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• Mobility Is Coming: Are You Ready?
  
• Getting to the source: Science.gov

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By Charlene Burke

As CEO of a digital marketing agency, my clients are varied. They include a nationally-known home health care strategist, a manufacturer of a high tech wheelchair, a local accountant, a 50's style diner and a social media marketing agency. These examples give you an idea of the variety of clients with which my agency works.

• Whether I'm interested in content, competitive intelligence, market research or reputation management, my number one "go-to" tool is Google Reader. I'm able to subscribe to RSS feeds from news sites, directories, social media platforms and more - to get "as it happens" information that will be helpful to my agency and to my clients. While I have specific alerts set up, there are some feeds that I make sure to check daily.
  
  
• Bizjournals.com: For my own purposes, I subscribe to news that relates to manufacturing. I receive articles and mentions in all Business Journals from cities around the United States.
  
  
• LinkedIn Answers: I have a few categories that I subscribe to. "Search Marketing" and "Internet Marketing" questions and answers provide me an opportunity to share my expertise (and I've gotten new clients this way). Some of the specialised focus areas that have provided interesting intelligence for my clients include "Product Management - Market Research Definition", "Health" and "Business Operations - Manufacturing".
  
  
• SEOmoz.org: For all things SEO (search engine optimisation).
  
  
• SearchEngineLand.com: For all things related to search marketing.
  
  
• My clients' blogs: So I know what they're sharing, and can be proactive should I see an opportunity to provide strategic information. It may be that I see they need some research for an upcoming conference, or they're offering a new product/service and I can offer some competitive intelligence.
  
  
• InsiderLouisville.com: A terrific resource for local business related rumors in Louisville, Kentucky, some of which have helped me to help a client.

Charlene Burke is CEO of Search by Burke, LLC, a full service digital marketing agency that focuses on helping clients create, develop and maintain their online presence to increase sales. The team is experienced in website creation and development, email marketing campaigns, SEO, PPC campaign management, social media marketing and more. Search by Burke also conducts company, industry, competitive and market research to support clients' business goals. Charlene is the Online Marketing Advisor for the Southeast Indiana (US) Small Business Development Center, is a partner at Online Marketing Pros and teaches online marketing, social media and "searching the Internet" classes to professionals, corporate groups and marketing teams. She is serious about business and working with clients, and thinks life is better when injected with humor throughout the day. She is reading three or four novels at any given time, plays golf now that she knows the difference between an iron, a wood and a driver, thinks Star Trek Voyager is the best one ever, and believes that Superman is better than the Knight in Shining Armor - because he can keep up with Superwoman.

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FreePint Features offers the latest commentary on trends, issues and opportunities in the information world, as well as examples of how organisations use FreePint resources to raise the value of information.

Selection of the latest FreePint Features articles:

• Go with the flow
  By Scott Brown on Tuesday, 2nd October 2012
  Are we really freeing the river of information via information "streams" and other tools, or are these examples just spouts of water leaking from the dam? Read more in this edition of the Information Practice Newsletter.
  
  
• Mobility Is Coming: Are You Ready?
  By Robin Neidorf on Monday, 1st October 2012
  In three short years, we've seen organisations make a leap from "not interested" in getting content onto mobile devices for users to "I need to figure this out NOW". But how ready is your organisation to begin deploying mobile content? Robin Neidorf offers some guidelines to help think about what readiness might look like in your organisation.
  
  
• FirstRain Launches the Performinator
  By Perrin Kerravala on Friday, 28th September 2012
  FirstRain is one of those rare products that can potentially help users increase their current awareness and productivity, reduce information overload, and streamline their day-to-day processes. With the latest version of the product, users can now take advantage of FirstTweets - precisely selected Tweets on companies, products, competitors and other relevant topics - as well as the FirstRain Performinator. Reviewer Perrin Kerravala take a closer look at the latest developments.
  
  
• Getting to the source: Science.gov
  By Tim Reynolds on Thursday, 27th September 2012
  The drive toward government transparency increases the amount of data availability to the public. To facilitate research and organise information, governments are creating more information portals. This article is a review of the underutilised portal Science.gov.
  
