PR Research Tools
PR research tools & tips
This section has a wide range of useful, practical search and research tools to help public relations and communications pros gain insight and understanding. It includes old standards like media research, search tools, media and social media monitoring, and PR search tips and tools to help you get public relations measurement faster and smarter.
Other PR Research resources you may like: Communication Audits, Media Monitoring Tips, News Content Analysis, PR Measurement Tips & Best Practices and The PR Coach blog This Just In…. Sites with W are PR Coach “winners.” Note, some links are pdf or other larger documents, so patience may be needed to view them.
3 Powerful Tools for Monitoring Your Brand
David Risley looks at Google Alerts, Twitter Alerts and Backtype. Each an essential, and free, tool.
10 Tools for Listening in Social Media
Need to keep a close eye on social media? These 10 tools from Michael Fruchter will help you get the job done.
10 Ways to Measure Social Media Success
Here’s how to measure social media success in 10 easy steps from Ecoconsultancy.
12 Quick Tips to Search Google Like an Expert
12 expert search tips to make your Googling faster, smarter and friendlier.
14 Competitive Intelligence Tools
Andy Beal shares 14 useful CI tools you can easily use.
18 Ways to Power Search Google
18 ways to search better on Google. Count ‘em.
20 Tips for More Effective Google Searching
Yep. 20 more good Google search tips.
100 Tips and Tools to Research the Social Web
100 fast tips to make your web research way more successful. A great resource from Select Courses.
101 Google Tips, Tricks and Hacks
This is the definitive Google search tips guide courtesy of TechRadar. W
200 Social Bookmarking Services
The value of social bookmarking sites is that they can be a powerful social media search tool.
A PR Pro’s Guide to Creating the Perfect Survey
Amanda Jones provides 10 quick tips to help you create the perfect survey.
Advanced Google Web Search Help
Learn Google’s own advanced search tips.
Alt Search Engines
Alt Search Engines covers cutting-edge news about alternative and niche search engines. Highly recommended. W
Alterian SM2
Demo the new social media monitoring tool SM2. Free and subscription versions.
Ask.com
Very good search tool. Just ask!
AYTM – Ask Your Target Market
Sophisticated research and survey tool that charges by survey completion.
Bing
Search the web, images, video, news and more. New search tool shows promise, depending on Microsoft/Yahoo discussions. W
Biznar
Biznar is a new, free, “deep web” business search engine. So far delivers good quality, rated results.
BlogPulse
Nielsen’s BlogPulse lets you search, monitor, track trends and watch conversations in the social media. W
Blog Tracker
A free, new, invisible blog tracker that counts blog visits and other stats.
BlogScope
Monitor millions of bloggers and extract useful data.
bNet – Find Articles
Find management and business articles, advice and insight on this business site.
Clusty
A new way to search the web, Clusty gathers clusters of results for better targeted search results. W
Collecta
A useful “real-time” search engine that lets you search blog posts, comments, articles, video, Twitter, YouTube and more. Great potential. W
Comparing Six Ways to Identify Top Blogs in Any Niche
Marshall Kirkpatrick reviews six proven blog search tools: Technorati, Del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, Google Reader Recommendations, AideRSS and Ask.com Blogsearch.
DeepDyve
This search tool helps you find deeper level niche content. Good secondary research tool.
Del.icio.us
Find top niche blogs easily. Make your own bookmarks and share them.
Dictionary of Public Relations Measurement and Research
This IPR Gold Standard paper is a useful reference tool for PR researchers.
Digg
Discover and share web content ranked by its community.
Discovering the Power of Twitter’s Real-Time Search
Searching with Twitter is immediate, unfiltered and powerful writes Bernard Lunn.
Dogpile
The old search dog has some new tricks. Still providing trusty metasearch results.
Epinions
Unbiased reviews by real people, but can be challenging to the unaware. Find out what people really think about your product, service or company! W
Explore the Power of TweetGrid Search Engine for Twitter
Tweetgrid’s real-time research power is valuable.
Filtrbox
An excellent real-time reputation and brand monitoring tool for social media and online news. Free and by subscription. W
Google
The research tool of choice.
Google Alerts
Set up auto alerts by topic or keyword and make sure to monitor news, blogs, web and video all-in-one powerful alert sent by email when you need it. W
Google Blog Search
Search millions of blogs usig Google search.
Google News Archive Search
Easily search news archives with Google’s news archive initiative.
Google’s Search Refinement Operators
Some great search tips to make your Google searches more productive.
Guzzle.it
Guzzle.it gives you the latest news about stuff you care. W
Hakia
This new search engine is a winner. It provides search results for “credible sites” and news and you’ll be impressed. W
How to Find Niche Markets
Seven useful ways to research markets.
How To: Get the Most Out of Technorati
If you’re blog searching, Chris Snyder tells you how to more from Technorati.
How-to Guide: 60+ Great How-to Sites & Resources
Here’s more than 60 terrific how-to sites and guides on how to do everything.
