

Tools for Analysing and Tracking Your Competitors - collistaeed
http://thenetsetter.com/blog/tools/tools-for-analysing-and-tracking-your-competitors/

======
modoc
I'm not saying you should be blind to what is happening in your market, but
I'm a strong believer that you should focus on making your product the best
for your users that you can, and try to ignore a lot of the noise out there.
Do what you do and do it really well.

FWIW: I think this applies more for smaller startups, and less for giant
brands who are wielding and fighting against 100 million dollar marketing
budgets.

~~~
dshah
I'm (mostly) with you on this. Primary focus should be building the best
product you can.

But, there's a fair amount of learning to be had from watching your
competitors.

So, I'd say: "Watch and learn from your competitors, just don't follow them".

------
jlees
_Tracking what happens online is a lot easier than you might think thanks to a
host of tools available._

Then the article goes on to just list Google and Twitter, basically... are
they enough?

(disclaimer, yes i'm commercially interested in the answer to this question.)

~~~
Harkins
There's <http://www.competitious.com/>

~~~
coopr
Actually Competitious has evolved into RivalMap <http://www.rivalmap.com/> \-
I've used both at two different startups, and I found them to be useful, but
not earth-shatteringly good.

In fact, I generally think that a minimum of time should be spent considering
your competition (at least when you are a startup). Perhaps you set aside a
few hours each month to review their progress, compare it to yours, identify
features or strategies you will "borrow" from them (ie "fast follower"
strategy), and consider what they'll be doing in the future that you need to
respond to, or get ahead of.

Then, add those items to you action plan, and forget about your competition
for the next month - focus on building YOUR business instead.

Just my $0.02 from the startups I've founded, funded, and grown.

