Universal Information Services

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...well sort of. I was able to capture part of an industry using my WordPress dashboard for creating time sensitive blogs and tracking comments. If content is king, engagement is queen.

In August of this year the broadcast monitoring industry's largest vendor declared bankruptcy. VMS, Video Monitoring Services, filed Chapter 7 and spilled thousands of clients onto the open market. A year ago this would have been of great interest, but of little consequence, to Universal Information Services. With the help of What-Cheer we completely renovated our web presence back in the fall of 2010. This gave us a custom themed WordPress website and a complete content management system for blogging and managing comments. What I would also find is that with the provided plug-ins of WordPress, my posts were being optimized for Search Engines and growing my brand presence with my industry. Here's where the story begins...

I was in Scottsdale, Arizona on a work related retreat when I learned that in 18 short hours VMS would be closing their doors. My associates quickly helped me brainstorm how I could best help the soon to be orphaned VMS clients find a home with Universal Information Services. Rather than exploit the misfortune of a friendly competitor, I simply created a higher profile for Universal Information Services, a profile that would help these clients find my company. Below is a timeline of what I did, what transpired as a result of my actions, and how that translated into growth for my company.

• 6pm August 25: A rumor of the impending bankruptcy hit my cell phone and six business friends helped me formulate a strategy using the #newtools of social media to help pull new prospects to Universal.
• 12:01am August 26: Seeing an industry email related to the bankruptcy, a second source confirming the rumor, I turned to my iPad to begin blogging about the bankruptcy and how it may impact VMS employees and clients. I accessed the CMS dashboard of Universal's website, a simple but powerful WordPress interface. There I quickly tapped out my thoughts on the matter. That original blog can be found here.
• 5am (in Arizona), 7am ET August 26: I moved my first blog on VMS with a single click of the Publish button.
• 6am August 26: Began commenting on other blogs and web sites, using my blog url on the comments to drive traffic back to the Universal Website.
• 7am August 26: Had breakfast and waited.
• Noon ET, August 26: VMS officially announces their bankruptcy...industry email, blogs, newsletters explode with confirmation and questions.
• Afternoon of August 26: Emails start hitting my smartphone with people commenting on my blog post. I respond to these comments quickly.
• 6am August 27: Update my original VMS related blog, citing some comments from over the past 18 hours.
• 7am August 27: Answer more comments on my blog post. I also realize that this blog has drawn more comments than any other in the prior year.
• 8am August 29: Post a related blog on my other company's website, The NewsTracks.
• September 2: Write a follow up blog reflecting back on the week since the VMS bankruptcy. Again, drawing a high volume of comments and links to our site.

The net effect:
My efforts, through our WordPress blog, effectively boosted our search rankings, with my sites capturing most, if not all, of the first page of organic results. Additionally, our Google AdWords campaigns went through the roof as Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube related postings all pointed back to the Universal website. Similarly, my Utah News Clips company saw a huge jump in google hits due to the SEO effect from that WordPress blog. All the comments, links, and links back to our site helped elevate our exposure in the industry by an amazing rate. So much so that our broadcast monitoring business, the part most similar to what VMS provided, saw a jump in sales of 36% for the month following the VMS bankruptcy.

Can I trace our September growth solely to the fact that we were able to quickly facilitate online interaction through our WordPress site, probably not. Having a coordinated plan to Tweet, Blog and comment all contributed to the growth. Most importantly, we didn't wait to take action and our WordPress blogs let us capitalize on the best #newtools of the web. The #samerules of time sensitive marketing is all we did, but in a much different way than would have been possible in years past.

Do you have a similar experience from blogging? Any tips you care to add to the strategy I used? Please contribute to the knowledge base (community) who views this site and leave your comments. I appreciate the engagement.

Comments (4)

For those in public relations, corporate communications, or investor relations, you most likely have heard the news that Video Monitoring Services, VMS, closed last Friday with Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Since the story first broke on commpro.biz, many industry newsletters have posted their view of what caused the fall of the largest broadcast monitoring service. Looking in the rear view mirror is always far easier than projecting where one needs to be. Unfortunately it is too late for VMS, but here are some comments that have been said publicly, and my opinion on those speculative thoughts.

