So by now we’ve established that information regarding career changes among CIOs, CTOs and other Senior IT Executives could be valuable and actionable for us as it helps engage these senior IT decision makers when they are most likely to respond.

Now where should we go to find these updates? There is no shortage of public and private sources to uncover these insights. The top 6 are:

1. LinkedIn updates

By keeping track of companies and executives on LinkedIn you can receive alerts similar to the one above on when your potential clients update their LinkedIn profiles. That’s the best time to reach out to them.

LinkedIn is one of the best sources of updates for technology companies looking to reach out to engage CIOs, CTOs and other senior IT executives. Almost purely business-focused in nature it has relatively more/better information relevant to B2B lead generation. At the same time, as content is purely user-generated, the two main issues are: 1) latency of updates and 2) executives who want to keep out of the public eye don’t self publish.

2. Facebook updates

Facebook has traditionally not been the best place to conduct business, especially B2B, however recently more and more companies are figuring out how to make Facebook work for them. This comes with a virtual explosion of information they disclose on their Facebook pages, including updates on their executive appointments and promotions. A simple search even if done periodically, can produce substantial volume of high-quality leads.

3. Company Announcements

Every corporate page has a “News” section. This is the prime location for announcements on organizational changes, restructurings, new appointments and promotions of top executives. The best aspect of this is the fact that these updates are always timely – there is very little time lag. The problems are: 1) only senior executives get featured and 2) private companies tend not to disclose management changes.

4. Press Releases

Sometimes, but not always, Press Releases pushed through BusinessWire or Newswire are identical to the ones found on corporate websites. It pays therefore to monitor distributors of press releases as they provide the bulk of management updates. A simple RSS reader, your team of interns or, potentially, your PR agency can do the job.

5. Twitter updates

Twitter has recently become the communication tool of choice and the richness and abundance of insight on Twitter is unparalleled.  Certainly, there is a lot of dust you have to sift through to find gold nuggets but there is no shortage of them on Twitter. There is a number of tools out there to search for timely updates around appointments and promotions of CIOs, CTOs and other senior IT executives out there. Follow @CTOsOnTheMove to stay in the loop.

6. SEC Filings

Last but no least – all public companies are required by S.E.C. to disclose Appointments and Departures of key executives, including CIOs, CTOs and other senior IT executives. Usually, such filings are good sources of insights into comings and goings among senior IT executives of the largest corporations.

This post is an excerpt from the whitepaper “Introduction to Sales Trigger Events” that you can download for free here.