1. Mining the Invisible Web for Competitive Intelligence Mary Ellen Bates Bates Information Services Inc. www.BatesInfo.com 800.820.2104

2. www.BatesInfo.com What we’ll cover Thinking about CI Looking at the target company CI tools Ethical considerations

3. www.BatesInfo.com Thinking about CI

4. www.BatesInfo.com Thinking about CI Look sideways. Cast a wide net when searching the professional literature Set your relevance-meter on “broad” Often, there is no One Right Answer You can’t find everything, but you can always find something

5. www.BatesInfo.com Thinking about CI Think about who cares: Who are the company’s competitors? Who regulates the industry? Who buys their products/services? What association looks at this industry?

6. www.BatesInfo.com Thinking about CI Think about who cares: Who is obsessive about them? Who is affected by this company? (labor union? lawsuits by injured customers?)

7. www.BatesInfo.com Looking at the target company

8. www.BatesInfo.com Company web site Do not assume content within the company’s web site is search- engine-friendly. Content management systems can make content inaccessible to spiders

9. www.BatesInfo.com Company web site Look for: Investor relations Annual report (even for privately- held companies) Organization chart Branch locations Product information

10. www.BatesInfo.com Company web site Look for: Employment opportunities Changes in executives Suppliers and vendors Press releases (get added to their press list)

11. www.BatesInfo.com Company web site Use the site map or site index Click everywhere! Think creatively about what these things tell you

12. www.BatesInfo.com Company web site When drilling down in company web pages: Use the "Search This Site" feature to look for PowerPoint presentations, speeches, white papers, etc. Search terms:.ppt,.doc, powerpoint

13. www.BatesInfo.com Company web site Look through job postings on company web site, if available May require multiple passes with pull-down menus or searches

14. www.BatesInfo.com Company web site To discover a company’s marketing channels, visit its site and click the “for more information” link Look for a “how did you hear about us” list It is usually a checklist of where the company is expending marketing dollars

15. www.BatesInfo.com Monitoring the company Vault.com Hear what current employees say Directed to new graduates F***edCompany.com Lots of naught words Source for alleged internal memos Early warning for rumors of bad news

16. www.BatesInfo.com Monitoring the company Identify the government agencies that regulate this industry Identify industry groups that regulate or certify companies

17. www.BatesInfo.com Monitoring the company Use Dialog’s Domain Names (file 225) to monitor new domain registrations This is an early-warning of new products, promotions, acquisitions

18. www.BatesInfo.com Monitoring the company Use the WayBack Machine (archive.org) to see: how a company presented itself in the past information on a company before an acquisition to determine how long the company has had a web presence

19. www.BatesInfo.com Monitoring the company Basic patent research www.uspto.gov Public records: bankruptcies, judgments, etc. May not be available online See BRBpub.com for list

20. www.BatesInfo.com CI Tools

21. www.BatesInfo.com Basic CI tools Local newspapers & biz journals Trade press, especially newsletters NewsIsFree.com, other web-based news aggregators CorporateInformation.com Requires free registration

22. www.BatesInfo.com The phone: really invisible web Identify who you can talk to: Journalists - Search local newspapers to identify who has the industry beat Government experts - Who regulates this industry? Investment analysts University professors Think tanks / policy organizations

23. www.BatesInfo.com Monitoring who’s talking Hear what vendors/suppliers say Use reverse link look-up link:www.company-name.com What are company employees saying? Monitor association web sites, to see conference speaker lists

24. www.BatesInfo.com Monitoring who’s talking For consumer trends, monitor the most popular search phrases 50.lycos.com www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html buzz.yahoo.com

25. www.BatesInfo.com Monitoring who’s talking Mine the online discussions Google Groups Yahoo Groups Blogs Technorati.com, DayPop.com, Feedster.com, Blogdex.net are good for searching

26. www.BatesInfo.com Monitoring who’s talking Find I-hate-company-X.com – use www.whois.sc to identify See also Home->Consumer Information->Complaints in dmoz.org

27. www.BatesInfo.com

28. The almost-invisible web Find subject-specific search engines GeniusFind.com categorizes specialized search engines and finding tools Beaucoup.com includes several thousand search engines and directories; “search” looks at abstracts

29. www.BatesInfo.com The almost-invisible web Use Teoma’s “Resources” list to identify link-rich sources

30. www.BatesInfo.com

31. Ethical considerations

32. www.BatesInfo.com Ethical considerations If you wouldn’t want your actions reported on the front page of the newspaper your mother or your child reads, don’t do it.

33. www.BatesInfo.com Ethical considerations SCIP says: Over 95% of information that is required is publicly available from open sources. If managers plan ahead and maintain best practice CI systems, it is not necessary to undertake illegal or unethical activity.

34. www.BatesInfo.com Ethical considerations Never lie Manage your clients’ expectations Outsource to third-party if appropriate

35. www.BatesInfo.com Resources: SLA’s new CI Division Super Searchers on Competitive Intelligence by Margaret Carr (Information Today, 2003) ISBN:0-910965-64-1 www.infotoday.com/supersearchers/ssci.htm # # #

36. www.BatesInfo.com Mary Ellen offers a free “Tip of the Month” email update. If you would like to subscribe, just ask ( mbates@BatesInfo.com ) or go to www.BatesInfo.com/tip.html

37. www.BatesInfo.com Mary Ellen Bates Bates Information Services www.BatesInfo.com mbates@BatesInfo.com