Social data is the key to how the businesses of tomorrow will build a more personalised service for their customers.

Social data comes from a variety of different sources and forms part of your digital foot print.

Your digital footprint can includes sources such as:

• Microblogging sites such as twitter
• Online search history
• Photo sharing sites
• e-commerce sites (including buying history)
• Online search history & interaction
• Online TV/video history
• Emails including attachments
• Website subscriptions
• Facebook
• Blogs
• Chats/instant message

The key parts of your digital foot print which come under social data are the parts which come from the social networks where you publicly or privately share information about yourself. The different areas of social data are:

• Demographic: ages, race, gender, education, income, geography
• Psychographic: attributes relating to personality, values, attitudes, interests, lifestyles etc
• Referrals: customer ratings/reviews, reward mechanisms
• Intention: desired state, desired products, planned activities
• Product: brand or product mentions on the social web
• Behavioural: specific past activities or actions that indicate future intent such as purchase history
• Location: physical location of a customer or prospect within a specific time frame

The companies who will lead the way in social business will be those who fully embrace the amount of data out there about people and companies. They will be able to give consumers confidence in sharing more and more information with them in return for a better, more personalised service.

I have created a couple of articles which discuss how social data could be used  to change the way people do business

• The future of social media in Television – This article talks about how the pockets of the TV production companies could be filled with increased advertising revenue by using social data
• The future of social media in Retail – This talks about the possible improvements to the way retailers can build better relationships with and ultimately sell more to to their customer
• How O2 failed with their promoted tweet about #blackberrysale – This is the some what controversial article which talks about my suggestions around how a major mobile network provider in the UK could have done a lot better with their online advertising if they had used social data

Your turn

How do you think social media data could be better used? Are there any ways you are currently using social data to provide a more personalised service?