Text mining social media for competitive analysis

Abstract

Social media are utilised widely. Companies increasingly use social
media to communicate and interact with customers. Much
information is thereby generated and is available to everybody,
including competitors. Firms need to analyse what their customers
say and interact with them. Using text mining tools, companies can
know where they are in relation to their competitors and control
the behaviour of these. Transforming text into data and data into
knowledge can be vital to make the right decisions and improving
the competitive strategy of companies.
This study used a text mining tool to analyse the primary social
media sites, including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and
others, with a focus on a sample of hotels. The dimensions analysed
were sentiments, passion and reach. A dependence was found
between several variables obtained through text mining and
financial performance. The results indicate that analysis of social
media using these techniques can be a method to improve financial
performance.