How to Monitor Blogs
An Easy Guide to Track Comments about Hobbies, Businesses, Politics
How to search through the blogosphere to find and analyze blog comments.
It is estimated that 120,000 new blogs are started each day, and that about 58,000 new items are posted every hour. So, how do you sort through all that to find the stuff you’re interested in? And, if you’re looking for business reasons, how do you make sense of what you find?
To take a look at what’s out there, go to a search engine like www.technorati.com, which deals exclusively with blog posts. Like other search engines, Technorati has a spot to type in your search terms. Push the button and Presto! The results come out. But as we all know, search engines are only as good as the search terms used.
Unless you want millions of listings, don’t type in a very general search term like “blogging.” Limit your search results by choosing terms that accurately reflect just the topic you are interested in, the same as you would if you were using other search engines like www.google.com.
Getting the Blogging Information
If you are a hobbyist or just interested in a single topic, you might find all you need that way. But say you want to put your findings into context. You might want to find out how many times General Motors and hybrid vehicles are being talked about.
In that case, go to analytic Web sites like www.trendpedia.com and type in “General Motors” as one search term and “hybrid vehicles” as the other. And you’ll get an answer. There are other analytic web sites, too, that allow assessment of bloggers’ posts.
One key item to note is the authority level of each blog. Among other thinks, blogs are rated by the number of others who link to it, and the authority level of those linkers. (On Technorati, look for the word “Authority” by each post.)
While many people are looking for more information on their pet hobby or political issue, businesses also want to know if customers or other stakeholders are talking about them, their competitors or their industry. There are several well-known stories about companies and public figures that have suffered because of revelations in the blogging world. And there are cases where businesses have thrived because of active blogging.
Assessing the Blogging Numbers
For many businesses and politicians, it is common to run polls to get a sense of how the general public is feeling about something. Focus groups and telephone surveys are often used to get such information on specific topics.
It’s possible to think of blog monitoring in somewhat the same way. Phone surveys are used to get quantitative data, in the same category as a Trendpedia review. And posts on search engines like Technorati are roughly analogous to the comments generated by focus groups, giving researchers both quantitative and qualitative data.
Realize that the bloggers you’re researching are passionate and often knowledgeable about the topics they write on. They are often pivotal influencers, so if you’re looking to see where a particular issue might be going, an analysis of blogging activity is a good place to start.
And, finally, a word of caution: Blogs are growing rapidly and the whole field – and its uses – is evolving rapidly. As a result, the dynamics of the blogosphere can change rapidly, and new and better measurement techniques can be expected to be developed quickly as well.
