Photo Credit: Edith Soto
A recent study by Digimind reveals that nearly 80% of companies are using social media sites to track competitor movements as well as gain information relating to consumer trends and industry developments.
LinkedIn was found to be the top site a company used to monitor a competitor with 69% using the site as part of their daily activities.
Twitter was also found to be a preferred site among companies to gather competitor intelligence with 62% reporting they use it every day.
Companies reported they did not find Facebook or Google+ useful for monitoring competitors and consumer trends, even though both sites are some of the most actively used social networks.
Digimind research shows that 21% of companies are still hesitant to use social media as a tool for insight and intelligence.
"A small proportion of companies remain cautious about the potential value of social media monitoring but the vast majority see it as a complement to the full spectrum of intelligence gathering," says Associate Director of Digimind, Patrice Francois.
"There is a tendency for some people to view social media monitoring as something which solely benefits B2C environments but it’s fast being adopted by a wide range of businesses and organisations for unearthing valuable intelligence insights."
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