Pegg Nadler, award-winning magazine marketing guru from New York spoke at the Big Data for Media conference on May 8 in London, sponsored by World Newsmedia Network and Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, about magazine business in US. She has made a survey, where she interviewed 15 major magazine publishers representing 250 titles in US.
"Big data is like teenage sex: everyone is talking about it, but nobody knows how to do it."
What is then Big Data? Traditional data is now being called in US as "big data", because there is so much of it and it has been collected for ages from multiple sources. It's also a combination of offline and online data.
The old data concerns are gone, because data storage is no longer an issue, data is easily attainable, data processing quicker than ever and data matching and cleansing improving.
The "true" big data means detailed data collected from websites and digital sources. Big is not just volume, but velocity and increased activity, size and scales not important, but the most important is, what you do with it.
How to use big data:
1. Start with determining the business needs and questions to be answered. What is troubling?
2. Identify the data that will get you there.
3. Build the technology around the information to get it.
Different business needs and questions: customer buying cycle, cross channel view, customer purchase path & preferences, customer research modes, feedback behavious, next best offer.
Data assessment: What data do you have? What data do you need? What other data is available?
After that you have to identify the different data resources and start analyzing, e.g. customer segmentation.
The future is obscure and we can't predict it from the history, so we can use big data to draw the future.
Problems
Saturday, May 10, 2014
How BuzzFeed is leveraging Big Data to target its readers in real time
Ky Harlin, Director of Data Research and Development at
BuzzFeed, New York, focuses his work on identifying, organizing and accelerating the audience for viral content on Buzzfeed.com
Harlin mentioned the case of an article: "60 Thanksgiving Side Dishes To Make Absolutely Everyone Happy" (http://www.buzzfeed.com/rachelysanders/60-thanksgiving-side-dishes-to-make-absolutely-eve). "We publish pinnable holiday content a couple of weeks in advance. Then, promote on Facebook closer to the actual day," Harlin said.
Key takeaways of Harlin's presentation were:
- Data can be used to optimize content for sharing throughout the life of an article.
- Before publishing, data can help determine what to write about and how to present it.
- After publishing, data can help optimize the article's promotion as well as the article itself.
In his presentation to the Big Data for Media conference on May 8 in London, sponsored by World Newsmedia Network and Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, Harlin said his department measures the "social reproduction rate" of media and is a measurement metric that exists in real-time on a variety of content, from news to animal videos to food recipes and preparation.
Harlin mentioned the case of an article: "60 Thanksgiving Side Dishes To Make Absolutely Everyone Happy" (http://www.buzzfeed.com/rachelysanders/60-thanksgiving-side-dishes-to-make-absolutely-eve). "We publish pinnable holiday content a couple of weeks in advance. Then, promote on Facebook closer to the actual day," Harlin said.
Key takeaways of Harlin's presentation were:
- Data can be used to optimize content for sharing throughout the life of an article.
- Before publishing, data can help determine what to write about and how to present it.
- After publishing, data can help optimize the article's promotion as well as the article itself.
Thursday, May 8, 2014
Rethinking Mobile Journalism Via Data and Technology
Arsenio Santos, CTO and co-founder
of Cir.ca, spoke at the Big Data for Media conference on May 8 in London, sponsored by World Newsmedia Network and Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, about mobile journalism and using data for building a new kind
of news service. Circa is a 2.5-year-old mobile app based in the United States, and soon to expand worldwide.
Cir.ca has focused its app on solving the problem with mobile news: Most people want basic information and not a long narrative on their mobile phones. The focus, then, of Cir.ca, was to develop atomized news "cards."
The mobile news stories are collections of news items written by journalists, and not generated by machines, as many news aggregators are now doing. The items are nuggets of news items and are interconnected by links for easy access to more information if the reader wants it. As the story develops, Cir.ca only pushes new information, not the background that has already been published. Big Data on registered Cir.ca users are employed to send users only information they have requested to follow, and only information they have not yet seen.
Santos also explored a current debate on whether journalists should have access to metrics. His view is yes, give journalists access to everything (users, pages, sources, system and editorials).
