Anyone who runs a business in financial services (or for that matter is responsible for PR) might be interested in a new service from Cognito that enables you to track and monitor your PR profile. Launched today, Cognito Analytics gives users an immediate view on both the level and quality of their PR profile. You can see where you are appearing in the media, what’s being said about you, how good your messaging is and how much impact your press releases are getting. Because Cognito specializes in the financial sector, we are able to filter the really useful media, from the generic ones out there. Cognito Analytics also gives you links to all the places you’re appearing and enables you to track competitors. For more information or to request a demonstration, click here http://marcoms.cognitomedia.com/cognito-analytics or call +1 310 246 9530 in the US or +44 (0) 207 438 1100 in Europe.

Interesting article in the New York Times this weekend suggesting that improved data gathering of online reader sentiment at publications like the WSJ and Washington Post may now be influencing their editorial focus.

It's a timely debate: how much newsmakers should be responding to as well as shaping reader interest. Certainly gauging public sentiment is no bad thing and, as the Times article points out, newspapers have been somewhat insulated from a process of basic market research that has obsessed almost every other product since the dawn of capitalism.

But isn't there something still to be said for the dogged anti-populism of the old newspaper business? What would the Washington Post's new online system say about Woodward and Bernstein? Would the Watergate expose have been abandoned due to lack of reader interest?

As a tech nerd I obviously enjoy seeing better data enable smarter decision-making within any organization. But while reading the article I couldn't stop thinking about Henry Ford's favorite aphorism : "If I'd have asked people what they wanted, they'd have said faster horses."

Congratulations citizens of the world. The final days of the prophesy are at hand and information is almost completely free! Let Joshua's holy trumpet sound once more, the odious and restrictive pay walls that kept you from the knowledge you sought are crumbling and falling. No longer will your hard-earned money be thrown away on profligate fact-checkers and pointless proof-readers. No longer will meddlesome copy-editors get between you and the truth. From here on your information will come direct from the source, unconstrained by such petty and outmoded concerns as objectivity and taste.  

In this new, shiny and Breit-bart world, soccer moms with dial-up modems will deliver your breaking news, fully fact-checked by tweenagers on wikipedia. Fox news contributors will crowd-source the very latest hearsay via their Facebook group and deliver it to you as iron-clad fact. Need to corroborate a story? Simply choose between 4000 conflicting retweets and pick whichever version of events best suits your political temperament.  

But our work is not yet complete. Still a few remaining regional and trade publications cling to the harmful ways of the past. Let us be unrelenting, let us not rest until every publishing house is put out of business, until every so-called journalist is unemployed, until all news is filtered through racist 8th graders and delivered via Google Buzz, until we are able to join hands and sing in the words of wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Have_a_Dream: "free at last, free at last, thank God almighty information's free at last"

2 articles exploring a similar topic in some depth today. In the WSJ's Keeping Your Foot Out Of Your Mouth, Jeffrey Zaslow offers advice to the myriad politicians and celebrities who have been caught in a 'gotcha' moment this year. Politico.com presents: The Year of No Comment, arguing that the fragmentation of the media and 24-hour news cycle (Zaslow calls this the "24-hour gaffe reel") is having a the opposite effect to that intended: 

"Not long ago, optimists thought the convergence of YouTube, blogs and all manner of other democratizing social-media technologies would lead to a renaissance of authenticity in politics. Liberated from the filter of mainstream news reporters, armed with new tools to reach voters, candidates could shed artifice and bring back spontaneity to the campaign trail.

The actual result, however, is something like the opposite: A proliferation of cameras and microphones — and the knowledge that an indelible blunder can occur in virtually any setting — has caused politicians in both parties to button up and hunker down."

It's an interesting question. Are the permanent news cycle and growth of citizen journalism contributing to a more transparent society or, quite the opposite, inculcating a new generation of steely and cynical politicians out to duck that which they can't manipulate for their own purposes?

Like the sleep pattern of a giraffe (1-12 minutes at a time) the media hardly ever rests. This is especially true in 2010 and as asked by a party goer and detailed by Fox, now more than ever we are seeing media companies compete to deliver news for the masses. From Bloomberg's collaboration with BusinessWeek and the Wall Street Journal's explicit intention to pilfer The New York Times' audience, it is no secret that the once fragmented news business has the potential to turn into an all-out battle for broad readership.

