Social networks are great. Tools such as Facebook and LinkedIn are handy to have to become reacquainted with old friends and meet new contacts. The amount of information that is available on such platforms varies however, competitive intelligence professionals can agree that they are just tools to be placed in a CI researcher’s toolbox.
Let’s take a look at how Facebook and LinkedIn can be used in a competitive intelligence context.
1 - As a marketer of telecommunication and television services , you have a feeling that a competitor, Bell Canada, is not seen in the highest regards by its clientele. One avenue that individuals can utilize to voice their displeasure is in a Facebook group. Groups are easy to start, join and post comments on the groups’ wall or discussion board. By simply conducting a keyword search with ‘Bell Canada’ on Facebook and clicking on the “Groups” tab, you will find a number of groups as seen below.
Taking an in-depth look of one of the “Bell Canada Suck” group with more that 700 members, you can access some of the strong opinions held by others about Bell Canada. As a result, competitive intelligence researchers can gather stories of malcontent with may uncover many Bell Canada’s weaknesses when it comes costumer service.
2 - As a corporate strategist, you are seeking out who your key competitor is recruiting. Recruiting certain individuals with particular skills may indicate a strategic move in the future. Let’s take the case of aerospace giant, Bombardier.Aerospace. Upon logging onto LinkedIn with a valid username and password, select “Search Companies” from the drop down menu and use the keyword “Bombardier Aerospace”. The result of the query is a company profile with relevant human resource information. Below are two screenshots of the page.
In the first image, you find that LinkedIn supplies information such as:
- Career path for Bombardier Aerospace employees
- Listing of current employees on LinkedIn
- Companies that Bombardier Aerospace employees are most connected to
- New Hires
On the second half of the page (2nd image), the LinkedIn profile provides such details as:
- Recent promotions and changes
- Key statistics about the company (i.e., locations across the world, top schools of the employees and median age of employees)
Keep in mind that the information on LinkedIn may not be up to date however, it is a very good starting point for human resources related information.
