Software and services for tracking news and updates on 2k-3k people?
August 23, 2021 8:27 AM   Subscribe

I have a long list of people (2000-3000). I know their names and smattering of other publicly-available professional details. What are programmatic ways to keep up with developments in their careers, news headlines, and other public information?

I currently have a hard-to-maintain news aggregator on the project. It has lots of fiddly custom searches set up and data-based restrictions (X number of searches per alert, Y number of results, etc.) that make it a pain. I don't want to invoke it's name to avoid 'priming the pump' for similar suggestions and potentially rocking the boat with the vendor.

Solutions need not be strictly 'alert based,' although they are certainly welcome. Trying to come at it from every angle. In fact, something like an "automatically-updated directory with analytics dashboarding features" would be awesome.

I have a budget - not an 'infinite' budget, but suggestions need not be 'free.'
posted by GPF to Technology (6 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Um, LinkedIn? Is there something I’m missing?
posted by kevinbelt at 8:35 AM on August 23, 2021 [1 favorite]


It seems like you're describing exactly what LinkedIn and Google News Alerts do... although I'm not sure what angle you're going for with the "analytics dashboarding" you're mentioning.
posted by erst at 9:28 AM on August 23, 2021


Best answer: While LinkedIn and Google News Alerts could both get you alerts and such, it would be a tedious job to aggregate them without some kind of automated dashboard that scrapes the data as it arrives and puts it into a useful database. I am assuming that is what the OP is looking for, perhaps they can confirm or elaborate. There are quite a few Google News scrapers that might do the job. (Search Google News scrapers.)
posted by beagle at 10:05 AM on August 23, 2021


Best answer: Fundraising CRMs that manage donors/prospects will do some of the gathering automatically. Usually it's an add-on feature though, and I'm not sure how good they are at presenting the information. There are ones that will connect to Facebook and LinkedIn and Twitter, and I think I saw one that will flag public SEC filings for big financial transactions.
posted by yeahlikethat at 12:20 PM on August 23, 2021


Response by poster: "Fundraising CRMs" and "Google News scrapers" are good leads. Thank you.

The problem with LinkedIn and Google Alerts - this needs to be a collaborative solution. As in, many stakeholders need to have visibility into the results and updates. Social media is based around personal dataflows between and among everyone and depend on the subjects participating.
posted by GPF at 2:15 PM on August 23, 2021


Best answer: Salesforce.com would also do it as it pulls in news feeds on your contacts. Not sure if they still have an affordable personal plan though.
posted by COD at 2:38 PM on August 24, 2021


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