I didn't let the cold prevent me from attending the Rita Vine
seminar on search engines coordinated by WebGirls. My next winter
stop was at Alias Wavefront on the latest animation research.
You'll read about the latest Alias Wavefront, the animation gurus
www.aliaswavefront.com news in the next edition.
Ever wonder about those big search engines? Worry no more,
Rita Vine shares her insights with you. Perhaps you're wondering
if you should include a poster in your next campaign. Read the
experts' opinions.
I know that it is a media monitoring jungle out there. Discover
how three different organizations handle their monitoring needs.
In every other issue, I'll be presenting a health column. In
this issue, we highlight the problems associated with mixing herbal
remedies and prescription drugs.
Thanks for reading, and until next time.
The place was Roy Thompson Hall, the seminar, Searching
faster and smarter on the Web, , the speaker, Rita Vine of
IMR Internet Training and the event coordinated by WebGirls.com.
Her thoughts
What's wrong with search engines
a) They cannot index, PDF, databases with forms, sites requiring
log-in and licensed for fee-based materials
b) They read Pdf as a photo
c) They do not go deeply into Web Sites
d) They are too big and impractical
e) Crafty meta-taggers skew results
When to use search engines
"Use search engines only for searching Web Sites for
distinctively named organizations and people"
When seeking information
a) Use guru sites to find resources that you know well. For
example, if you are seeking information on Internet market surveys
www.nua.ic
b) Use virtual reference desks and catalogues to find "guru"
sites that you are unfamiliar with, for example, telephone directories,
www.teldr.com is a guru site
c) If you don't know where to start, then begin with the librarians
index, www.lii.org
How to become a smarter surfer
a) Change the default home page
b) Get a timer-egg timer and set yourself a five minute limit
c) Organize your thoughts on paper
d)Think and read before you click
The complete presentation can be accessed at www.workingfaster.com/links.htm
For the latest developments in search engines
http://www.searchenginewatch.com
Effective poster messaging
In the Canadian Public Relations Society Winter 1999 newsletter,
an informative article was written by Bernadette Seward about
communicating the message through posters.
Here is a brief sampling of replies:
Carmen Gonnewaradene, Associate Graphic designer, art director,
Hill & Knowlton
"Effective posters bring strategy and art together
into one place." "To me, posters are most effective
when they are part of a bigger strategy which has a target audience,
purpose, message and everything else a strategy needs to be effective,
and they become a permanent piece of art.
Karen Schwartz, Director of Corporate Communication for Bayer
Inc.
"They're a support tool that complements other forms
of communications. You can put a good poster by a water cooler
and people can talk to each other about it in a way that we could
never achieve via the Intranet or the emails we also use for
corporate communication."
Evaluating your poster campaign through percentage of:
awareness increase in target market (i.e. unaware to aware
based on formal and informal surveys/focus groups)
attitude change in target market (i.e. satisfied to very satisfied)
purchase increases since posters distributed (i.e integrated
with marketing and sales strategies)
www enquiries (i.e. hits or online information requests/product
purchases)
1-800 inquiries (i.e. telephone calls/what is being requested)
requests for posters and or other related tools and or products
(i.e. brochures, booklets, brand character, tickets, etc.)
Source: CPRS Toronto
To receive their news letters and additional membership benefits,
you can become a member of CPRS-www.cprs.ca
For the Toronto chapter
E-mail: marshl@netcom.ca
Web address:www.cprstoronto.com
Media monitoring
Ever wonder how some organizations handle their media monitoring
needs?
National Defence Canada-
Former strategy
News clips arrived at their headquarters every morning at
6.30 am and was then distributed to 54 different buildings locaally
and faxed to DND outposts worldwide. This process was also repeated
in the evening.
Present strategy
DND chose Newslink, a software package that formats and packages
electronic print and television news feeds and pushes the content
to the desktop. This solution resulted in all DNDs both locally
and worldwide accessing the same information at the same time.
To monitor broadcast DND uses accesTV developed by Telexis www.telexiscorp.com
Newslink is developed by www.denson.ca
Edelman Public Relations
For their health care sector Edelman constantly monitors
their competitors as well as "monitoring pickup and interpretation
of clients' communications in the media
Their strategy
Press clippings and broadcast monitoring
Bowdens fax clipping service www.bowdens.ca
For real-time breaking news
Canadian Press Command News www.cp.org
For industry specific news
Doctor's Guide to the Internet www.pslgroup.com/docguide.htm
For companies to access information about what the world is
saying about them
I-Wire, powered by eWatch www.ewatch.com
Infointeractive- a public Canadian Technology company
Their strategy
MediaScan www.mediascan.ca-clipping service provides daily
coverage by fax of more than 110 Canadian dailies, a dozen foreign
newspapers, as well as leading business publications
For US news
A public relations firm provide a US based electronic news
clipping service. Major stories are faxed as they are published,
but clips delivered on a monthly basis.
For Internet content-monitoring of Web pages, online publications
and USENET newsgroups for mention of the company, key personnel
or products
A US online clipping service Web Clipping www.Webclipping.com
For daily e-briefs-delivery of emails with links to the Web
for complete stories
RedHerring www.redherring.com
Newspage Direct www.individual.com
Source: www.informationhighways.net
Health
Fitness
According to Consumer Reports on Health, increasing the intensity
of your workout can have an added protective effect.
Here are some interesting statistics from research done by
the Nurses Health Study. 70,000 women participated in the study
over an eight year period
Normal pace walking ( about two to three miles an hour) 30
per cent less likely to develop diabetes than those who walked
at an easy pace (less than two miles per hour)
Women walking at "brisk" pace( about three miles per
hour) reduced their risk by an additional 30 per cent
Excercises associate with a marked decrease in diabetes risk:
calisthenics
aerobic classes
jogging
tennis
Beware of herbal remedies
Feverfew, garlic, ginger, gingko biloba, or ginseng increase
bleeding if taken with blood thinning drugs such as aspirin
Increased sedation
Kava taken with Xanax, valium or Ativan
St John's wort taken with Prozac or Paxil
Valerian with Nembutal or Seconal
Before taking prescribed medication, tell your doctor about
your herbal intake.
Taking megadoses of Vitamin C for colds, not very beneficial.
In research conducted by the National Institutes of Health indicates
that the body absorbs very little of Vitamin C in a megadose,
beyond the first 200 milligrams or so.
What's hot
Green, black and red tea good for you, with or without milk
It's good for your teeth (flouride) and especially for its anti-oxidant
activity
Bite your tongue
It can't be that hachneyed phrase "window of opportunity".
Yes it is. It's every where. I thought it would have gone the
way of the dodo by now. But it's still going strong. Maybe the
"window of opportunity" would make a "paradigm
shift" and gracefully retire.
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