Tracking Supplier News & Information in the Age of Social Media

Tracking news on your suppliers has never been easy. The biggest problem is of course the noise level and relevance. Information overload can occur in seconds. By default, I often set up clients with simple, no-cost Google News tracking integrated into a portal. But the relevance issues surface quickly. Factiva and many others have products targeted at news & information for the enterprise. But in the age of social media, what about information from and about your suppliers on Twitter, blogs, even Facebook? Is negative sentiment about a company even relevant for supplier management?

Trackur http://www.trackur.com has created a no-cost option for tracking everything from news to social media monitoring, all driven by alerts. You can track brands, companies, individuals, and obviously by extension your suppliers. The no cost option lets you track and save one search criteria at a time. Viral Heat (http://www.viralheat.com) is another option which has plans for $29/month where you can track about 20 brands or suppliers. It's also free for non-profits. Converseon (http://www.converseon.com) is another option to look at.

What is the supply management community doing to track supplier news developments and overall sentiment in the age of social media? Can anyone point to an example where this type of news or information changed or influenced a business relationship?

- Ryder Daniels, Capsaicin, LLC