Tag Archive for 'LinkedIn'

Company Buzz App On LinkedIn

Published
by
Ian Smith
on June 14, 2010
in Author-Ian Smith, Competitive & Internet Intelligence and Web 2.0 Search
. 0 Comments

It seems that LinkedIn is attempting to make life a bit easier for competitive intelligence researchers.  First, it was the Company Follow function, (please read, Linkedin Follow Function and Competitive Intelligence) and recently, the business social network has revamped their “Company Buzz” application.

This application allows users to monitor the mentions of companies on Twitter, identify trends and track buzz over time.

Once the the application is downloaded onto your profile,  you will have access to a search interface as seen as in Figure 1 where the company name, LinkedIn is used.

Figure 1: Company Buzz Results For LinkedIn

Adding companies to monitor tweets can be done by simply entering their names and  clicking on the “Save this search” link.  Figure 2 profiles the result page when Nike and Reebok is added to the Saved Searches.

Figure 2: Nike and Reebok Added To The Saved Search

For each Company that is added, the application provides a collection of Buzz Words as seen in Figure 2.  Once clicked upon, the buzz words link will lead to a page of results with the word appearance in each tweet.  In Figure 3, the buzz word, “shoes” for  Reebok is highlighted in blue and the associated tweets are listed.

Figure 3: Buzz Words Results - “shoes”

Data on trends (mentions) is also available courtesy of a line graph as seen in Figure 4 for Nike.


Figure 4: Company Buzz Trend Graph For Nike

Downloading the application on your LinkedIn profile is practical.  It will prevent you from jumping to Twitter to retrieve the tweets and generate a graph.

Online Community Building: Linked Québec

Published
by
Ian Smith
on May 17, 2010
in Author-Ian Smith, Social Media Marketing and Web 2.0
. 0 Comments

One major aspect that often gets overlooked when using LinkedIn is the ability to become, participate and build an online community, especially when it is in a language other than english.  Linked Québec can be considered as a best in class example of building an online community of french speaking professionals with the social media tool.

The group is the largest Linkedin group of business professionals and students from the province of Quebec (Canada) with 4 323 members of May 17th, 2010.   The objective of the group is to “facilitate networking and learning for linkedin.com members”.  The discussions that take place on Linked Québec covers an array of topics.  Figure 1 is  a screen shot of the listing of the recent discussions.

Linked Quebec Recent Discussions

Figure 1:Linked Quebec’s Discussion Topics

As an extension, Linked Quebec Founder, Simon Hénault, created a resource center for business professionals located at POD Média.  The center offers access to articles, podcasts, presentations, videos dealing with subject such as:

  • LinkedIn Training
  • Content-based Marketing
  • Social Networks

Content is available in french and english.  Below is a video that can be found on Pod Media regarding Mitch Joel’s comments on content and new media.

Intelegia invites its readers in both languages to visit both sites and join the network.

On May 19th, 2010, Linked Quebec will be hosting a networking cocktail for its members at the W Hotel in downtown Montreal.  More information on the cocktail at the Linked Quebec’s Linkedin Group or in the article, “Les réseaux sociaux réinventent les 5 à 7“

Linkedin Follow Function and Competitive Intelligence

Published
by
Ian Smith
on May 10, 2010
in Author-Ian Smith, Competitive & Internet Intelligence and Web 2.0 Search
. 0 Comments

On April 29th, 2010, via “Get on the inside track with “Company Follow”“, Linkedin launched its new “Follow” function similar to Twitter.  This announcement should be met with great joy by competitive intelligence professionals.  It is just another tool to use to gather strategic intelligence as discussed in “Using LinkedIn People Search To Profile A Company“.

Upon reflecting on the advantages of using the tool, one has to take a step back and consider the defensive competitive intelligence ramifications of Linkedin’s new toy.

As stated in “Defensive Competitive Intelligence In A Web 2.0 Environment”, there are difference scenarios that can come to the forefront on a daily basis on social media applications.  Now with the “Company Follow” feature, companies will have to reconsider their visibility on the social media tool.

Here are two some discussion points to mull over if your company has profile page on LinkedIn.

1. Is it necessary to have a profile on LinkedIn? - Although social media sites affords companies with an inexpensive avenue to market themselves online, it provides competitive intelligence researchers with a resource to gather information easily.  Reconsider what should be posted and edit the information on the page.

2. What is on employees’ profile? Providing access to employees’ profile has its consequences.  As seen in “Competitive Intelligence Research With LinkedIn - Who’s Hiring?”, significant details can be collected and assessed to anticipate a strategic move.  Figure 1 is screen shot of a list of new hires at Microsoft Corporation.

