Social Tools for Company, Industry, and Competitive Information: Simmons GSLIS Continuing Education Webinar, March 8, 2012 Scott Brown and Simmons GSLIS Continuing Education provide a preview of the April 2012 online CE workshop entitled "Social Tools for Company, Industry, and Competitive Intelligence." Includes a bonus piece on mobile apps as well as an introduction to the Simmons GSLIS CE offerings for spring and summer 2012.

1. 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
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© 2012 Social Information Group

2. Twitter: @simmonsgslis
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3. Agenda
• 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
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4. Poll
• 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
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5. Simmons GSLIS Continuing Education
• 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 @ gslisce@simmons.edu
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6. Instructor: Scott Brown
• 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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7. Today’s webinar topics
• About the workshop
• Social networks (including Google +)
• Blogs and microblogs
• Video, audio, images
• Social search
• What else does the workshop cover?
• Bonus: mobile apps
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8. About the workshop
• “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
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9. Poll
I have an account in:
• LinkedIn
• Facebook
• Google +
• Twitter
• I don’t have an account in any of these
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10. Social networks
• 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
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11. Social networks example: Google +
http://plus.google.com
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© Andres Rodriguez - Fotolia
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19. Recap: Google +
Use to track:
• Organizational pages
• Competitor pages
• Competitor employees
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20. Blogs and microblogs
• 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
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21. “Microblog” example: Twitter
http://twitter.com
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23. Following
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27. Listorious: listorious.com
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28. Recap: Twitter
Use to:
• Find “players” in the market/industry
– Organizations
– Associations
– Publications
• Discover a network
• Keep up on “buzz”
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29. Video, audio, images
• 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
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30. Video example: YouTube
http://www.youtube.com
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35. Recap: YouTube
Use to:
• Find official organization videos
• Event coverage
• Interviews
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36. Social search
• 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
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37. Social search example: SamePoint
http://www.samepoint.com
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40. Social search example: Opfine
http://www.opfine.com
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41. Commodities
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43. Companies
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48. Recap: Social search
Use to:
• Find social activity
• Search unique social properties
• Identify positive/negative news
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49. What else does the workshop cover?
• 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
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50. The logistics
• Asynchronous
• Self-paced with weekly discussions
• “Real-world” focus
• Screencasts
• Current readings
• Final assignment: your research on an organization
or industry of your choice
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51. Bonus: Mobile apps
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52. Are apps “social?”
• Not inherently
• Look for the social
components
• The difficulty – getting at
the information
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53. Which might be useful?
• Layar
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© Andres Rodriguez - Fotolia
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54. Which might be useful?
• Layar
• Yelp and similar review apps
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55. Which might be useful?
• Layar
• Yelp and similar review apps
• Unsocial
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56. Q&A
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57. Final thoughts
• Social tools keep evolving – for better
or for worse
• Re-discover the standards
• Be creative - try everything
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58. Don’t forget!
Simmons GSLIS Continuing Education
• 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 @ gslisce@simmons.edu
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59. Thank you!
Scott Brown
Social Information Group
Contact and connect with me:
 scott@socialinformationgroup.com
 http://www.linkedin.com/in/scottrbrown
 http://www.socialinformationgroup.com
 @socialinfo
 303-834-7553
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