Finding Local Business and Market Information

Research on Main Street: Using the Web to Find Local Business and Market Information

Sooner or later you're going to need reliable, localized, business information.

Ideally, you'd like it to be freely available and easy to find.

Until now there has been no targeted guide to this type of research.

Research on Main Street fills the gap. We now have a guide for finding business and market information at the local level that points to sources for researching people, companies, demographics, economics, and issues. Author Marcy Phelps has spoken widely on this topic and done her own fair share of local business and market research as owner of Phelps Research.

In this one-of-a-kind resource Phelps provides background, search strategies, and key sources to help readers find reliable local-level information on a budget. Phelps puts this research niche in context, coaching the reader to look at how a given geographic area relates to larger geographic areas, how it relates to nearby geographic areas, and how it relates to similar areas from other regions.

Learning this kind of strategic thinking alone justifies the cost of the book ($29.95 from Information Today). But wait. There's more.

After a general overview of the kinds of resources valuable to local area research and a reminder of how to discern quality information, the author moves into a detailed discussion of sources and strategies for finding demographic data, economic information, people, and ways to understand the issues that come to bear on a specific geographic region. Each chapter includes strategy tips. In addition, as Mary Ellen Bates points out in the Forward, Phelps offers short case studies throughout the book that help in "understanding when I could use these resources in my day-to-day work." Author Phelps has also called upon a number of experienced researchers to share their advice in Tips from the Pros. (In the interest of full disclosure, I should say that yours truly contributed one of those Tips.)

The final chapter provides guidance on when to turn to the fee based sources for information. "For local searchers, fee-based sources are often the fastest route to detailed information for small geographic areas." Here you'll find tips on how to pay (subscription, pay as you go, or other options), when to pay (calculating what your time is worth), and who to pay (listing key fee-based services.)

To get a sense of the valuable information offered in this 254 page book, try this one tip offered on page 26. To quickly find relevant information on local sites, try GovScan. Powered by Google, GovScan searches more than 5,000 city, town, county, and state government websites within all 50 United States. Now doesn't that just make you wonder what the other 253 pages contain?

Use LinkedIn to Build Relationships

Several readers have asked about social networking. What is it? How does it work? How can I use it?

This is the second in a series of articles on using social media.

LinkedIn, according to their website, "operates the world's largest professional network on the Internet with more than 100 million members" worldwide. Members include executives from all 2010 Fortune 500 companies and over one million LinkedIn Company Pages.

Individuals can leverage this network in at least three ways to identify prospects for collaboration or joint ventures, as well as likely clients and customers. Use Connections, Groups, and Answers. Using LinkedIn you can build a network of connections that expands "who you know." Remember the old saying "it's not what you know it's who you know"? With LinkedIn you can keep track of who you know, but also become aware of who "they" know. When you need a letter of introduction, a reference, or access to expertise, rely on your connections to put you in touch with the right people.

Join Groups. By joining groups you are immediately in the company of people having similar interests or expertise. Join groups that represent the people you would like to work with, the people you would like to work with you, or the people who know what you need to know. Joining a group expands your network. Visit the Groups Directory to browse or search for groups of interest. If that's overwhelming, click on Groups You May Like to view a filtered list.

LinkedIn Answers provides an interesting opportunity to demonstrate your expertise by answering questions, to seek advice by asking questions, or to identify experts who have answered someone else's questions. Remember, it's all about building a reputation and credibility which leads to trust. LinkedIn will generate a list of questions that have come from your network. That's a great place to begin answering questions as appropriate.

Leap in. Begin by inviting me to connect.

Get Up to Speed on Social Networking

Several readers have asked about social networking. What is it? How does it work? How can I use it for marketing?

Here we offer several resources that will introduce some of the social networking tools and begin to touch on how to use them, starting with some definitions.

Social Media - For purposes of discussion we will think of social media as Internet sites. These sites facilitate information sharing through various types of interactions. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube are examples of very popular social media sites.

Social Networking - Social networking is interaction made possible by social media sites.