For our clients, we are continuing to seek the best way to capitalize on these changes without trading in their identities. Should we embrace this transformation, or like a human fingerprint or giraffe's coat, seek to be unique?

We're thankful that so many people took the time to break from the busy halls of SIFMA and even busier days at their desks to join us for the reception.

 - By Caitlin Mitchell, Cognito 

Research covers use of LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Company Blogs, YouTube
Top 50 financial software companies in financial services researched

 
The research, carried out in May 2010, is designed to: provide clarity into how certain social media tools are being used in this niche market, provide a benchmark for future research and give companies more information about what the leading firms in this sector are doing.
 
The results show:
- Twitter is being used by over 40% of companies
- Approximately 20% have company blog(s)
- YouTube channels are being used by 20%
- Over 40% use video tools on their website
- Less than 10% have a Facebook account.
 
Many companies in the market rightly incorporate social media strategies into their PR and marketing. For many there is uncertainty about which tools and strategies to adopt and what is being used by their target audiences. This research is designed to give people an indication of what the leading firms in the sector are doing to help them implement the right programs and procedures.
 
To request a full copy, please email socialmedia@cognitomedia.com or
visit http://marcoms.cognitomedia.com/cognito-social-media-survey.

Amid the incessant chatter about tags, buzz, pokes, and followers, it can be easy to forget the media's role as the Fourth Estate, alerting the world to injustice and holding the iniquitous to account. In her recently published paper for the Suffolk Transnational Law Review, Carly Fowler, a Senior Account Executive  at Cognito, examines the media's variegated role in the Rwandan and Bosnian Genocides.

At 214 characters it's gratifying to know that the title itself wouldn't even fit in a tweet: The responsibility to protect and the duty to prevent genocide: lessons to be learned from the role of the international community and the media during the Rwandan genocide and the conflict in the former Yugoslavia

During a conference on social media which I attended earlier this week, one of the speakers used the term "snack-sized content". Several PRs agreed that this was an excellent designation and, just for moment, I contemplated quitting my job and working on a farm. Or bludgeoning myself to death with my iPhone.

As the media industry attempts to slice information in to smaller and smaller pieces, into chicken nuggets of data - high in crunch and low in nutriotional value - it's encouraging to know that some of us can still settle down with a thick book. Thank you Carly Fowler.  

I was watching this fabulous little lecture on the surprising science of motivation this weekend. The content itself is well worth a look but the presentation, by a UK group called Cognitive Media, is outstanding. This comes hot on the heels of a new site I was introduced to: Many Eyes - part of IBM's Collaborative User Experience. Many Eyes takes concepts like Time Toast and Wordle to a new level, enabling everyone to create beautiful visualizations. Their mission, they say, is to 'democratize visualization".

I've said it on this blog before, but something important is happening in the world of data visualization. We marketers need to take a much closer look at this area to see what we might be able to leverage. I believe it represents a wholly new area of opportunity for us.

The Greeks haven't inflicted this much damage on the world since the Trojan War.

While intrigue and disorder make for great Epic poems (Achilles disguised himself as a woman, Patroclus disguised himself as Achilles and was mistakenly killed by Hector) they play havoc with the markets.

Combine this with the first hung parliament in the UK since 1974 and you have a poisonous brew of ambiguity and doubt.

Thinner fingers and less temperamental machines aside, what this world clearly needs right now is a large and restorative dose of certitude.

The explosion (good and bad) of the media landscape is presenting all sorts of questions and dilemmas for PRs and journalists in the financial services sector. The terminology and options available are often bewildering for even the most seasoned PR pros. Cognito's latest edition of WoM helps to give an overview of what companies should be doing. Cognito is also about to launch the results of some new research into the use of social media in the financial sector. To ensure you get a copy, please email Tom.Coombes@cognitomedia.com.

For those who are confused as to what to do, here is an at a glance tip guide.

1) Focus on developing quality content
Interesting news, opinion and positioning is more important than ever

2) Evaluate the best channels for your business
Few companies can afford to send everything to everyone. Who are your audiences? What do they read? Which industry sites do they spend time at? Pick your distribution mechanisms accordingly.

3) Plan, don't react
Step back and plan your approach and landscape. Thorough planning and evaluation of the options from the outset is critical.