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Online Social Networks & Competitive Intelligence
ByIan Smith, Intelegia.com, © 2009May 2009As a provider of information to make better business decisions, competitive intelligenceresearchers can not ignore the growth of online social networks. Judging by the lateststatistics, the amount of the users is growing and hence the amount of content (in theform of text, photos, videos) will be on the upswing. As a result, online researchers mustconsider online social networks as a valuable source of strategic information.Before continuing on the theme of this article, here are some interesting facts regardingsocial networks:
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25% of the small businesses plan to increase their spending on online socialnetwork marketing in 2009, according to a survey conducted in December 2008byAd-ology Research.
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According to Nielson Online, the top five online social networks in the US were1. Facebook, 2. MySpace, 3. Classmates, 4. LinkedIn, 5. Reunion (January 2009)
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Demographics can vary bynetwork  For the purposes of this article, the following online social networks will be examined todemonstrate their applications in a competitive intelligence context.
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Facebook 
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LinkedIn
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Twitter
Facebook
Facebook provides its users several platforms
 
to contribute and share content. Acommon feature is a Facebook Group.Case #1:As an online researcher for a new telecommunications company, you are responsible forgathering consumers’ views of on one of the top players in the market in Canada, BellCanada. After conducting a general web search, you attempt to see if there is anything onthe very popular site,Facebook . Your query is entered and the results are presented inthe image below.
 
 
Results from query of Facebook Groups for the keyword, “Bell Canada”
 
 Both options do offer some interesting possibilities in terms of collecting some negativefeedback. Based on the size of the group (958 members) presented in Option #2, thefollowing topics have been discussed on the group’s discussion board:
Listing of discussion board topics
No doubt, evidence of some unhappy customers will be found. Imagine the amount of money and time saved by conducting this type of competitive intelligence research ratherpaying for a consumer survey/ or focus group session.
LinkedIn
LinkedInis the business related social networking platform. It allows professionals topost their resumes and network with other individuals in the same industry and / or fieldof interest.Case #2:As a strategic intelligence analyst at ABC Transportation, you are concerned about thenew hires at Bombardier Transportation. New hires may reflect a change in strategy oran introduction of a new product in the near future .
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