Yesterday I had the chance to attend several of the sessions at Podcamp Philly 2008 in the City of Brotherly Love. I met several great people, including Shashi Bellamkonda, who has the awesome title of “Social Networking Swami” at Network Solutions. I wish I had a sexy title like that. I keep gunning for that Dark Lord of the Sith promotion at work to no avail.
Hopefully I was able to provide some valuable insight att Suki Fuller’s session on Competitive Intelligence and Social Media. Several of the folks at the session asked what some of the best resources were for learning how to conduct competitive intelligence. With that in mind I thought I would provide some sources that I’ve found useful:
Kirk Tyson’s Complete Guide to Competitive Intelligence
A great overview of the practice, complete with templates.
Early Warning by Ben Gilad
More of am examination of strategic blind-spots than a tactical how-to. A valuable reminder of how business leaders can retain or regain their external perspective on changing markets.
Business and Competitive Analysis: Effective Application of New and Classic Methods by Babette Bensoussan and Craig Fleisher
A great guide to some basic and advanced methods. Despite some of the advanced material readily accessible.
Always take a look at the resources available on the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals web site.
I would be remiss if I didn’t also mention the Competitive Intelligence Podcast by yours truly. Some of the early episodes in particular go over some good basics about how to use the Internet to conduct competitive intelligence. Later episodes address using social media like LinkedIn, wikis and Twitter for competitive intelligence.
