http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47110-2002Jan27.html
Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, January 28, 2002; Page E05
If someone is tearing apart Burger King's latest promotion in an Internet chat room, Pete Snyder wants to know about it. Likewise if Web chatters are trashing the star of an upcoming Paramount Pictures film.
Snyder's company, New Media Strategies Inc., protects brand names from online defamation. New Media Strategies developed a software system that will scour the Internet for any mention of a client's name or products. The company references are then analyzed to track public opinion on the firm.
In the examples cited above, New Media would alert the company of the problem and do some damage control. New Media's account representatives try to pinpoint the problem areas and do some promotional chatting to create a good buzz for the movie star.
As a pollster for corporate and political clients, Snyder spent years analyzing public opinion, but he was always frustrated that he could not act on the information he gathered -- that was left to the media spin team.
By establishing New Media Strategies, Snyder said he was able to put his researching skills to practical use for clients in a forum often ignored by major corporations.
"The Internet is the largest focus group ever created," he said. "In PR I was constantly concerned with protecting my client and the Internet put that at risk. There's just so much information out there -- positive and negative."
Clients also use New Media's research to test public reaction before releasing new products or launching sales campaigns. After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Walt Disney Co. postponed the release of "Monsters Inc.," a high-profile animated film, and used New Media data to determine a new date to debut the movie.
"No one else is really doing what we're doing here," Snyder said. "There are other companies that do bits and pieces, but no one really pulls it all together. That's why we haven't been affected by the downturn. What we're doing directly relates to our clients' bottom lines."
===== Kevin Dean Buffalo, NY ICQ: 8616001 http://www.yaysoft.com
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