Most people have been hearing about big data but they don’t know its actual meaning. The term describes a large volume of data (both unstructured and structural) that engulfs a business on a daily basis.

However, the amount of data that a business has is not that important. What matters most is how your organization utilizes the data that it has. You can analyze big data for insights that can lead to informed business decisions.

The proper use of big data can also help you to make strategic business moves. There are various sources of big data in the organization. One of the most common ones in the modern generation is social media. It explains why we need to look at the correlation between big social media and big data.

Social media is crucial in the analysis of business trends. The reason is that nearly all people who use the internet are on social media. You can use it as a platform to collect great insights about your brand.

The History of Big Data and the Current Considerations:

Even though the phrase ‘big data’ is a relatively new one, the practice of the collection and storage of large information amounts to the purpose of analysis has been around for several ages. The popularity of this concept increased significantly in the 2000s.

At this point, the main analysis in the industry, Doug Laney, provided the mainstream definition of big data. Most business analysts are now using this concept in their day to day work life. Here are some of the critical elements that you need to consider when you think about big data.

Read more: Importance of Big Data in Social Media Marketing

Volume:

Businesses gather their information from different sources. You can get this information from the machine-to-machine or sensor, social media, and business transactions among others. Social media has the highest number of users and hence produces the largest volume of data.

In the past, it was quite challenging to store this big data. However, the invention of modern tools like cloud computing has made everything to be easy. It is not hard to store your business data regardless of the source. It makes the process of studying the relationship between social media and big data even much easier.

Velocity:

Data streaming takes place at an unprecedented speed. Therefore, you have to deal with it in a timely manner. Losing even a single minute on social media can make you lose great business opportunities.

The case could be more complex if you have thousands or even millions of fans following your page. Your brand can grow viral for good or even bad reasons. Smart metering, sensors, and RFID drive the need to handle data torrents on a near-real-time basis.

Variety:

You will get business data in nearly all types of formats especially when it is coming from social media. It ranges from unstructured text documents to structured or numeric data in the traditional database.

You will get additional data on the form of financial transactions, stock ticker data, audio, video, email, and many more. The most important thing is to get data that will provide meaningful insights for your business.

Variability:

Apart from increasing the varieties and velocities of data, the flow of data can be inconsistent with the periodic peaks. Do you have a piece of content that is trending on social media?

You will discover that it is challenging to manage event triggered, seasonal, and daily data. It can even be more complex when you have to deal with unstructured data. Variability is a critical element when dealing with social media and big data.

Complexity:

Modern-day data comes from multiple sources and social media is just one of them. When you talk about social media, there are several channels that form social media. Each of these channels is suited for various businesses when it comes to social media and big data

Therefore, it becomes a bit difficult to transform, cleanse, match, and even link data across systems. However, there is a need to correlate and connect relationships, multiple data linkages, and hierarchies. If not, the data may spiral out of control quickly.

Social Media and Big Data: Some Basic Facts

Social media is a critical element of our digital culture that keeps on evolving. Therefore, it is difficult to think about a time that has no shares, likes, and updates.

There may be no other place that you will find a massive database for the demographics of your target audience. Social media fans already have the mind frame of reading, clicking on and even sharing your message.

Therefore, social media is one of the most effective tools for collecting business data. For instance, the number is subscribers on most social media platforms keeps on increasing each day. Don’t you think it is a great source for big data?

Read more: Top 10 Social Media Analytics Tools for Marketers

Despite these huge numbers, there are brands that still doubt the power of social media because it is unquantifiable. How will you tell that your social media strategy is working? This article will explain the top things to look at when dealing with social media and big data.

It is good to know how you can measure your ROI on social media. The answer to this concern is simply more than most social media marketers think. It all narrows down to the level of engagement. It is the form of interaction from your clients that goes further than acknowledgment.

In the next section of this article, we will look at some of the things to look for in social media and big data. It is good to learn some of the dependable measures of social media engagement. You also need to look at some of the awesome tools that can help you to collect this big data from social media.

One thing that makes social media an excellent strategy is the fact that it is easy to work with this tool. Most social media platforms have helpful dashboards that outline all the information that users require in a single place.

