In our last marketing tip, we divulged some secrets to finding press opportunities. Well, now that you’re working on getting press, you want to know if you’ve gotten any, right? If you’ve used some mass distribution methods like wire or broadcast fax services, trying to locate all of your potential exposure is a daunting, almost impossible task. There is a solution, though: hire a clipping service.

Clipping services can monitor both the online and off-line press that you company or organization may generate and provide you with reprints or listings of when and where you were mentioned. There are also clipping services that track radio or network and cable television news shows to let you know when you have been featured “on the air.”

On the ‘Net, keeping track of mention of your company is further complicated by the Web’s mutability. Since web sites are in a constant state of change, your coverage might be here today, gone tomorrow. Your press release or story can also run in e-mail newsletters, e-zines, Usenet groups, discussion boards, or even on foreign language sites. Online clipping service can monitor and track all of these various channels and give you a much better picture of who is reading about you and where.

How do they do it? First, your company gives the clipping service specific keywords (your company name, CEO, issues, story pitches, etc.) that will be used to scan millions of web sites, newsletters, discussion groups, etc., usually from within their own proprietary database. After locating matching keywords, the service will determine how relevant they are to your current or past campaign, and provide you with a summary or report of where your site was mentioned. Using the same method, clipping services can even be used to track your competition.

Another useful service offered by some clipping companies is scanning for negative postings about your company on message boards. NetCurrents offers a service in which negative postings are identified and false information is deleted. Another company, eWatch, goes one step further with their program, CyberSleuth. For a charge of $4,995, CyberSleuth will attempt to find out the real culprit behind those negative and false postings, should a company want to take some recourse with such individuals.

Online clipping services do carry some heavy price tags. Prices can range between about $100 - $500/month, depending upon the number of scans and how often they’re run.

Of course, in trying to bring you the best value for your reading time, Web Ad.vantage always seeks to tell you about alternatives. In this case, there are several free — albeit more limited — online clipping or tracking services. Our archived marketing tip from 6/22/99 called, “Track ‘Em Down” gives you several of these services, but you can also include Excite’s NewsTracker clipping service — you’ll need to register to use it — among them.

Other Online Clipping Services:

Cyber Scan
WebClipping.com
CyberClipping (from Luce Online)
Cyber Alert
Mark Watch

Related posts:

1. Offer Services to Nonprofits

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