Social Tools for Company, Industry, and Competitive Information: Simmons GSLIS Continuing Education Webinar

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Simmons GSLIS Continuing Education Webinar:

Social Tools for Company, Industry, and Competitive Information

Scott Brown, Social Information Group – March 8, 2012

Simmons GSLIS Continuing Education

© 2012 Social Information Group

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Twitter: @simmonsgslis

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• Welcome!

• Introduction to Simmons GSLIS Continuing Education

• Social Tools for Company, Industry, and Competitive Information: an overview

• Bonus: Mobile apps

• Q&A

• Final thoughts and wrapup

Agenda

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• I have not heard of the Simmons GSLIS CE program before

• I have heard of it, but have not looked at the workshops

• I have looked at the workshops, but have never taken one

• I have taken a Simmons GSLIS CE workshop online

• I have taken a Simmons GSLIS CE workshop on-site

Poll

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• About Simmons GSLIS CE

• Online and on-site offerings

• Upcoming topics:

– Social Tools for Company, Industry, and Competitive Information: http://bit.ly/socialsimmons

– Apps4Librarians

– Instruction Librarian Bootcamp

• See more at http://gslis.simmons.edu/ce

• Contact: Kris Liberman @ [email protected]

Simmons GSLIS Continuing Education

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Instructor: Scott Brown

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• Owner, Social Information Group

• Upcoming book: Social Information: Gaining competitive and business advantage using social media tools

• 20+ years’ experience – public, academic, corporate

• Coach

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• About the workshop

• Social networks (including Google +)

• Blogs and microblogs

• Video, audio, images

• Social search

• What else does the workshop cover?

• Bonus: mobile apps

Today’s webinar topics

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• “Crash course” on social tools for finding business, competitive, and industry information

• Strategic and practical approaches

• The main tools, why you’d use them, and what kind of information you’d find there

• Readings and “how-to” slides and screencasts

• You conduct your own research during the workshop

About the workshop

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I have an account in:

• LinkedIn

• Facebook

• Google +

• Twitter

• I don’t have an account in any of these

Poll

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• Examples: LinkedIn, Facebook, Google +

• What can you find?

– Organizational information

– Employee movement

– Customer information

• Use for:

– Competitive tracking – employees, jobs, news

– Industry buzz

– Tracking strategy

Social networks

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http://plus.google.com

Social networks example: Google +

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Use to track:

• Organizational pages

• Competitor pages

• Competitor employees

Recap: Google +

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• Examples: Google blog search, Twitter

• What can you find?

– Organization blogs and commentary

– Alternative perspective

– Industry “feeds”

• Use for:

– Company and industry research

– Finding experts

– Industry trend tracking

Blogs and microblogs

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“Microblog” example: Twitter

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http://twitter.com

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Following

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Listorious: listorious.com

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Use to:

• Find “players” in the market/industry

– Organizations

– Associations

– Publications

• Discover a network

• Keep up on “buzz”

Recap: Twitter

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• Examples: YouTube, iTunes, Flickr – and now Pinterest

• What can you find?

– Interviews

– Event and site photos

– Podcasts

• Use for:

– Competitive research

– Customer insight

– In-depth views of a company’s experts/products

Video, audio, images

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Video example: YouTube

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http://www.youtube.com

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Use to:

• Find official organization videos

• Event coverage

• Interviews

Recap: YouTube

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• Examples: SamePoint, SocialMention

• What can you find?

– Aggregated social activity

– High-level view of social discussion

– Sentiment – kind of

• Use for:

– Quick overview of social activity

– Sentiment

– Search engine for certain social properties

Social search

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http://www.samepoint.com

Social search example: SamePoint

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http://www.opfine.com

Social search example: Opfine

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Commodities

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Companies

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Use to:

• Find social activity

• Search unique social properties

• Identify positive/negative news

Recap: Social search

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• More depth on the tools we’ve covered

• Additional tools

• Illustration of techniques

• Settings and protecting your information

• Privacy and ethics

• Emerging tools and international perspective

What else does the workshop cover?

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• Asynchronous

• Self-paced with weekly discussions

• “Real-world” focus

• Screencasts

• Current readings

• Final assignment: your research on an organization or industry of your choice

The logistics

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Bonus: Mobile apps

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• Not inherently

• Look for the social components

• The difficulty – getting at the information

Are apps “social?”

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• Layar

Which might be useful?

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• Layar

• Yelp and similar review apps

Which might be useful?

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• Layar

• Yelp and similar review apps

• Unsocial

Which might be useful?

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Q&A

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• Social tools keep evolving – for better or for worse

• Re-discover the standards

• Be creative - try everything

Final thoughts

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• Register for upcoming courses!

– Social Tools for Company, Industry, and Competitive Information: http://bit.ly/socialsimmons

10% discount for Scott’s April class

(please choose MARWEB as your “student type”)

• See more at http://gslis.simmons.edu/ce

• Contact: Kris Liberman @ [email protected]

Don’t forget! Simmons GSLIS Continuing Education

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Contact and connect with me:

[email protected]

http://www.linkedin.com/in/scottrbrown

http://www.socialinformationgroup.com

@socialinfo

303-834-7553

Scott Brown Social Information Group

Thank you!

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