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Capture information flow with subject feeds

In recent issues of ResearchNOTES, I've shared some of my favorite tips for using LinkedIn and Twitter for learning. This month, I'll spotlight another way to stay informed - subject feeds, collections of news on a particular topic. Subject feeds make it easy to capture information flow - and expand your horizons:

• RSS is definitely not dead - at least for me. I've set up news feeds from reliable sources in a variety of topics of interest to me and my clients. I like to find new RSS feeds by browsing the directories at Google Reader and BusinessWire.com.

• Futurity covers the latest discoveries by scientists at the top research universities in the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Australia. Even though I'm a business researcher by trade and not a scientist, I find these reports fascinating, and they keep me informed of important industry trends.

• When it comes to keeping track of what's going on in the U.S. government, I rely on feeds and alerts from Scout. They offer updates - through RSS, email, and text - about what Congress is doing around an issue or a specific bill, as well as about bills in state legislatures and federal regulations.

What are your favorite subject feeds?

This originally appeared in the February 2013 issue of ResearchNOTES, a monthly email bulletin with my top tips for online research.

Ask the right questions to get the right answers

When you need to find strategic information, a well-thought-out research strategy is just as important as that list of favorite sites, network of experts, or collection of CRM data. Taking some time at the front end of your research will save time and money in the long run.

And asking the right questions - before you dig into your web search or pick up the phone to call a trusted advisor - will ensure that you get the answers you need to make your decisions or complete your projects.

In a recent article published on ColoradoBIZ magazine's website, I list the six most important questions to ask before you start your research:

1. What are our goals?
2. What are our key intelligence questions?
3. What's our budget and time frame?
4. What do we already know?
5. Who cares?
6. What's our Plan B?

Read more about how these six simple questions will you develop a research strategy. Do you have any to add to the list?

Learning from the experts

In my book, Research on Main Street: Using the Web to Find Local Business and Market Information, some of the most talented researchers in the business contributed their Tips from the Pros. This one is from Risa Sacks of Risa Sacks Information Services.

While Risa's tips focus on talking with local experts, they're useful any time you can't find what you're looking for on the web, or when you need to confirm and/or supplement your online research:

Tips for Getting Local People to Talk

Local people are often willing to talk and want to be helpful. People at newspapers, libraries, town halls, and local organizations know their territory and who has the various pieces of information. But how do you get people to open up and answer your questions?

• Be as open as possible. The more you can truthfully say about who you are and why you want the information, the more likely locals are to talk.

• Do your homework. Every small town and small-town newspaper has a website. Get the names of journalists and quoted experts to contact, and what they’ve written or what’s been written about them.

• Ask for and use referrals. Locals know each other, and they know who knows what. Always ask, “Who else might know?” and use that person’s name when calling the referral. “Mrs. Boynton suggested that I call you…” This is one of your strongest tools.

• Listen carefully and match the other person’s style. Some people may be fast-paced and want to get right to the point. Others are more laid-back and prefer to be sociable before getting down to business.

• Be appreciative of people’s time and their willingness to share what they know.

• Offer something in return. The other person might be interested in a summary of what you’ve already found, links to a helpful article, a useful contact, or an interesting statistic you’ve come across. In this way, you both benefit from the conversation.

You get what you pay for

Why would anyone pay for online information when there’s so much available for free?  Sometimes - when you can’t find what you need on the free web, when you need it fast, or when you need something beyond basic information - it’s a good idea to consider paying for premium. For example, if you’re going to spend four or five hours looking for something through the free web, when - for a small fee - you can get it in 30 minutes, what’s really more cost-effective?

So how do you know when to choose premium content instead of opting for free? It’s a good idea to turn to fee-based sources when you need to:

• Find specialized content - When you're digging deep into a niche or emerging industry, gathering market information on the zip-code level, or looking for historical or forecasted data, it will be difficult - if not impossilbe - to accomplish with free resources.

• Verify the accuracy and validity of information - Unlike Google, content aggregators generally stick to credible sources, and some even take the time to verify the data. No source is perfect, but fee-based sources tend to be more trustworthy.

• Quickly retrieve and analyze data in an organized fashion - Premium content providers add features that save time and money, including databases with advanced searching capabilities, mapped data, charts, and expert analysis.

• Clarify information with the availability of customer support - I can't tell you how many times a simple call to customer support has helped me quickly target the best information possible for my client. No need to wander aimlessly.

• Customize information for fast retrieval - Buying a packaged industry or market report means I just have to go to one source. No chasing down data points at multiple websites or scanning documents for one little nugget.

• Repackage the information in a usable format for clients - Are you seeing a pattern here? It's all about being fast and efficient. Anything that helps me package the information I find and make it easier for me and my clients to use is worth it's weight in gold.

Content marketing: To form or not to form?

It's a constant debate when you're using content for marketing. Do you require site visitors to complete a form in order to view or download your content, or do you prefer to keep it simple? I've heard the pros and cons, but this explanation from the Content Marketing Institute is, by far, the most succinct - and the best:

Should I place my content behind a form or set it free?

It depends on the goal.  If the metric you are using is a lead, there has to be a form somewhere. That said, you might get less sharing and awareness…and that may be okay.

Make sure to read the rest of their 24 Top Content Marketing Questions Answered in Less than 140 Characters. I enjoy just about everything that comes from the CMI, and this post is a great example of my favorite kind of content - short and sweet, with links to more information if I want it. I call it bite-sized learning, and it's perfect for managing information flow.

