As information thunders through the
digital economy, it’s easy to miss valuable
“weak signals” often hidden amid the
noise. Arising primarily from social media,
they represent snippets—not streams—
of information and can help companies
to figure out what customers want
and to spot looming industry and market
disruptions before competitors do.
Sometimes, companies notice them
during data-analytics number-crunching
exercises. Or employees who apply
methods more akin to art than to science
might spot them and then do some
further number crunching to test anom-
alies they’re seeing or hypotheses the
signals suggest. In any case, companies
are just beginning to recognize and
capture their value. Here are a few prin-
ciples that companies can follow to grasp
and harness the power of weak signals.
Engaging at the top
For starters, given the fluid nature of
the insights that surface, it’s often useful
to get senior leaders actively involved
with the social-media sources that give
rise to weak signals. Executives who
are curious and attuned to the themes
emerging from social media are more
likely to spot such insights.1 For example,
a global manufacturer whose high
quality and low prices were the topic of
one customer’s recent social-media
post almost certainly would not have
examined it but for a senior executive
who was a sensitive social “listener” and
found its implications intriguing. Did
the company have an opportunity, the
executive wondered, to increase prices
or perhaps to seek market share more
aggressively at the current prices?
As information thunders through the
digital economy, it’s easy to miss valuable
“weak signals” often hidden amid the
noise. Arising primarily from social media,
they represent snippets—not streams—
of information and can help companies
to figure out what customers want
and to spot looming industry and market
disruptions before competitors do.
Sometimes, companies notice them
during data-analytics number-crunching
exercises. Or employees who apply
methods more akin to art than to science
might spot them and then do some
further number crunching to test anom-
alies they’re seeing or hypotheses the
signals suggest. In any case, companies
are just beginning to recognize and
capture their value. Here are a few prin-
ciples that companies can follow to grasp
and harness the power of weak signals.
Engaging at the top
For starters, given the fluid nature of
the insights that surface, it’s often useful
to get senior leaders actively involved
with the social-media sources that give
rise to weak signals. Executives who
are curious and attuned to the themes
emerging from social media are more
likely to spot such insights.1 For example,
a global manufacturer whose high
quality and low prices were the topic of
one customer’s recent social-media
post almost certainly would not have
examined it but for a senior executive
who was a sensitive social “listener” and
found its implications intriguing. Did
the company have an opportunity, the
executive wondered, to increase prices
or perhaps to seek market share more
aggressively at the current prices?
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