Gathering Intel With Data & Social Media!
You Can Learn More About People Than You Thought!
Social media can be helpful in more than just promoting your business. We think of it as a fun, social environment, but it actually provides great intel for the rest of the world. There are a number of scenarios where a few simple (and we mean basic here, people) searches can yield you with valuable intel.
Researching Employees – It’s amazing what people will put out there on social media, and it’s a good practice to go scope out any prospective employees. See if they are prone to rants, post inappropriate posts, or check out how they conduct themselves online. While yes, personal is different from professional, it still will give you better insights into their personality. And, personality always comes through into professional interactions. Trust me!
Thanks to Instagram and Twitter where many younger professionals forget that most of their posts are public!
Researching Clients – I always like to do a quick google search for prospective clients. If they’ve been in the news for any reason, good or bad, it helps me to understand who they are a little better. One time, I had a prospective client who was really secretive about giving access to their accounts and information. Without seeing the full picture, it is often times hard to make an accurate proposal. So, I just did a quick google search for their name and the town they lived in. Turns out they had been arrested within the last few years for using counterfeit money. Do I want to get mixed up with someone like that? No, thanks!
Thank you to a quick Google search for any news!
Researching Target Prospects – LInkedIn has so many great tools to find people that you have connection to and give you the chance to connect directly. I use the search tool regularly to find similar business owners in my local area, or even in other towns, all with the search filters! Often, I will do a search for some like “Social Media Director, Denver” and then narrow down my filters to be only 2nd Connections for those keywords. This allows me to see who I have the potential to connect with. If you’re using the paid version of LinkedIn, then the sky is the limit!
Once you’ve narrowed your search to a list of people, go check out their profiles and see if you have any connection to note. For example, if you’re both Husker fans, or have both worked for the same organization at some point, use that sliver of information as a foot in the door for a conversation. Simple research helps a lot here!
Thank you LinkedIn Search tools!
Researching Your Coffee Date – If you are simply meeting someone new and want to have some idea of who you’re looking for when you walk in, do a simple social media search. Facebook is my go-to for this because even if a person has kept their profile private, you can usually find at least a decent image of them with their profile pictures. LinkedIn is also a good resource for professional settings too!
Thank you to Facebook for making it easy to find people!
Research Your Employers – An interview goes both ways. While you may want the job a lot, you still need to be interviewing the employer just as much as they are interviewing you. Social media can give you incredible insights into who they are. Search out their business social media pages to see how active they are. Do they have employee buy in? Are there any good or bad reviews for the company on social media, Google, or even Yelp? Have they been in the news, good or bad, lately? Go look for current or past employees on LinkedIn and see what the average tenure rate is for employees. Do your research and you can make a better decision about a company that’s hiring!
Thank you to review websites, search engines, and social media sites everywhere!
There’s so much more you can do with the data that’s available online, and those searches can be extremely valuable. You can learn more about those in your network than you ever thought imaginable with data today. If you want to learn more about going deeper, let us know. We have some great resources for in-depth intel. In the meantime, thinking out social media in a new perspective helps you realize that you can know a lot about your network with a few basic searches and tools!