Introducing SMA

Do you read the news digest I post here every week? Since June 2007, it's been an outlet for items that didn't quite rate their own posts, and if it got companies in the social media analysis market to pay attention—well, that was no accident. At this point, though, they're crowding my recent posts list, so I'm moving them to a new home: Social Media Analysis. If you're interested in the listening business, I think you'll like it.

Lucky for me beta is the fashion
SMA is more than a news site. The plan is to create a resource for everyone interested in the market. In this initial release, it has five main sections:

  • News
    Company and product launches, investments, leadership changes, upcoming events, new papers... Everything you're used to from the Friday news digest, but in its own home—and no more waiting for the end of the week.

  • Commentary
    A separate blog section pulling content from the Net-Savvy Executive. This section will grow to include more contributors (interested?).

  • Scanner
    A tag feed with commentary; this will grow to include more contributors.

  • Press releases
    A sidebar listing press releases from any vendor who provides an RSS feed (hint).

  • Company blogs
    A sidebar listing recent posts from vendor blogs (companies, not individuals).
Feed me!
RSS is an important component of SMA—I've used my RSS and Delicious tricks to build some of its sections, and the site provides several feeds for readers. If you like press releases, for example, you can subscribe to the aggregated press release feed. The systems running behind the scenes will keep subscribers up to date as new sources are added.

Starting with Social Target's database of social media analysis companies, I looked through 182 company sites to find 89 company blogs and 19 PR feeds. I used Dapper and Page2RSS to make synthetic feeds for many more, but so far, the result isn't clean enough for SMA. As more companies offer PR feeds, I'll add them to the system.

Plans to grow
Today's SMA is the first take. In addition to new contributors, I plan to add more sections, such as white papers, research, events, and jobs. I'm thinking about some more ambitious developments, but that's what the future is for.

Now, go. Subscribe. And send me your news. :-)


About Nathan Gilliatt

  • ng.jpg
  • Voracious learner and explorer. Analyst tracking technologies and markets in intelligence, analytics and social media. Advisor to buyers, sellers and investors. Writing my next book.
  • Principal, Social Target
  • Profile
  • Highlights from the archive

Subscribe

Monthly Archives