Competitive intelligence 2.0 is just the latest benefactor of Web 2.0 technology. As with other genres tagging on the 2.0 moniker competitive intelligence is getting a face-lift because of this open and interoperable tech philosophy. Your opportunity is to take advantage of the advantage before your competitor does.
Competitive Intelligence is Business
There is really few things more fundamental to business than competition. That means that watching your competitor needs to be a core competency. Why then do so many folks neglect this critical skill?
That is an opportunity.
Competitive intelligence and social media monitoring is becoming a notable advantage in an increasingly online business environment. Surprisingly few are doing it yet, but there are thousands of important observations and opportunities flying around in these social streams and conversations.
Spying on Competitors is Hard
Getting relevant insight into your competitors strategy used to be very difficult, especially if you wanted to keep it legal. Most of the strategy took place in board rooms, behind closed doors, and were documented in physically routed memorandums.
Simply trying to get glimpses of these closed sessions meant a lot of money and creating direct relationships with tight-lipped insiders. That is changing. Web 2.0 is shifting more than business, it is shifting how we develop strategy.
It is also shifting how we collect this critical intelligence. What used to take hours in the library, hundreds of dollars worth of periodical subscriptions, expensive media clipping services, and big expense accounts in being reduced to bits and bytes online.
Social Media Makes Competitive Intelligence Easier
One of those major shifts is a migration to social networks as advisors and social media as workspaces. That means that those little bits of strategy that used to be tucked away safely in private memos are now flying around on the Web. That means you challenge is simply to grab them, aggregate them, analyze them, report on them, and use them to your competitive advantage.
Social media has changes how we do competitive intelligence.
Like most technology innovations, social media has dramatically improved the capability and the efficiency of competitive intelligence. What used to take a library full of resources, complicated intelligence trade craft, and clever analyst has now been reduced mostly to software.
Competitive Intelligence 2.0 is best defined as social media monitoring. Web 2.0 is making this critical component of business strategy simpler than ever. Are your getting your competitive advantage?
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{ 8 comments }
Bill,
I love your insights into competitive analysis on the web. As more competitors begin to learn how social media can work to their advantage, perhaps companies may get wiser to posting certain updates on their Twitter account?
I hope not. That will make our job a whole lot harder
Thanks for the comment Josh!
You're welcome.
Competitive intelligence is very much a major use case for a social media monitoring tool (like ours, Biz360). When monitoring and analyzing buzz, share of voice, sentiment, you should be measuring and tracking what people are saying about you AND about your competitors, as well as what your competitors are saying all over the web. And I agree with you, it is not easy!
Cheers!
Maria, Biz360
@themaria @biz360
You are right on @themaria! Companies can gather a lot of insights into opportunities by monitoring competitors interacting with the market, prospects, and customers.
For a sales organization, this “use case” can have an immediate impact on revenue. That's what clients like best about our social media monitoring tool: Eavesdropper.
Thanks for the comment Maria!
You are right on @themaria! Companies can gather a lot of insights into opportunities by monitoring competitors interacting with the market, prospects, and customers.
For a sales organization, this “use case” can have an immediate impact on revenue. That's what clients like best about our social media monitoring tool: Eavesdropper.
Thanks for the comment Maria!
Hi Bill
Competitive intelligence and social media monitoring is becoming a notable advantage in an increasingly online business environment.Social media is becoming the need of all.That's why these are growing.
Great post.You have done a fantastic job.
Keep it up..!!!
Thanks Jack! I appreciate you stopping by and commenting. Thank you for the kind words.
I very much agree with you.
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