Have you ever visited a website, or liked a company's Facebook page, only to see ads for that website or that company appearing on your sidebar or in your social media news feeds? Kind of creepy, isn't it?
Creepy though it may be, it won't be changing anytime soon. In fact, it's probably going to happen more frequently. This is just another example of marketing's changing landscape. Big data has taught us to learn a lot from the vast amounts of information produced everyday. Retailers can learn shopping habits from transaction records. Healthcare industries can be more reactive by anticipating outbreaks before they happen. There's no limit to what businesses in any industry can learn. And while information can be gathered from almost anywhere, there is one medium that has drastically changed how we gain information more than the others.
Social media has disrupted the communications industry. Of course, we immediately equate social media with the ability to stay in touch and share pictures, but it runs so much deeper than that. Social media has had a profound impact on marketing and advertising industries. Social media has opened the floodgates of consumer data and drowned out demographic advertisements. In fact, the days of targeting specific demographics are dying. Companies will no longer have to gamble the success of their marketing campaigns on the assumption that they understand the broad needs of a large group of people. Instead, companies can gain tremendous amounts of detailed information on individuals through their social media accounts. With algorithms that are becoming even more complex and reactive, social media information is creating a world of individualized marketing. One where ads and promotions are tailored to meet the specific needs of specific people.
Many people aren't comfortable with the idea that businesses are using social media to spy on them. In fact, social sites like Facebook always face some level of controversy surrounding their new algorithms and privacy policy changes. People love the idea of free social networking sites, but don't like knowing these companies are profiting off their personal information.
Every post made, comment liked, or page shared gives an insight into who we are. New features also allow social media sites to learn why certain ads don't appeal to us, and which ones we tend to react to more. All of this data is filtered into these complex algorithms that learn our tendencies and create more and more content designed specifically for us. It's almost like a game of 21 questions. The more we respond and react, the more we can narrow down what we are looking for. Ask enough questions, or provide enough information, and content can get very specific.
Companies would have to be crazy to ignore this type of information. Most have realized this, and have tried to improve their social presence. Some use it simply as a means of improving interaction, but smart companies also use it to listen to what people are saying, follow their trends and glean relevant information.
However, gaining insights from social media isn't a cakewalk. Every minute there are 100,000 tweets, 3,600 new Instagram photos and almost 700,000 pieces of content shared on Facebook. That's a lot, and only a small piece of the social media pie. Managing all that information is a complicated process. Companies looking to take advantage of this wealth of information will need to invest in proper services designed to handle it all. Computer frameworks like the Apache Spark are perfect for social media, because they are designed expressly for fast, large-scale data analysis. Using these types of services will allow companies to quickly execute real-time queries, develop interactive algorithms, and create big data graphics to help visualize social network information and targeted advertising.
Big data analysis, paired with social media, has helped advertising and marketing departments deliver targeted, individualized content using hundreds of data points. So don't be surprised if you express an interest in sports and suddenly start seeing lots of Nike ads, or you want a new computer and Best Buy tries to contact you. That's the future of marketing, so we might as well embrace it.
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