1. Said: VMS could not keep up with the competitive platforms built solely on a computerized infrastructure. Opinion: Probably not true. VMS had a very good system in the Quickview reports and were first to market with such a product. VMS had many integrated products that helped correlate efforts to results. Technology, when comparable, is rarely the reason a company fails.
2. Said: VMS couldn't pay their vendors and this led to a death spiral. Opinion: I'm not sure about all vendors, but since VMS purchased some of their broadcast content from Universal Information Services I know they stayed current with us.
3. Said: VMS management didn't know what they were doing. Opinion: I can't speak to the most recent management hires, but many of the people I knew and worked with at VMS were extremely bright and had a great intuition for the industry. In the end, a loss of mission or direction is probably the most likely culprit for this failure, but to say VMS had a history of poor management would dismiss the many years they were the market leader.
4. Said: Better services passed VMS by. Opinion: Consider the source of these statements. If you are a competitor who has much to gain from the failure of VMS, then you may be tempted to yell, "We scared VMS out of the water because we are awesome". Competition rarely forces a company to liquidate. Restructure, reconfigure, retool, these are the hallmarks of a competitive company that has been a market leader in any industry.

Looking back over the past week I see a couple lessons to be learned. First, the VMS employees caught in the bankruptcy are great people. I'm glad to see quality services like cision hiring some of these employees. Soon we hope to also be working with former VMS staff. Second, don't believe all that you read...especially in advertising. Whether a blog or an ad, some lofty claims are being made. Phrases like "biggest", "best", and "only" are hollow terms that don't tell you a thing about the level of service and support you can expect from vendor. Finally, if you are a former VMS client the best thing you can do is interview prospective monitors. If you are a local or regional organization, there is undoubtedly a monitoring service better located to serve your needs. Local and regional monitors know the news that is important to you. They know your city, state, issues, problems, etc.

Use the wonderful search of Google to locate news monitoring services that may be better positioned to provide what you need. Yes, I think Universal Information Services is the best company in the world. I would not be able to fake passion for what I do if I did not truly believe in the team I work with and the client missions we serve. I also own Utah News Clips, a news monitoring company located on the west coast so we can better serve the Western time zones. The team at Utah News Clips shares the same core values as Universal, we make your news our business.

Please comment where you think I've missed the boat on what has been said, or leave additional comments on what you think happened to VMS.

Comments (6)

Updated: 8/27/11

The morning of August 26th, Twitter erupted over rumors that the oldest tv and radio monitoring service was filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy. If these rumors are correct [they were], Video Monitoring Services closed their doors today at noon eastern [8/26/11].

What does this mean for their clients. Unfortunately, they will need to find a new vendor they can initially trust...then build a new relationship over time. Universal Information Services has been fielding calls and tweets from former VMS clients that need uninterrupted news tracking for themselves or their clients.

Our sister company, Utah News Clips, is also spreading out to assist VMS clients who know the show must go on.

It is a terribly sad day for us and our friends at VMS. I've worked personally with their CEOs, production, and sales team. Many of these people are my close friends. I hope the best for my friends at VMS and pledge my companies to continue the level of service they established for the news monitoring industry.

Please contact us if you need help in finding a new, best-fit solution for news monitoring. (800) 408-3178

Note

The twittersphere is ripe with allegations that the software-as-a-service (SaaS) competitors killed VMS. As an innovator in this industry I think that notion is dangerous. There was no mass exodus of clients from VMS, it sounds like they simply loss direction from a management perspective. I am not on the inside, by the title of this blog is #SameRules #NewTools. This philosophy applies here in that VMS set the benchmark for quality client relations. All in the industry, including Critical Mention, Cision, and Universal bench-marked ourselves against VMS. The customer experience is still the number one issue to a client. We all have real-time reports, preview video, and edit on demand. I think the real difference now is between those who still offer true customer support, and those who don't. I believe the clients of VMS chose VMS because they wanted a team to call, someone to make things happen, and help when they didn't have time or didn't understand the interface. These things are all good and still available through companies like mine. The SaaS model exists for those who want to serve themselves, or think they won't need help.

As you review new vendors, think what your needs truly are. Have they changed just because VMS has closed their doors? Probably not.

