Comments on: Spying On Competition Using Social Media

By: Stephen

Stephen — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 23:52:23 +0000

Timely information…and too many folks are clearly sharing info that they think is benign in a temporal way while their shared info is telling a much bigger story when viewed in an aggregated way.

Shared Data…you love or you get pushed by it.

By: katchja

katchja — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 13:35:18 +0000

Hi everyone,

Yes, competition monitoring is vital. At the same time, though, since the goal of competition monitoring is to figure out what are the best positioning techniques you can use for your own business, it’s essential that competition monitoring does not take up too much time and effort. Perhaps already available apps and tools will make this easier. Nonetheless, with or without focusing on that, high quality content and authenticity could easily rule out competitors who are only good at pulling strings through social media.

Kate

By: crash

crash — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 03:18:25 +0000

I’m always surprised at how many people have readily available information about their employers online and what they’re working on – all for the taking.

Social Media policies will only go so far. People need to realize the internet is a shark tank. If you’re going to put yourself or your company out there with a big piece of chum around your neck, don’t be surprised when you get eaten alive.

By: David Robinson

David Robinson — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 21:32:08 +0000

Privacy is dead. This supports the point my biz advisors have been pushing for – namely that specialization is a sound business strategy. The more specialized a company is in what they do, the less they will have competition, and the more free they will be from the deluge of information.

By: Doron Orenstein

Doron Orenstein — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 04:48:01 +0000

Wow, that’s some crafty thinking. I think it’s cool that you didn’t try to use the info against your competitors, but instead used it to get a sense of what the possibilities are for your own business. I’ve had a lot of success learning about my target marketing by cold/research calling (more like networking, not asking for work), getting some names, connecting them on LinkedIn, and seeing what groups they’re on in LinkedIn. I also follow their tweets to see what blogs they read. So yeah, you really can use social media “spying” in constructive ways if you’re creative about it.

By: Andy Smalley

Andy Smalley — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 21:12:21 +0000

In this cut-throat economy, this is a prime example of where Knowledge is King. If you know how to get the information, why not use it as a competitive advantage. Your right about the ethics, but if you can use it as a motivator, why not? The law enforcement is using it that way…employers are using social media to monitor employees…shoot, they probably use LinkedIn as a hiring criteria/validation.

By: toputop

toputop — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 17:01:47 +0000

Very interesting article on social media.Great post…

By: Muhammad Ali

Muhammad Ali — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 15:21:49 +0000

Social networks really sucks a lot. You are not secure while using them, oh yes! LinkedIn is great like you feel more serious attitude over there. But Facebook sucks as the audience there is just crazy. And on going hacker attacks,, !!! aah!! I hate Facebook. Twitter is awesome!!!

By: steve firth

steve firth — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 13:14:36 +0000

very true, so I’ve abandoned any notion of privacy and gone with the blatant “yeah that’s me and what” approach :)

By: Michelle C

Michelle C — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 10:11:28 +0000

Great article, Mario. It really is a double-edged sword. The amount of information we can get out of social media these days is truly incredible…and scary. I work for a monitoring company so I’m always telling people to be careful of what they make public on the web, but it’s surprising the number of people that still don’t pay attention to what they write (and also great for companies that have that information available)

Best,
Michelle @Synthesio