Find Profitable Niches

Competitive intelligence can be used to support and justify vital business decisions. Intelligence about competitors is available from a huge range of sources, and creativity in finding these source is key. Some tools available online for competitive intelligence are described below. The data gathering requirements of a competitor intelligence analyst have been made much easier through the growing number of online information tools. Below are some major competitive intelligence tools.

Tweets. Twitter is one of the newest source of information about competitors. Competitors’ feeds on Twitter will always be a valuable source of intelligence about their activities. Intelligence available via Twitter can be transient, and indeed could be deleted, so requires careful monitoring.
YouTube. An intelligence analyst may need to devote more time to YouTube than to traditional sources, since video content may need to be watched or listened to manually. YouTube is still a good source of information. Videos put on YouTube by competitors will be full of insight into how they tackle their strategies. Videos on YouTube can also give insights into how a competitor will conduct their product launches and supporting activities.
Geographical search engines. Competing tools from Google, Microsoft, AOL and others makes geographical data much easier to acquire than used to be the case. Pictures and other data about competitor locations will often be very valuable, and appear in such mapping tools. Slides in a competitor intelligence debrief can usually be improved with map images and photos.
LinkedIn profiles. Creating an organisational chart often begins with a visit to LinkedIn. Much data is on offer online about a competitor’s employees and their organisation.
Flickr. This image search engine owned by Yahoo is the most difficult of these sources to search and monitor, and perhaps the least rewarding, but it can be a source of information not available elsewhere. Images on Flickr can include screenshots and photos of products, or photos of company parties and similar occasions.

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