Comments (22)

Determining the effectiveness of your public relations efforts, or how your brand/service compares against the competition, has always been a very important task. However, two aspects of media analysis have routinely made it the part of the PR professionals' job that they hate. First, in the past, tracking the news you need in a timely manner has been difficult. Second, DATA ENTRY SUCKS!

Recently I posed the following question on Linkedin under the group Media Monitoring and Media Evaluation.
"How important is comprehensiveness of found media to your organization's media analysis effort"?
Background: We believe that some people are content to analyze only a fraction of their media exposure, while most need to track as much news as possible in order for their analysis to be valid.

The responses to the above question showed that there are truly two different types of clients when it comes to media evaluation. One type needs comprehensiveness of found media in order to truly demonstrate their share of voice, reach, impact and meaning. The other type of client can trade comprehensiveness for timeliness and focus of the data that is analyzed. I also believe there's a third category of client, one that wants a balance of both timeliness and comprehensiveness, at least to the point of making their results more reliable. At Universal we try to load for all three analysis clients and then customize around their specific goals.

Comprehensiveness is a measure of how much media you are searching, out of all available media. Now while no company can find everything, a few do search and find more. At the bottom of the list, contrary to what many would believe, web monitoring misses most of the news consumed by the public and businesses. Current studies show that at least 60% of published and broadcast media is not available online. For this reason, a complete news monitoring service, one that tracks print, broadcast, web, and social, is the only option for the most comprehensive news tracking. Services like cision, Burrelles/Luce, and Universal can provide this level of comprehensiveness.

Timeliness is a measure of how quickly your found stories can be delivered and analyzed to you. The faster you see your found stories, the better. This is where monitoring online news sources can shine. Our Web-Alert service lets clients see their online media exposure in near real-time, but it comes at a cost over comprehensiveness. Nonetheless, if you want to quickly analyze a sampling of results, web monitoring can be a great tool. Free services like Google News tend to find less than subscription based web monitoring services, but if you have no budget Google News can fill the basic need.

Finally, data entry. Yes, if you are that entry level PR professional, intern, or from a small boutique firm you have undoubtedly either decided not to measure results, or you are among the masses who must engage in arduous data entry each time you need to develop qualitative and quantitative reports. We know your pain. Every single one of our clients uses our Media Analysis service because data entry sucks. Sorry to be blunt, but I don't think I'm saying anything you haven't thought before.

I joke with our Media Analysis Team that we represent "salvation". Salvation from the terror of cutting a media analysis report when it is the last thing you want to do. What did we do, we found a scalable team of "numbers nerds" who love to do that work. The salvation we offer comes from taking the pain off of your shoulders and putting it on the the shoulders of highly trained analysts...people who love to do what most dislike...but need. Match this love with some level of our news tracking and we have been able to take the entire tracking and measurement task to an outsourced solution.

Ask yourself the question, how important is it for my organization to understand the results of our efforts? If the answer is "pretty darn important", then look at how much time and stress is involved with creating results that may have varying degrees of reliability. Somewhere within that internal conversation you'll stumble across the notion that, "Maybe I should outsource this to a professional service". If not Universal, then one of several services that do truly accurate measurement. Accurate measurement only comes from validation by real humans. Machine generated results have such a low reliability rate that it's hard to believe people can charge for that, but they do.

Check out this blog for more info. Although Lusine Kodagolian is not related to our company in any way, I think she has some great insight on this topic. I'm glad I have connected with her on Linkedin.

Every year, but with growing frequency, people and organizations try to create order out of the prior 12 months (11 months in most cases). This ordering process takes form of the "Top 10 List" and purports to rank any and every topic imaginable. As a blogging technique, or social networking strategy, all the books and experts will tell you that it is actually a very successful tool. People like lists, and as it turns out, it appears search engines also like them. There's even a site devoted solely to Top 10 Lists, http://top-10-list.org/

Seeing a tweet, Facebook post, or even a Linkedin discussion with the words "Top 10", "Top 5" or even "Top 3" piques the interest of enough people that it is truly a strategy for engagement. If you are creating a list you should be asking yourself, "What can I place in order that will truly be of interest to others?" Generally, as Warren Buffett would say, invest in what you know. What is your sandbox, your product, your area of influence? Straying outside of what you know usually has the worst impact a marketing person could achieve, little to no impact at all.