Social Media Marketing - I like the way SearchEngineLand describes it as the "process of gaining traffic or attention through social media sites."

For an entertaining, rather ingenious explanation of Social Media in Plain English, watch this video about Scoopville.

In future postings we'll take a look at strategies for using LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook for social networking and social media marketing.

In the meantime, if you're wondering whether all of this social media stuff deserves so much attention, watch Social Media Revolution 2, dated May 5, 2010. This four and a half minute video provides statistics that are hard to ignore. For instance, Facebook tops Google for weekly traffic in the U.S. It took radio 38 years to reach 50 million users. Facebook added over 200 million users in less than a year. Take a look, and let me know if you think social media is a fad.

Info Pro Culture

What defines the culture of the info pro?

Sharing? Sure. Info pros happily offer high levels of service to clients and customers needing guidance in finding and using information.

Learning? Definitely. Info pros generally learn something new every day while going about the business.

Embracing change? Not so much. Info pros have a reputation for liking things just the way they are, thank you very much.

How does our culture work for or against us? The culture of sharing makes us good at delivering valuable information, providing useful training to our constituencies, and mentoring new info pros. At the same time, the propensity to "give it away" makes it hard to monitor return on investment or charge sustainable rates for our services.

The willingness to learn helps us improve our skills and fosters the curiosity we need to help our clients and customers. Could learning ever work against us? I can't see how, but maybe you can.

The tendency to resist change has proven useful to info pros over time, as we carefully and systemically develop the cataloging and classification systems that make information findable. By the same token, we may have missed opportunities to better connect with users by holding on to the "we've always done it this way" approach.

What else defines the culture of the info pro?

Professional Development - Face to Face

What do you do for professional development? How do you stay current in the industry and keep your creative juices flowing?

Consider the options - podcasts, blog postings, online videos, and electronic newsletters represent some easy, at your desk options. What about face to face, you ask? Good question. How often do you get out of your office and rub elbows with colleagues from outside your organization?

Effective and essential professional development cannot happen without the occasional live, real time, face to face interaction. We're coming into the conference season for info pros. The Association of Independent Information Professionals met last month. The Medical Library Association meets later this month. Specialized librarians in SLA will meet next month, and the American Library Association meets in July, just to name a few.

AIIP drew over 100 attendees while ALA will draw over 25,000. What's the attraction?

First and foremost, humans are gregarious. We like to gather with people who understand who we are and what we do. It is refreshing to interact with colleagues who "get it", to share experiences, and even to commiserate.

Second, we learn from each other. We pick up ideas, solutions, strategies, and alternatives to take home to our own work environment. These learnings satisfy a professional need to know and make us even more valuable to our organizations.

Most importantly, however, is the "cross fertilization" that happens in a face to face environment. Here we encounter ideas, issues, and concerns that we may not have sought out. Unlike the RSS feeds and newsletter subscriptions that we opt in to, conferences foster serendipity and the friction of dialog that often sparks new ways of thinking. One does not have to cross the country to attend a large gathering like ALA. While I strongly recommend one such excursion every year or so, most communities have a local info pros group of some kind. Join. Attend. Participate. Cross fertilize. Learn. You and the profession will be better for it.

Professional development thrives in a face to face environment. In fact, without conference gatherings, withering on the vine is inevitable. Don't you agree?

Attention Info Entrepreneurs - The Tribe is Gathering

If you provide information services as a contractor, freelancer, or business owner, it's time to pack your bags and head to the 24th Annual Conference of the Association of Independent Information Professionals (AIIP).

This year the gathering takes place in Cleveland Ohio, April 29 - May 2. The conference offers professional development, networking, and social opportunities especially tailored for the independent information professional.

One of the many program highlights is the Roger K. Summit Award Lecture. This year's award recipient is Peter Shankman, Founder of Help a Reportert Out, HARO. HARO serves journalists on deadline, offering more than 100,000 sources around the world to be quoted by media.

Invest in your business. Invest in yourself.

