One of the challenges of Big Data is understanding what is relevant in order to extract appropriate insights and knowledge, without 'noise' or distractions. This understanding and comprehension of the data is what enables us to personalize our relationship with the user/consumer, on the channel in which they are present, at the right time and with an offer that adapts to their profile and needs. This implies a very sophisticated monitoring of the community, interest groups and profiles until reaching the individual consumer.
If we add this use of Big Data in social networks, we get Social Big Data can change our brand vision completely, since thanks to this data we can anticipate consumer preferences, which will attract customers and generate sales .
From Big Data to Social Big Data
Social media is a source full of data, unstructured but can help us gain actionable insights. This data is often put through analytical pipelines that use word processing, sentiment analysis, or even machine learning algorithms to draw conclusions about the business. Conclusions, which can then be used to create a social media strategy based on the insights gained.
Various studies on Big Data reveal that of all the data and information purchase employment data generated by users on social networks, brands manage to take advantage of only 0.5%. Also, in Spain, according to IAB , 86% of Internet users between 16 and 65 years of age use social networks, which represents a total of 19 million users in Spain alone. This is where the concept of Social Big Data appears.
This concept refers to the strategy that focuses on collecting, managing, organizing and taking advantage of all the information posted on social networks by users, in order to improve the relationship between businesses and their online communities.
social big data
Social networks and their capacity to generate data
According to Google, by 2020 each user will have an average of 5GB of mobile data per month; gigabytes that will be used almost entirely on social networks.
The amount of data generated is, in any case, enormous. Managing such a large volume requires a suitable strategy, as well as efficient procedures that allow real use to be made of the information. Otherwise, working with Social Big Data would not be profitable.
According to Internet Live Stats , here are some facts about social media:
More than 40% of the world's population has an Internet connection.
Facebook has almost 700,000 articles and 34,000 likes every minute.
Facebook has more than 2 billion active profiles.
Almost 1,000 photos are posted every second on Instagram.
Twitter produces nearly 250,000 new tweets every minute.
YouTube uploads 4,300 minutes of video every minute.
Why it is important to incorporate Social Big Data into a social media strategy
Thanks to data, we can accurately understand consumer behavior and adapt our social media strategies accordingly. Social Big Data will lead to a way of communicating with our customers in a much more personalized way, as we have said, and therefore improve our relationships with them and their experiences and 'moments' with our brand.
In addition to this, having adequate data when designing our strategy can provide certain advantages.
1. Identify the audience and the right moment to impact with our content
Have you ever noticed a trend in your own social media activity? Do you use Facebook every night before bed or right after you wake up?
These trends or behaviors are very interesting for data analysts, especially when it comes to content. We can track our audience's activity and segment them based on the time of day they are active and the amount of time they spend on each of the social media platforms.
We can use this data to deliver the best content to a potential customer at the right time.
For example, if we are targeting university students, we may find higher 'peaks' of online activity in the evenings and nights. Therefore, this time could be perfect for our posts to get maximum visibility.
