Big Data and Social Media Equals Advertising Success

“We are not the customers of Facebook, we are the product. Facebook is selling us to advertisers." Doug Rushkoff (Rushkoff, 2011)

Social Media has added a new dimension of efficiency and efficacy to the field of advertising. This new revolution in advertising is the result of massive amounts of data that are captured on social media, through our posts, or emails and messages, the websites we visit, and even by the photos we post and the videos we watch.  Much of what we do and say on social media sites, like Facebook, is captured, stored and then made available to be shared with advertisers.  All of this data paints a picture of who we are as consumers, our likes, dislikes, desires, frustrations, tastes,  hobbies, travel preferences, favorite foods, preferred forms of  entertainment, and so on and so on!

Big Data has Resulted in an Evolution in Advertising

What this means, is that advertising, which previously was built around the inefficient and expensive use of mass media, has had a major evolution and now places great emphasis on the finely targeted messaging opportunities which social media platforms have made possible. Today, advertisers are able to use big data to segment their audiences by an almost infinite number of demographic variables and personality types.  This enables advertisers to construct messaging that is more likely to impact us, based upon our unique characteristics.  Social media has also changed us from being rather passive consumers to being active communicators with the brands that we like or even those we don’t like.  This has been a blessing to some advertisers and brands whose messages have gone viral, and a curse to others who have fallen out of favor or have been targeted by activist groups.

The Power to Predict Customer Behavior

The power provided by big data gives advertisers a tool that is something like a crystal ball, allowing advertisers to be precise and to more accurately predict the behavior of consumers.  If you are familiar with Michael Lewis’s “Moneyball”, either the film or the book, you’ll have an idea of the power that big data had in baseball, and how a smaller nimble big data-savvy baseball team outsmarted and outplayed its wealthy rivals. And they did so at a fraction of the cost!  To be successful in advertising today, you must have at the very least, a general understanding of big data and how you can use it to better engage and persuade your target audiences.  

 I'd love to hear your thoughts on big data and hear some insight on how you and your organization have used it successfully or unsuccessfully.  Please leave your comments below in the comments section!

How BIG is Big Data?  5 Amazing Data Facts (Gilpress, 2024; Data growth worldwide 2010-2025|Statista, 2023)

1. 328 million terabytes of data are generated each day, that breaks down to 328 quintillion bytes
2. In 2025, the prediction is that 181 zettabytes of data will be created 2025, up from about 64 zettabytes in 2020 and 2 zettabytes in 2010
3. Today, video is responsible for over 53% of all data generated and 51% of the data generated on Facebook
4. Only a small percentage of the data generated and consumed is stored, approximately 2% in 2020
5. The US has 10X more datacenters than the next largest country, Germany

Additional Resources:

30+ Incredible Big Data Statistics (2024)

How Big Data Is Helping Advertisers Solve Problems

 References:

Data growth worldwide 2010-2025 | Statista. (2023, November 16). Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/871513/worldwide-data-created/

GilPress. (2024, May 14). How Much Data is Generated Every Day (2024). What's the Big Data? https://whatsthebigdata.com/data-generated-every-day/