Helen Day Ltd The secrets of an Information Professional January 2007 Helen Day Independent Information Professional Jonathan Wood Senior Market Researcher, E.ON ‘More for less’

Helen Day Ltd The plan… Introduction Free: Beyond Top tips Fee based: What IS worth paying for Other people who can help Over to you - table discussions – your information challenges

Helen Day Ltd Introduction Seen as the “little sister” to primary research It is all about maximising the resource you already have access to –It’s often to hand –It’s cheaper than our own primary research survey –It informs the debate And shapes your thinking –Can stop you re-inventing the wheel! So here are some of the secrets to using it!

Helen Day Ltd Free (but better) information on the web

Helen Day Ltd Free: Beyond Google.com BASIC search in google.com, yahoo.com etc –As default, most web search tools look for all of your terms in a page –Focus your search by using double quote marks e.g. “climate change”

Helen Day Ltd Eg: “Tesco’s pricing strategy”

Helen Day Ltd Free: Beyond Google.com BASIC search in google.com, yahoo.com etc –As default, most web search tools look for all of your terms in a page –Focus your search by using double quote marks e.g. “climate change” –To exclude pages containing a term, use a minus sign (-) can also exclude sites from your search using minus and the site command, for example –site:saga.co.uk –Use proximity search Eg [Boots the chemist] vs [Boots * chemist]

Helen Day Ltd [boots the chemist] vs [boots* chemist]

Helen Day Ltd Free: Use advanced search pages Think about the type of information you need Use ‘Advanced Search’ features, for example filetype, domain/site search Use the file formats and domain search to refine your search

Helen Day Ltd Simple search vs Advanced

Helen Day Ltd Using domain and file type restrictions

Helen Day Ltd Think about your answer Imagine what you would like to appear in your answer and include those terms Partially answer your question in your strategy –Can elephants swim?....

Helen Day Ltd [elephant swim] vs [an elephant can swim at]

Helen Day Ltd Yahoo 20 billion pages! Results compare favourable with Google’s, sometimes better –image search better –video search better –audio search available Results are ranked in a different order from Google Boolean AND, OR, NOT and parentheses Indexes first 500 K of a document (Google 101 K) Source:

Helen Day Ltd Hidden Yahoo tips region: –e.g. region:europe, region:mediterranean –others are africa, asia, centralamerica, northamerica, southamerica, mideast, southeastasia, downunder For filetypes e.g. pdf, xls –use the boxes on the Advanced Search screen –or originurlextension: e.g. originurlextension:pdf Source:

Helen Day Ltd

Helen Day Ltd

Helen Day Ltd Which search engine to use? Simple search only

Helen Day Ltd Thumbshots.com

Helen Day Ltd Thumbshots.com

Helen Day Ltd Graball.com

Helen Day Ltd Graball.com

Helen Day Ltd

Helen Day Ltd

Helen Day Ltd

Helen Day Ltd WebFetch: “credit card comparisons”

Helen Day Ltd WebFetch: “credit card comparisons”

Helen Day Ltd If you want to know more about web searching here are some regularly updated sites: Search engine review sites UK Web search experts Karen Blakeman: Phil Bradley:

Helen Day Ltd Top tips If you are using ‘basic search’ you’re not searching –Think advanced search! If you don’t find what you looking for in 10 minutes you’re wasting your time (at work your time is money!) –E.g. surveys have suggested that 60% of searches can results in no or partial information –If the average employee spent 5% of their day searching the internet, and your head office had 2000 employees earning on average £20k a year –Failed searching would be costing you: 1000*2000=£2m*.6 = £1.2m!!

Helen Day Ltd Top tips Think “source” not answer – i.e. who would know the answer to a question like this? Use internet to find them, then call them! E.g. Associations –Management Consultants are great for free reports and insights –Benchmark and network? – who do I know who might have the answer or help me (so often this is forgotten)

Helen Day Ltd Top tips Use multiple search engines as content is different! (personal preference as to which) More reliable information is likely to be in document format rather than on the web page Always Ask – do I trust this source?

Helen Day Ltd Fee based information on www (but worth paying for)

Helen Day Ltd Why pay for desk research There are numerous and varied sources of fee based information and research The internet has created a climate of ignorance: Anything can be found on the internet Finding information on the internet is easy Information on the internet is trust worthy –really - you think so? Information used for business needs to be accountable, reliable, and cost effective –Are you sure you can use what you’ve found?

Helen Day Ltd Why pay for desk research Fee based desk research is usually from a reliable and credible source Contains information that isn’t on the internet (the details might be the content won’t be) Quicker and cheaper to buy a £1000 report then have a team of x. trying to find the information and then analyse it. The information is likely to be in a database with more sophisticated search tools, really enabling you to get to the objective quickly.

Helen Day Ltd Types of fee based desk research Article aggregators: –Pulls content from 1000’s of sources of newspapers, newswires, journals and ‘official websites’ E.g. Factiva, 8000 publications, from The Sun, to Marketing Week, to Harvard Business Review, and Pig Farmers weekly! Protects you legally – copyright!

Helen Day Ltd Factiva.com

Helen Day Ltd Factiva.com

Helen Day Ltd Factiva.com fees ‘Discover what you’re missing’ – free Credit card subscription –$69 annual subscription –$2.95 an article Any regular use or more than 2 users - contact Factiva

Helen Day Ltd Types of fee based desk research Secondary market research companies –Mintel, Datamonitor, Euromonitor, Frost and Sullivan etc etc They’ve done the primary research for you already! Some will provide Executive summaries for Free! Check their Press releases too.

Helen Day Ltd Free Market Research

Helen Day Ltd Types of fee based desk research Specialists: –Advertising Content: Thomson Intermedia; AcNielsen –Economics: Economic Intelligence Unit –And hundred more..

Helen Day Ltd Advertising Research

Helen Day Ltd Advertising Research

Helen Day Ltd Other people who can help Management Horizons – FT Business Research – Freshminds – British Library Business Centre –

Helen Day Ltd In conclusion… You don't have to spend £1000s on primary research all the time Information and answers are often readily available if you pause and think about the best place go But… –Remember the top tips –Don’t get caught out of the internet

Helen Day Ltd All online resources mentioned are linked from under ‘Presentations’ Now over to you…. Helen Day Independent Information Professional Jonathan Wood Senior Market Researcher