By Stephen Firth, Managing Partner at Gravity Thinking

Having attended a few data related presentations and discussion as part of SMW13 here are the main themes and findings that we believe are of relevance to the modern day marketer. Some are obvious and some less so however the one thing is clear big data is big we’re just not quite sure how big right now. Hence we still have many questions and not many answers!

IT ALWAYS STARTS WITH AN OBJECTIVE, OR DOES IT?

Quite frankly there is so much data out there that you have to start with a very clearly defined objective of what you want to understand and achieve. Not rocket science however the consensus on a panel of leading industry experts and in our experience, is that most organisations have simply jumped on the big data band wagon and have so much data they don’t know what to do with it and therefore tend to either over report on it or ignore it entirely. The critical question being what level of value are businesses getting right now from the expenditure they are making on data ?

THE CONSUMER IS AT THE HEART OF EVERYTHING WE DO, OR ARE THEY?

This has never been more important in the consumer empowered and driven world that we live in now. However how well are businesses actually doing this? Are they clear on consumers digital and social adoption and usage ? And more importantly are they clear on the motivations for that behavior ? A great stat was that only 0.01% of a consumers social presence includes anything about a brand. So what else are they up to and why ?

PRIVACY IS THE PRICE WE PAY, BUT SHOULD IT BE?

The general feeling and often used argument is that the loss of privacy is the price you pay for having access and usage of free systems and experiences – they cohabit and can't be divided. However the question then arises as to how much privacy and how open are platforms being in terms of what’s being given up and how they are using it. The consensus is that the consumer is confused and potentially being misled! For us the data privacy issue is about being honest and clear however also about thinking about the value exchange that you offer a consumer in return for that data. If the experience that you provide is genuinely relevant and useful to the consumer then the issue about the usage of that data is irrelevant as the consumer can clear see the value. Issue is that the value exchange is often one sided.

AT LEAST WE’RE COLLECTING THE RIGHT DATA, REALLY?

The issue is that most social data that is being collected is hard quant data and not soft qual data and therefore the analysis and insights are one dimensional. For example a huge proportion of data is visual with stories, feelings and communication being told within imagery, illustration and film. What if we could somehow interpret visual data? How rich and insightful that would be. Well bad news currently, as far as we are aware, there is no one supplier in the world who can use imagery rather than text (keywords and meta data) to garner this insight. Whoever nails that is going to be sailing their own yacht off the coast of Monaco within a year! That said lateral data is becoming more important I.e. Geo data, however again there are issues with only 3% of data currently being geo-tagged.

BUSINESSES ARE READY FOR THIS CHALLENGE, AREN’T THEY?

Again the consensus is that most businesses (especially long standing corporates) are not in a good place. They talk a good game however the level of focus and resources are not representative of the importance and impact that social media and big data are having within their organisations. It’s fine to spend serious cash on listening platforms, which most are, however let’s get back to the first 2 points that I made – objective and consumer. The need to evolve (or overhaul) systems, processes and culture is also clear however the biggest issue has got to be people. Most businesses have a middle management full of digital and social adopters most of whom do not have a grasp of digital or social media and the impact it is having – this is holding them back. However the braver orgainstaions are giving autonomy and responsibility to a younger breed of middle management with digital natives permeating that space. And soon to follow will be the social natives and these are the guys who will have the biggest impact if they are given the opportunity soon enough.

So lots of food for thought and interesting debate but I can’t help but feel that we are just at the start of the journey and that there’s a very long way to go.

Is it even possible to predict how big data will drive our futures and what social media will become as it integrates into our daily lives? 

Could someone invent software that will integrate into your alarm clock checking train times as you sleep and if they're running late delay your alarm going off to give you more rest. Could they also email your colleagues to inform them you’ll be running late ? FYI someone already has!

Much like the birth of electricity in the 17^th Century the impact it would eventually have was impossible to predict - TV, Industry, Internet… however the impact was outstanding (well that’s my pov anyway).