It's OK to pay

I often talk about using free resources for business research, but free doesn't always mean cost-effective. Time is money, so don't spend hours searching for something that can be quickly found in a low-cost report. Here are just a few of my favorite fee-based sources that won't break the budget:

• Moody’s Analytics provides economic, financial, country, and industry research used for strategic planning and other business applications. I especially like their extensive collection of reports with hard-to-find local-level data and analysis.

• I love maps, and ESRI offers geographic information system (GIS) software and services and location-based data. Through their Business Analyst product, you can obtain U.S. business data and learn about demographics, consumer spending, market potential, and traffic counts.

• A database of articles from thousands of U.S. newspapers, NewsLibrary.com is searchable by keywords and phrases, region, state, or a specific newspaper. Searching is free, and you can purchase individual articles. A monthly subscription allows you to view, print, and save up to 25 articles per month.

What are your favorite sources for low-cost business information?

This originally appeared in the January 2013 issue of ResearchNOTES, a monthly email bulletin with my top tips for online research.

American FactFinder makes it easier to find US demographics

American FactFinder - one of the easiest ways to find U.S. demographic and economic data for the nation, states, counties, and smaller local areas - just became even easier to search. Here is the Tip Sheet I received today about some useful new features:

Census Bureau to Release New Features in American FactFinder

The U.S. Census Bureau today released new features for American FactFinder, an online data tool that allows users to access a variety of Census Bureau statistics, including decennial, American Community Survey and economic census statistics. The new features include a simplified main page design, the option for a guided search and an enhanced community facts tool, providing options for both novice and advanced data users.

Guided Search walks users through each step of the inquiry, from selecting a topic, such as “people” or “business and industry,” to selecting a geography. It also provides step-by-step options to search for information on specific race or ethnic groups, or industry codes. New enhancements to the Community Facts feature give users easy access to popular statistics about a state, city, town or ZIP code, such as total population, median income and educational attainment.

Visit <http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/index.xhtml> to use these new features. An online virtual tour is also available at <http://factfinder2.census.gov/help/en/american_factfinder_help.htm>.

The second most important question

When discussing a potential research project with a client, the most important question I can ask is "How will you be using this information?" It's the only way to avoid a "data dump" and ensure that I bring value to the project. The second most important question? That honor goes to --

What else would help you [make that decision, complete that project, fill in the blank]?

With many types of projects, the chances of finding exactly what you need are slim to none. You may be working in an emerging or small, niche industry. Perhaps you're looking for market forecasts - and just for the Colorado Front Range. Certain types of information may only be important to you and a handful of others, so there's not a lot of demand. And that means fewer sources - if any. So for all research - and it doesn't matter if it's for you, your client, or your client's client - you need a Plan B. If your first approach doesn't work, what else will?

For example - Would insights into the entire Colorado market work in case we don't find anything specific to the Front Range? If we don't uncover any hard data, will the opinions of several experts make you feel more confident about your decisions?

It's especially important to find out the answer to the What Else? question before you embark on any research. It will guide you through the process and force you to think more creatively about the research. You never know what you might come across when you keep your options open.

How to decide what type of chart to use

Turning your data into a chart is a great way to add value to your research and turn information into insights. One of the most important - and often the most difficult - choices to make when creating charts is selecting the right type. Pie, bar, column, line, dots - so many choices, it's hard to know where to start.

Probably the best explanation of this critical stage of chart-making can be found in Say it With Charts: The Executive's Guide to Visual Communication by Gene Zelazny. While the technology for information graphics has changed quite a bit since this book was first published, the process for selecting the right format hasn't - and Zelazny describes it so well in three steps:

• Determine your message - First clarify what you want to say about the data. What's important in the numbers that you need to point out to decision-makers?

• Identify the comparison - Charts are basically used to compare data, and comparisons come in several varieties. Perhaps you want to compare various components of the data, track changes over time, or measue how many items fall into different data ranges.

• Select your chart form - Different types of charts emphasize different types of comparisons, and Zalezny includes in this section of his book a chart (of course) that will help you select the right one.

It's all about starting with the basics. Before you decide what vehicle to use for your message, give some thought to what you want to say.

You might also be interested in these links:

The work of Edward Tufte

Visualization Tools for Turning Information Into Insights

Two ways to build dynamic charts in Excel

Weekly Brief: Voice of the customer

I'm currently working on a project that involves gathering insights from my clients' potential customers. Researchers use a variety of methods to understand customer wants and needs, and one of those is Voice of the Customer, or VOC. VOC is a term that has evolved to mean any type of customer-focused research, and this week my readings took me back to VOC's roots:

• This paper from MIT goes back to the basics of VOC and includes some great examples of its use in product development. One of the paper's authors also wrote The “One Right Way” to Gather the Voice of the Customer, which originally appeared in the October 2001 issue of PDMA Visions magazine. It's a great summary of the basics, and I especially like the sections on the pros and cons of hiring a professional researcher.

• Voice of the Market vs. Voice of the Customer, a blog post from 2011, reminds us that it's a good idea to expand our definition of "customer." Just as important as gathering insights from current buyers, why not talk to potential buyers, your competitors' buyers, and lost business?

• From CRM magazine, Listening to the Voice of the Customer focuses on how new technologies provide more efficient collection techniques - although I have to say that I'm a big advocate of the "just-pick-up-the-phone-and-ask" method.

• For the contrarian point of view, I enjoyed reading The Customer Isn't Always Right, a BusinessWeek article by Steve McKee. Gathering information is just the first step. How you interpret the results and put them into action can make or break your research efforts.

• I also found a guide to additional resources from Loyalty 360. Narrowing results by industry makes it easy to find what's relevant.

What are you reading about VOC?

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