Microsoft Corporation’s New Hires Listed On LinkedIn

Competitive Intelligence Groups On LinkedIn

Published
by
Ian Smith
on April 5, 2010
in Author-Ian Smith and Competitive & Internet Intelligence
. 4 Comments

Last month, we posted, “Economic Development Groups On LinkedIn” that provided a listing of LinkedIn Groups in the field of economic development.  To be fair to the competitive intelligence professionals who visit this blog every Monday, here are some related groups in the domain of competitive intelligence and strategic planning.

1. Competitive Intelligence Professionals - This group aims to be a forum for individuals focused on the three aspects of competitive intelligence: gathering, analyzing and sharing of information.  Recent discussions that have taken place in the group include:

  • Identifying an e-magazine focused around business and competitive intelligence
  • Which models of analysis that you use most at work in competitive intelligence?
  • Extracting and Interpreting Emissions in Competitive intelligence
  • Competitive Intelligence in India

Number Of Members As Of April 4th, 2010: 903

2. Competitive/Market Intelligence Professionals - This specific group is a great outlet to discuss current issues in the field of competitive intelligence.  In addition, it has a news section where members may post relevant hyperlinks to news items.  Recent discussions that have taken place in the group include:

  • I am a in charge of starting a CI function of a medium size Finnish mid-tech company.
  • Does any one know reliable third party information databases used for Aviation Power Systems
    other than Janes Information and Forecast International?
  • Competitive/Business Intelligence Analysis Tools
  • Can you recommend the courses of Academy of CI, or other (location does not matter much)?

Number Of Members As Of April 4th, 2010: 2,563

3. Corporate Planning & Global Industry Segmentation - This group is composed of executives and planning and marketing professionals seeking to discuss corporate plan development and global market segmentation.   Recent discussions that have taken place in the group include:

  • 10 Reasons Why Strategic Planning Fails/Pro-active Solutions
  • How to Get Buy-In for Strategic Product Decisions
  • What are you going to do in 2010 to re-motivate, re-inspire, and re-charge your recession weary leaders?

Within Corporate Planning & Global Industry Segmentation lies several sector-specific subgroups such as:i) Aerospace, ii) Health Care, Life Sciences & Pharmaceuticals, iii) Consumer Products Manufacturing and  iv) Retail Trade

Number Of Members As Of April 4th, 2010: 5,062

4. Future Trends - This group is composed of trend hunters, corporate visionaries and future thinkers representing a diverse cross section of industries. Recent discussions that have taken place in the group include:

  • Can Social Media Marketing Replace Advertising?
  • How to Compete in a Global Age?
  • Social Media Marketing: What Works and Does Not Work

The subgroups that members may join include:

  1. Future Trends in Family Marketing
  2. European Innovators
  3. Social Media Strategies

Number Of Members As Of April 4th, 2010: 33,197

5. Strategic Business and Competitive Intelligence Professionals -This group aims to share best practices and experience of professionals engaged in business and competitive intelligence globally.  Recent discussions that have taken place in the group include:

  • Business Intelligence in Medical Equipment
  • How Big Should the Business Intelligence Group Be?
  • Social Media Growing as Important Marketing Role

Number Of Members As Of April 4th, 2010: 7,203

6. The Strategic Planning Society -This group is dedicated to strategy professionals and academics who wish to share knowledge and promote strategic thinking. Key themes of the group include:

  • Strategic Planning
  • Corporate Planning
  • Business Planning
  • Business Development

Number Of Members As Of April 4th, 2010: 1,225

Join Ian Smith on LinkedIn?  Click here

Using LinkedIn Answers For Competitive Intelligence Research

Published
by
Ian Smith
on March 29, 2010
in Author-Ian Smith, Competitive & Internet Intelligence and Web 2.0 Search
. 1 Comment

Intelegia is always seeking out ways to using social media applications to gather information on sectors, companies, products / services and individuals.  LinkedIn is an efficient tool, if use correctly, to collect competitive intelligence data as seen in the posts, “Competitive Intelligence Research With LinkedIn - Who’s Hiring?” and “Using LinkedIN People Search To Profile A Company“.  Here is a look at applying LinkedIn Answers to access strategic information.

LinkedIn Answers is a database of questions and answers by business experts that are on LinkedIn.  The questions and answers are organized by topic however; users can conduct a basic or an advanced search query.  Figure 1 is image of the index page of LinkedIn Answers.

