Listening and mapping
As the manufacturer’s example implies, spotting weak signals is more likely when
companies can marshal dispersed net-
works of people who have a deep under-
standing of the business and act as listening posts. One global beverage com-
pany is considering including social-media awareness in its hiring criteria for some managers, to build its network
and free its management team from “well-
rehearsed habits.”
Weak signals are everywhere, of course, so deciding when and where to keep
the antennae out is critical. One such sit-
uation involves a product, market, or service that doesn’t yet exist—but could. Consider the case of a global adver-
tising company that was investigating (for one of its clients) a US growth opportunity related to child care. Because
no one was offering the proposed service, keyword searches on social media
(and on the web more broadly) wouldn’t work. Instead, the company looked
to social-media platforms where it might find weak signals—finally discovering
an online content service that allows users to create and share individu-
alized newspapers.
In the child-care arena, digital-content channels are often curated by mothers and fathers, who invite conversations about their experiences and concerns, as
well as assemble relevant articles by experts or government sources. Analysts used semantic clues to follow hundreds of fine-grained conversations on these sites. The exercise produced a wealth
of relevant information about the types of services available in individual markets, the specific levels of service that parents sought, the prices they were willing
to pay, the child-care options companies already sponsored, the strength of
local providers (potential competitors), and
the people in various communities
who might become ambassadors for a
new service. This wasn’t a number-crunching exercise; instead, it took an
anthropological view of local child care—a mosaic formed from shards of information found only on social media. In the end, the weak signals helped
the company to define the parameters of a not-yet-existing service.
Listening and mapping
As the manufacturer’s example implies, spotting weak signals is more likely when
companies can marshal dispersed net-
works of people who have a deep under-
standing of the business and act as listening posts. One global beverage com-
pany is considering including social-media awareness in its hiring criteria for some managers, to build its network
and free its management team from “well-
rehearsed habits.”
Weak signals are everywhere, of course, so deciding when and where to keep
the antennae out is critical. One such sit-
uation involves a product, market, or service that doesn’t yet exist—but could. Consider the case of a global adver-
tising company that was investigating (for one of its clients) a US growth opportunity related to child care. Because
no one was offering the proposed service, keyword searches on social media
(and on the web more broadly) wouldn’t work. Instead, the company looked
to social-media platforms where it might find weak signals—finally discovering
an online content service that allows users to create and share individu-
alized newspapers.
In the child-care arena, digital-content channels are often curated by mothers and fathers, who invite conversations about their experiences and concerns, as
well as assemble relevant articles by experts or government sources. Analysts used semantic clues to follow hundreds of fine-grained conversations on these sites. The exercise produced a wealth
of relevant information about the types of services available in individual markets, the specific levels of service that parents sought, the prices they were willing
to pay, the child-care options companies already sponsored, the strength of
local providers (potential competitors), and
the people in various communities
who might become ambassadors for a
new service. This wasn’t a number-crunching exercise; instead, it took an
anthropological view of local child care—a mosaic formed from shards of information found only on social media. In the end, the weak signals helped
the company to define the parameters of a not-yet-existing service.
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