Brown Social Information

Gaining Competitive and Business Advantage Using Social Media Tools
1. Auflage 2012
ISBN: 978-1-78063-327-5
Verlag: Elsevier Science & Techn.
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 352 Seiten

Reihe: Chandos Publishing Social Media Series

Information available through 'traditional' business and competitive resources can be complimented by information gained through social media tools. Social Information is a must-have book for competitive and business researchers in any discipline including librarians, information professionals, intelligence analysts, students and marketing personnel, and explores how more 'traditional' resources can be complimented by social media tools. The book outlines different categories of social tools, competitive and business applications of these tools, and provides example searches with screenshots. The book provides concrete search examples, as well as strategies and approaches for searching social tools that may be available today or that may emerge tomorrow. Readers will learn ways to quickly develop new search strategies as new tools and features emerge. The future of social tools and information, and the lasting impact that these tools have had on how information plays a part in our lives, our businesses and our careers is discussed. The title is structured into seven chapters, covering: the impact of social media, and the approach of the book; a brief history of business and competitive information and the rise of social tools; blogs and microblogs; video, audio and images; social search engines; and the future of social information. - The book specifically explores business and competitive information and approaches using social media tools - Written by a highly knowledgeable and long-time practitioner and researcher in the field - Provides both practical and strategic search approaches, so that the skills learned will be readily transferable to other social tools, and to social tools as they evolve

Scott Brown is owner of Social Information Group (http://www.socialinformationgroup.com), an independent consulting and information practice focused on the effective use of social networking tools for finding and sharing information. He has worked with Fortune 500 companies, government and non-profit organisations, and individuals to help them understand and effectively use these tools. He has over 20 years experience in public, academic and corporate libraries. Most recently, he was a Senior Information Specialist with Sun Microsystems, providing strategic research services and competitive intelligence information for many groups across the company. He is a founding Board member of the SLA CI Division, and adjunct faculty at San Jose State University in California and University of Denver in Colorado, USA. He is a frequent speaker on the use and evolution of social networking tools and information work. He received his library degree from San Jose State University in California, USA, in 1999.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Brown, Scott

