 2011 looks at campaigns by American Express, Perrier, Ford, TJX, and others. Learn from their successful strategies and techniques.

10 Digital Marketing Trends for 2012

CMO.com

Among the 10 Digital Marketing Trends for 2012 (that also apply to public relations) are allocation of spending and measurement of results, the maturation of social media, the emergence of mobile marketing, the continuing effectiveness of email marketing, the need to listen to and triage social media, and the gamification of marketing.

Yahoo Study Seeks Algorithmic Answer to “Six Degrees of Separation”

Search Engine Watch

The Yahoo Small World Experiment aims to conclusively answer the much-debated question of degrees of separation. You know — the game about “Six Degrees of Separation” from Kevin Bacon. Yahoo Study Seeks Algorithmic Answer to “Six Degrees of Separation” reports that the Yahoo researchers found that the average number of acquaintances separating two people was 4.74. (CyberAlert CEO Bill Comcowich discovered that, quite remarkably, he is one degree from Kevin Bacon.)

9 Habits of Extraordinary Blogs

Pushing Social

What are the qualities that make a blog successful (extraordinary)? 9 Habits of Extraordinary Blogs outlines the key features that draw readers to a blog and become regular readers. At least a couple of the qualities will surprise you. For more on this subject, take a look at 9 Must-Have Elements for Company Blogs by the Content Marketing Institute.

The Checklist All Facebook Pages Absolutely Must Have

Edelman Digital

How do you develop an effective corporate or brand page on Facebook? First step is to deploy The Checklist All Facebook Pages Absolutely Must Have — a thorough and thoughtful approach to building an effective presence on Facebook.

The 20 Funniest Customer Service Stories of 2011

My Customer

If you’ve ever handled customer (or client) complaints on the phone, you’ll appreciate and get some laughs from The 20 Funniest Customer Service Stories of 2011.

Damn You Autocorrect Reveals 9 Funniest Texts of the Year

Mashable

“Autocorrect” is the ability of cell phones to correct the user’s typing mistakes. The problem is that autocorrect makes some whopper errors itself. Damn You Autocorrect Reveals 9 Funniest Texts of the Year shows the hilarious text conversations when autocorrect doe its work badly.

After a week off during the Thanksgiving holiday, Media Monitoring News returns this week with a cross-section of worthwhile articles on PR and marketing.

Three articles on media monitoring emphasize the value of “listening” over simple “data collection”. This issue also includes articles on being prepared (Boy Scouts motto) for social media crises and handling customer complaints on Twitter.

We also take another (somewhat snide) look at the PRSA effort to redefine the PR profession. In the self-help category, there’s a really useful article on How to Write a Winning PR proposal.

Social Media Monitoring — 10 Social Media Experts Tell You What to Use

Heidi Cohen

With no equivocation, Heidi Cohen admonishes companies that “you must track the social media ecosphere for mentions of your company names, products, brands, executives and competitors.” In Social Media Monitoring — 10 Social Media Experts Tell You What to Use, she turns to experts for an answer to her question “What social media tracking tools do you use and why?” The recommendations range from free tools such as Google analytics to price-is-no-object tools. Our recommendation is that you put CyberAlert Social Media Monitoring on your radar as a comprehensive and cost-effective solution.

The Difference Between Monitoring & Listening

The Quantum Mousetrap

Listening vs. Monitoring. A distinction without a difference? Not according to Mark Eduljee in his blog commentary entitled The Difference Between Monitoring & Listening. In short, monitoring produces content and data. Listening is the process of analyzing content that produces not more content, but actionable insight.

The New Era of Online Listening

SlideShare (360i)

In this brochure as a slide presentation entitled The New Era of Online Listening, 360i presents a solid overview of four distinctive approaches to social media monitoring. They label the four brand, category, consumer, and culture — and delineate what each category produces and how each contributes to insight.

Are You Measuring the Right Social Media Metrics

EConsultancy

Yes, you can measure the hard numbers of social media like clickthrough rates, but what about the softer metrics like “advocacy” or “emotional response” asks Are You Measuring the Right Social Media Metrics? The article includes a link to 35 “Hard” Social Media Metrics.

How to Be a Rock Star on 8 Social Media Platforms

iMedia Connection

How to Be a Rock Star on 8 Social Media Platforms (and work 28 hours per day) presents advanced strategies, tactics, tools and techniques to maximize presence and effectiveness on multiple social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Linked-In, Google+, YouTube, SlideShare, Quora and Foursquare.

How Search Engine Watch Grew Google News Traffic by 300%

Search Engine Watch

This case study — designed especially for online publishers, but also very useful for anyone seeking online “ink” and high Google News search engine listings — details How Search Engine Watch Grew Google News Traffic by 300%. Most any Webmaster or PR pro can apply many of the techniques to achieve better results in news search engines.

