An important step in setting up a CI project is to work out where to look for the information you will need to meet your objectives. The best way to do this is to create a map of useful sources.
The generic map below is a guideline to help you. Use this framework to ensure that you have covered all of the types of sources that are relevant to your CI project.
Follow these three steps to customize the map to fit your own CI project:
Maybe you don’t need to track social media sites, but you may want to monitor sites that give very detailed financial information. Look over the types of sources above and adapt them to meet your needs, always keeping your CI objectives in mind.
Maybe your CI project only requires an overview of what’s happening in the national press. In this case, you may choose to track only one or two national papers. Alternatively, you may decide that you need to track all national papers, and also some of the larger regional titles. There might be sources that you choose not to follow at all for a particular project.
Once you have defined the types of sources you need and have weighed their importance, the next step is to list the specific sources required complete your map. If you know that you need to monitor the business press, for example, and that this type of source is of relatively low importance, then The Financial Times and Financial Press Gazette might be enough to satisfy your needs.
Mapping sources in this way will allow you to identify the gaps in your coverage and find the appropriate sources to meet your objectives.
