Panel Debate: Tapping into Social Media for Effective CI

Social media is on the rise.  The large and growing number of users they attract claim to offer a rich pool of insights from key opinion leaders about your company, your competitors and your industry.  There are a growing number of social media monitoring tools.  SCIP’s Board Member and practitioner, August Jackson, claims that by understanding the culture and platforms empowers CI professionals to unearth deep and surprising insights. Case study-based critical success factors from four leading authorities will kick start the collective learning about tapping into social media for Effective Competitive Intelligence.  Notable learning points will include:

• Social media: a means to an end or an end in itself

• Critical success factors in leveraging social media in CI

• Navigating the social media monitoring tool landscape: choosing between DIY and full service monitoring tools

• Crowd sourcing-based debate and knowledge sharing to evaluate what’s next for you

As ever, there will be the opportunity for light refreshment and to engage with peers and practitioners warmly.

Panellists

Beth Elliott has over 11 years competitive intelligence experience within the pharmaceutical and biotech space working with one of the world’s leading CI firms.  Over the course of those 11 years, she has managed ~200 projects.  Over the past 18 months, Beth has been conducting various studies into social media usage and competitive intelligence.  

Catriona Oldershaw is UK Managing Director of Synthesio (www.synthesio.com) – a multilingual social media monitoring provider which offers a blend of technology and human analysis to provide actionable insights to brands based on the voice of their customers online. Key clients include Nissan, Johnson & Johnson, Carlsberg, Accor and Microsoft, on global listening and competitor benchmarking projects.

Arthur Weiss is a managing partner and founder of AWARE, a consultancy specialising in competitive and marketing intelligence, with services including research and analysis, training and CI strategy consultancy. Current professional interests include the role of social media in business, new techniques for finding intelligence and the influence of national culture on CI.

Cormac Heron is a Director and one half of Bright Beehive and former practitioner involved in web 2.0 projects at PwC.

Mike Alderton is UK Director of AMI Software, a company specialising in the development of software to access and manage online information to provide insight and support development of Strategic and Competitive Intelligence.