Is your communications strategy missing big data?
Big data is a term that’s being thrown around a lot these days. We’ve been engulfed in debates over its implementation and ethical usage across industries - interesting to be sure. But are we missing the boat? Have we as communications specialists forgotten to consider how we can harness the power of big data?
Well, not anymore. Here’s my list of how to effectively marry big data with corporate content to get a sound communications strategy.
Develop a big data plan: Understand what you hope to achieve by incorporating big data in your communications. Big data analytics is management driven, so as a leader understand how best big data can solve your communication problems, or enhance your communications strategy. Then develop your big data plan to get there.
Aggregate and Analyse: Start sifting through the vast amount of data available to understand your audience’s feedback, desires and expectations. Use the data as your link to the grapevine on what’s trending, changing, what people are talking about and looking for, and modify your communication to serve these needs.
Your content strategy doesn’t have to change overnight, but by listening and making small changes, you can transform it into what your audience is looking for.
Engage one-on-one: After gathering information across different mediums, personalise your communication and deliver it to your audience, engaging with then on an individual basis. This implementation of one-to-one communication will also help you develop more targeted, intelligent marketing campaigns.
Ask for help: The term ‘Big Data’, I’ll admit it, can be a little daunting. However, it is crucial to communications success in the coming years. So if you’re not sure how to implement a big data strategy, hire experts to develop one for you, and get trained in its implementation. Remember, no one has fully grasped the potential of big data yet, and we’re all learning together.
Do you think big data is important to communication strategies? If you do, what are your tips on integrating the two?
Content Strategist & Writer | UX Design Leader in Government | Marketing Communications Consultant
9 年Brene Brown has a great quote that I feel explains the link between big data and communication: "Stories are just data with a soul." In other words, data can inform strategy decisions but powerful communication give "life" to the data. I think the hurdle in its integration finding relevant was to measure the effectiveness of a communication strategy. This has been an ongoing debate about what metrics besides "engagement" can be used to show the ROI of content. So this adds a whole new way of looking at big data and integrating it into comms strategy. Leah George you're first step is right to ask the questions of: Why use big data at all? And what do you hope to achieve? But to take it a step further would be to figuring out exactly what insights are you are looking for in the data. The other hurdle is defining what "big data" even means in the context of communications. Have you or anyone come across folks who do that well?