As many of you know, I’ve
been studying Big Data and how PR and communications people are (or are not)
using it.Today, it seems, the most common way we are using it is to spot trends
in social media so we can react to them. While this is useful, I don't believe
it to be what is most important about Big Data for communications.
However, I find many folks
are confused about what, exactly, Big Data is.
What Is Big Data?
According to Wikipedia:
Big
data is an all-encompassing term for any collection of data sets so large and
complex that it becomes difficult to process using on-hand data management
tools or traditional data processing applications.
While that definition is
good, it is not particularly useful for communications people. Assuming the
work of communicators is to persuade and manage relationships with
stakeholders, I think it’s more useful to think of Big Data as burgeoning
amounts of data on stakeholder behavior.
Now I will paraphrase
Wikipedia:
People
and organizations are creating and using these larger data sets, because they
can derive new and useful insights by combining a number of individual smaller
data sets into one large data set. This allows users to apply statistical and
other search tools to the combined database to “spot business trends, prevent
diseases, combat crime and so on.”
Where Is Big Data Coming From?
The individual data bases that
are being combined into Big-Data type databases are coming from a number of places.
Here are some of them:
Traditional sources, such
as:
·
Government data
(e.g. broad demographics, voting records)
·
Product warranty
forms (e.g. names, addresses)
Newer sources,
such as:
·
Retail store loyalty
cards (e.g. purchase history, household demographics, total spending, seasonal
spending, media purchases)
·
Credit cards (e.g. purchase history, household demographics)
·
Health care
records (e.g. ailments, prescription history, treatment history)
Online sources, such as:
·
Internet
activity (e.g. browsing history [favorite sites and media], purchases, sites from which purchases are made)
·
Facebook
(e.g. comments, likes, timelines)
·
Smart phones
(e.g. shopping, travel patterns, localities)
·
Cars (e.g. travel
patterns)
·
Smart houses (e.g. when you're home, household appliances you have)
·
Personal health
monitoring (e.g. exercise habits, factors suggesting overall health)
·
Records of
personal interactions (such as a conversation at your door with a political representative.
While this kind of interaction would be considered traditional, recording notes
from the conversation and putting them into a database is new)
There are undoubtedly many
more sources of data and kinds of information that can be drawn from the
sources above that I do not know about.
Why Does Big Data Matter To PR and Communications
As a consumer this is all a
bit scary. But, from a communications perspective, it hints at the
extraordinary power Big Data can have in helping organizations determine:
·
What products and
services to bring to customers and clients
·
What to say
about these products and services to encourage people to try them
·
How to fine tune
the selection of media to reach potential users with pinpoint accuracy
While these questions are oriented
toward sales and marketing, Big Data can be used to address similar policy and
operations questions for shareholders, employees, communities and other
stakeholders.
When we consider customers
alone, it is quite clear the insights Big Data can provide can be critical to
successful communications. However, when we add in the total mix of
stakeholders and the importance of balancing the wants and needs of each in
order to ensure the organization succeeds in the long run, Big Data becomes an even
more important source of potential insight for policy and communications. Those
organizations that understand Big Data and how to use it are consistently
demonstrating they have a competitive advantage over those that do not. (According
to a 2013
Bain & Company report, companies “with the most advanced analytics
capabilities are outperforming competitors by wide margins.”)
I expect that communicators
who understand Big Data and how to use it will have a similar competitive
advantage, especially in those organizations already using Big Data in their
business operations.