My Favourite Tipples from a Market Research Specialist
Jinfo Blog

By Jan Knight

Abstract

My Favourite Tipples are shared by Jan Knight, an independent market research consultant. She shares her favourite online resources in areas from market research to tech tools and tips for entrepreneurs.

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As an independent business researcher who is a generalist, I find sources that cover multiple industries to be very valuable. My sources also have to support me in my goal of providing relevant, timely and accurate research to clients from start-ups to consultants and established enterprises.

• FierceMarkets Network: Fierce term themselves a leader in online marketing and lead generation. However, I use them purely as an authoritative research source. They cover eight vertical markets: Energy, Enterprise IT, Finance, Government, Healthcare, Life Sciences, Marketing & Retail, and Telecom with multiple sub segments in each. I subscribe to a variety of their numerous email newsletters in the areas I'm working in at the time. Favourites in just the past month have been FierceBiotech, FierceBigData, FierceWireless.

• 40Billion: Started by a Yale & MIT graduate who became an entrepreneur at 10, 40Billion.com is a popular social network of entrepreneurs, small business owners, start-ups and innovators. Because I work with start-up companies as well as "grown-up" companies who are entrepreneurial, 40Billion's tweets and sources are useful at almost any time. They have over 167,000 followers and their tweets cover diverse topics including content marketing, entrepreneurial advice and strategy, project management, client management, and much more.

• Snagit by TechSmith: This is a tech tool I think I literally DO use every day for business and now and then for pleasure. There are plenty of other free, and fee-based tools, that exist for capturing screenshots but Snagit allows incredibly easy screen captures of various sorts, some with delays so you can capture a sub menu that will otherwise disappear, some with scrolling ability to capture a full webpage from top to bottom. It also allows the user to easily add text, arrows, markings to the captured image. In fact it does much more, like capture video, and can work with mobile phones. 
  
  
• Statista: A perennial favourite; a research database that focuses on graphical statistical data covering a multitude of topics. I don't subscribe to the service, but I do subscribe to their "Chart of the Day" newsletter. There is always a brief summary on a timely topic, accompanied by a chart or infographic that can easily be shared. Sometimes the charts are handy for current projects, sometimes great for client follow-up. I save or forward them regularly.

For fun...

• Huffington Post US and UK sites: As a bit of a news junkie and someone who, dare I say, leans to the liberal side of politics and social topics, I enjoy receiving a daily newsletter from the Huffington Post and often review their stories from the website. The main reason for my appreciating this publication is the diversity of categories included such as politics, business, tech, media, world stories, religion, health, comedy and entertainment. It's easy to get lost in both their serious and light stories. 

An article in FreePint which I found particularly interesting:   

• "Market Research Using Pay As You Go Online Sources". In September 2014, Sophie Alexander wrote this FreePint Report which I found interesting and very timely as it fits into the category of "sharpening the saw" - an ongoing effort to keep learning. Sophie covered four sources: Research and Markets, MarketResearch.com, ReportLinker and Industry Report Store. I subscribe to one of these, I know about two others and hadn't heard of one of them, so the report provided me with great comparisons for both content, timeliness, and user interaction.

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