New fave tool referred to in previous post is: Addictomatic
I have had a few private messages about how it might be used in corporate (or other) comms, so here’s my 2pth – please do add/alter/moan.
How to use it
Put in a keyword | Hit Create | Read the category results
(Whoever said that I was not the most useful girl on the planet?)
Easy right? (Not me, Addictomatic.)
Think first
It is very easy to get distracted. The first time I used it I was needing to listen to what the www was saying about printing and how collaborative tools could be best used to increase the value and relevance of offline printing. I tried all sorts of keywords that made sense to me: online printing, printing collaboration, printing, printing new… you get my drift – I was being a bit rubbish. Anyway, quickly tiring of the results, I decided to Addictomatic me – shockingly poor results, then my online persona: mulquem, similarly cr*p, then onto people I know, stuff I liked, er even things on my desk… hmmm displacement activity at its best.
Tips
1. Be focussed before you enter the url into your toolbar
2. Have a series of options for keywords you think will work
WARNING: THERE IS NO ACCOUNTING FOR MISSPELLING: IF YOU SPELL YOUR KEYWORD/S INCORRECTLY, ADDICTOMATIC WILL NOT CORRECT IT
3. SCROLL there is lots of good stuff below the line on the results page
4. Explore – click through on the group footers, where it says ‘more at…’
This will give you a wealth of information to digest, conversations to listen to and show you places where you might like to build your profile, or begin to engage.
That is enough for now.
I feel as if I have competely ruined the simplicity of a cool listening tool, a bit like this Microsoft/Apple battle http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeXAcwriid0 apologies 
5 Comments
July 31, 2008 at 2:15 pm
I thought the results for you were quite interesting. Much better than the ones for me. But Jeremy beats us all.
I will add it to my toolbox for convincing the sceptics.
July 31, 2008 at 8:57 pm
Thanks Mark :-p
I think it has two limited, but useful, functions:
1. Great for a snapshot on a trackable keyword or phrase (strangely I find it works better on people’s names rather than phrases too).
2. It demonstrates the kind of value a reasonably sophisticated RSS reader +netvibes / pageflakes / igoogle setup could provide using multiple keywords / phrases and sources.
July 31, 2008 at 8:58 pm
… should have said – but 2. takes quite a bit of time and effort to set up properly and people shouldn’t underestimate the complexity it requires to work properly.
September 5, 2008 at 11:57 am
[...] online already. At this point I recommend you use a listening service such as Addictomatic. (In a previous post I have explained how to use this – although it is really simple so you don’t need to read the [...]
November 4, 2008 at 10:31 am
[...] Mulqueeny on Addictomatic [...]