www.openforum.com
August 6, 2013.
QUESTION
Are you using Big Data Analytics in your organization? If so... why and how? What tools have proven useful in your quest for data intelligence, and especially from Social Media (ex: Twitter)?
What is a recommended direction you consider giving to both a smaller and larger size organization?
Yes, we tend to do utilize big data in different startups if the data is accessible of course.
WHY : Using big data will allow you to make logical practical sense out of data. It translates consumer/user attributes and preferences collected over time into statistically proven claims that decisions can be based on.
HOW & TOOLS: Personally I don't know of any software or cloud service that would automatically do DATA ANALYSIS for you (Although they probably exist), you may find use of softwares such as Stata (Statistics software) useful, but in that case too, the software only does the computation for you, therefore you need someone with analytical expertise like Statistics, Mathematics, Economics etc. to extract recommendations.
We're using both internally and externally, for a variety of functions.
- Better understand our potential clients' pain points
- Gather intel around key stakeholders
- Competitive data re. social footprints and strengths
- Combine online knowledge with offline experience
Vertical-wise, as well as the obvious marketing benefits, we're finding it increasingly beneficial for HR, crisis comms, brand advantage and employee loyalty.
We use various tech partners to start with the end point and reverse engineer our way back through their "paths", so we know exactly where something causes that person/brand to do what they did.