LinkedIn Answers

Figure 1: LinkedIn Index Page

Case Scenario:

As a competitive intelligence researcher in the biopharmaceutical sector, you are asked to find the prevailing trends in the diagnostic kits market.

Solution:

As an alternative to conducting an extensive web search or purchasing a report, you may attempt a search using LinkedIn Answers to gather insights from industry experts.

Figure 2 captures the input process to query LinkedIn Answers using the Advanced Search function.

  1. Keywords entered:”diagnostic kits” and “trends”
  2. Keywords match in: Questions and Answers
  3. Category: “Marketing and Sales” -> “Business Development”

Figure 2: LinkedIn Answers Advanced Search Form With Keywords

Figure 3 is a screen shot of the result given by LinkedIn Answers.


Figure 3: Result For Keyword Search, “diagnostic kits” + “trends”

If the search application furnished more than one page of results, you are able to sort the results by:

  • Degrees of separation away from the expert(s) answering the question
  • Relevancy
  • Date

Clicking on the results will allow you to access the full text of the question and the 10 related answers. Figure 4 is an image of the initial posted question and Figure 5 provides a look at two answers.  (Please Note:For the purposes of this blog post, the names of the individuals that posted the question and answers are not revealed.)

Figure 4: Question Posted To Linked Answers

Figure 5: Answers Posted By Experts

As seen in Figure 5, LinkedIn Answers will highlight the best answer in green.  In the case above, the best answer was provided by a Business Manager, Sequencing and Microarrays, Roche Applied Science, Asia Pacific at Hoffmann-La Roche.    Reading further down on the page, other experts tackle other trends in the diagnostic kit market.

LinkedIn Answers is available at www.linkedin.com/answers

Economic Development Groups On LinkedIn

Published
by
Ian Smith
on March 10, 2010
in Author-Ian Smith, Economic Development and Web 2.0
. 0 Comments

Part of having an economic development 2.0 strategy is participating in discussion groups on social networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn.  The benefits of being members of groups related to economic development are:

  • Expanding your network beyond your region and areas of expertise
  • Sharing your expertise with other professionals in the field
  • Learning from others located around the world

Below are a few groups that are on LinkedIn that the team at Intelegia are members.

  • Business Retention & Expansion International (BREI) - This group is composed of economic development professionals that are dedicated to investment attraction initiatives.  Some of the common issues that serves as discussion points are incentives programs, business retention strategies and marketing initiatives for regions.
    Level of access: Open
    Number of members (as of March 9th, 2010): 129
    Owner: Ernest Strickland
  • Economic Development Network - This group is a collection of professionals from around the globe who are concerned about the engagement of research organisations with the economy.  Recent discussion topics include the use of social media marketing applications, marketing strategies and strategic planning issues.
    Level of access: Open
    Number of members (as of March 9th, 2010): 347
    Owner: Steven Brown
  • Economic Development Professionals - The Economic Development Professionals Linkedin group is geared towards individuals who wish to share and learn about best practices in field of economic development.  Lately, members have exchanged thoughts on subjects such as website design issues, search engine optimization strategies and incentive programs.
    Level of access: Open
    Number of members (as of March 9th, 2010): 2 468
    Owner:Gary Knight
  • Foreign Direct Investment - FDIexecutive - This LinkedIn group brings together professionals from all points around the globe in the field of foreign direct investment.  Issues such as attraction strategy, competitiveness, location selection and decision making are the major themes that members discuss.
    Level of access: Open
    Number of members (as of March 9th): 442
    Owner: Douglas van den Berghe
  • Next Gen Economic Development Marketers - As the name suggests, this group is meant for professionals focused on marketing in regards to economic development.  Members include economic development officers and consultants that talk about such issues as social media tools, website design and branding initiatives.
    Level of access: Open
    Number of members (as of March 9th): 171
    Owner: Ben Wright

Are we missing some other LinkedIn groups?  Let us know by leaving us a comment on this post.

Looking for an efficient way to manage your contacts on LinkedIn?  Read Intelegia’s tutorial, “Tag Function In LinkedIn“

Best of Tools For Thought 2009 - Competitive Intelligence

Published
by
Ian Smith
on December 21, 2009
in Author-Ian Smith and Competitive & Internet Intelligence
. 0 Comments

At this time of year, we would like to take a look at the most popular posts on Tools For Thought in 2009.  Over the next three posts, we welcome readers to discover for the first time or to visit once again some of tools and best practices in competitive intelligence, economic development 2.0 and internet research applications.

