Presented at Social Media Week, Toronto. Summed up, it's not the size of your data, but how you use it. Start from the position of a question

1. Big Data,
Small Data,
Data that Totally Rocks

2. Rob Clark
Director Insights & Measurement
Edelman Digital
@theelusivefish

3. “Any sufficiently
advanced
technology is
indistinguishable
from magic.”
- Arthur C. Clarke

4. If we take
DATA

5. and then add…
DATAMORE
DATA

6. as well as…
DATAMORE
DATA
EVEN
MORE
DATA

7. in addition to…
DATAMORE
DATA
EVEN
MORE
DATA
YET EVEN
MORE DATA

8. AND THEN SOME MORE DATA
AND THEN SOME MORE DATA
AND THEN SOME MORE DATA
AND THEN SOME MORE DATA
AND THEN SOME MORE DATA
AND THEN SOME MORE DATA
AND THEN SOME MORE DATA
AND THEN SOME MORE DATA
AND THEN SOME MORE DATA
AND THEN SOME MORE DATA
AND THEN SOME MORE DATA
AND THEN SOME MORE DATA
AND THEN SOME MORE DATA
AND THEN SOME MORE DATA
AND THEN SOME MORE DATA
YET EVEN
MORE DATA
and so on,
and so on,
and so on…
DATAAND THEN
SOME MORE
DATA
AND THEN
SOME MORE
DATA
AND THEN
SOME MORE
DATA
AND THEN
SOME MORE
DATA
AND THEN
SOME MORE
DATA
AND THEN
SOME MORE
DATA
AND THEN
SOME MORE
DATA
AND THEN
SOME MORE
DATA
AND THEN
SOME MORE
DATA
AND THEN
SOME MORE
DATA
MORE
DATA
AND THEN
SOME MORE
DATA
AND THEN
SOME MORE
DATA
AND THEN
SOME MORE
DATA
AND THEN
SOME MORE
DATA
AND THEN
SOME MORE
DATA
EVEN
MORE
DATA

9. Ala Peanut Butter
and Jelly
Sandwiches!!!!

10. 1. Collect data
2. ???
3. Profit.

11. It’s not the size
of your data,
It’s how you
use it.

12. Target Case study…
An example…

13. Identify
pregnancy before
any official
announcement to
target marketing
before
competitors

14. 87%
Guest ID assigned
to every customer
Tied to credit card,
name, email
address.
Purchases analyzed
and commonalities
from pregnancies
identified.
Combine for score that predicts both
pregnancy and due date…

15. NOTE:
The Creepy Factor
GAH!!!
A Target snuck up
and is right behind
me, isn’t it?

16. SHAZAM!!!!

17. Target Case study…
But it wasn’t
magic. Just
effective
targeting.

18. 1. IDENTIFY A QUESTION TO BE ANSWERED,
A PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED
2. COLLECT RELEVANT INFORMATION ON THE ISSUE
3. ANALYZE THAT INFORMATION
4. FORM A CONCLUSION
Effective use of data

19. “But @theelusivefish,” you tweet, “that’s nice
and all, but what does that have to do with
social media data?”
“YEAH!,” tweet others in agreement and then
RT, “that’s nice and all, but what does that have
to do with social media data?”
“hashtag hashtag hello, I’ve got a great deal on
viagara cialis bit.ly/343q2a” tweets an
anonymous bot that saw activity on the topic
and dived in for the sale.
Because it’s not about ‘social media’ data. It’s
about ‘DATA’. Like people, you want to treat
data the same no matter where it came from.

20. But let’s talk about a familiar
social media tactic:
‘Online Influencers’

21. $$
$ $

22. Who would have ever thought that one
day, I would be an influencer on the
information super highway? Come
closer and touch my sweater… some of
the klout may rub off on you.
Does it work, or are we just
giving away free stuff to
popular people?

