Everyone (or almost everyone…) is now online…
With more and more data becoming available online and the explosion in the number of tools one can use to mine and analyse such data, we see a significant opportunity on gaining a better understanding of competitors and markets in ways not previously available.
Our clients see this opportunity too and they often ask us how they can monitor their competitor activities online and in particular in Social Media (SM) and Social Networks (SN). And of course, they don’t just stop there…they want true and actionable insights and not just data and information!
“Chasing” insights online and offline
Existing online tools can capture vast amounts of information which is most of the time unstructured.
Examples of what can easily be achieved include target identification (e.g. KOL and influencer mapping), analysis of competitor online activity, preliminary insight generation, sentiment analysis etc..
Despite the fact that the sheer amount of online data that one can analyse can help in generating some insights, most of the time these are limited and leave a number of key questions unanswered. This is where primary intelligence / research will continue to offer a competitive advantage.
Overall, we do expect SM / SN analytics tools to become even more advanced and to better approximate “true” insights, dealing not only with “what” but with the “so what” and “why” questions, complementing and enhancing primary intelligence rather than completely replacing it.
Integrating some of the best (free and paid) resources available online in your competitive intelligence efforts
From the research hypothesis generation stage and all the way to the final analysis and creation of insights, SM / SN tools can be leveraged and add value to your work.
Although one could achieve a decent or “good enough” level of insights just by leveraging the online tools available (see figures below), we strongly recommend keeping the primary intelligence / research component as the axis which your other research streams will revolve around.
Comprehensive CI project process with all activities revolving around primary research
CI project lacking primary research component: still possible to gather some insights but not always conclusive answers to your questions
Available tools…
So, to get you started on this SM / SN strategic competitive intelligence journey, we put together a list of 45 tools which we regularly use and recommend to others. This list is not exhaustive but you will recognize some well-known names, such as Syssomos, BrandWatch, SocialMention, Google Trends and Correlate, but also others not so well-known but extremely useful tools, such as Social Searcher, MOAT, Adbeat and #tagboard.
Do not hesitate to get in touch with us (info@lqventures.com) for an informal chat and advice on how to integrate SM / SN tools in your existing CI activities or for support in building a robust competitive intelligence programme which includes both SM / SN monitoring and primary intelligence.