The most important thing is to know how to read the data. Let’s now look at some of the top suggestions;

Top Ten Things to Look Out For In Social Media and Big Data

1. Likes and Shares:

The simplest metrics you require is tracking the number of shares and likes that your posts are receiving. “Like was a feature that was invented by Facebook.”However, most of the other social media platforms such as YouTube and Twitter have now copied this feature.

Apart from allowing the users to share your social media content, they can now like what they believe is ideal for their fans and friends. These are some of the great features that make social made to get a huge following.

These two alternatives give users an excellent opportunity to get a sense of how their posts are doing with immediate effect. It is one of the greatest opportunities to broaden your influence exponentially. The reason is that people will be sharing your social media posts with their personal fan base.

2. Rate of Followers and Audience growth:

The other obvious metric that you need to keep a close eye on when looking at social media and big data is your followers. It is good to evaluate the number of followers that your brand has gained over the day, week, month, or even year.

It is crucial to understand the rate at which your brand is gaining new followers. If you realize that there is an unreliable and slow trickle in the number of individuals who are following you, carefully examine your brand.

Look at the posts that you posted recently and whether they have been shared. There could be a need to adjust your strategy to make it more fruitful.

3. Following Ration vs. Followers:

When dealing with social media marketing, you have to follow the other platforms that share the same interests with your industry. However, keep a close eye on the number of people that you are following and the number of followers that your brand has.

If you are following 400 people and only have 88 followers, you may appear to be desperate. It may even deter users from following your social media page. You have to make sure that you are keeping these numbers in the same ballpark.

4. Active Fans:

This is another great criteria for measuring your social media and big data efforts. It is a great thing to watch the number of fans that you have to grow on social media. However, not all these followers are equal.

Make sure you track the number of individuals that are actively interacting with your brand on social media. It does not matter whether these people leave comments on your Facebook posts, retweet your tweets, review your Facebook page, or talk about or to your brand.

Read more: 10 Steps Use Facebook Live: Expert Guide

These advocates are crucial to those people who view your business page several times. Interact with them regularly and watch which percentage of your fans are active.

5. Paid vs. Organic Results:

Organic traffic refers to the number of clients that you receive when you post free content online. It also refers to the social community that you are building.

On the other hand, paid social media, is the sponsored massages or advertisement that you use to reach out to your targeted demographics. If you are running a PPC campaign, you have to evaluate your ROI. It will tell you whether you can re-invest in the same keywords or you need to change the strategy.

6. Clicks per Post:

The number of clicks that each post gets is crucial when it comes to social media and big data analysis. When sharing third-party posts or blog posts, you have to measure the number of times that your users click on the links that you provide in the content.

It will help you to determine the volume of traffic that comes from your social traffic. It will tell you whether you need to increase the number of posts.

With these insights, you will tell whether your social media content is aligned with the message of your brand. You will also tell whether the message makes sense to the target audience you are trying to reach out to.

7. Lead Generation:

A large section of social media campaigns revolve around sharing and posting content. When your target audience looks at your content, they should engage with your brand. Make sure you track the number of individuals who visit your website through social media accounts.

With this information, you will tell the social media accounts that generate the highest number of leads. It will help you to tell whether your efforts are making any business sense or not.

8. Demographics of Your Audience:

Your business could be having 5000 Facebook followers. With the advanced analytics tools, you will collect crucial data about all these followers. Some of the information that you get include their geographical location, gender, age, interests, and even likes.

The data is crucial as it will help you get a picture of the market of your target audience. You will get to understand their interests and what they expect your brand to deliver.

9. Audience mentions:

Social media users may mention your brand on other sites. It can be their personal social media pages or blogs. You have to pay close attention to what people say about your brand outside your website.

If you don’t do so, you may overlook a very serious complaint that can ruin the relationship that you have with your customers. It can be worse if these comments ruin your relationship in the eyes of your potential clients.

Make sure you respond to any critics, questions, and comments whenever possible. You have to maintain an image of a brand that cares for all its clients.

10. Count the Money:

In some industries, you cannot calculate the business sales that come from social media. The case can be more challenging if customers cannot purchase your product online. However, you can track your leads and define them as you wish. It is good to know the contribution of social media to your sales.

Conclusion:

Therefore, social media and big data have a great place in the business industry. If you need more help on this topic, [email protected] is in the best position to help you. For any questions or concerns, feel free to share with us in the box below.

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