This is really not my blog post. I asked ChatGPT a series of questions and got its answers and copy/pasted it here.
There is some useful information, information that I did not know before, so I am guessing that some of you interested in the field of CI will benefit from it, as well.
— Dialog with ChatGPT
- Google Alerts: This tool allows you to receive email notifications when new content is published online that contains specific keywords or phrases. This can help you stay up-to-date with what your competitors are doing.
- Mention: This is a social media monitoring tool that lets you track mentions of your brand, competitors, and industry keywords across the web. It also allows you to respond to mentions in real-time.
- Owler: This tool provides insights on companies, including their news, competitors, and funding information.
- SEMrush: This is a digital marketing tool that provides insights on your competitors’ search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns.
- SimilarWeb: This tool provides insights on website traffic, including the number of visitors, top referring sites, and top destination sites.
- Alexa: This tool provides insights on website traffic and engagement, including the number of page views, time on site, and bounce rate.
It’s important to note that the accuracy and completeness of the information provided by these tools can vary, so it’s always a good idea to validate the information you receive through other means.
- BuzzSumo: This tool allows you to see the most popular content in your industry, including the number of shares on social media.
- SpyFu: This tool provides insights on your competitors’ keywords, including the ones they are bidding on for PPC ads and the ones they are ranking for organically.
- Ahrefs: This is a digital marketing tool that provides insights on your competitors’ backlinks, as well as their organic search traffic and keywords.
- SimilarGroup: This tool allows you to find similar websites to your own, which can be helpful for competitive analysis.
- Compete: This tool provides insights on website traffic, including the number of unique visitors and the top referring sites.
- BuiltWith: This tool allows you to see the technology that a website is built with, including the content management system (CMS), ecommerce platform, and web frameworks. This can give you insights into your competitors’ technology stack.
Remember that these tools can be a useful starting point for competitive intelligence, but it’s always important to validate the information you receive through other means.
There are many ways to learn about competitive intelligence, including taking courses or workshops, reading books or articles on the subject, attending conferences or seminars, and networking with other professionals in the field. Some colleges and universities also offer degree programs in competitive intelligence or related fields.
To get started, you may want to try reading some introductory books or articles on the subject to get a basic understanding of the concepts and techniques involved in competitive intelligence. From there, you can delve deeper into specific areas of interest, such as market research, data analysis, or strategic planning.
It’s also important to stay up-to-date with the latest developments and trends in the field, which you can do by subscribing to industry publications, attending conferences and seminars, and joining professional organizations. Networking with other professionals in the field can also be a great way to learn from others and gain new insights and perspectives.
Sure, here are a few introductory books on competitive intelligence that you may find helpful:
- “Competitive Intelligence: A Framework for Web-Based Analysis and Decision Making” by John J. McGonagle and Carolyn M. Schultz
- “Competitive Intelligence: How to Gather, Analyze, and Use Information to Move Your Business to the Top” by Larry Kahaner
- “The Power of Competitive Intelligence” by Nomi Stolzenberg and Mark P. Rice
- “Competitive Intelligence: Winning Strategies and Tactics for the Internet Age” by Larry Chiagouris
- “Competitive Intelligence for Dummies” by James D. Underwood
These books provide a good overview of the concepts and techniques involved in competitive intelligence and can help you get started in the field. Additionally, many of them include practical examples and case studies that can help you understand how to apply these concepts in real-world situations.
Some thoughts on the above.
- ChatGPT is a tool you can use to do some exploratory learning.
- You can ask a generic question and drill down to more and more details (I did with the subject Physics)
- It is amazing what the extent of information this program has learned.
- But ChatGPT is not really intelligent. Some call it surface intelligence. It lacks the ability to generalize and provide deeper insights.
- It augments several narrow tools for the CI professional’s tool kit.