  
• Free, Useful, Dangerous? Comparative review of Google News, Yahoo! News and Bing News
  By Scott Brown on Wednesday, 26th September 2012
  Sources like Bing News, Google News and Yahoo! News can readily provide "good enough" information in many situations - getting familiar with a new topic, monitoring mentions of a company, or identifying spikes in news coverage, just to name a few. These advantages can very appealing to individual users and to organisations. But when free news sources are being used within the organisation, some potential liabilities can come into play. A new FreePint Report compares and contrasts the major search engines for business news monitoring and discusses the risks an organisation takes on by using these services.
  
  
• Seeking the content niche
  By Scott Brown on Tuesday, 25th September 2012
  Content of every kind is increasingly becoming available via free channels - and it seems like it's becoming harder for information vendors to figure out what content customers will actually purchase. It seems as if the struggle to find the "content niche" will continue to become even more difficult - yet vendors are rising to the challenge of distinguishing their offerings. Read more in this edition of the Information Content Newsletter.
  
  
• Share the Value of FreePint Subscription Articles
  By Robin Neidorf on Tuesday, 25th September 2012
  The ability to share any article with anyone else in your organisation is one of the newest features of the FreePint Subscription. Learn how easy it is to put practical articles in front of colleagues, to support the value of everyone's work and the contribution of information to your organisation's objectives.
  
  
• Source Update 2012: What's happening with online sources?
  By Anne Jordan on Monday, 24th September 2012
  Every month, contributing editor Anne Jordan researches changes in the source lists for commonly used aggregators like Factiva and Nexis. Full Source Update articles are included in the FreePint Subscription; this article provides a small taste.
  
  
• Convenience and Value
  By Robin Neidorf on Thursday, 20th September 2012
  Current articles in FreePint provide different views into the concept of "convenience" and what we're looking for in information tools and systems. Check out these and other articles and reports via the latest issue of the FreePint Newsletter.
  
  
• ... More ...

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Articles and reports included in a FreePint Subscription provide customer organisations with practical insight to support information practice, content purchasing and usage, and strategic planning.

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Selection of FreePint Subscription articles and reports:

• Grim job market offers opportunities for some?
  By Tim Buckley Owen on Monday, 1st October 2012
  The financial industry is experiencing a severe job slump, as are many industries worldwide. So it's probably not the time when you'd expect new recruitment initiatives and sites to be emerging. Yet emerging they seem to be, in all sorts of different guises. What's the reason behind the push in recruitment initiatives?
  
  
• Why do people share?
  By James Mullan on Monday, 1st October 2012
  Have you ever asked yourself why you share content with friends, colleagues or people you know on the many social media sites that exist? If you've been using Facebook, Twitter or Google+ since their inception, you might never have thought about why you share content, but the reasons may surprise you.
  
  
• FreePint Report: Information Services Management Monthly Update (September 2012)
  Published on Friday, 28th September 2012
  This monthly update collects the current content relevant to those responsible for information service management, information strategy and content procurement in a convenient PDF package for download and offline reading.
  
  
• FirstRain: Introduction and FreePint's View
  By Perrin Kerravala on Thursday, 27th September 2012
  FirstRain is a powerful solution for delivering web and social media content on companies and industries, designed specifically for account sales and marketing executives. FirstRain offers flexible deployment solutions for the web, customer relationship management and social enterprise systems, as well as tablet and mobile devices. Reviewer Perrin Kerravala provides an overview in this introduction.
  
  
• FreePint Report: Product Review of FirstRain
  Published on Thursday, 27th September 2012
  FirstRain is a powerful solution for delivering web and social media content on companies and industries, designed specifically for account sales and marketing executives - a unique information service that delivers only highly-relevant web content, removing most of the noise of the Internet. Over the past year (FreePint reviewed FirstRain in August 2011), FirstRain has sharpened its focus to deliver customer intelligence as defined from the points-of-view of their clients. This focus includes information on companies and competitors, end markets and market drivers, and critical events that indicate opportunity, risk and change.
  
