brandbreak!

A personal internet spy? I want one of those. Oh, wait... it already exists. Spy (http://spy.appspot.com) is an application that searches social networks and media, picking up on keywords that you search for. More importantly, it searches in REAL time.

This is only one of the crazy tools that I found while researching social media for a presentation next week.


Maybe tools like this don't look too exciting to you, but for me, these are damn sexy.

Can you imagine launching a new ad campaign for your brand and immediately seeing what people are saying about it?


Spy currently searches the following sites:

• Twitter
• FriendFeed
• Blog Comments
• Flickr
• Yahoo News
• Blogs
• Google Reader

The only downside is that it picks up posts multiple times. As a result, it can't be used for quantitative research, but it's perfect for qualitative brand tracking. I assume this is because of the search algorithm it uses. Try doing a search for Nike, Brandcenter, or Vermont, and see what you find.



Many people claim to know a lot about social and interactive media, but I've been working with and studying it for years, and I'm still discovering new things. Want to know more about social media in advertising?

Too bad, I don't give away everything I know. Hire me.