Social Media and Big Data (Part 4)
In my previous blogs, I talked about social media and how it connects people. I also talked about the impact of social media on our personal relationship including the different ways on how we use it. Then I explored the effect of social media on consumers and enterprises. In my final blog, I will explore the relationship between social media and big data.
Big Data
George, Haas, & Pentland, (2014, p. 321) observed that ‘big data is generated from an increasing plurality of sources, including Internet clicks, mobile transactions, user-generated content, and social media as well as purposefully generated content through sensor networks or business transactions such as sales queries and purchase transactions’.
The Oracle Social Cloud mentioned that big data comprised of structured and unstructured data. Structured data is information extracted using data model, e.g. online forms wherein customer enters their personal information. The relational databases or spreadsheet stored the data. However, unstructured data are information collected from service chats, phone transcripts, or surveys. The structure of online data varies which makes is difficult to sort quickly.
To illustrate big data below is a visual representation of transactions for selected social media platforms.
Managing Big Data
I think the main issue with big data is how to store it. Companies should decide if they want to buy hardware/software or cloud service. Large businesses such as Google, Amazon, Facebook, etc., manage their data using big servers. While small companies can leverage on cloud computing to store data. However, companies should consider the ownership of data before deciding the ecosystem.
The other issue with big data is the algorithm in collecting and analysing data. As noted in my third blog, most companies use social media to promote their product. Other businesses use social media to connect with their peers or competitors. The algorithm should deliver the purpose why they are collecting the data.
Lastly, the third issue is presenting the data. I think data visualisation is the best method of displaying the data. I attended a one-hour presentation on data visualisation that Inland Revenue sponsored a few months ago. The presentor showed us the benefits of visualising data to deliver a message instead of tables and spreadsheets.
As McCosker & Wilken (2014, p. 162) observed ‘the diagram does not ‘demonstrate’, but rather casts light on the creative acts through which concepts, constructions and knowledge might emerge’.
Social Media and Big Data
Social media is a tool alongside website and infrastructure. As such, companies should develop a strategy to manage social media and the collection of data. Some of the social media analytic tools include Buffer, Google Analytics, Moz Analytics, Facebook Insights and Twitter Analytics.
Companies can use the collected data to predict customer behaviour and preferences. It is not a coincidence that when we browsed Amazon, they show items that we might be interested. It is a by-product of our online behaviour to entice us to buy more product from them.
Companies can also use the data to discover customer pain points and fix them to improve customer satisfaction. An example is the Jollibee problem in the Philippines. Jollibee is the largest fast-food chain in the Philippines, operating a nationwide network of over 750 stores. In 2014, the company rolled out a new ERP system that affected the inventory and delivery system. The dissatisfied customers vented their frustration on social media and created a hashtag #JollibeeSad to ridicule the company’s tagline ‘Chicken Joy’. It prompted the company to release an official statement explaining the problem to their customers.
Companies should embrace social media and big data. They should understand the data to improve marketing strategy which may increase revenue. Otherwise, ignoring it may impact potential growth that can harm the future of the company.
Reference:
2016 Update: What Happens in One Internet Minute? — Excelacom, Inc. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2016, from http://www.excelacom.com/resources/blog/2016-update-what-happens-in-one-internet-minute
George, G., Haas, M. R., & Pentland, A. (2014). Big Data and Management. Academy of Management Journal, 57(2), 321–326. http://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2014.4002
Huston, M. (n.d.). Social Media and Big Data, Part 1: What is it? Retrieved September 25, 2016, from https://blogs.oracle.com/socialspotlight/social-media-and-big-data%2C-part-1%3A-what-is-it
McCosker, A., & Wilken, R. (2014). Rethinking “big data” as visual knowledge: the sublime and the diagrammatic in data visualisation. Visual Studies, 29(2), 155–164. http://doi.org/10.1080/1472586X.2014.887268