Social Media Searching for Competitive Intelligence

Real-time sources contain useful information about your competitors' organization and products. These sources also contain information about your organization and products. Trust me on this. It's not just about who just had a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch.

Consider developing new services and products for your clients for competitive intelligence, brand management, and reputation monitoring.

Here are some tools.

Addictomatic is a federated search engine that pulls results from live sites such as Google Blogs, Wordpress, Technorati, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and much more.

OneRiot crawls the links people share on Twitter, Digg, and other social sharing services.

CrowdEye searches Twitter and compiles a bar chart of tweet volume over the last three days with a word cloud of keywords.


Backtype is the only free tool I know that searches blog comments.

There are also fee based products such as Radian6 and Attaain that offer powerful features to research, analyze, engage, and tract activity on real-time sites. Consider starting out with some of the free offerings mentioned here and dazzle your clients with the information you can deliver.

The Value of Twitter

I don't have time for Twitter. Who cares what anyone is having for lunch, and how can anything important be reduced to 140 characters?


Even if you haven't had this thought yourself, you've likely heard it expressed by someone else. What's the deal with Twitter? Who has time for it, and why should I care?

While Twitter can surely be a place to post random answers to the question "What's happening?" (Note: When did the question change from"What are you doing?") Twitter can also be much more than that. Using Twitter it's possible to push meaningful information out to a large and/or targeted audience and to bring information in to your sphere of influence.

Savy companies have begun using Twitter to communicate important messages to customers and clients. According to USA Today Wells Fargo and Bank of America alert customers to changes in bank fees, product features, and customer service information. Individuals who follow the Tweets coming from these banks will have information deliberately and strategically pushed to them by company employees. It may be an advantage for the customer, but it is surely an advantage for the banks to be able to deliver such targeted information.

BusinessWeek points out how entrepreneurs are gathering information through Twitter that they can use to grow their businesses. By strategically searching the Twitter archives for people interested in a given product or service, it's possible to find new customers. In the BusinessWeek article, Wistia.com CEO Chris Savage found a buyer for his video sharing service by searching the phrase "video sharing."

Companies also monitor their brand and reputation on Twitter, keeping abreast of what people are saying. This kind of awareness makes it possible to do damage control or deliver alternative messaging if necessary. A quick search on a pharmaceutical of interest to me revealed a Tweet inquiring whether anyone had ever had an trouble with the drug. "I would really like to know if I should be concerned," he said. If I were the manufacturer of that drug, I would surely want to be a part of that conversation.

To search Twitter, simply go to the home page and enter your term or phrase in the search box. Use quotations to force phrase searching. You can also access the advanced search form through Search Twitter in order to search on words, phrases, people, places, dates, attitudes, and Tweets containing links.

The best overview I have seen on how to use Twitter strategically comes from this slide (posted by loichay on November 3, 2009 to a blog called KJB de signets graphiques.)
It addresses six business strategies (customer relations, crisis management, etc.) with suggestions on what topics to follow, how to create content addressing the business strategy, and how to engage others. For instance, the drug question posed above falls within the business strategy of Crisis Management. In this case the loichay slide points out that you can Follow your brand, products and relevant issues; Create directions to additional resources, updated information, and explanations; and Engage in answering questions, responding to comments, raising issues, and providing information.

With a few possible exceptions, we probably don't need to know who ate what for lunch, but we surely want to know what people are saying on topics of interest to us. We likely want to deliver a point of view or information related to a topic of interest to us. Twitter is a viable option for accomplishing both objectives.

Online Information in London

Info pros from across Europe and parts of the rest of the globe are in London this week for the annual Online Information meeting.

This conference always offers a great program for the info pro, and this year is no exception. One session on Wednesday morning looks especially interesting.

Moderator: Mary Ellen Bates, Owner, Bates Information Services Inc, USA

A toolkit for searching the social web
Phil Bradley, Independent Internet Consultant, UK

Finding the key (words) to the hidden treasure
Inbar Yasur, Information Professional, Hipusit, Israel

Competitive Intelligence and the evolving internet
Victor Camlek, Vice President - Market Intelligence, Thomson Reuters, USA

What? You say you can't be in London at the moment. Well, not to worry. There are a couple of pretty good options for following the action from right where you sit.

