DePaul Digital PR Class

BackTweets, by Chelsea Fisher

What is BackTweets?

BackTweets,  http://backtweets.com/ searches for links posted on Twitter. If you search key words, your BackTweets results will match the URL that the key words are found in. If you search a URL or shortened URL, for example a company website, blog, videos, etc., the BackTweets results will track any links that are from that URL. BackTweets is free and provides millions of the most current tweets, which appear in chronological order according to the times posted. Searches even work through tweets that are in different languages. Although there is a one hundred dollar monthly fee for BackTweets Pro http://backtweets.com/signup, it has many more features and is more useful.

The free features of BackTweets, which anyone can use is the Twitter link search. This basic feature finds links on twitter for a page or website you are interested in, for example the New York Times. The other free feature is the Tweet history, which is the time period the twitter link search works over. This feature can access results from the past two to four weeks, and if you are using BackTweets Pro you can access results from the past year and a half.

Tweet graphs can provide graphs of tweets over the past year and a half which link to an URL.

<a href="http://media.photobucket.com/image/backtweets pro tweet graphs/luckiedog1/twitrratr.png?o=1" target="_blank"><img src="

The reach statistics feature let’s one receive statistics on impressions made and the number of unique people reached. Google analytics integration feature provides the opportunity to understand how tweets result in traffic to your website. Influencer lists provide the ability to identify influencers that link to an URL. The advanced search feature has additional filters for twitter link searches.

How can I use BackTweets for PR?

Backtweets becomes useful in PR because you are able to adjust methods and tactics of reaching specific publics by looking at these results. It is also useful because you can search in BackTweets and from the results see who tweeted it first, how many and who follows them, or follow their twitter as a resource. One can search clients, competitors, or your own company and subscribe to the RSS to receive updates. BackTweets’ features allow you to track re-tweets (RT), even if the person does not mention the Twitter name. This is useful in PR because it demonstrates how content on Twitter is shared and the sources sharing the content. The benefits of searching an URL on BackTweets is that the results will show links Tweeted that refer to you, your company, or URL from that don’t use or mention your name, website, or Twitter name. BackTweets can find tweets and mentions that normal search engines may have missed. BackTweets is beneficial source for PR because you can see where your publics are getting information, as well as who they are sharing it with, track competitors, easily find strengths and weaknesses in a campaign, business, etc., and receive updates on whatever searches you like.

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Review_of_BackTweets.zip (42 KB)

What is BlogPulse?

BlogPulse is an automated trend detection system for blogs.  As we know Blogs represent the fastest growing intermediate of personal publishing and the newest method of individual expression and opinion on the Internet.  BlogPulse applies machine learning and natural-language processing tools to discover trends in the highly active world of blogs.  BlogPulse does a lot of different things.  Obviously, there is a typical search engine for their blogs where you can type in keyword, people’s names, urls, and things of that nature that is common amongst most sites.  They also have a unique Buzz-tracking tool that lets you track top links, blog posts, blogs, news stories, news sources, videos, people, and phrases.  The BlogPulse trends are really cool because they show what is really ‘hot’ at the time.   For example, they have a business section where they show reviews of different products from company to company. In the sports section they have blogs about American League vs. The National League.  Another cool feature about BlogPulse is the BlogPulse stats.  They have a real-time view of the most popular topics that bloggers are writing about and include various graphs.  You can use their trend search to chart buzz on specific topics of your interest.  You can also use the Trend Tool to chart links to specific blog posts, blogs or web sites over time.  You can use a conversation tracker to map the flow of conversation on specific topics across the blogosphere.  The have blogger profiles that identify top-ranked blogs and analyze their blog presence, activity and relative influence in the blogging world.  BlogPulse is brought to us by Nielsen.

How can I use BlogPulse for PR?

I can use BlogPulse for a number of ways in Public Relations.  Basically, with BlogPulse you have everything you need under one roof.  You can search trending topics to see what’s hot.  You can search and compare blogs, opinions and things of that nature.  Not only can you see it in text but also visually with the ability to use the tracker that they have that allows you to look at charts about various trending topics.  So if you are working for a PR firm and you need to find something it is all at the touch of a few buttons.  I am not a blogger nor do I even know how to blog but this website was so easy to use and helpful I can only imagine that things a Public Relations analyst could do if they knew this site from head to toe.

BlogPulse General Overview

What is Digg?

Digg is social news website that allows users to follow and ‘Digg’ various news stories. One can follow up on categories anywhere from politics to entertainment. It started in November of 2004 and is one of the top 100 most trafficked sites on the internet. To my surprise, Digg was very simple to figure out how to use and its overall layout was generally pretty simple to grasp. One can ‘Digg’ these posts or saving a certain post to ‘my news’ to refer back to later.  The term’ Digg’ is used on the website as a way to follow the articles your friends put up or follow the authors of articles you’ve recently Dugg.  

