Data Management - The social world is a vast multiplier of data

Photo credit - Michel Vuijlsteke's

In this world of disparate data sources it is now more important than ever before to ensure you have good data architecture/structure and validity.

While the world may currently be obsessed with the adoption and influence of social technologies, their benefits will not as readily realised without a thorough understanding and a strategic plan in place for the management of collated data.

The likes of CRM, e-mail marketing and contact management systems have been a round for some time now, allowing customer service teams to track contacts and relationship developments for their customers.

With the advent of two-way/group communication and web interfaces such as forums, comments, product review sites and now more recently social media products such as Twitter, Facebook et al, the amount of valuable data that a company could be tracking has increased significantly.

More importantly, this data is often far more valuable than the previously recorded data in the likes of CRM's.

Unlike the data recorded in more traditional customer relationship/management platforms, this current breed of data is usually written by the customer themselves. It's direct from the horse's mouth.

There's no need to guess what the customer might desire for your next release, they're actually telling you directly.

If my experience (gained from a decade or more working in enterprise environments as a infrastructure manager) is anything to go by, business units will be embarking on little engagement projects perhaps without thinking about the bigger picture.

Possibly gathering data without consideration of how that could be merged with pre-existing data to provide better insight, or how this specific data could benefit another arm of the business.

The data gathered from all of these sources can add up to provide a real profile of your customers. Amongst other things, allowing you to identify brand advocates to empower your product in this dynamic environment, but also to find customers that are less impressed and might require customer assistance to help with improving their experience of your brand.

It can help you pinpoint minor issues before they develop into major problems. It can provide insight into which products are looking like they might be big hits compared to their less favoured counter products.

A final point, that is a powerful reason for this approach, is that it should significantly reduce the chance of accidental spamming of certain customers by multiple departments using the same contact details without knowledge of their actions.

So what data should we be considering when embarking on this data consolidation?

Well the list is slowly becoming more and more expansive, but items that should be consider are predominantly within the social tools field. This could include Facebook conversations, Twitter streams, LinkedIn conversations and contacts and the often forgotten realm of the blog comment.

There are a number of companies out there that can help you with information monitoring such as this.

These data sources need to be combined with the usual pre-existing data sources such as e-mail marketing databases, CRM's and other customer relationship data sets.

When reviewing your on-line budgets for the year it might be idea to consider the value of this data consolidation project before embarking on your next all singing and dancing website.

Not that I'd want to put you off that as well . . .

Once a data consolidation platform is in place it should provide you with a single source for all of your customer relationship and information. Investing in a development company's time to assist you with this process should be money well spent.

If you need to restrict access to certain elements of the data to certain departments within your organisation, then do this within a single application, ensuring that the validity of your data is preserved.

The data out there about your brand or product has multiplied ten-fold over the last decade in this self-publishing/self-editorial generation.

We should all be making a concerted effort to ensure that we are compiling and reviewing this data to gain the greatest insight into our customers wants and needs.


Related links

Why bother with social media? - Digital Signals http://www.digital-constructions.com/blog/2009/06/why-bother-with-social-media.html

The cost of social media - Digital Signals http://www.digital-constructions.com/blog/2009/04/what-is-cost-of-social-media.html

Sharing content - Extending the value of existing data - Digital Signals http://www.digital-constructions.com/blog/2009/03/sharing-content-extending-value-of.html

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Nexus One - The Android phone I've been waiting for?

Is this it?

Is the Nexus One going to be the phone I commit my hard earned monies towards and sign myself up for a lifetime contract with one of the UK's fine mobile carriers?

Or is it an over-hyped Google play thing that has connectivity issues and no pre-conceived launch plan in the UK?

Well, who knows, as without wishing to pay in the region of £500 (which is an estimate on how much it will cost to order a Nexus One for delivery to the UK from the US) it may be sometime before I actually manage to get my hands on Nexus One.

For me it seems like it's the first mature Android phone to hit the market that looks okay, has a decent and reasonably well tested OS and the hardware is capable of complimenting what the OS can offer.

Sure the Droid is out there and most that use it, love it, but its just ugly! On top of that I've never had a Motorola phone that I find intuitive to use.

I'd been watching and listening to HTC developments via the rumour grape vine prior to the official admission of the Nexus One's existence and I had been excited by the prospect of the rumoured HTC Bravo or the HTC Legend as Android based smartphones.

But as with every other time I'd nearly committed my enthusiasm to a particular piece of hardware I've found myself waiting to hear some hard release dates for the UK.

So here we are, there's a phone on the market that I actually like, it meets my requirements from a hardware, OS perspective and visual perspective, but yet it is still not easily available in the UK.

Get your act together Vodafone/Google, get it released in the social media/mobile hungry market of the UK before someone else steals your glory!

HTC are already discussing release dates for the Bravo and Legend in the UK and Vodafone seem to have gone very quiet about their release date for the Nexus One in the UK.

I've managed to enlist the informed help of Ali Lubbock, who works for a PR firm that work for Vodafone, as an early warning system as to it's official UK release on a network. Hopefully she'll be tweeting me an update in the not too distant future.

So why don't I just forget once more about anyone getting close to the iPhone and actually just get one of those you ask again?

I read this yesterday which kind of reflects why I've been debating or refusing to get an iPhone so far. It's a relatively brief, but interesting, article in which Belinda Parmar talks about the tribal followings some technology brands have managed to achieve and how this affects their perception amongst consumers. In summary, apparently I am snubbing the ubiquitous iPhone due to inverse snobbery.

