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Big data helps us analyze information and teaches us about human behavior. Among business leaders, there’s much discussion about the value provided by the technology. It helps firms unearth information that consumers and clients may not reveal via common market research tools such as surveys and questionnaires. However, the digital trail left by consumers provides insights that go far beyond the scope of traditional methods. In some cases, big data provides answers to questions that the research tools of the past could never hope to reveal.
The volume of information generated by consumers and enterprises grows rapidly. The marketing intelligence firm International Data Corporation (IDC) forecasts that businesses will complete 200 billion transactions each day by the year 2020, and technology experts predict that society will produce 1.7 megabytes of data per second for everyone in the world, sending the world’s data universe spiraling upward from today’s 4.4 zettabytes to 44 zettabytes. Additionally, the Internet of Things (IoT) will make a significant contribution to the volume of information.
Analyzing the Most Popular Digital Resource on the Planet
Social media is on the rise, and companies need more people who can sort through the data it generates to produce actionable reports. The amount of information generated by social media is colossal. However, big data specialists identify patterns in information and help businesses improve how they interact with people online. Big data analysis can help business leaders figure out whether their online presence is helping or hurting their brand.
Big data and social media are empowering tools for advertisers. Marketers need the latest information to maximize company profits. Today’s social media platforms allow brands to interact with consumers with an intimacy that was previously not possible. Comments, likes, views and shares help marketing professionals understand how consumers feel about services and products.
While businesses have found ways to effectively analyze social media information using big data technology, the field is in its early stages. Technologies, such as machine learning, are still emerging and are shaping how business collect and process data. Marketers use the technologies to make important decisions, such as where to advertise as well as where and when to publish content. Big data analysis help marketers capture the attention of potential consumers in the right place and time. The insight to do this effectively comes from the gathering of unstructured data and analyzing it over time.
An Unlikely Pairing: Psychology and Big Data
It’s common for businesses to hire analyst and people with psychology backgrounds to help aggregate data and improve marketing and operational strategies. Companies such as Amazon use this kind of research by analyzing the items that shoppers look at and buy to match them with people who share similar interests. The company then suggests products that similar customers have purchased hoping that shoppers will decide to buy comparable items. Big data analysis allows marketers to see how environmental factors are related to buying decisions. However, psychology experts can unearth what variables lead to buying behaviors.
Psychology experts are still experimenting with big data and how information reveals facts about consumers. The resource has great potential for providing meaningful insights into consumer behavior. While big data reveals hidden patterns, they do not always result in actionable insights. This makes it important for marketers to understand the meaning behind the results. Psychologists help business evaluate when discoveries hold value that can help drive organizational profits.
The amount of data found online is changing how businesses operate and increasing the need to be able to properly analyze human behaviors, stats, and research to create compelling business and marketing plans. The work of data analysts involves understanding where information comes from and how technology affects the outcome of analyses. Experts believe that this kind of work will be a primary function of future big data specialists.
The World Economic Forum predicts that data analysis specialists will be in high demand at enterprises around the globe by the year 2020. The demand for data analysis has multiplied five times over in the last five years, and analysts predict that this trend will continue for the next five years. The amount of data generated by sources such as emails, search queries, smart devices and social media grows every year. IBM forecasts that enterprises will create more than 700,000 job openings for data engineers, developers and scientists by the year 2020. As time goes on, the demand for information assessment will grow, making the data analysis field one of the most attractive career paths on the planet.
