Blog Buzz Helps Companies Catch Trends in the Making

Steven Levingston of the Washington Post wrote a nice front-page story on my company, titled "Blog Buzz Helps Companies Catch Trends in the Making". Excerpt:

ConAgra Foods Inc. got an early warning from chatter on the Internet that the low-carb craze was fading.

… Read the rest

Maxwell: What A Hotel Should Be

I’m in San Francisco this week staying at the boutique Maxwell Hotel. While this place is not ultra luxury, it’s exactly what I like as a business traveler:

  1. It’s downtown near everything
  2. It’s boutique and quirky, but also homey and well-kept
  3. Check-in was easy, and the staff was casual and friendly (not stiff and corporate)
  4. NO CHARGE FOR WI-FI INTERNET ACCESS
  5. NO SURCHARGE ON OUTGOING TELEPHONE CALLS
  6. NO 12-OUNZE BOTTLES OF EVIAN STRATEGICALLY PLACED ON THE BUREAUS WITH $10 PRICE TAGS
  7. And it has a really great name…MAX…I can relate.
… Read the rest

Search: A Strategic Market Research Tool

The connection between consumer-generated media and search marketing is a topic of intense interest and debate among many of my colleagues. "CGM and search" was even its own panel topic earlier this week at the Search Engines Strategies conference in New York (which my colleague Pete Blackshaw participated in).… Read the rest

It’s Official…“Nielsen BuzzMetrics”

Following the recent announcement that Nielsen/VNU was funding the merger of BuzzMetrics (my original company) and Intelliseek (our former top competitor), I’m happy to announce that the deal has finally closed! We are officially one company now…“Nielsen BuzzMetrics, the global measurement standard in consumer-generated media.” 

This is truly is an awesome company and movement, which I joined fulltime in September 2005 after consulting to the CEO for the prior 12 months.… Read the rest