Marydee Ojala, Barbara Brynko, and Dick Kaser are blogging the conference for Information Today on the InfoToday Blog.

You can follow the Twitter stream using #online09, or check out the Twapper Keeper created by Mary Ellen Bates to collect all of the #online09 Tweets in one space.

I'm going to be watching the blog and the Twitter stream to see what might be said about that Wednesday mornign session.

Delivering Value to Your Clients or Organizaton

Information professionals deliver value to their organization or risk becoming expendable.

I recently delivered a webinar program to members of the Association of Independent Information Professionals on how to deliver value added analysis. You can download the slide deck titled Adding Value to Your Research: Value Added Analysis to get the gist of the presentation.

Cyberspace is abuzz right now as specialized librarians debate the merits of renaming their professional organization. The current name is SLA: Special Libraries Association. The suggested name is Association of Strategic Knowledge Professionals.

The proposed name actually represents a mind shift from information management to something broader. Some info pros appear to object to this change. From my angle it represents an appropriate evolution in our profession. To demonstrate the value in what we do, we have to wrap value into the services and solutions we offer.

Value added analysis serves as one proven strategy for an evolving profession.

Develop Your Professional Skills - Focus on Management

As independent info pros we are on our own when it comes to professional development. Manager Tools can help meet the need for management and leadership training. Manager Tools offers podcasts on valuable topics including timely meetings, presentation attire, attention management, how to remember names, how to leave a voicemail, and lots more. Podcasts are categorized as Manager Tools and Career Tools. Take a look.

Learn something new today.

The Trustworthiness of Sources

What role should the info pro play in vetting the trustworthiness of sources?

Short Answer: A large and active role.

Longer Answer: Most information professionals received training either in school, on the job, or through personal experience, that helps us evaluate a source and measure its credibility. Having this skill helps us point our constituents in the right direction. With the information floodgates standing wide open and information flowing all around us 24/7, info pros have a professional obligation to help manage that flow.

We should speak out on the wide variations in source reliability and educate the public on the importance of understanding a source's bias. Who is better qualified to do this than a trained librarian or information professional?

First, let's understand what we mean by bias and what our clients might need to know about the sources they consult. It is common knowledge that the National Review is a conservatively biased magazine, while The Nation represents the liberal point of view. Both are thoughtfully written and trustworthy. Historically they have not relied on exaggeration or misrepresentation to make a point. While biased, they are trustworthy. An info pro would know that and should make it known to others.

Here's a different kind of example. The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is widely known in the United States for quality entertainment, educational shows, and trustworthy news programs. PBS is mandated by law to present objectivity and balance in its broadcasts. PBS posts its editorial standards on its web site, and an independent review board assesses whether PBS is meeting these standards. If our constituents are relying on PBS forinformation that may impact their business decisions, voting behavior, or other important decision making, they should know this.

Fox Broadcasting Company, on the other hand has no such mandate or oversight. Operated by News Corporation, Fox Broadcasting offers widely popular entertainment programming including shows such as So You Think You Can Dance and House. They deliver news programming through The Fox News Channel (FNC). Rupert Murdoch created FNC as an alternative to what he considered a liberally biased media. We know from the example of the National Review and The Nation that a conservative or liberal bias does not necessarily impact reliability or trustworthiness. Either a liberal or a conservative media outlet can provide fact-based arguments. The Fox News Channel has not proven itself to be trustworthy when it comes to delivering the news. Examples abound, but a representative one can be found on the Factcheck.org site. The example is a misrepresentation of the facts made by Glenn Beck about the Cash for Clunkers program. If our constituents are relying on Fox News forinformation that may impact their business decisions, voting behavior, or other important decision-making, they should know this.

Information professionals have an opportunity and an obligation to speak out on the trustworthiness of sources - now and always.

What's In a Name?