The recent arrival of the iPhone on Vodafone was welcomed and I must admit I am almost tempted by Vodafone's new offering of the iPhone. The network, after all, is an important factor. While Apple strictly control the prices of their hardware, they don't control a network providers ability to offer decent network coverage.

In fact the idea of taking a smartphone on Vodafone's network in general has become more appealing after consideration. Vodafone have been supporting data with their Blackberry relationship for years before the arrival of the iPhone. Which should lead to some better resistance against some of the issues that have quickly become apparent with O2's data support.

Either way, my dilemma is still not resolved. I am still not "smartphone enabled".

I joked on Twitter the other day that my followers are probably rejoicing this fact as it reduces my banal content, but then isn't this what social media is all about, bombarding people with data and content from every which direction?!?

I still feel odd talking about "my followers", I feel like I'm pertaining to some sort deity status, perhaps that is what social media is actually all about, a God syndrome condition.

Anyway, moving on to more transient consumer matters . . .

I still want a smartphone and believe I would utilise the device for more than just the standard voice and text based communication, and at the moment I don't want the iPhone.

How much is it to ask for the other manufacturers and network providers to get their act together and actually release, on time, a competitor to the iPhone?

I still hold some hope that Vodafone will announce the arrival of the Nexus One in the UK in the very near future . . .

Anyway I leave you with this rather daft light hearted take on tribal rivalry between Apple and Microsoft, oh and if I've never stated this before, I certainly wouldn't currently consider getting a Microsoft based smartphone.


Related reading:

A punters view of the smartphone options - Is the N900 going to challenge the iPhone? - Digital Signals http://www.digital-constructions.com/blog/2009/11/punters-view-of-smartphone-options-is.html

Hyperlocal audience engagement - Digital Signals http://www.digital-constructions.com/blog/2009/08/hyperlocal-audience-engagement.html

iPhone set to rule the smartphone world? - Digital Signals http://www.digital-constructions.com/blog/2009/06/iphone-set-to-rule-smartphone-world.html

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Digital and PR work well in collaboration

Throughout this year, as I've talked about previously, we've been doing more and more digital work in collaboration with traditional agencies, in particular PR agencies.

The work, on the whole, has been very successful for all parties. The partnership seems to compliment the strengths of each of our skill sets well.

With a PR agency's idea and communication skills combined with our digital media expertise we've produced a variety of products from micro-sites through to more viral ideas that have generated a lot of social media interest.

Having worked for a PR agency for nearly 5 years, I'm fully aware how too often PR is overlooked or PR budgets cut to ensure extra monies are spent on the shiny gloss of the main advertising campaign.

In this age of social media, PR has a very important role to play. We are all learning how to become more engaging, yet PR agencies have made personal engagement their business for years.

Combine PR companies experience in engagement with the bespoke capabilities and instantaneous nature of the digital media format and you're cooking on gas, or you should be.

In order to fulfil this relatively new market requirement we've seen a few specialist agencies filling this gap.

This week the internet has been a-buzz with talk of We Are Social's involvement in the Eurostar problems. We Are Social are one of the specialist agencies that deal with this kind of service, offering expertise in the digital arena with years of experience in PR.

While the Eurostar case is not an example of a perfect implementation of PR in a digital environment, in fact it is anything but, I don't see We Are Social as being to blame for this. It is, however, an illustration of the potential power of the combination of PR in a digital environment.

The facility to tailor content delivery or capture real time content and then publish responses to those conversations in a real time environment enables PR agencies to engage brands with their audiences like never before.

The daunting element for many brands with this is its real time nature and equally the uncontrollable aspect of unrestricted feedback. In order utilise this channel to its full potential decisions need to be made on a real time basis with the experience required to make those correctly.

Clients need to trust their agencies to advise them correctly about the right course of action to take; this trust should have been built up via working examples of collaborative work already completed.

Another recent social media campaign that seemingly missed the point of digital engagement in a real time environment was the Toyota social media campaign in Australia. User generated content or product has, or should have, all the call signs of being driven by peoples own interpretation of a subject.

Toyota put a challenge to their internet fans and the creative community to create a new advert for its Yaris model. The process that unfolded was far from the transparent process that this kind of campaign expects and demands. It followed that the feedback and response it received was inevitably not positive in this community driven environment.

With good PR experience this kind of mistake should have been avoided; and had it not been avoided they would have at least had the experience on board to deal with the backlash that followed.

Digital media, and the social media landscape that has evolved out of it, present brands with a great opportunity to raise awareness in a positive and personally engaging fashion.

Ensuring you have the right advice and experience to complete the work well is an essential component for success.

I look forward to a new year that includes many more digital projects delivered in collaboration with the expertise that PR agencies bring.

Merry Christmas everyone!


Further reading:

Managing the difference between traditional and digital media production - Digital Signals http://www.digital-constructions.com/blog/2009/12/managing-difference-between-traditional.html

A digital evolution for all media agencies - Digital Signals http://www.digital-constructions.com/blog/2009/09/digital-evolution-for-all-media.html

Brands on Friendfeed - A different proposition to Twitter - Digital Signals http://www.digital-constructions.com/blog/2009/08/brands-on-friendfeed-different.html

It's all about communication - Digital Signals http://www.digital-constructions.com/blog/2009/11/its-all-about-communication.html

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