Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Using Social Media Data

Every minute, millions of pieces of social media data are generated around the world. In any given minute*:

Instagram users share 3,600 photos
Brands and organizations on Facebook receive 34,722 “likes”
Twitter users send over 100,000 tweets

With millions of people sharing more information each day, we are witnessing a shift in how information is being produced online as it becomes more and more user-generated. The web is moving away from being a static library and becoming a more open, more connected place to share content. There are plenty of opportunities to mine new variables from the constantly increasing expanse of social media data. Here are a few:

  • For a college or non-profit organization’s advancement department, tapping into these variables can provide insight into how connected an individual is with the institution. If a constituent is following you (whether on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, or another forum), they are actively choosing to be connected to you, which conceivably may make them more likely to donate.
  • In a college enrollment office, tracking which high school students have liked their Facebook page can give them an idea of students who are very interested in their institution. This information could be used to qualify prospects or to help shape the pool of students being marketed to.
  •  Brands looking to decide who to market to can analyze both the source and content of social media data to determine who might be most likely to buy a product or respond to a campaign. 

Tracking and leveraging these data points has the potential to add value to the predictive models you’re already building.  

So, are you already leveraging your social media data into your models, and if not, why not?

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