Social Media – Turning Noise into Action
An SLA KM Presentation
Monday June 9th, 2014
Zena Applebaum
Director, Competitive Intelligence
Bennett Jones LLP
@ ZAppleCI
Agenda
What are the leading
social media tools?
How can we get started
quickly using the leading
social media tools for
competitive intelligence?
#SLACID #SLA2014
Media and Social Monitoring
• Rife spot find qualitative and quantitative data on clients/prospects as well
as competitor clients/prospects
• (in an effort to turn the latter into the former)
• Monitor for tone, content, frequency, trending, sentiment
• Big Data can turn into CI Data points
Develop a system or software or buy a third party platform. Mechanics/data
can be easily outsourced of but still requires a heightened knowledge of the
firm and its strategy – human touch.
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Key Intelligence Topic
• Key Intelligence Topic - (KITs) are those topics identified as being of
greatest significance to an organization’s senior executives, and which
provide purpose and direction for Competitive intelligence operations.
• Key intelligence topics are invariably derived from a series of interviews.
They are then grouped into appropriate categories and allocated a priority,
usually by the same, or a representative, group of people. The basic
categories are:
• strategic decisions and actions (including the development of strategic plans
and strategies);
• early-warning topics (for example, competitor initiatives, new technology
developments, and
• descriptions of key players (including competitors, suppliers, regulators, and
potential partners).
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Examine KITs for Potential CI Value
Who are our
stakeholders?
What decisions
do they need
to make?
What
knowledge do
they need?
What
intelligence can
we provide?
How will we
develop that
intelligence?
What
analysis can
we perform?
What
information
do we need?
Who holds
that
information?
Are they likely to be sharing that information in some
form through social media?
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Start Small and Be Specific
DIY: Get
smart before
you buy
anything
Learn each
platform’s
search and
monitoring
functions
Try to start
with social
media input
into current
projects
Define a clear
collection
plan
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Reverse Engineer your Collection Plan
Who has the
information you
need?
Who is their
audience?
What social
media will
they use?
How do you
search those
platforms?
Whether you’re doing active elicitation or passive
monitoring, remember your CI ethics.
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Social
Media
Primary
Research
Secondary
Research
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Do you speak Twitter?
@
#
RT
Public message directed towards a specific
Twitter user, e.g. @ZAppleCI
Hashtags are public messages attended to be
associated with a specific theme, topic or
event. The hashtag makes it easy for
interested parted to track the conversation,
e.g. #SLA2014 for this conference
Retweet: I liked your message, and I am
passing it along
#SLACID #SLA2014
Twitter asks users “What are you doing or reading?”
Official Business Presence
• PR
• Marketing
• Customer Service
• Recruiting
Individuals
• Employees
• Customers
• Experts
http://thechrisvossshow.com/how-top-brands-are-using-twitter-infographic/
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Twitter offers great search functions!
You do not need to have
your own Twitter account
Make lists of search terms
•
•
•
•
Competitors
Industry terms
Product brands
Noteworthy names
Create RSS feeds of your
searches to automate
monitoring
http://search.twitter.com/advanced
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Find individuals you want to track
• Look for competitors’ official accounts
• http://twitter.com/competitorname
• Look in their marketing materials
• Search for lists of competitor
employees or industry experts on
Listorious
http://www.listorious.com
• Search for mentions of competitors’
names and industry terms in Twitter
user’s profiles
• Listorious
• Twellow
http://www.twellow.com
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LinkedIn: the professional social network
Information about
professionals in resume-like
profiles
Company and industry groups
for active discussions
Aggregate user data for
company statistics and
information
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Get to know LinkedIn’s advanced search
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Company profiles have a wealth of detail
Statistics
Hiring, promotions and
departures
Open positions
Culture
Remember that company data is based on aggregated employee selfreporting
You can also “follow” companies of interest to track them over time
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Quora: Question and Answer
Users ask questions and
other users answer them
Sometimes industry and
company-specific topics
Users vote up their favorite
answers
Based on real identities, so
you can assess respondents
expertise
Follow topics and users of
interest
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Slideshare: Post your PowerPoint Here
Users post PowerPoints to the site
• Easy sharing
• Promotion
• Education
• Sales and marketing
Use the same keywords from your
other search list
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Trending Analysis
•
•
•
DYI with Excel, but it takes time & effort
Mine social media to do your trending for you…
Hire experts!
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So what? How can I really use this stuff?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Industry movement
Opportunities
Early Warning Signs
Recruitment
Trends/Changes
Develop Thought Leadership
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Questions? Comments? & Contact
Zena Applebaum Director of Competitive Intelligence
Bennett Jones LLP, a leading national and International law
firm based in Canada. Her primary responsibilities
include conducting analyses of market and competitor
performance to inform the firm’s strategy, business
development, client relationship management, counterintelligence and marketing. Tying it all together, she
enables strategic collaboration throughout the firm via the
firm's award winning intranet.
Director, Competitive Intelligence
@ZAppleCI
[email protected]
She brings a unique perspective to intelligence and the
dynamics of market and industry issues as a result of
broad business development, marketing, and corporate
research experience across a variety of sectors.
Zena is a frequent writer and speaker on competitive,
market and business Intelligence topics in Canada and
abroad. Zena is a member of the SCIP Board of Directors
and is currently the Chair Elect Special Libraries
Association Competitive Intelligence Division, and a
member at large of the Professional Marketing Forum.
Zena has a joint academic and applied Masters degree in
Communication and Culture from York and Ryerson
Universities.
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