  
• Priorities in the Enterprise
  By Robin Neidorf on Thursday, 27th September 2012
  A variety of projects compete for attention and resources of information services managers. In Benchmarking on Information Services interviews, respondents rated their likelihood of devoting resources to certain types of projects. An analysis of average ratings and the spread of responses highlights just how diverse this profession is, and how many competing priorities an organistion must keep in play.
  
  
• Leveraging the power of lesser-known US government sources
  By Tim Reynolds on Thursday, 27th September 2012
  Governments have increased transparency and access to scientific and technical information, providing information professionals with new sources of information. For those using US government databases, this appears to be a daunting task. This article reviews some lesser-known resources, with an exploration of the US government's evolution from a dispersed information system to a centralised federated database and portal-based system.
  
  
• FreePint Report: Review of The Big Free Three for News
  Published on Wednesday, 26th September 2012
  Bing News, Google News and Yahoo! News are three familiar, free search tools which aggregate news content from a wide variety of web sources. They cover content from many of the same sources - yet each has its own unique strengths and drawbacks. This special review of the "big free three" looks at sources, search options, outputs, alerts and mobile access - as well as important information to know about the terms and conditions of the usage of the content.
  
  
• The Big Free Three for News: Introduction and FreePint's View
  By Robin Neidorf and Africa S. Hands on Tuesday, 25th September 2012
  The big three in news search -- Bing, Yahoo! and Google -- are likely part of the daily workflow for nearly every knowledge worker. For individuals, each provides strengths and weaknesses. For organisations, it's essential to understand what workers are turning to, in order to direct education and manage risks.
  
  
• News consumption and search moves to social media sites
  By Penny Crossland on Tuesday, 25th September 2012
  Interesting findings have recently emerged from several reports, demonstrating consumers' shift away from established news sites and search engines towards social media services - largely fuelled by tablet and smart phone usage. Search engines, too, are seeing a drop in visitors as online users are going to social networking sites to search for information, prompting analysts to view social networks increasingly as disruptors to the way we search and consumer news.
  
  
• Islamic finance - prepare to open the floodgates?
  By Tim Buckley Owen on Monday, 24th September 2012
  Global Islamic finance is set to double in size between 2011 and 2015, says Stuart Anderson, Middle East head at rating agency Standard & Poor's. At the recent Global Islamic Finance Forum, both Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters announced new indices to track Sukuk financial markets. Information managers may need to brace themselves for a flood of new products covering this market.
  
  
• Google+ heading towards the enterprise
  By James Mullan on Monday, 24th September 2012
  When it rolled out in June 2011, it was obvious that most of the features within Google+ were aimed at individual users rather then businesses or large organisations. Now it would appear that Google is implementing some changes to its flagship product which is bringing it closer to being used within the enterprise.
  
  
• Source Update September 2012: What's happening with Nexis?
  By Anne Jordan on Monday, 24th September 2012
  Monthly update on source changes in Nexis.com.
  
  
• Sustainability from Thomson Reuters - a new site worth visiting
  By Penny Crossland on Thursday, 20th September 2012
  Sustainability is a buzzword used by government agencies and politicians in countless reports and speeches these days and is a concept we are all meant to aspire to. The term can be applied to a wide range of industries, making it hard for information professionals to find all-encompassing sources on the subject. Now one of the major business intelligence providers, Thomson Reuters has entered the arena, launching a website in the last few days dedicated to the topic.
  
  
• Micro news tools highlight importance of information streaming
  By Penny Crossland on Thursday, 20th September 2012
  The week that President Obama's speech at the Democratic National Convention managed to achieve a record 52,000+ tweets per minute - no doubt helped by the readily crafted tweet-sized sound bites - we learned of two new developments in the world of real-time micro news, involving information streams that could have a significant impact on how content is consumed, especially in this US election year.
  
  
• ... More ...

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• SLA Europe event: Personal Resilience - London October 15th
  During challenging times, we need to perform effectively under pressure, deal with stress appropriately and bounce back from adversity. | Organiser: SLA Europe | Date: 15 Oct 2012 | Country: United Kingdom
  
  
• Knowledge transfer - making knowledge sharing real
  This workshop will enable you to understand your organisation's knowledge perspective and make knowledge work better within it. | Organiser: TFPL | Date: 30 Nov 2012 | Country: United Kingdom

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