Let's assume you are an information professional. Given the fact that you are reading this blog, that seems like a safe assumption.

At a social gathering, when people ask you what you do, how do you reply? Do you give your job title - Information Specialist, Knowledge Analyst, Chief Researcher? Do you offer your educational background along with a job description - "I'm a librarian by training, and I provide research and analysis to corporate decision-makers." Do you dodge the topic and change the subject - "So, do you think Elizabeth Taylor will marry again?"

The conversation goes on in our individual spheres as well as at the broader level. The Special Libraries Association, known since its inception to have an awkward name, is looking at a name change. This is not the first time. The last effort ended in the practice of foregoing the full name for initials - SLA. Time has proven that to be a less than satisfying solution.

So, what are some of the options? Association of Knowledge Engineers (my personal favorite at this point), Specialized Librarians and Information Professionals, and Knowledge and Information Specialist Society are among the proposals. SLA leadership is on board with the initiative. CEO Janice Lachance has posted her position to the SLA Wiki on Why SLA Must Consider a Name Change. To participate in the discussion, use Twitter and #slaname or visit the SLA Name Change wiki. The conversation is sure to be lively.

Finding Prsentations Online

Information comes in many formats. Last month we talked about images, audio files, and video clips on the Internet. Another ubiquitous form of communication is the PowerPoint presentation. Slide decks, as they are often called in business enterprises, can contain a bounty of information including statistics, lists, strategies, and sometimes confidential information.

Docstoc and Slideshare are two sources of slide decks, and Google Advanced Search provides a tool for narrowing results to this format.

Docstoc is an online community dedicated to sharing professional documents. With free registration, users can upload documents for sharing and download or copy documents when those rights have been granted. Docstoc supports sharing of the following formats: .pdf, .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .ppt, .pptx, .txt, and .rft. Documents are categorized as legal, business, personal finance, technology, education, jobs & careers, tax, real estate, current events, or politics and history. A search on "market share" led to some interesting slide decks on the automotive market, a word document on the airline market, and a pdf with instructions on how to find market share information. Docstoc lets you filter the results to the most viewed, most downloaded, most recent, most reviewed, and highest rated.

SlideShare claims to be the largest community for sharing presentations. Free registration permits uploading and downloading, and SlideShare offers an option called Slidecasts. In researching this article I found a slidecast of a children's storybook called Ravens Love to Sing, being read aloud in Japanese. SlideShare files can include video and automated slide shows, and when you select a slide deck to view, SlideShare will point you toward related presentations. Using this feature I found several useful presentations on how to use Twitter.

A third option for tracking down slide decks is Google's Advanced Search mode. From the Google home page click on Advanced Search. Enter your search terms and look down the
page for File type. From here you can select the .ppt format to limit the search to PowerPoint files. Try entering your company name in the box labeled "all these words." In the boxes labeled "one or more of these words" put "confidential", "proprietary", and "private" without the quotes. I hope you don't find the results to be *too* interesting!

Volunteering Provides Professional Development Opportunities

When did you last hear of an organization sending its info pro off to the Wharton Executive MBA program, or any other advanced management training program for that matter? Has it ever been done? If so, I've not heard about it. So who's looking after the professional development of our information professionals? It is my observation that most info pros are either solo or tucked into an organizational corner where professional needs are little understood. For their own good and the good of their enterprise, info pros would do well to take matters into their own hands.

First a word on why we care. With a strong understanding of how businesses work and how leaders function within an organization, the info pro can deliver the highest value and return on investment. Business acumen leads to better decisions for the info pro and the enterprise.

So what skills and training do we need? Consider project management, strategic planning, budgeting, event planning, team leadership, and negotiation skills as core competencies for working within most organizations.

If you're not going to the Wharton School for an Executive MBA, how about volunteering within your professional association. This strategy has long been advocated as a means to network and make valuable contacts with professional colleagues. It is also an extremely effective way to learn the above mentioned skills while working with seasoned leaders within the association.

