Track your competitors online

Maybe it's part of your job description, or maybe not. CIOs certainly have a lot on their plate, but a little business intelligence advice to the boss using today's technology may not hurt. Inc.technology points out that there are many high cost intelligence gathering services, and then of course there is the Internet and a little common sense. The magazine says that to save money, there are easy ways to obtain information on competitors. For one, use Google alerts. By putting in keywords and phrases, you can trigger an email notification and link every time that a word or phrase pops up on a site, blog, or news story.

You can also keep track of search engine and site analytics to see which companies in your niche are beating you in the rankings. If you work for a retailer, you might want monitor eBay for prices, brand colors and models to see what's happening in your line of products. It also might be wise to monitor Twitter, a social networking site that allows members of its community to send short, one to two line dispatches throughout the day updating what they're doing, talking about, thinking about.

"It is also increasingly a place where industry buzz starts,'' the article's author pointed out. Other advice includes keeping an eye on a competitors staff by reading the "About Us" page on the website, and monitoring their job postings.

For more on Internet snooping:
- check out this Inc.technology article