Itracks partners to develop social media monitoring software
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, research company Itracks has collaborated with Web application firm MutualMind, Dallas, to create social media monitoring software for the market research industry. Dubbed Itracks Social Media Monitoring, the online application is designed to capture data from sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social media platforms and organize the data to help users develop their research design or monitor their clients’ activity. The dashboard is intended to provide an at-a-glance view of what people are discussing online and the sentiments associated with brand mentions.
Itracks Social Media Monitoring can also be used alongside online qualitative research platforms, traditional face-to-face focus groups and quantitative projects. For more information visit www.itracks.com.
Reputation management service updated to help small businesses
Chatmeter, a San Diego online measurement company, has debuted improvements to its reputation management service and has redesigned its reports. The changes are intended to help local businesses protect and build their online reputation, allowing them to use customer feedback as a sales, marketing and customer service asset. The features aim to allow local business customers to monitor online content and buzz.
Updates to the service include the ability to display the most recent customer reviews and social media mentions; provide benchmark performance against local competitors; calculate how many online customer reviews, social media mentions, Facebook postings and Twitter followers a business has; show the amount and location of one-star and five-star customers reviews; disclose third-party Web sites with inaccurate business profile information, such as an outdated phone number or location; and compute both local search and organic search engine rankings. For more information visit www.chatmeter.com.
GMI moves mobile solution into beta testing
Global Market Insite Inc. (GMI), a Bellevue, Wash., research company, has partnered with TXT4CRM, a Dallas mobile engagement company, to offer GMI Mobile beta, a mobile market research solution with short SMS-based diary tracking, customer satisfaction, polling and purchase intent studies designed to augment traditional market research. Market researchers can choose to run traditional online studies and follow up with a subset of mobile subscribers. GMI Mobile also allows researchers to develop short stand-alone studies specifically designed for mobile phones when fast turnaround is required.
The solution combines GMI’s balancing and sampling technologies with TXT4CRM’s SMS/MMS platform and mobile engagement expertise. The initial launch of GMI Mobile is for the U.S. only. For more information visit www.gmi-mr.com.
Webtrends rolls out two analytics tools
Webtrends, a Portland, Ore., research company, has introduced Webtrends Ads, the next generation of Webtrends Ad Director, designed to offer marketers a data-driven solution for creating, measuring and improving performance marketing acquisition across global search networks, the Google Display Network and Facebook Ads in one tool. Webtrends Ads incorporates the campaign management platform from Marin Software, San Francisco. The solution aims to provide sophisticated algorithms; fully-integrated analytics and optimization services across multiple conversion metrics or margin-based bid goals; landing-page optimization; and behavior-based personalization of content.
Separately, Webtrends has also made available Webtrends Analytics for Jive, an offering designed to allow organizations to understand usage by department, user, group or content; measure adoption across wikis, blogs, documents, discussions and content groups; gather detailed metrics on contribution, consumption and social actions; view content creation, views, edits and ratings by department or individual; and optimize user experience. For more information visit www.webtrends.com.
ComScore goes social; waives southeast Asia setup fee
Reston, Va., research company comScore Inc. has launched Social Analytix, a social media intelligence service for comScore clients, powered by the social media monitoring and engagement platform from Radian6, Fredericton, New Brunswick. The service aims to provide clients with detailed, real-time insights based on what consumers are saying about their brands and products on the Web. The Radian6 technology, which operates independent of the comScore global consumer panel, is designed to capture mentions across more than 150 million social media sources including blogs, discussion boards, video- and image-sharing sites and popular social networking sites.
Social Analytix is designed to enable clients to monitor consumer-generated word-of-mouth brand mentions and gauge consumer sentiment toward their brands, products and/or competitors; listen and respond to potential customer service issues as they arise; identify key social media influencers; engage with social media users and scale listening and response across their organization; and track the lifecycle of campaigns, announcements and communication efforts.
Additionally, comScore has dropped the $5,000 setup fee in Southeast Asia. ComScore previously charged to have Web sites tagged for measurement by its Media Metrix 360 solution. This move follows the waiver of the $5,000 setup fee in the U.S. earlier in 2010. For more information visit www.comscore.com.
Co-production feature allows clients DIY power
NIPO Software, an Amsterdam, the Netherlands, research software firm, has extended its data collection suite to include a co-production capability intended to allow clients to conduct do-it-yourself research with the blessing of their market research suppliers. The product aims to allow end customers to collaborate at a technological level with market research providers by giving the end customer restricted access to the technical infrastructure of the research company through a Web portal. The new co-production capability will be available to all NIPO users by the end of 2010. For more information visit www.niposoftware.com.
Gongos releases mobile app with rewards component
Gongos Research, Auburn Hills, Mich., has launched its i°Communities mobile app, and the app will be offered to consumers registered in the company’s client-sponsored communities. Additionally, it is intended to serve as a gateway for the public to participate in the company’s Consumer Village online community. Participants in sponsored activities through i°Communities mobile will earn points that transfer into Amazon.com gift certificates, and Gongos will also donate a 5 percent match on points earned in Consumer Village to charities.
The app is designed to offer consumers the ability to participate in discussions, flashpolls and mobile-enabled online surveys; connect with other like-minded consumers about topics of interest; capture and upload images and video to the community; and discover active discussions among members with the Shake it Up feature.
