Research and Snoop, Dawg

The Web was made to share information. Like the art of PR itself, communication is the backbone of the Internet. Its original intent was to connect scientists to one another and to let lab coats separated by miles and oceans share their findings (plus play a mean game of chess). Now you can learn from others’ research just as effectively. Elusive searches that used to require hours in the library, sifting through microfilm (and its aquatic cousin, microfiche), now require only a few clicks in the comfort of your own home or office.

But you have to know where to start searching. As with anything else on the Web, you can do decent research for free, although more thorough examinations will cost you. However, about 99 percent of the info you need can be found on the cheap.

And don’t underestimate the quality of the information you can unearth from the Web. Competitive searches, latest industry maneuverings, journalist backgrounds, and coverage earned by our clients and competitors are part of our daily digital scrutiny, and they should be a crucial part of yours, too, if you want to be effective at creating buzz. By knowing how to search and where to do it, you suddenly find yourself linked to articles, technical information, photos, and gossip on anyone or anything.

Consider a few things when starting your search. Where does your investigation stem from geographically? Is it a big news story already? Who’s behind it?

Google (www.google.com) is the mother of all search engines and a family friend, so to speak. It snoops through more than one billion-plus Web pages to find what you’re looking for, and it has a non-tech way to show you the goods. But it’s better at some things than others. Google is best at finding people: where they’ve been, their little secrets, and their big successes. Within a few minutes, Google can piece together the biography of anyone worth searching for.

WiseNut (www.wisenut.com) is another site with equal or greater search relevance when compared to Google, so use them together to maximize your results. We also like www.vivisimo.com because of its accessible way of grouping information.

If you’re looking for corporate information or the latest deal in your industry, come on over to the websites of local newspapers, which often yield decent results. Most metro papers have sites that let you search through the archives and find any story they’ve written over the past few years, but their search technology isn’t always good or easy to use, so you might want to try different query words to uncover the right article. Older articles might cost a few dollars, but the convenience is worth it. Can you imagine going to the library to pick up one article? Time is money. Say it twice.

If your search requires something akin to sophistication, such as international news, legal documents, and other such information, go to LexisNexis (www.nexis.com). Unlike most services online, LexisNexis charges by the minute, so have your search carefully mapped out before handing over your Amex number. Beyond sifting though thousands of newspapers, wire services, and international news outlets, Nexis.com will also delve through hard-to-find newsletters, specialized journals, and even TV transcripts.

If you’re looking for intelligence on a competitor, the right place is the company’s website. Most companies have a “press room” page on their site where you can find the squeaky-clean news—such as when they started, how much money they’ve raised, and what deals they’ve cut. Nexis, Google, and the others will help you find the more scandalous gossip. Other good possibilities are the websites of analyst firms for your industry. And, of course, you can go to the rumor boards, places like FuckedCompany.com, as well as the industry watchdogs often found on sites such as Yahoo!, HotJobs, and Monster.

The Web is also a great way to research the media itself—specifically, journalists whom you want to target with story pitches. Clicking through the archives of newspapers themselves will give you a great sense of what a particular journalist is interested in covering. But if you want an extra edge, there are pay services online that let you know the publication’s circulation, how much ads cost, which journalist covers which beat, and even how they prefer to be pitched (i.e., via telephone, fax, snail mail, or e-mail).

Two of these standout services are Bacon’s (www.bacons newsservice.com) and MediaMap (www.mediamaponline.com). Both are relatively expensive but worth the cost if you’re ready to kick off a big buzz campaign. They also both have their strengths and weaknesses. For more comprehensive information, Bacon’s is the best bet for the money. It gives information on all broadcast and print media outlets and all the general information you need. Its list-building capabilities are limited, and the navigation can be as clumsy as a newborn Bambi, but it delivers a complete list of media possibilities for one price. Although MediaMap does a better job, in our experience, of compiling lists, and the background on journalists is more complete, it charges individually for access to each media type, be it broadcast, international, and so on, for the same comprehensive listings that Bacon’s provides.

In general, the key to research on the Web is becoming adroit at doing free or inexpensive searches, figuring out which query phrases work best, and which sites work best for you. Like any skill, Web research takes a bit of practice. Start small. Keep a pad and write down the sites that provide the best search results for you, or file them in your “favorites” folder. That will make for smoother surfing next time.

Also take special note of the actual terms you used in your search. Did you put an “and” in between “Chicago” and “messenger services” or a “+,” for example? In a world of algorithmic inquiries, subtle changes will result in different findings. Most search pages, such as Google, Yahoo!, WiseNut, AltaVista, and the like have an underused button called the “advanced search.” Click it and give it a try. Advanced searches let you set more parameters in your Web rummaging, such as a defined time span, selected publications, and so on. It’s a good way to filter out the irrelevant and stir up only the results that matter. Finally, it’s also smart to remember that time is money, so plunking down a few bucks for Lexis-Nexis or some other search service can be a good idea if it saves you hours of fruitless search time.