Social Information: Gaining Competitive and Business Advantage Using Social Media Tools

Citation

Correia, A. (2013), "Social Information: Gaining Competitive and Business Advantage Using Social Media Tools", Online Information Review, Vol. 37 No. 1, pp. 151-152. https://doi.org/10.1108/14684521311311720

This book has been written against a social background where networking is assuming ever‐increasing importance; user‐friendly media and networking tools are developing rapidly. We tweet, we post updates on Facebook and Google Plus, we blog and are contacted by colleagues and friends through a variety of social networks. As the author reminds us, these technologies did not exist in 2000, but some of them have gained dozens of millions of users and participants in just five years: Linkedin now reaches 150 million users, while Twitter has gained 95 million. We use these media to support academic or research work, to obtain competitive advantage or to retrieve the latest news from around the globe.

The book opens with an introduction explaining the impact of social media and the author's approach in discussing social media. Taking into account that the spectrum of social networking tools shifts and changes regularly as they develop, the author uses a dual approach: concrete search examples and specific tools are introduced along with their relevant searching strategies.

The first chapter addresses “a brief history of business and competitive information” and more traditional information sources such as business databases; this is then contrasted with the information available via social media. The author also presents a brief history of social tools and outlines ten categories of such tools based on their primary functions. This chapter also outlines common features of the various social tools that facilitate the sharing of information.

Although all ten categories of social tools are mentioned, the text concentrates mainly on four categories, each with its own chapter (Chapters 2‐5): networking, publishing, video and audio, social search engines. The sixth and concluding chapter looks at several current trends and developments in social tools. This is presented as a look into the future, to see how these tools might evolve and change.

This is an excellent reference in the domain of social tools being used to gain competitive and business advantage. One of its most useful features is the real‐world examples, in parallel with strategies and approaches to search social media today and in the future. It is highly recommended because of its systematic and well‐structured approach to each chapter.