The i°Communities mobile app is available as a free download for the iPhone and iPod touch in the iTunes App Store. For more information visit www.gongos.com.
Imperium updates RelevantID technology
Westport, Conn., research company Imperium has launched version 3.1 of RelevantID, its digital fingerprinting technology. The updated version includes Fraud Profile Score, designed to predict the potential for fraudulent respondent behavior by assigning individuals a Fraud Profile Score of 0 - 100; Verity, a data validation service that aims to validate survey respondent self-reported data with third-party sources to confirm the accuracy of a person’s name, address and other demographics resulting in a validation score; and Address Correction, a service intended to validate and normalize addresses in the U.S., U.K. and Canada to post office standards. For more information visit www.imperium.com.
Kinesis updates panel solution
Kinesis Survey Technologies LLC, an Austin, Texas, research company, has released version 3.0 of its Kinesis Panel solution. The updated version includes new functionality, such as a versatile campaign manager interface; expanded querying options; the ability to append project-specific data to samples; an advanced e-mail spam scoring system; and multilingual execution options. Additionally, new application programming interfaces are available for expanded system integration and the creation of custom panelist Web sites (Kinesis Community Portal).
Kinesis Panel can be integrated with several independent survey applications but is best suited for use with Kinesis Survey. For more information visit www.kinesissurvey.com/kinesis-survey/kinesis-panel.
Companies partner to gauge commitment of prime-time TV audiences
General Sentiment, a Charlotte, N.C., media measurement technology firm, and Manhasset, N.Y., research firm The Q Scores Company have partnered to launch TV Audience Evaluation Reports (TVAERs). TVAERs are designed to evaluate audience involvement and commitment to prime-time television shows by collecting data from real-time Internet tracking and online surveys. The offering combines data from General Sentiment’s Involvement Index, which measures the online discussion/word-of-mouth generated by prime-time TV shows, with Q Scores’ Emotional Bonding Q, which determines a program’s ability to hold onto valuable viewers over time. For more information visit www.qscores.com.
Briefly
Encino, Calif., research company uSamp has begun testing its mobile surveying platform with several mobile applications providers. The mobile app is designed to simplify the delivery of sample for researchers by building on uSamp’s Web-based panel management platform. Surveys delivered through uSamp’s mobile application will be short, and rewards for participating will center on virtual currency and remain user-specific. For more information visit www.usamp.com.
Fort Washington, Pa., marketing intelligence company Centris has expanded its technology tracking program to place more emphasis on the Hispanic market segment. Centris has also released a profile online of the Hispanic market. For more information visit www.centris.com.
ICM Direct, a division of ICM Research, London, has launched a B2B and B2C tele-depth interviewing service designed to complement its quant work, online panel and online random sampling capabilities. For more information visit www.icmresearch.co.uk.
GfK Roper Consulting, a division of GfK Custom Research North America, New York, has added qualitative insights to its U.S. consumer trends service, GfK Roper Reports US. The additional features will incorporate a visual component. For more information visit www.gfkamerica.com.
The 2010 Retail Business Market Research Handbook from Richard K. Miller and Associates has been released. The handbook aims to provide retail data by organization, geographic location and merchandise category to help researchers better allocate budget dollars. For more information visit www.rkma.com.
Merrill Research and Associates, San Mateo, Calif., and the EE Times Group, a San Francisco electronics solutions company, have launched EE Intelligence, an online research panel for conducting electronics-focused research. For more information visit www.eeintelligence.com.
TiVo, Alviso, Calif., has increased the sample size of its Power||Watch opt-in panel to 100,000 households. For more information visit www.tivo.com.
Pittsburgh Web semantics company Bueda has rolled out Five, a semantic-based social lead generator designed to facilitate meaningful and engaging conversation around a promotional message by understanding the message being promoted and identifying the users on various social networks that would be most receptive. For more information visit www.fivebybueda.com.
Ipsos ASI, a Norwalk, Conn., research company, has introduced its Big Idea service in the Middle East and North Africa region. Big Idea is designed to be used before substantial investments are made in the development and production of ad campaigns. For more information visit www.ipsos-asi.com.
Peanut Labs, a San Francisco research company, has debuted its Social Media Asia Sample, providing market researchers with access to an online population of social media users in China, Japan and South Korea. For more information visit www.peanutlabs.com.
Rochester, N.Y., research company Harris Interactive has launched its Body Mass Index (BMI) Specialty Panel. The panel will include adults from whom Harris Interactive has obtained height and weight information, and the panelists will be grouped into one of four categories: underweight, normal weight, overweight and obese adults. For more information visit www.harrisinteractive.com.
Orem, Utah, research company Western Wats has launched research panels in Germany and France. Additionally, the company’s Opinion Outpost online panel has expanded to over 100,000 participants. For more information visit www.westernwats.com.
London research company Kantar Media has developed a JICREG-accredited approach to regional readership data collection which incorporates telephone interviewing. For more information visit www.kantarmedia.com.
Alice M. Tybout and Bobby J. Calder have released the second edition of Kellogg on Marketing, a book designed to look at fundamental marketing concepts such as branding and understanding consumers. The book also includes insights into topics such as social innovation and consumer-generated media. For more information visit www.wiley.com.
EDigitalResearch, Hampshire, U.K., has redesigned its Web site (www.edigitalresearch.com) to include a demonstration survey; U.K. benchmarking and statistical data; and StatStor, an integration of social media platforms and industry news feeds.