Social Media ... as part of Big Data
Charlie,
I enjoyed reading your article, but wanted to add to your comments about the overlap between social data and Big Data.
As you say, these terms are not mutually exclusive. When looking at the rise of Big Data, it is important to realize that this term encompasses the increasingly large scale of traditional transactional data, but also the new world that combines human interaction data (such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn) with machine interaction data (such as GPS, mobile and sensor data). Furthermore, we are now seeing the rise of new ways to process these vastly different types of data for competitive advantage using technologies such as Hadoop. So, Big Data is in fact the confluence of these three trends - big transaction data, big interaction data and big data processing.
When considering Social data in particular, companies need to consider what is important to them. For example:
1) Do they simply want to monitor their brand across the social networks?
2) Do they want to open new channels to market through social marketing and mobile marketing?
If it is simply the former, then sentiment analysis tools and other passive mechanisms allow them to achieve their goals. However, if it is the latter then more capability is required and companies need to look at their data processes in order to exploit the social networks and actually sell through these channels.
This is where technologies such as ???Social MDM??? are coming to the fore. Suddenly, and for the first time, companies can understand the single view of a customer within their own enterprise systems, but also extend it to embrace the social network of their customers. Now they can move from passive monitoring of social data to proactive engagement with their customers, and opening up new routes to market through social networks.
Big Data is changing the landscape, social data is definitely part of it, and all CEO's need to take it seriously.