The metrics collected my Cir.ca that "matter," according to Santos, are explicit user behavior and
implicit user behavior. Explicit user behavior includes story reads (good), social
sharing (better), story follows (best). Implicit user behavior includes: interest graph (decent), heat
maps (problematic), card reads (awesome).
Santos also identified breaking news as an area of journalism to re-think, showing examples of failed breaking news attempts, particularly online and on TV. Santos said breaking news is
an escalating arms race for urgency and attention" but that it is overused by media companies in order to earn traffic and audience. Instead of breaking news on mobile indiscriminately, Cir.ca breaks news on the mobile app sparingly. Users opt-in to the ongoing news feed on any particular topic, and Cir.ca doesn't want to turn off readers with meaningless breaking news alerts.
an escalating arms race for urgency and attention" but that it is overused by media companies in order to earn traffic and audience. Instead of breaking news on mobile indiscriminately, Cir.ca breaks news on the mobile app sparingly. Users opt-in to the ongoing news feed on any particular topic, and Cir.ca doesn't want to turn off readers with meaningless breaking news alerts.
As an example, the story of the missing Malaysian Air flight MH370 by numbers:
A narrative
spanning 3 stories over 9 weeks (so far). Comparatively, other news outlets have reported breaking news about the missing plane's investigation without any real news about the plane's whereabouts.
Cir.ca's stories:
Malaysian Plane Loses Contact
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 Investigation
Malaysia Airlines MH370 Disappearance Aftermath
85 points, 7050
words.
Santos concluded that in order to publish news tailored for the mobile device, publishers mud:
* Redesign your
content for the medium.
* Empower your
editorial team with thoughtful transparency.
* Find your best
implicit metrics.
* Watch your best
explicit metrics.
Big Data Opportunities and Strategies in Channel 4
Sanjeevan Bala, Head of Data Planning & Analytics from Channel 4, is a big believer in using data to innovate the broadcast business model.
Bala spoke at the Big Data for Media conference on May 8 in London, sponsored by World Newsmedia Network and Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, saying Channel 4 has millions of registered viewers, which they have connected to their viewing history on C4.com. This allows the company to segment viewers into groups, so that they can offer personalized emails and suggest tailored content recommendations and serve relevant advertising and gain revenues.
Bala spoke at the Big Data for Media conference on May 8 in London, sponsored by World Newsmedia Network and Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, saying Channel 4 has millions of registered viewers, which they have connected to their viewing history on C4.com. This allows the company to segment viewers into groups, so that they can offer personalized emails and suggest tailored content recommendations and serve relevant advertising and gain revenues.
How essential customer insights and engagement are made possible by Big Data
Jonathan Lyon, Global Director of Strategic Insight in DigitasLBi, a global marketing and technology agency, is focused on how to better engage with the consumers.
The new imperatives of publishing and marketing are to know your audience better beyond measuring and counting, he said at the Big Data for Media conference on May 8 in London, sponsored by World Newsmedia Network and Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism,
So how can we level the playing field? Understanding people individually, in depth and at scale, he says.
Lyon's company has mapped 1.3 billion individuals' engagements with 50 000 brands, TV shows, media, celebrities, musicians, bands in near real time of the last two years with People Pulse survey software.
People engage differently in different platforms, so it's important to survey all the different platforms.
Some case studies from DigitalLBi:
1. Volvo and creating context, showing Volvo ads with suitable content after mapping the consumers interests.
2. eBay, matching email and social media using habits. Showing the customer the products, which he is interested.
3. TV engagement by brand by program within broadcast content clustered by affinity and engagement between brand and TV show.
4. Movie taste is broadly reflective with the people's gaming habits.
"Digital information is just people in disguise", says Lyon.
The new imperatives of publishing and marketing are to know your audience better beyond measuring and counting, he said at the Big Data for Media conference on May 8 in London, sponsored by World Newsmedia Network and Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism,
So how can we level the playing field? Understanding people individually, in depth and at scale, he says.