As this idea is similar to Twitter it differs in the sense that it tries to relay articles and news rather than ‘tweets’ or statuses. When one “Diggs” a story they can go into the link that says ‘my news’ and keep track of everything they’ve dug and review ongoing commentary on the topic and read any posts added to the related topic. Digg created an option to have friends and find profiles of those friends. This is handy so that a user and their friends can share stories as well as follow their friend’s stories. If a user sees stories they like submitted by a certain user, they can follow that user and keep track of what they have been saying and posting. When one Diggs a story they are automatically prompted to write a comment about the dig. Also, the site has three main options which are to see top stories, my news, or upcoming news. Finally, when using Digg one should play around with each of the different categories of news and realize they can most likely find something that interests them in each.

How can I use Digg for PR?

            From a Public Relations standpoint, Digg is a great way to observe the trends of news that their publics are interested in. Also, since Digg has social networking features, PR practitioners can see what users are sharing with their friends and who they decide to follow. This information is helpful because during a campaign they can see who digs the press release or news story about the campaign. Once a PR practitioner has seen who’s interested they can see who follows those users and branch out to those groups as well. By researching different popular news stories, practitioners can further see what popular piece of news can tie into their product or company.

Some ways that PR practitioners can use Digg is for research, is to look at how many people ‘Digg’ a product and are interested in it. Also one can determine the demographics of the audience for that certain product by seeing what types of people digs or follows it. If a product, topic, or event is posted on Digg the next step would be to track the public’s response on Digg.  By clicking on the piece of news one can see who digs it and the comments about it below.  A PR practitioner could utilize Digg when working on a campaign for Home Run Inn pizza by doing some environmental scanning for news about HRI. For example, one doing research on competitors could research them through Digg and see what is being said about them or offered to the public.

  Alltop, all the top stories.

  Alltop is an RSS aggregator. It's main purpose is to help users find out what is happening in a variety of different topics that may be of interest. Alltop is different from a search engine. A search engine can only find specific things related to a search term whereas alltop aggregates all stories related to a certain topic.

  Alltop imports stories from the top news websites and blogs for that particular topic and displays the headlines of the five most recent stories. Topics that are covered can be found through searching, selecting the category, viewing the categories alphabetically or viewing a list of all categories. Users can use the suggestion form to submit new categories to alltop.

  Alltop updates it's feeds once an hour and relies on google searches, site/blog reviews and twitter recommendations to decide which sites or blogs are in a topic category. Users can even submit sites they feel should be included in a paticular topic.

  Alltop in PR

  A personalized Alltop page can be created to incorporate all the topics that are of interest to an organization. This page is now accessible from anywhere and can be used to brush up on new social media outlets and/or updates on applying the marketing framework.

What is Yelp?

“Yelp is the fun and easy way to find and talk about great (and not so great) local businesses.”

This quotation is found on the main page of the Yelp site and is a great representation of what this particular social media site does. Essentially anyone is able to post reviews of restaurants, bars, hotels, spa’s, theaters, couples counseling companies, publishing companies and pet supply stores (just to name a few). I often utilize Yelp as a way to see how restaurants in the Chicago area are rated. All you have to do is type in a keyword like restaurants or cheap dinner and then enter in the city you are in. Yelp will pull up all restaurants, for example, that are relevant to your search. You are then able to refine your search even more. For one, you are able to choose what neighborhood you are interested in, the distance you are willing to go and the price you are willing to spend. Yelp even provides you with a map that details where the restaurants are.

If you want to review a ‘place’ all you have to do is create a profile, by simply entering in basic information such as your name, email and a password (and answer some pretty strange questions). After that, you just search for the ‘place’ and review it! Another beneficial feature specific to restaurants is that you can even make a reservation right on Yelp without having to call or go to another website. Yelp even tells you how long ago a person wrote a review.

You are also able to invite your friends to become members on Yelp as a way to stay in touch. I find that I am more likely to eat a restaurant that was recommended by a friend, so that is a great addition. Yelp also provides an option, which allows you to message a friend. All you have to do is select your friend from a dropdown menu, type and send the message. This is extremely convenient because it makes communicating easier. Instead of going from yelp to Facebook, for example, you are able to stay on one page.

Lastly, there is a ‘Talk’ feature on Yelp, which allows you to types something (or anything) and it gets published to the main Yelp talk site. If someone else thinks your message is relevant or intriguing they can simply respond to your thread and you can make business recommendations to others using that tool.

How Can I Use Yelp for PR?

Yelp is useful for any business doing well. However, it can also be detrimental as well for those not doing so well. Just for this reason, it is a great tool because it helps the public sort out the good from the bad. If your business has received great reviews then people are going to be more likely to visit your business. It will also get your business an immense number of impressions. Many companies can offer individuals perks if they write a review (whether it be good or bad) as a way to get the company more pronounced on Yelp.  In addition, the better reviews it gets the higher it will be when searching. Companies can utilize this tool as a way to become more influential on the web as people are going to be more likely to gather more research about the place and thus visit the company website.

Yelp iPhone 3GS App

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Review_of_Yelp.zip (243 KB)