A Better Way to Handle Publicly Tweeted Complaints

Business Week

When the public “mention” is a complaint, it affects corporate reputation — and that crosses over from “customer service” to “corporate public relations”. The way most companies are handling online customer complaints is damaging corporate reputation — and, even worse, creating perverse incentives according to A Better Way to Handle Publicly Tweeted Complaints when tweeted complaints get better, faster reactions than calls to customer service centers. Giving squeaky tweeters the grace creates powerful incentives for customers to complain publicly and further mar your corporate or brand reputation.

Is Your Company Social Media Ready for a PR Crisis

Click Z

What does your company have to do to be ready for a social media crisis? Check out the plan outlined in Is Your Company Social Media Ready for a PR Crisis. Like a hospital’s disaster readiness plan and drill, preparing for a social media crisis takes advanced planning and practice. Question #1: Who’s in charge?

The Power of Word of Mouth Marketing [Infographic]

PR Squared

Created by the Word-of-Mouth Marketing Association, The Power of Word of Mouth Marketing infographic assembles selective data to prove the effectiveness of social media and other forms of word-of-mouth marketing.

About the Public Relations-Defined Initiative

PRSA

Many articles have appeared About the Public Relations Defined Initiative of PRSA. This version comes directly from the PRSA. Even granting the need to define or redefine a profession, the only way to submit your ideas is by using a fill-in-the-blanks Definition of PR Submission Form that allows absolutely no leeway for original thought. In other words, conform to our preconceived notion of the definition or don’t bother submitting your ideas. Good grief!

How to Write a Winning Proposal

CBS Money Watch

Successful new business proposals are the heartbeat of PR and marketing agencies. How to Write a Winning Proposal presents a proven formula for structuring successful proposals for most any type of business.

The Secrets of the Best PR Pitch I Ever Received

Commpro.Biz

The art of the PR pitch is the subject of The Secrets of the Best PR Pitch I Ever Received. Read it. Adapt it. Success! (If only.)

40 Useful Things to Share on Facebook

Adam Vincenzini

If you’re at a loss of what to post next on your corporate Facebook page, consult 40 Useful Things to Share on Facebook for some good ideas — and then keep it handy for future reference.

10 F.r.e.e Ways to Track All Your Passwords

Stepcase LifeHack

Recently, having endured the trauma of forgetting my password to a bank account because the bank had earlier insisted I change the passwords and wouldn’t let me use any of my standard passwords, I found most helpful 10 F.r.e.e Ways to Track All Your Passwords. You need remember only one master password that only you know and it gives you access to all your other passwords. Also take a look at 25 Worst Passwords of 2011 in Mashable. If you’re using something similar, it’s time to change your password.

Social Media Marketing – 10 Inspiring Infographics

Jeff Bullas

Infographics – those complicated graphic depictions that ostensibly digest an issue or topic – can sometimes be hard to digest – that is, assimilate and understand. Imagine digesting 10 infographics in one article! That’s what Social Media Marketing – 10 Inspiring Infographics presents, thus requiring quite a long time for the page to load. But there’s a lot of worthwhile information on social media packed into10 graphics. It’s also a good read to understand what makes a good infographic in terms of content and graphics.

This week’s issue of Media Monitoring News again contains more than the normal complement of articles — and every one of them helpful and useful — on a diverse set of PR and marketing topics. Here are 18 of the week’s best articles on PR, marketing and measurement:

5 Things PR Can Do to Matter More

Proper Propaganda (Jackson Wightman)

With on-going hand-wringing about PR participating more fully in corporate decision-making, Jackson Wightman suggests 5 Things PR Can Do to Matter More and thereby get more clout and a more important seat at the table. Certain deficiencies among PR staff can be overcome and competencies gained quite readily, he maintains.

Google Give(s) PR Pros a Holiday Gift

The ProActive Report (Sally Falkow)

An update to the Google algorithm last week now gives priority to “freshness” of the indexed content. Upshot: news releases and other recent content developed and distributed by PR pros gains greater relevancy and higher placement in Google organic search results. In Google Give(s) PR Pros a Holiday Gift, Sally Falkow explains the beneficence Google has bestowed on PR pros, and how PR can leverage the upgraded rankings for PR-generated content.

Pitching to Google’s Fresh New Algorithm Via News, Blogs, Events, and Google+

Search Engine Watch

Same subject; different perspective; same conclusion. From one of the more authoritative sources on search engine optimization and marketing, Pitching to Google’s Fresh New Algorithm Via News, Blogs, Events, and Google+ suggests specific approaches to capitalize on the new Google algorithm that emphasizes freshness of content.

Social Media Monitoring: You’re Doing It Wrong.

Insurance Networking

Companies are wasting their time monitoring social media because the data collected isn’t being used effectively, according to Social Media Monitoring: You’re Doing It Wrong. Social media information is only one piece of data that must be integrated with business data in a holistic measurement methodology, maintains Zach Hofer-Shall. The author suggests how to first crawl, walk, run and then fly toward the fully integrated business measurement approach.