23. $$
$ $
25 boxes of swag
20 tours of factory
18 warm handshakes
from the CEO
150 tweets
6 Facebook posts
4 Blog posts
4 RTs
2 Favourites
10 Likes
Normally
we report…
But we want to know
outcomes not outputs

24. How do our
interactions with
an individual
impact that
individual’s
audience?
THE QUESTION:

25. Compare all
brand mentions
by our audience
with brand
mentions by
those not in our
audience.
THE METHOD:
Audience mapped using NodeXL
Raw data obtained using Radian6
Analysis conducted in Excel

26. 25 Influencers
~80K Followers
Over 2M tweets
collected three
months apart
THE DATA:

27. About 10 x more likely to mention the brand
Will mention the brand 8 x more
Between 2-7% negative sentiment vs. 25-27%

28. Q2
Q1Within our
influencer’s
network, 52%
continued
mentioning the
brand vs. 12%

29. What’s changed?
ANYTHING CAN BE MEASURED.
ANYTHING.
LOOK FOR WHAT CHANGE YOU ARE SEEKING TO MAKE.
If it changes, then it can be
measured.

30. “Data! Data! Data!”,
he cried impatiently,
“I cannot make
bricks without clay!”
- The adventures of Sherlcok Holmes

31. Identifying
contextual
relevance from
peers and
volunteered info.
Turtles
Shelled Animals
Turtle Owners
Turtle Turtle Turtle
Reptiles – Snakes and Turtles
Tortises
Turtle Lovers
Turtle List
Subject
experts on
Turtles?
Extract lists via NodeXL
Analyze in Excel

32. Don’t just
leave it to the math
The social gestures don’t always
mean what we think they mean.
This guy likes turtles.
This guy …
not so much

33. Please don’t
pee in the pool
Encouraging false
signals spoils the
pool of data for
everyone

34. 80% of data analysis
is cleaning the data
Keep your data TIDY!!!
OpenRefine as a useful tool for cleaning messy data
openrefine.org

35. Structure your data
FIRST VARIABLE SECOND VARIABLE
1st Observation Value Value
2nd Observation Value Value
3rd Observation value Value
One type of observation
• Each table contains one type of observation
• Each column is a variable
• Each row a set of observations
Keep your data TIDY!!!

36. 1. IDENTIFY A QUESTION TO BE ANSWERED, A PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED
2. COLLECT RELEVANT INFORMATION ON THE ISSUE
3. ANALYZE THAT INFORMATION
4. FORM A CONCLUSION
Use your data effectively
Look for the change or predictable patterns
1. COMPARE OVER TIME
2. COMPARE TO SIMILAR ‘CONTROL’ GROUP
3. USE GROUP WITH KNOWN OUTCOMES TO FORM PREDICTIVE MODEL
Keep your data tidy
1. COMPARE APPLES TO APPLES
2. STANDARDIZE AND STRUCTURE OBSERVATIONS

37. Now watch me
disappear…
ALAKAZAM!!!

38. CREATIVE COMMONS – BY ATTRIBUTION
Data action figures
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jdhancock/8031897271/
LinkedIn Dataset
http://www.flickr.com/photos/luc/5418037955/
LEGO Wizard
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tamaleaver/7419788172/
Gnomes
http://www.flickr.com/photos/debabratad/4569271310/
Target shopping cart
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jreed/1352409015
Pregnant belly
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nateone/3240716239/
Purse
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lululemonathletica/4209254375
Cocoa Butter
http://www.flickr.com/photos/franciscouhlfelder/5404451647
Blue Rug
http://www.flickr.com/photos/andie712b/4619093237
Target right behind you
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gazeronly/6150401295/
Ford Online Influencers
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pandemia/6731863193/
No public access
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmv/2734200159
Benedict Cumberbatch on set
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bellaphon/4409531705/
Pee in the pool
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lifeontheedge/230245129
Photographer
http://www.flickr.com/photos/evilerin/3098610791
Photo Credits