The beauty of a "Top X" list is that it can be fairly simple to create and very enjoyable to compile. At Universal Information Services we come in contact with virtually every news story that breaks throughout the year. As a complete news monitoring service we not only see all the news online, but all the news that was actually broadcast or published. Our news monitoring and media analysis teams have the ability to quantitatively measure the biggest stories, then compile our list of "The Top 5 Biggest News Stories"...by volume. Our list uses statistics to measure which news stories were seen the most, not necessarily which stories had the greatest impact on society or represented the greatest value. We can, however, localize our "Top 5" lists to specific cities, helping ensure greater exposure from traditional and social media outlets.

So we use the media to create our Top 5 list, which in turn generates more media exposure for Universal Information Services...media begets media. Ironically, this is completely in line with our #samerules #newtools philosophy. The new tools of social networking help amplify small messages to the point that traditional media takes notice. As traditional media now uses the same social networking tools that we all have access to, they are able to cover stories in the traditional media that previously would have earned no placement.

As we enter December, brace yourself for the onslaught of Top 10 Lists. As a fun exercise, use your preferred Twitter client, I prefer Tweetdeck, and open a search for "top 10". I began writing this blog about 20 minutes ago and in that time I have averaged about 1 tweet per second that includes a mention and link to a top 10 list. Many of them are retweets because, well, most Twitter users don't really want to create new content, they'd just rather RT someone's idea and be considered part of the "engaged" crowd. Not that I have anything against retweeting, I do it all the time. But one of the top two rules for social media engagement is to be sure you provide compelling content. That's a topic for another post.

Leave a comment or link to your favorite Top X list. Who knows, maybe I'll release a Top 10 List of the Top 10 lists received.

Cheers!

Comments (2)

At Universal Information Services our national news monitoring and media analysis efforts have evolved to a point where our client prospects are mostly found through inbound systems. In other words, with the growing use of #newtools from social media platforms, the need for us to interrupt/disrupt our prospective clients is greatly reduced.

Many resources have illuminated this shift away from outbound marketing, but essentially the #newtools (Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Linkedin, Groupon, etc.) now let any organization that must routinely generate new clients, attract those clients to them rather than hunt them down and interrupt them with a marketing pitch. Mix in Google Analytics, and you have an amazing way to analyze your effectiveness for inbound marketing. Whether you call it "interruption marketing" or "disruption selling", it is a much harder sell than allowing prospects to find you when they are looking for what you have.

If you look at the economics of maintaining a staff of national sales people, how many calls and follow-ups do they have to make in order to bring one new customer to you? We both know the answer here, and that number is somewhere around a "boat-load". Figure in salaries, support staff, CRM costs, other consumables, and the expense in finding a new client is very high. But, if you can decrease the number of outbound marketers you employ, and convert those people devoted customer service representatives, you'll find that your ROI is much greater when focused on retention of clients and in selling additional services to those happy clients.

Allowing low, fixed-cost social media tools to funnel leads to your inbound marketing staff means your team is working with those who are already predisposed to want what you are selling. Equally important to this inverse marketing path, is the #samerules concept that clients want to have an enjoyable experience when working with their vendors. From the beginning of the sales cycle you now have a pleasant relationship instead of one that starts with disrupting your client's day.

Outbound marketing (interruption/disruption) has become a mostly adversarial encounter as we are all trained to initially say, "No!", when approached by a salesperson. In some cases the salesperson gets lucky and can warm the prospect up to what they are selling. But this conversion is the rare occasion for any service. The excessive abuse by the bad apples of telemarketing and direct marketing has inoculated everyone against the cold call. But if that cold call is now a warm call, and is initiated by the end user and not the marketer, you have a very potent sales mechanism.

Here are several resources that can help you make the jump from disruption marketing...the #newtools of social media.
Rick Burnes, Inbound Marketing & the Next Phase of Marketing on the Web
Brian Halligan, Inbound Marketing vs. Outbound Marketing
Lee Odden, 22 Social Media Marketing Management Tools

I love the idea that I don't have to deploy a force of clever sales people charged with penetrating the natural defenses of our future clients. It's much more enjoyable to be viewed as a solution to a prospects need when THEY contact us. We do still identify and proactively approach organizations that clearly need our services, but now we can be much more selective and increase our probability of winning that business.

