What should we do with all the data? It’s a question I have been asking a lot; good solutions—not so many. So imagine my excitement when someone finally answered the question of how we can use the huge (and growing) volume of competitive business intelligence.
In a recent MarketingProfs webinar, Sean Campbell of Cascade Insights offered some terrific tools and great advice for putting the data to work for you in the business-to-business world. Here are six places to get started:
- LinkedIn isn’t just about people profiles, it’s also about company data. Campbell noted that company profiles are a great way to glean insights on the movement of people in and out of companies, including job openings, new hires, and recent promotions.
- Read job listings to see what qualifications a company’s seeking and/or hints into new initiatives. Online CVs also provide a glimpse into what people’s job responsibilities entail—and what their company is focused on.
- Silobreaker is a search engine that includes a clickable map of a company’s network–a great tool for visual searchers. It also pulls up added value data. (Search for Pepsi for example, and you’ll also get links to CEO Indra Nooyi and a quote from her.)
- People post all kinds of data on SlideShare, including presentations from invitation-only meetings that often contain corporate roadmaps. Campbell noted that SlideShare is also a good place to identify subject matter experts.
- Use Worldle for reverse mining. Plug in an RSS feed or a Web site and the word cloud will give you a quick look at what a company or a community is talking about.
- Seeking Alpha posts transcripts from earnings calls, including the Q&A with analysts and reporters that follows the on-message presentation.
Clearly, no one source will be your holy grail. But hopefully a strategy that merges data from multiple sources will help you to connect the pieces.
What are your favorite tools and sites for data collection?
Photo by Richard Summers (Flickr).
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