Here is a look at the top posts over the past year dealing with competitive intelligence on Tools For Thought.

Defensive Competitive Intelligence In A Web 2.0 Environment

Do you know what is being said about your company on Facebook? Twitter?  LinkedIn?  Online social networks are quickly becoming valuable sources of information  that competitive intelligence practitioners are searching for strategic intelligence.  How do you deal with the possibility that details regarding business strategies are available on Web 2.0 sites?  Click here to learn more.

Competitive Intelligence Research With LinkedIn - Who’s Hiring?

The social network, LinkedIn, is not only for a place online to connect but a resource to conduct research on competitors.  The tool has a section in which users can find job openings at competing firms that may signify a change in strategy.  Click here to see a case example of how you can use LinkedIn as a business research tool.

Using LinkedIN People Search To Profile A Company

Accessing the resumes of former or current employees at a competitor can be tremendous help when constructing a profile.  Knowing what a particular individual did or does in a company may allow decision makers to become familiar with how competitors are structured along the lines of a corporate function and planning strategic moves.  Click here to see a case example of how you can use LinkedIn as a company profiling tool.

Using LinkedIN People Search To Profile A Company

Published
by
Ian Smith
on December 7, 2009
in Author-Ian Smith, Competitive & Internet Intelligence and Web 2.0 Search
. 0 Comments

The blog post, “Competitive Intelligence Research With LinkedIn - Who’s Hiring?” discussed the use of LinkedIn to anticipate a strategic move at a competitor through a potential hiring (i.e., job opportunity).  This type of competitive intelligence  research can be an element to a larger initiative to profile a company.

Through the Advanced People Search function on LinkedIn, researchers may gain further valuable strategic insights about a company.  Figure 1 illustrates the advanced search interface.

LinkedIN - 1 - People Search - Tools For Thought - Intelegia

Figure 1: Advanced People Search Interface on LinkedIn

One of the pieces of strategic intelligence that can be collected from this type of search is profiling a department / function at a company.

Case Scenario: As a competitor to Hewlett Packard in Canada, you are asked to have an understanding about the company’s strategy planning function.

Solution: Using the advanced search interface, enter the following information to build the query based on the case scenario:

  • In the “Location” field,  select “Canada” and delete the content, if any,  in the “Postal Code” field
  • In the “Position” field, enter “strategy” and select the “Current or past” option
  • In the “Company” field, enter “Hewlett Packard”

Figure 2 presents the query when the details are entered.

Figure 2: Building An Advanced People Search Query For Individuals In The Hewlett Packard Strategy Planning Function
Please Click On The Image To Enlarge

Figure 3 is the screen shot of the results based on the submitted query.

Figure 3: Results For The Query For Individuals at Hewlett Packard’s Strategy Planning Function
Please Click On The Image To Enlarge

Selecting the individual with the position of “Senior Business Strategy Manager” leads you to access to the following job description available in Figure 4.

Figure 4: Job Description For The Position Of “Sr. Business Strategy Manager” at Hewlett Packard

From the image above, you can see that the strategic planning function at Hewlett Packard is composed of:

  1. Forecasting
  2. Budgeting
  3. Resource Planning
  4. Strategic Direction
  5. Financial Controls

Furthermore, you are able to find out that there is an existing competitive intelligence unit at the computer hardware giant in Canada.

Competitive Intelligence Research With LinkedIn - Who’s Hiring?

Published
by
Ian Smith
on November 23, 2009
in Author-Ian Smith, Competitive & Internet Intelligence and Web 2.0 Search
. 1 Comment

Without a doubt, social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn has afforded competitive intelligence researchers alternative sources to gather data about their industry and other firms.  LinkedIn, the Facebook for business people, offers two outlets of information that are worth keeping in mind when analysing competitors: 1) Jobs and 2) Companies.  This post will focus on the Jobs section of the web 2.0 resource.

Similar to other job search sites like Monster or CareerBuilder, the Job section of LinkedIn provides individuals to find employment opportunities.  Figure 1 presents a look at the search interface for jobs.

Figure 1: Job Search Interface on LinkedIn

To use the section in a competitive intelligence context, it is recommended to use the “Advanced Job Search” interface as seen in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Advanced Job Search Interface On LinkedIn

To competitive intelligence researchers and analysts, job opportunities at competing firms can provide valuable insights.  Job openings can indicate anything from a shift in the strategic outlook for a firm to a sign of expansion of operations.