The costly, shotgun approach of disruption marketing is dieing, but certainly is not dead. We'd love to hear your opinion on inbound vs. outbound marketing. What #newtools have you found that increase your ROI for marketing and sales?

Todd Murphy
Vice President
Universal Information Services
http://universal-info.com

Comments (2)

As my sixth post to Universal Information Services' blog page, I felt it was time to elaborate on the philosophy of #samerules and #newtools. This blog was intended to cast light on what new tools are available to the PR professional and business communicator. We also want to contrast the flood of new tools against the common sense thought that using these tools entails an understanding of the fundamental rules of communication and PR. At the core of the new tools is not a paradigm shift in the way we communicate, but rather a set of rules we've seen and used for many years prior.

For many people the prospect of mastering new tools to enhance their media relations efforts can be unappealing or simply a burden. Like it or not, new tools present themselves everyday and for every industry. These new tools do have differences that make them unique, but their fundamentals remain the same. Here are some examples of #newtools with #samerules at their core.
1. The iPod: Did it change how we enjoy music, or simply the ease with which we enjoy music? Most would say that the Sony Walkman ushered in the era of personal audio. The iPod represents a new tool, but fundamentally has the same rules as the Walkman. The phonograph brought music into the personal space more than a century before the Walkman.
2. Twitter: Did Twitter change all that we know about communication and public relations? No. Fundamentally one can argue that Twitter is a micro blogging system, stemming from the blogging conventions, that stemmed from the fundamentals of writing and journalism. Blogging and micro blogging are a great example of what happens when we democratize the tools. These new tools are now available to everyone and at no cost. But, the same rules of writing compelling content (did everyone just leave?) apply or else no one will read what you have to say (*small exception to this point, see below).
3. Rock & Roll: My friend, Jeremy Lipschultz, Ph.D., almost tripped me up with the illustration of what Elvis and The Beatles meant to music. Do these bands represent #samerules or new rules? Then it came to me, what the original Rockers did was analogous to what social media is doing for journalism and public relations. Electric instruments, amplifiers, and a faster tempo were, at their core, the application of new tools using the same rules. Aside from the most pure form of industrial music, Rock & Roll (including all variations) still adheres to the #samerules of tempo, notes, chords, chord progression, etc. Elvis used his new tools to amplify his message and draw a greater audience, much like the social media tools.

Now I don't want you to walk away thinking that none of the #newtools have new rules. I believe quite the contrary. All new tools do have new rules that make them unique, but they ALSO have the #samerules at their core. One should not forget common sense, human nature, and the fundamental conventions of good public relations. The new tools are great because they let us amplify our message beyond what we could previously do with the older tools. The #newtools help us engage other mediums by extending our audience and community.

I'm confident someone will find a new tool that has none of the #samerules at its core. When that happens I will embrace that concept and most likely discuss it here on this blog. But until then I encourage you to try and test this theory. Are there any new tools of communication you are using that you feel have no fundamental rules from prior modes of communication? Leave your comments to engage with me, or visit our website for some ideas http://www.universal-info.com/

Cheers!
Todd Murphy
Vice President
Universal Information Services

(*small exception: The Long Tail philosophy dictates that there is an audience or buyer for everything, no matter how unique the product or content. At the very far end of the Long Tail you may find some #newtools that have no corresponding #samerules. I love The Long Tail.)

Comments (2)

Yep, another blog about customer experience. If you're like me, you're probably thinking, "Seen it, read it, know it...I get it." I'm going to keep this short and sweet, but underscore the fact that the points you might think you're competing on have nothing to do with what will make you a great company.

First, almost every service or product now has scads of competitors. For example, I'd hate to be in the "social media tool" industry right now (damn, I think we are). Just yesterday I read a blog about "220 Indispensable Social Media Tools". Ok, how do you go about differentiating yourself when 219 of them are SaaS systems? The reality is you do it either through a massive sales program (hire the college grads, pay only commission, and pump that service), or you be the ONE company that does it with an exceptional customer experience. Price, user interface, fancy charts and graphs...everyone has those. You need to be different. You need to stand out. You need to offer a customer experience that tells all who inquire, "We are the company you want to use."