Think about the professional or non-profit organizations you are a part of. Think about how the routine activities of most organizations lend themselves to leadership and management training: coordinating a newsletter or blog; developing or updating a strategic plan; serving as treasurer or on the finance committee; planning programs or annual meetings or seminars; serving on the governing board; chairing a committee and managing the people on your team; negotiating priorities among the members or a contract with a caterer. These activities all advance the goals of the organization while providing the volunteers with valuable training.

A good organization will have the depth of leadership and experience to provide role models and mentors to those willing to volunteer and learn. I can say from my own experience that volunteering in professional and other non-profit organizations has provided more leadership and management training than I could have ever predicted, and it has served me well in the business environment.

Take matters into your own hands. Go forth and volunteer!

Finding Business Information in Audio, Video, and Image Formats

For a recent article in FUMSI: Find, Use, Manage, & Share Information, I researched the many search engines available for locating audio, video, and images on the Web. "Finding Videos, Audio and Images on the Web: Search Tools" gives some useful links to sources that can deliver business-related search results.

The weakest link seems to be good search tools for podcasts and other non-music audio files. If you have some resources to suggest, we'd live to hear about them.

Camel Drivers as Info Pros

Apparently where there's a will there's a way.

In 10th Century Persia Grand Vizier Abdul Kassem Ismael was loath to part with his 117,000 volume library. When traveling he carried the collection along in a caravan of 400 camels trained to walk in alphabetical order (A History of Reading by Alberto Manguel.) Thus his camel drivers were able to deliver volumes to the master upon request.



The Library Book: The Story of Libraries from Camels to Computers (for young readers) gives us a nice visual image of what that might have looked like.

I'm guessing Grand Vizier Ismael would have been an early adopter of the e-book.

AuthorMapper

Springer offers a cool tool that puts its authors on a map so that you can visualize patterns in scientific research. AuthorMapper integrates content with mapping technology. Besides mapping author locations, the technology also delivers graphs, timelines, and keyword tag clouds that visually summarize the data and can also be selected to further refine your search terms.

Although the site includes 150 years of articles from 1,900 journals, it's too bad more journals are not included. By way of comparison, PubMed indexes approximately 5,200 journals and the database contains over 18 million citations.

In any case, AuthorMapper creates graphs that illustrate publication year, author names, journal titles, countries, subject, and institution. Keyword searches on terms like leprosy, polio, and carbon footprint yield interesting results, leading to further exploration of why publishing patterns appear the way they do. Searching on a known author's name can produce a geographical view of his or her collaborators and co-authors. Be careful, however, in interpreting the results. AuthorMapper is a work in progress and developers have not given clear guidance on how it parses and responds to a query.

Furl Becomes Part of Diigo.com

If you Furl your bookmarks or favorites, you'll want to know that Furl has become part of Diigo.com. The Furl team has handed the torch to Diigo.com as they offer users a link for exporting data from Furl to Diigo. It's pretty seamless. In fact, it's a two-click process that seems to take care of itself, even if you don't already have a Diigo account.

So what's the deal with Diigo? Here's what they say - "Diigo is two services in one -- it is a research and collaborative research tool on the one hand, and a knowledge-sharing community and social content site on the other." Diigo stands for Digest of Internet Information, Groups, and Other stuff. It is pronounced Dee'go.

Enjoy!

Time to Build Your Network

During these times of economic uncertainty there is activity more important than networking. Now is a great time to build new relationships and nurture your existing relationships.

The easiest way I now to build your network is to become active in the professional organizations where your colleagues and prospective clients 'hang out.' Don't just join the organization (professional association, trade association, service organization, etc.) but volunteer. Demonstrate your business or management skills by serving on a committee or leading a program. Contact the president or a committee chair to discover what kind of help is needed. You will painlessly build your network and make valuable connections by volunteering.

Make it a point each day to contact someone in your professional network. Call a client to check in, post to a discussion list, or e-mail a colleague. Update your LinkedIn, Plaxo, or Jigsaw posting, and if you don't have a listing in any of those databases, get one post haste!

It's true what they say - it's not what you know, it's who you know.