Listening Posts

Listening posts allow companies to monitor customer chatter and industry trends in a cost effective and efficient way. While a simple, off-the-shelf system like Google Alerts will catch a term as it is posted on the Internet, these basic systems have two significant drawbacks. First, the noise to signal ratio is almost unbearable.  It is not unusual for a Google Alert to produce hundreds of hits with very little screening of garbage. Google Alerts also will not screen out sketchy sources. Unlike a Google search which has algorithms to find the most relevant site, a Google Alert simply watches for a term, regardless of whether it comes from MIT or Billy Bob’s Bedroom Blog.

 The listening posts we developed in house both reduce the noise ratio as well as curate the sources. The stream is much smaller and very high quality. Listening posts can be used for both identifying potential markets as well as spotting trends going on in an industry.