Universal Information Services uses the far-from-unique approach of "take care of the customer first, and the cash will follow". Many companies like DELL Computers have ingrained this notion of outstanding customer experience within their organization. Backup 11 years to this Fast Company article and you'll see we're really talking about the #samerules applying to the #newtools of Customer Experience. With our Media Analysis and Social Network Mapping we don't just give you access to data, we interpret the results for you. The difference between a tool and a service, in my experience, is that a service delivers what you need, in a form you can digest, without requiring gobs of your own time to analyze and figure it out. We call this "reading the tea leaves".

PR professionals and business communicators still only have 24 hours in the day. Our job is to do the work they pay us for so they can focus on their mission critical activities. These professionals were not hired to measure stories, maintain a database of metrics, input earned media hits, AND THEN interpret what that means. That is the service they buy from Universal Information Services...and we go over the top to make sure their experience is great.

What is it you do for your customers or clients? From their perspective, are your clients having a great experience when working with you? If not, they'll find the company that does make their experience great. Customer Experience is truly the piece you are competing on with your peers...It is the one thing that can make you different.

For another perspective on Customer Experience, check out Marc Meyer's blog, "The Customer Experience Revisited". Please tell us your unique perspective on the customer experience. Your comments are important to us.

Welcome to our first ravings related to news, information consumption, social media, tools of dissemination, and how all this is impacted by Human Nature. Universal Information Services has created this blog to illuminate ideas related to the intersection of communication fundamentals and new channels of information distribution. Basically, our media analysis and position as a news monitoring service has led us to the conclusion that the fundamental rules of public relations communications has not changed, only the tools we have at our disposal are new (#SameRules #NewTools).

We’ve even chosen to hash tag these two phrases to underscore the importance that social media has on media engagement, media placement, and public perception. It is true, social media has greatly enhanced our methods of communication. But be careful, professional communication by any mode has not fundamentally changed. Therefore our blog will feature postings related to two areas of public relations and communications. We'll also focus on issues related to news monitoring, media analysis, social network influence. From press clipping to TV news clips to web monitoring, our broad spectrum of news monitoring and media analysis experience opens a wide door for discussion.

First, the fundamentals of writing style and the need for compelling content are not new. If you can’t write, spell, structure a sentence, or convey compelling ideas, it does not matter what channel you use to communicate, your audience will remain small and ephemeral. The same basic rules of communication survive today and are only slightly modified to match each medium (print, broadcast, web, social).

Second, how you harness the enormous power of the new tools like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Foursquare is a testament to your ability to apply your skills across the #NewTools. You should be thinking “in addition to” rather than “instead of”. Human nature, as well as common sense, dictates that one should meet their target audience through whatever communication tool they prefer. For this reason all of us need to stop referring to social media as something outside of mainstream media. Never has a new medium supplanted an older medium. Newspapers did not kill discussion, radio did not kill newspapers, television did not kill radio, the Web did not kill television, and social media will not kill any of the aforementioned mediums. The communication pie only expands while dividing into smaller pieces for each medium…growth instead of replacement.

I’m sure some will hold on to the false notion that there has been a complete shift in the communication paradigm. I hope to receive comments that the world has changed as we know it and we will forever be changed. These comments will help prove that no matter what our technical mode of discourse may be, human nature controls how we communicate…and that is fundamentally unchanged.

I am not a writer. You will see an overabundance of commas in my postings and I may not always structure my sentences correctly. Yes, you may correct me if you want, but in the end it is the ideas I’m hoping to spark interest with, not my writing prowess.

#SameRules #NewTools represents an extension of the media research we do here at Universal. This blog is for the “engaged community”. This does not mean only those who are social media savvy, but anyone who understands that humans create content and humans consume information. Those who fail to consider human nature when creating tools are doomed to repeat history by creating solutions that are DOA. There will be little acceptance of their #NewTool because they have chosen to ignore the importance of the #SameRules.

Future topics include: Niche content and The Long Tail, The Importance of Compelling Content, and an answer to the “Who Cares” question (ROI).