Facebook’s Data Firehose is Open to Advertisers
Crossing the Streams
 |
| techcrunch.com |
If that title makes absolutely no sense to you, worry not, I
am on hand to explain. A data firehose is a basically just another term for a
social media data stream, ie all the data and content that reaches the user
base. The companies use the firehose for analytics and just about everything
else.
Twitter’s firehouse has been available to advertisers for a
while now but Facebook have historically been a lot more precious about theirs.
Now though, the social media giant have introduced a new analytics tool called
Topic Data, which will make their firehose available to select advertisers.
Of course, the information Facebook have at their disposal
is a lot more detailed and private than Twitter, so this new tool is geared
towards sharing anonymous, aggregated interpretations of the data, rather than
the data itself.
What this means for advertisers is that it will now be that
much easier for them to research user responses to things and gear their
advertising towards what is most likely to get a strong response. They will
also be able to ‘field test’ new campaign and market research ideas on the site
much more easily. Facebook has a far, far higher user engagement count than
Twitter does, so it makes sense that they would go this route.
Of course, even with the anonymity, Facebook will still be
sharing user information that was intended as private and there’s currently no
way to opt out, which might well upset some users. The information isn’t being
used in any nefarious, invasive way, it isn’t even direct targeted
advertising, more a way of tweaking content and trajectory in order to increase
maximum appeal, there’s even the possibility that the information will lead to
the invention of future products.
Social media is vital for market research in this day and
age, and while this new arm is currently very limited, expect it to expand as
time goes by. At this stage it’s almost as if marketers are being allowed to
look at Facebook’s data stream through a pinhole camera, the results of this
will determine how close they will ultimately fly to the sun.
Callum Davies
Callum is a film school graduate who is now making a name for himself as a journalist and content writer. His vices include flat whites and 90s hip-hop. Follow him @CallumAtSMF
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Facebook’s Data Firehose is Open to Advertisers
Reviewed by Unknown
on
Monday, March 16, 2015
Rating:
Reviewed by Unknown
on
Monday, March 16, 2015
Rating:
Unknown
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