Taking Small Steps to Big Data

Moving into big data can seem like a big step for any business, but the rewards are certainly worth it.

Big data refers to any setoff data that is too big to analyze using standard office software like a spreadsheet. These large amounts of data are gathered from places such as Website metrics and social media profiles. By analyzing this data, your business can learn things such as:

• What topics their target audience enjoys
• What type of social or blog post gets higher responses
• The demographic of their visitors

Big data means mining valuable information about your customers and prospects and using that information to deliver more of what they want while building the kind of relationships that foster loyalty. So how can your business get started in big data without breaking the bank or giving team members a massive headache?

Decide What You Need
Ironically, the best way to dive into big data is to start small. Not in terms of the amount of data, but rather of your focus. Pick one area where you can use extra insight and begin by targeting your efforts there. For example, if you want to find out more about how your Website visitors behave, begin with Web analytics.

Decide How to Get It
Once you know where you are going to focus your first efforts in the big data arena, you can decide how to acquire the data you will need. Depending on what you learn, your data could come from a variety of sources, such as:

• Social media metrics, like Facebook Insights
• Google Analytics
• Web forum information
• CRM data
• Website visitor stats

Deciding What’s Next
Once you have your data, it will be time to decide what to do with it. By knowing what you’re looking for and how you will store and analyze it, your transition to big data will be much easier. Knowing what to do next is where marketing and data meet—deciding how to use the information you will obtain.