Listening to the Blogosphere

Listening, I was taught as a child, is an art.  Quite strange really, for a house where all seven of us kids had something to say that was just so important we all had to say it at same time while getting steadily louder and louder until either the food was gone or someone lost their voice, or tempers frayed and it ended in chaos.  In fact, dinner in the Kelly house resembled less the orderly meal of the model of the civilized South Dublin society than the scene from a Rwandan refugee camp when the UN are flinging rations to the heaving, starving, roaring masses.

That being said... there was a lesson to be learned.  If you want to say something, find a calm quiet forum to say it, communicate it in a clear, calm, consistent manner and if it doesn’t get heard, write it down.  That’s what blogs are for.  They are for writing something down for others to read in their own time.  If readers don’t agree with what you’ve written, they can comment, again, in their own time, and you can reply in yours.  The problem with the Irish blogosphere however is that it is as crowded as the aforementioned refugee camp, and though everyone is writing it down instead of shouting, few are listening. There’s just too much noise.  The quality of what is written varies hugely too.  Few have the time to sift through the good, the bad and the ugly of the thousands of blogs out there to find the relevant and interesting discussions that they’re looking for.  RSS feeds help, but I find with these I still miss out on new blogs and relevant discussions that I haven’t got tagged for my reader.  To be frank, I think the Irish blogosphere is a lot like the Kelly Kitchen to the power of n. Some things never change.

Well, that’s not quite true...  because one doesn’t listen to the Internet, (yet).  One has to search, find and read, and this is what a lot of people do when they have an issue, like a health issue like a child with Down’s Syndrome or a pregnancy maybe.  Or otherwise if they are making a big purchase, like car insurance or a house a house move.  Or alternately if something has made them angry or emotional they may want to find other people in a similar state.  Times like these are when the blogosphere comes into its own.

But what if you are a company and you need to listen to what’s being said about you, your products or services.  Well, this is where you need help.

There are many ways of searching the net for blogs, and finding them... of course.  Everyone knows that.  But there are just a few ways of listening to what is being said on the millions of blogs that live, are born and die every day in cyberspace. 

Net Behaviour has some funky software that helps us do it for you.  We can listen for any mentions of companies or topics of interest, or people, and give reports on the level of noise, or buzz around specific topics or items of interest.  We can then take all the comments about a topic, and categories and organise them into a report for you.

So, if you’re concerned about what’s being said about your company, or a company you represent online... talk to us about helping keep things kosher blogwise.  It is important because it is so easy for a disgruntled employee, or client to mess things up for you in blogspace... or even a sly competitor for the matter.  It’s always better to keep tabs on these things especially if you are planning a clear marketing message.  The last thing you want is for banter on the blogosphere to pull the rug out from under you before you begin.  Forewarned is forearmed after all.  We can help because we know how these things work, and if we know what you want to achieve, we can ensure that if something is going on behind your blog back you’ll know about it and you’ll be able to get your message across.

Now that you’ve read my blog post and seen what I had to say, can you please pass the ketchup?   Sheesh!