Big data, big challenges?
Over the years, we have written extensively on the topic of big data as well as data management for sets of data that aren’t quite big enough to be called big data. Companies of all sizes are sitting on millions of data points and not doing anything with them while many other companies have figured out how to use that data, tapping into your own user behaviors of their websites and information collected from social networks.
Big data is both useful and scary, as companies benefit from being able to better target advertising and services, getting a better return on their marketing investments, but professionals’ production data is being made public, income levels are becoming transparent, and once private information like web browsing has been tied together in the form of cookies and sold to the highest bidders.
Using big data to improve your business
Big data and even regular data is being mined by companies and used to make better business decisions and improve sales, and third parties are studying data about you and your business. But the flaw in big data is that it still requires a human to determine what information is important in the sea of data points as they become presented to the public, and context is added by a person, even when it is called raw, unbiased data.
In the video above, we talk with a big data expert to discover what this all means and what actions you can take today. When planning for 2014, take into consideration the data at your disposal while considering what data you are giving to bigger companies voluntarily or involuntarily.
Chris Treadaway is the CEO and Founder of Polygraph Media which tackles the Facebook slice of the big data pie. Treadaway gives frank answers to direct questions about big data so you and your team have a better understanding and know what your next steps should be in using data to improve your own business.
