Real estate agents use social media networks like Twitter to get into the minds of home buyers and sellers, and the National Football League has used MySpace and Facebook to learn intimate details about their potential recruits. Call it “spying,†if you will, but this type of online competitive intelligence-gathering has grown right along with the popularity of MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social networking sites.
“Being able to ‘listen’ to current and potential customers is one of the most powerful components of social media,†says Heather Whaling, spokesperson for PR and marketing firm Costa DeVault in Winter Park, Florida. “Companies can gain valuable insights by simply paying attention to online communities.â€
By listening to what consumers in their target demographic market say about their competitors and their products, small businesses can avoid being blindsided by trends and issues that have been overlooked by traditional market research tools, such as focus groups and online surveys.
Social media can also offer insights about your competitors — information that you may not otherwise have access to. A bike shop that learns about the competition’s upcoming customer appreciation night via a brief posting on Twitter, for example, can use this knowledge to move quickly and match or upstage the event.
“At the very minimum, companies should be monitoring their brand online,†says Whaling. “They need to listen, and be prepared to respond accordingly.†She suggests starting with free or moderately-priced “listening†tools that are “perfectly suited for small to mid-sized firms,†such as:
Twitter Search: Twitter’s primary search tool
Twazzup: Another Twitter search tool which “seems even more powerful than the original,†according to Whaling.
Google Alerts: Set up keyword searches and have the results delivered to your inbox.
TweetBeep: It’s just like Google Alerts, but for Twitter.
Filtrbox: Monitors and analyzes millions of online sources. “This is excellent for small and medium size businesses with limited budgets,†says Whaling.
SM2: An online brand management tool that also monitors and analyzes sources. The service offers a “freemium” account that allows you to search five terms with up to 1,000 search results.
Facebook Lexicon: Used to search what’s being written on users’ Facebook walls.
Once you start using one or more of these social media tools, you’ll likely run into information overload, based on the sheer amounts of “stuff†being posted on the
sites. Deal with the challenge by picking only those sites that deliver the best, most useful results, says Whaling, and forget the rest. “You don’t have to be everywhere,†she says. “Select a few social networks, engage them and utilize them to your advantage.â€Listening to social networks also presents ethical dilemmas for companies that can’t afford to anger their potential or current customers, particularly in today’s economic conditions. Whaling says firms can avoid being looked upon on as “spies†by always being upfront about who they are, and what they’re doing. “Don’t engage in a social network without being truthful about who you are,†says Whaling.
Another consideration, says Central Michigan University Internet marketing and e-commerce expert, Deborah Gray, involves children under the age of 13, many of whom
flock to social networking sites like MySpace every day. While an attractive target for marketers, these youngsters are protected by the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which requires parental permission before any information can be collected about children aged 13 or younger. “This is definitely something to watch out for when listening in on social networks,†says Gray.Such challenges aside, both Gray and Whaling see social networking as an effective and affordable tool for finding out information about your customers and competitors alike. “Companies have always used sources like the newspaper and other offline outlets to listen to what customers were saying about them,†says Whaling. “This is really just an extension of that, only it’s taking place online.â€
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