IceRocket
IceRocket is a powerful and very effective blog search tool that also searches Twitter, MySpace, news and more. Recommended. W
Internet Archive: Wayback Machine
The Internet Archive is a library of archived internet pages and has now grown to include text, audio, moving images and software. A useful tool. W
Internet Scout Archives
A library of reference resources on many topics; searchable and browsable.
Katie Paine and the Measurement Toolbox [Video 3:52]
Paine discusses the challenge of measurement, tools to apply and outcomes to measure success.
Keyboardr
This search tool groups results for faster, better targeted searching. W
Kosmix
Kosmix presents searches in a reader-friendly, organized magazine format. Definitely the future of search. W
Leapfish
Aggregates search results from the major search engines.
Media Relations Rating Points
Developed in Canada, MRP is a new standard that’s gaining acceptance for evaluating and reporting editorial media coverage.
Middlespot
New search tool presents mini page views of results for web, news, images and Twitter.Effective. W
Netvibes
Netvibes lets you create a home page for your search results of the web, blogs, news, video, photos and more. W
New Search Engine Tools Update – March 2009
A quick, useful presentation of new search engine tools and updates to improve old favorites.
NewsKnife
NewsKnife provides excellent unbiased, online news media research helpful for PR strategists and researchers. Small subscription charge is worth it.
Northern Light Search
Northern Light is the top business search engine and an essential tool for PR pros because it has quality news sources and the spam is eliminated. We’re long time fans! WW
Online Reputation Management: 16 Free Tools
Alyssa Gregory highlights 16 excellent, free tools to help you monitor and measure reputation online. W
PDF Geni
Free tool searches for PDF documents by topic, sometimes turning up useful results.
PDF Search Engine
Search for books and e-books on websites, forums and message boards.
PollDaddy
A free online poll and survey tool that’s easy to use and effective.
PostRank
Discover best blogs, find and follow experts and influencers, and read what matters most to you.
Powerset
Search Wikipedia articles using Powerset.
Press Release Measurement [Video 3:54]
Greg Jarboe looks at online press release results and measurement strategies. W
Public Relations Research for Planning and Evaluation
This IPR paper by Dr Walter Lindenmann describes various tools and techniques PR pros should consider when measuring results. It’s a tremendous resource! W
Quintura
New visual search engine delivers results in easy to navigate “clouds”. Find web, images and video fast with this useful tool. W
Radian6
Newer social media monitoring service is powerful but somewhat expensive for small business.
Readability.info
Find out how readable your web and MSWord documents are with this nifty tool. Provides readability scores, grades, word and English usage and more.
ResearchBuzz
Tara Calishain’s valuable blog about research, search engines and more. Well worth getting her blog posts.
Research Doesn’t Have to Put You in the Poorhouse
Many inexpensive research tools are available according Dr Walter Lindenmann including piggyback studies, secondary analysis, quick-tab polls and online surveys.
Scribd
Scribd searches categories such as business, creative writing, how-to guides, books and documents, news and more. Often turns up results more targeted than many search engines. W
Scribnia
A new social media tool that allows rating and discovery of writers and bloggers. Useful for finding influencers.
Social Mention Alerts
Just like Google Alerts, SMA will give you keyword mentions by email. Useful tool covers blogs, microblogs, bookmarks, comments, events, images, video, audio and Q&As. W
Spy
Spy listens in on social media conversations and works by aggregating feeds for easy, effective review. Fast becoming a regular tool! W
Survey Methods
A full-featured, online research and survey tool with free and subscription pricing.
SurveyMonkey
Easy-to-use, online survey tool with free and low-cost pricing options.
Survs
One of the new, free online survey tools with a collaboration feature that puts it ahead of many competitors. W
Technorati Search
Search the blogosphere to find blogs by topic, rating, top blogs and more.
Top 10 Ways to Track Buzz
Josh Catone shares 10 tools that can help you monitor trends and topics. W
TRAACKR
This unique service measures online influence and provides the tools to identify and engage online influencers. See their Top 25 Authorities Moving PR Forward W
TweetBeep
Monitor Twitter and get an email alert whenever a mention occurs. Works just like Google Alerts and is very useful. W
TweetDeck
Stay updated with the people and topics you care about most, in real time. W
TweetGrid
A powerful search engine for Twitter.
Twitter
There are many uses for PR researching on Twitter.
VALS Segments
Learn the eight VALS types, essential in market research.
Website-Watcher
Useful tool tracks website changes. Track competitors, monitor changes and more.
What If Search
Ask a question and ‘What If’ searches the web for the answers.
Why Social Media Drives Traffic
Jeff Bullas looks at how social media allows us to measure traffic and what those measures are with some of the popular channels. W
Woopra
Live tracking, website statistics and analytics.
Yahoo
Search tool of 2nd choice.
Yelp
Find out what’s new, what’s great and not so great with real reviews, by real people.
Yotify
Send out your own personal scout to find news, blog posts, jobs, products, services and more.
Zoomerang
A great online survey tool; easy to use; free and low-cost pricing options for every user. W
Photo credit: Nicolas Nova via Flickr
