The pros and cons of social media ‘big data’

Love it or hate it, social media is not going anywhere anytime soon.  

These networking platforms have successfully saturated our everyday lives — and have come to dominate the business world.   

Organisations of all sizes and sectors have made it their mission to monetise social media interactions by delivering more personalised, targeted messaging to their audiences through clever digital marketing strategies. These tactics have transformed how we do business, putting customer experience at the top of the agenda and making it easier for companies to reach their ideal customers. 

The key to achieving this? Mining and analysing ‘big data’. 

Harnessing social media big data can unlock countless new possibilities and efficiencies for businesses. But, like most things concerning data management, it must be handled correctly to avoid privacy and security issues.  

So, what exactly is big data, and how is it shaping the world of social media and beyond? 

What is big data? 

Everything from Tweets to online shopping activity creates data businesses can use to learn more about customers’ behaviours and preferences.  

However, the more complicated and sophisticated this data becomes, the more challenging it is to collect and analyse findings using traditional data processing methods.  

These vast data sets are known as ‘big data’, which can be broadly characterised by five ‘Vs’: 

• Volume — the amount of low-density, unstructured (qualitative) data. 
• Velocity — the speed at which companies receive, manage and store data. 
• Variety — the diversity in the range of data types.
• Value — the insights and quantifiable benefits the data provides. 
• Veracity — the accuracy of data assets. 

Most social networking platforms have made it easier for companies to gain insights from data sets that meet these criteria through application programming interfaces (APIs), which allow different softwares to ‘talk’ to each other. 

Then, using modern technology like machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI), researchers can analyse social media big data and deep-dive into user behaviours to extract the information they need to shape campaigns, messaging and customer experiences. 

When done right, big data social media analysis can be a wonderful tool for businesses, helping to improve operational efficiencies, drive successful marketing and achieve new levels of innovation. 

However, without the proper processes, gaining this much access to granular, personal data has been known to cause problems regarding compliance and consent — sometimes even on an international scale.  

So, it is crucial to understand the implications — the good, the bad and the downright ugly — of handling big data before incorporating it into your business plans. 

The good 

Gone are the days when we relied on questionnaires and surveys alone to learn customers’ preferences.   

Now, the emergence of social media has allowed us to collect detailed, real-time insights on an unprecedented scale to anticipate behaviours and provide greater clarity on performance. 

For example, in the competitive world of e-commerce, legitimate retailers can constantly monitor relevant search words using big data and AI to predict upcoming trends and adapt their prices accordingly. Plus, big data can help create more accurate customer profiles, ensuring shoppers receive the kind of targeted content they have come to expect. 

Most importantly, big data analysis can also reveal data patterns that could point toward fraud, helping CISOs like myself meet ever-changing cyber security regulations.   

However, it is important to note that despite providing high-level insights on suspicious activity, big data collection can have some negative implications regarding data privacy… 

The bad 

Have you ever searched for a product — or even just interacted with one like it — and found that it popped up as an advert the next time you went online? It might seem like a weird coincidence, but it is really big data in action. 

Analysing and interpreting social media data to deliver these targeted ads can be a highly rewarding strategy. But companies may risk alienating some customers who are put off by this somewhat invasive approach — especially if it raises doubts about the security of their private data.  

Many people are uncomfortable with the idea of their personal information being used and shared by third parties — understandable, given the prevalence of cyber attacks and the threat of data misuse. 

For example, British consulting firm Cambridge Analytica famously collected personal data from millions of Facebook users without their consent in the 2010s through an app called ‘This Is Your Digital Life’. This data was most used for political advertising, providing analytical assistance to the 2016 presidential campaigns of Ted Cruz and Donald Trump.  

The firm was even accused of interfering in the Brexit referendum. Although an official investigation found that the company was not involved beyond some initial enquiries, this case demonstrates the reach these data breaches can have. 

So, as data privacy regulations become stricter, it is crucial to ensure big data frameworks have airtight cyber security to avoid reputational damage and non-compliance fines. 

The ugly 

With the volume of social media big data growing by the second, data privacy is also becoming a growing concern on the geopolitical stage.  

For instance, there has been a lot of discourse around privacy within TikTok: a hugely popular social media platform owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. China has been accused of spying on other nations through cyber espionage on several occasions — most recently after Joe Biden ordered the destruction of a huge balloon carrying some form of sensor equipment flying across the USA. 

In the wake of this event, people worldwide took to the internet to call for authorities to take down TikTok, too, due to worries over data privacy within the app. 

This incident is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to international data security, with the Russia-Ukraine war highlighting many more cyber incidents that could have measurable impacts in our increasingly digital world.  

Despite these valid concerns, I believe much will be gained from the big data revolution on balance — especially in the competitive business world.  

Still, with international tensions rising, companies of all sizes would be wise to ensure the social media data they process is secured against exploitation and possible misuse — for their own sake and the greater good.   

Please contact Burning Tree at 01252 843014 or send me a message directly for advice on safely and securely integrating big data analysis into your marketing strategy this year.