FAQs

MONITORING

1. What types of sources can Spotter monitor?
Spotter covers all types of data sources: Internet, online media, social media, printed press, TV/audiovisual media, customer data and clients’ own internal and external databases.

2. How does Spotter select the relevant sources?
Spotter web data collection is based on two main collection processes:
a) Web Panel collection: Once sources are identified and qualified as relevant to the scope of a project the collection of information from those sources is automated using a dual approach:
  • Syndication of RSS feeds for online media, blogs, specific forums, threads and Twitter.
  • Development of ad hoc connectors to gather the data when RSS feeds are not provided by a particular source, or when they do not cover all data published by the source.
b) Open Web collection: In addition to web panel collection, Spotter uses open web crawlers and follow-up of links detected in the data collected to gather new content and detect new sources. When relevant, content identified and qualified by our analysts is included in the process so your project constantly receives the most up-to-date information.

3. How does Spotter deal with the specificity of User Generated Content (UGC)?
For certain user-generated content a combined human and automated approach is necessary to:
  • Collect relevant messages/comments on specific forums, blogs or online press articles
  • Collect messages from Facebook fan pages and group walls
  • Collect relevant comments from YouTube and other video platforms
The automated processes flag initial posts, articles and videos for a project manager who then decides, according to their relevance, whether or not to collect them. Comments associated with initial posts, articles and forum discussions are also flagged and collected when relevant – even if they do not contain any specific mention of the project key words. This process allows us to deal with web conversations where people do not always use as structured a language as media / journalists do.
The data collected via web panel, open web and automated/human collection is then classified in the platform according to monitoring scenarios which are intelligent keyword and concept combinations.

4. Can’t I do this in-house using Google and other free search tools?
You can configure alerts in many free tools and receive them in your inbox. You will receive plenty of e-mails, read them or not… and do what?
Spotter offers professional monitoring of the Internet and social media. Spotter checks that the information received is relevant, organizes it in your monitoring grid, provides you with alerts for the most important issues, qualifies the information and then presents it to you on the MediaSpotter collaborative web platform. There you can use the functionalities to search into the archives, generate quantitative and qualitative analytical graphs, generate press books or targeted e-mail alerts, etc…
Spotter also analyzes the data and provides you with a decision making dashboard to measure the impact of your latest campaigns, follow your reputation and gain market insight with easy-to-read reports, useful graphs, maps, wording and summaries.
Spotter saves you time and provides you with high standard monitoring and analysis solutions to let you concentrate on what really matters: making the right decisions, defining the best strategies and knowing exactly what the outcome of your actions is.

ANALYSIS

5. How does Spotter assess the level of importance of a media source?
The criteria we use are based on a combination of:
  • source readership (number of readers a source has)
  • the geographic coverage of the source (international, national, local)
  • the source’s authority (qualitative criteria based on the reputation of the source in its country’s media landscape)
  • the source’s level of importance to the project based on its relevancy to the issue (rated from 3 – very important to 1 – less important)
  • the source orientation
Spotter organizes, qualifies and evaluates the level of influence and weight of the sources for the different sectors of activity and then specifically for each project.

6. How does Spotter evaluate the level of influence online web sources have for a project?
The influence of online sources is calculated for each type of source (blogs, social network, news websites, microblogs) and takes into account:
  • the relevance of the source for the specific project (i.e. a source specialized in defense will have a higher level of relevance for an aerospace company than for an industry in another sector; this is thus a qualitative criterion)
  • the average level of activity of the source
  • the source page rank
  • the number of visitors/followers when available

7. What is Spotter’s international scope?
For more than 10 years, Spotter has successfully conducted media and social media monitoring and analysis projects in more than 30 countries making in-depth understanding of all cultural aspects (national or regional) a high priority.
Our expertise is based on the right balance between the usage of powerful crawling and indexation technologies, semantic tools and human intervention at key steps. We therefore know that the success of a project depends on having a dedicated project manager to cover all linguistic and cultural aspects:
  • clear understanding of the country’s people and culture.
  • native view on cultural perception of the brand and its competitors.
  • proactive ability to fine tune the sources tracked according to the evolution of the country’s web universe.
  • accurate perception of the conversation in order to identify the ones that are for example clearly US-based versus contributions written in English from other countries.

TECHNOLOGY

8. What technology does Spotter use?
Spotter uses its own proprietary technologies for crawling, text mining and sentiment analysis. We have developed software incorporating complex algorithms all of which undergo continual improvement to ensure our customers benefit from the latest advances and thinking in the field of information analysis. Many on our R&D staff have Ph.D.s in their chosen specialties.

USE

9. How much does Spotter cost?
Because all of our projects are custom designed for our clients our pricing is not “one size fits all.” Budgets may vary depending on the complexity of the subject, the volume of data available, the studied geographic area, the number of languages handled and the level of service requested. Spotter is happy to discuss your project with you and provide a free, no obligation quote.

10. How is Spotter different from other companies who say they do the same things?
There are a number of factors that place Spotter alone in the category of decisional analytics providers:
  • state-of-the-art proprietary technology and the capabilities of its R&D team.
  • double-sourcing approach (See FAQ #2).
  • human validation of the data collected.
  • in-depth qualitative analysis (text mining technology paired with the human element).
  • ability to do back searches of archived information on the web.
  • ability to monitor traditional print and TV media as well as online sources.