Leseproben

1 A brief history of business and competitive information, and the rise of social tools
Abstract:
This chapter briefly examines the history and availability of business and competitive information. The chapter contrasts the difference between information available in “traditional” sources (such as business databases) and social sources. A history of social tools is presented. The chapter outlines common features of social tools, including connecting with others and sharing information. The chapter concludes by outlining ten categories of social tools: networking tools, publishing tools, social search engines, RSS and news feeds, video/audio/image sources, collaboration tools, communication tools, location tools, games and lifecasting tools. Key words History of social tools traditional information sources social information sources categories of social tools A brief history of business and competitive information
In some sense, business and competitive information has been important to humans since the beginning of society. How much grain is my neighbor growing? What price is he asking for it at the market? What price was he asking last year? Prior to the information revolution, and the advent of “personal computing” in the 1980s and 1990s, business information was typically paper based and accessible only by either physically getting information or talking with other people. People read the newspaper, or visited the county recorder, the hall of records, the patent office, or the library to find information. The records held the “official” business information, which was certainly important to have. Libraries held the back issues of newspapers and business magazines. The gossip and discussion among people often held the “softer” information: what was the business owner thinking of doing next? Whom did he know? Whom was he dealing with? Where did people think things were going? This information was just as important, and it complemented the information available through the “official” channels of records and news. While there does not seem to be one definitive history of competitive intelligence (CI) – the practice of specifically looking at business competitors so you could figure out their strategies and the market, and how you fit into it – it is generally agreed that the beginnings of CI practice in organizations began in the 1970s (although the practice of intelligence by government agencies started well before then). Michael Porter’s publication of his book Competitive Strategy in 1980 signaled the foundation of modern-day business practice of CI. The establishment of the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP) in 1986, and subsequent codification of the practice of CI, has made twenty-first-century CI practice a thriving and essential part of many industries and organizations. Some early CI practitioners had roots in military intelligence and counter-intelligence, giving the practice of CI a “cloak and dagger” feel. Visions (and sometimes the actual practice) of “dumpster diving” for information, and other ethically questionable information-gathering activities, sometimes clouded the practice of gathering competitive information. With the advent of the Internet, and more readily available information online via the web, databases, and subscription services, a lot of competitive information can be more easily gathered without verging into the area of espionage. “Traditional” business and competitive information sources
When I talk about “traditional” sources for business and competitive information, I think of these as the “official” sources I referenced earlier. These sources might include the paper-based resources that we’ve had for centuries: county records, required business filings with the government, etc. They also include online resources that provide verified, reliable information. These are either sources that have the blessing of an official governing body, such as the EDGAR records from the US government Securities and Exchange Commission that provide access to the official filings of US public businesses, or sources that have established themselves as credible and reliable, such as OneSource, Dun & Bradstreet, and Hoover’s. These sources have been used for decades, and have come to be regarded as reliable and authoritative. The intersection of “traditional” and social information
“Traditional” sources can provide information that forms the basis of business and competitive analysis. Business information such as sales, revenues, profits, cash flow, and debt helps to provide a picture of the financial health of an organization, and gives some idea of the competitive positioning of a company in the market. Financial analyst reports, provided by investment firms such as the US firm J.P. Morgan, can provide a perspective on the strengths and weaknesses of an organization, and its opportunities and vulnerabilities in the market. News articles from major media outlets provide a picture of the market forces at play for any given industry. All of these contribute to the picture of an organization and its market, as well as some sense of the broader industry. The information a researcher can gather through social tools can help paint a richer picture of the organization and its market positioning. Through social tools, one can potentially discover such things as:  Employee movement: How and whom is the organization hiring? Who is leaving the organization? Where are they going?  Customer sentiment: Is the organization well regarded by its customers, or vilified? Is the organization having any issues with its products?  Company structure: What titles do the employees have? What kind of structure does the organization have? How “social” is the organization – in other words, how active is it online?  Organization initiatives and growth areas: What talents and skills is the organization looking for in employees? What titles do new hires have? How is the organization shifting its focus?  Market disruptors: Is the organization being challenged by other entrants into the market? What kinds of products or services are potentially rivaling the organization’s products and services?  Strategic direction: How is the organization talking about itself? What is the leadership talking about? What events is the organization targeting? What does that say about the direction of the organization, and the shifting market? In this book, we’ll explore these aspects and more, and how social tools can help uncover this type of information. The growth of social tools
Social networking tools are called “social” for a reason. They are, at their core, about connection. In this sense, social networking as a concept goes back to the beginning of history. We, as a species, get together and share information. We tell stories. We hear stories. Our society has a long oral and written tradition. If we look at “networks” that we’ve used in the past for sharing information, we can point to libraries, educational institutions, and postal services as examples. A next wave of “networks” might begin with the telegraph. The telegraph gave us the ability to electronically send information long distances with relatively little “transit time.” Radio, telephones, and television further increased this ability to transmit information. These tools sometimes provided an element of having an interaction or conversation, such as the telephone; sometimes they only transmitted information in one direction. The introduction of online information-sharing utilities like ARPANET, in the late 1960s, and USENET, in the late 1970s and 1980s, may be considered the earliest forms of social networking as we know it today. These tools electronically connected different groups of people for the express purpose of sharing information and interacting. The development of ARPANET ushered in an era of computers communicating with each other (with humans obviously being involved in there somewhere), and established at least the conceptual basis of the Internet as we know it today. The earliest forms of social networks as we know them today can be traced to Bulletin Board Systems, or BBS, in the 1980s. These online communities would be accessible only if you could use your telephone to dial in, via a modem, to a computer running the BBS software. You could send text-only information to other interested parties – and typically, the other interested parties would be other hard-core techno-geeks like you. If you weren’t in the same local calling area as the computer, you also had to pay long-distance fees (in addition to tying up your phone line with a screechy modem signal). It wasn’t until CompuServe and, later, America Online (or AOL) came along (in 1979 and in 1989-91 respectively) that more interaction was...