Case example: As a competitor in the software industry, you have the responsibility to investigate if there are any job opportunities for an executive at Dell Computers that may signify a change in strategy or organizational structure.

Solution: Using the “Advanced Job Search” page as seen in Figure 3:

  1. Select “Executive” in the “Job Experience” field
  2. Enter “Dell” in the “Company” field

Figure 3: Query For Job Opportunities At Dell Computers At An Executive Level

Results for the query appear in Figure 4 in which the first hit, “Director of Software Engineering” is the most relevant for the initial purpose for the search.

Figure 4: Results For Job Search At Dell

It is interesting to see that the first job posting listed on the page is exclusively available on LinkedIn as indicated by the blue star.

The end result of the search process is illustrated below in Figure 5 where a lengthy job description is provided.

Figure 5: Job Description For Director of Software Engineering At Dell

Looking at the job description, the following strategic details can be collected about the position:

  • The Director of Software Engineering will be responsible for leading the team that designs and/or develops Dell’s SaaS (Software as a Service) products for the Large Enterprise business unit
  • The executive will work closely with Sales & Product Management groups to set direction for multiple software products
  • The individual will set application technology development direction and strategies

LinkedIn is available at www.linkedin.com

What role has social networks played in your competitive intelligence research practices?  What have been your greatest challenges? Tell us!!!

Web 2.0 and Investment Attraction: UK Trade & Investment

Published
by
Ian Smith
on November 11, 2009
in Author-Ian Smith, Investment Attraction, Social Media Marketing and Web 2.0 Strategy
. 2 Comments

E&B DATA’s recent benchmark study, “Web 2.0 And Business Attraction - Canadian Cities Online Marketing Index” examined how well economic development agencies in large Canadian cities are utilizing social media marketing tools for investment attraction.

Just to show that cities are not the only entities that are using web 2.0 applications, countries have hopped on the bandwagon.  A perfect example is: UK & Trade Investment.

UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) is the government department that helps businesses locate in the UK and grow internationally.   The department’s website ranks amongst the best in class according to Organization for Economic Co-operation Development as stated in The World Bank’s Global Investment Promotion Benchmarking 2009 Summary Report (Please see page 62)

Upon visiting the website, you will be able to spot their collection of social media marketing  tools.  The site provides links to the following applications:

  • Blog - The provides insights on various aspects of trade and investment attraction activities.  UKTI uses a multi-blogger approach by having different staff members post on a regular basis.
  • Twitter - This  page acts as a vehicle to push information regarding  UKTI activities and relevant news items.
  • YouTube - This channel is an outlet to:
    • Learn about London’s success stories
    • Provide information on High Growth Markets
    • Provide country information
    • Access past speeches from Lord Davies - Minister for Trade & Investment
    • Access case studies
  • Flickr - The Flickr photostream allows individuals to view pictures from past business events involving UKTI representatives and ministers.
  • Facebook - The Facebook Fan Page is mainly composed of UKTI staff members and is used to provide updates on new posts on the other social networking platforms.
  • LinkedIn - The LinkedIn group is avenue in which UKTI can bring together trade and investment experts and businesses.  It is interesting to see that the department has created subgroup for business people interested in trade and investment between Canada and the UK.

Figure 1 illustrates the UK Trade & Investment’s Twitter page.

Figure 1: UK Trade & Investment’s Twitter Page
Please click on image to enlarge

UKTI shared their thoughts on their web 2.0 strategy in terms of their objectives and tangible benefits:

Objectives:

  • Reach new audiences: new and existing customers; consultants; the media; other government departments; colleagues
  • Spread the word about UKTI through news and insights
  • Raise awareness of events/initiatives/news
  • Support marketing pushes
  • Be more accessible/responsive/open/two-way
  • Keep track of what is being said about UKTI and have the opportunity to respond direct

Benefits

  • Opportunity to feed back, re-inform and offer further information
  • Increase attendance at events, and in turn increase take-up of UKTI services
  • Reach new audiences and be where conversations are already taking place
  • Positive (unsolicited) tweets about UKTI/services have reached a large and diverse audience (of previously untapped potential customers)
  • A major website traffic driver. Both Linkedin and Twitter are in the top 5 traffic referrers to the investment services website.
  • Drive (trade website) registration by raising awareness of how we can help. Eg, by tweeting business opportunities we are broadening reach beyond the current customer-base

Are you thinking about creating an economic development 2.0 strategy for economic development initiatives such as investment attraction for your city, province or state and/or country?    What are the main challenges that you will have to deal with?   Tell us.