How the CIA Uses Social Media to Track How People Feel

The Atlantic

In a nondescript building in Virginia, CIA analysts are tracking millions of tweets, blog posts, and Facebook updates from around the world to determine activities and what people are thinking and feeling in most every country of the world. How the CIA Uses Social Media to Track How People Feel offers an in-depth look at how the “spooks” use “memetrackers”. How they do it may offer some guidance for companies and brands.

PR Monitoring & Management Tools: Which Is Best? Vocus vs. Cision

Business 2 Community

PR Monitoring & Management Tools: Which Is Best? Vocus vs. Cision compares and contrasts the two big dogs in PR platforms for media selection, distribution, monitoring and measurement — and finds both wanting. Suggestion: when selecting PR services take a look at vendors who specialize in doing one PR service very well. CyberAlert, for instance, specializes in delivering comprehensive and accurate news and social media monitoring and delivers its clip results to most any PR services platform for analysis and measurement.

How Marketers Are Measuring ROI [Infographic]

Marketing Profs

Measuring ROI in marketing and public relations in a multichannel world is notoriously difficult. Ifbyphone, which specializes in voice communications, assembled statistics on How Marketers are Measuring ROI and developed an informative infographic that visualizes what tools marketers are using now and what metrics they are tracking.

The ROI of Social Media ROI

iMedia Connection

The ROI of Social Media ROI questions the validity of measuring ROI for social media. Anathema! It’s conclusion: [social media] metrics are not only inaccurate by nature, but are also, even when estimated very well, many degrees removed from the purchase behaviors that drive the bottom line variable needed for an ROI calculation.

The One Social Media Metric You Need

Heidi Cohen

Heidi Cohen solicits 10 social media gurus for The One Social Media Metric You Need — and, not surprisingly in a cross-section of opinion, gets 10 different ideas. Also not surprisingly, all 10 approaches are quite valid! At this stage of the evolution of social media measurement, with no real consensus on methodology, everyone has to do an individualized metrics mash-up.

The State of Setting Social Media Measurement Standards

The Measurement Standard (Katie Paine)

Conceding that “while there are many different ways to measure social media, there are as yet none that very many people agree upon that should become standard across programs or segments of the industry,” the reigning queen of PR measurement provides background on social media measurement standards, a summary of recent social media standards-related events, and links to some organizations involved in her recent piece entitled The State of Setting Social Media Measurement Standards.

Priorities for Public Relations Research, Measurement and Evaluation

Institute for Public Relations

Ratifying the idea that PR measurement is still in its formative stages, Dr. David Geddes, chair of the IPR Commission on Public Relations Measurement and Evaluation, penned Priorities for Public Relations Research, Measurement and Evaluation to lay out his vision for an action agenda to move the PR profession forward in research and measurement.

How Valuable Is Word-of-Mouth?

Harvard Business Review

In most every issue, we include a really dense academic treatise. How Valuable is Word-of-Mouth? is this week’s academic offering. V. Kumar of the U. of Connecticut lays out a precise formula to calculate the lifetime and referral value of a customer within a “Customer Value Matrix” comprised of affluents, champions, advocates and misers. It’s actually a pretty interesting six pages, putting data behind what most companies and brands often just assume.

10 Traits of Amazingly Awesome Infographics

Hubspot Blog

Everyone’s doing it; infographics that is. Soon, someone will get the bright idea that you should create one. Better learn how in advance. 10 Traits of Amazingly Awesome Infographics details the key features of an effective infographic with extraordinary examples of infographics that demonstrate each key trait.

Careful Writers! 10 Common Words with Opposite Meanings

Impertinent Remarks

LauraJane Brockway examines the peculiar traits of contranyms (also known as Janus terms), those daffy words that have two perfectly fine, but directly opposing meanings. 10 Common Words with Opposite Meanings examines words like “root” which can mean at least three different things depending on context. Her examples are illustrative and entertaining. Do poke through the comments for even more examples.

Is Social Media Monitoring Ethical? (Interesting College Assignment)

Mackenzie Stratton’s Thoughts

What would you write if you had to take either side of the question Is Social Media Monitoring Ethical? You’re probably already using social media monitoring tools, but have you ever considered the question of ethics? The writer’s conclusion: yes, competitive media monitoring is ethical as long as you don’t use social media to bash competitors.

Best Blogs for the Public Relations Major

Bachelor’s Degree Online

Sticking with the college theme, 50 Best Blogs for the Public Relations Major lists quite a good selection of blogs focusing on public relations and social media. For another list, check out the CyberAlert Blog which is more oriented to practicing PR professional and includes the most substantive, original and influential of PR, marketing and social media and blogs.

Murphy’s Law and the PR Pro

Next Communications

Murphy’s Law states that anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Murphy’s Law and the PR Pro takes a semi-humorous look at many of the day-to-day things that can and do go wrong in spite of good planning and execution. See if you’ve experienced any of them — and laugh (or cry) along with author Richie Escovedo.