Lyon's company has mapped 1.3 billion individuals' engagements with 50 000 brands, TV shows, media, celebrities, musicians, bands in near real time of the last two years with People Pulse survey software.
People engage differently in different platforms, so it's important to survey all the different platforms.
Some case studies from DigitalLBi:
1. Volvo and creating context, showing Volvo ads with suitable content after mapping the consumers interests.
2. eBay, matching email and social media using habits. Showing the customer the products, which he is interested.
3. TV engagement by brand by program within broadcast content clustered by affinity and engagement between brand and TV show.
4. Movie taste is broadly reflective with the people's gaming habits.
"Digital information is just people in disguise", says Lyon.
How Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat usage are changing the face of journalism and business development
Dr Farida Vis, acclaimed social media data scientist
and occasional Guardian Twitter analyst, University of Sheffield, spoke about the importance of social media platforms and apps at the Big Data for Media conference on May 8 in London, sponsored by World Newsmedia Network and Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism,
Among the most notable social media landscape changes are the rise of platforms and apps focused on visual content on a variety of social platforms including:
- Pinterest
- Tumblr
- Instagram
- Vine
- Snapchat
Importantly, visual content drives retweeting, Vis says. "Photos give verified users a 35 percent bump in retweets. Images important for multiple reasons."
However, the rise of social media has given rise to inaccuracies and the need for a greater degree of journalistic verification. "The price for inaccuracy has never been higher," Vis quoted author Craig Silverman saying in his 2012 book, "Verification Handbook."
Vis analyzed the case of fake pictures of Hurricane Sandy images but also mentioning post Boston-marathon bombing. "Twitter does it best work in the first five minutes and its worst in twelve hours after that," wrote Matt Roller a writer based in LA tweeted.
Vis mentioned Izitru (http://www.izitru.com/), a new image hosting service that helps you verify the authenticity of an image.
Among the most notable social media landscape changes are the rise of platforms and apps focused on visual content on a variety of social platforms including:
- Tumblr
- Vine
- Snapchat
Importantly, visual content drives retweeting, Vis says. "Photos give verified users a 35 percent bump in retweets. Images important for multiple reasons."
However, the rise of social media has given rise to inaccuracies and the need for a greater degree of journalistic verification. "The price for inaccuracy has never been higher," Vis quoted author Craig Silverman saying in his 2012 book, "Verification Handbook."
Vis analyzed the case of fake pictures of Hurricane Sandy images but also mentioning post Boston-marathon bombing. "Twitter does it best work in the first five minutes and its worst in twelve hours after that," wrote Matt Roller a writer based in LA tweeted.
Vis mentioned Izitru (http://www.izitru.com/), a new image hosting service that helps you verify the authenticity of an image.
The changing social media landscape
Jason Mander, Head of Trends for Global Web Index, a London-based global research firm, laid the groundwork about the social media landscape at the Big Data for Media conference in London on May 8, sponsored by World Newsmedia Network and Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism,
GWI's social media research surveys 170 million Internet users four times per year in 32 countries, or 89 percent of the Internet population.
The study has found that Indonesia is the world's most active active Facebook and Twitter market, while China is the world's most active e-commerce market.
"Often countries with lowest internet penetration shouldn't be disregarded. Often their audience is the most engaged one," Mander says, adding that these markets represent a huge opportunity for marketers and publishers online.
Despite its much-publicized recent decreases in active usership, especially among the young, FB is still on the top of the charts: more members than anyone else, more visitors than anyone else, he says.
Those social media platforms with rising active usership in the past six months include Changes in Instagram, Tumbler, and Pinterest, he said.
While it unclear exactly the reasons for the social media landscape changes, Mander says there is a sense of social media fatigue, and social media users are becoming more passive, using Facebook as more of an email box rather than a place to spend time, hang out, converse and share. Part of this phenomenon is caused by the shift from desktop/laptop social media use to mobile. Less time is spent on Facebook sessions on mobile, likely because of the size of the screen, and the places where users are posting...during a free moment, for example.
Some of the fastest growing social platforms include Snapchat (37 million users) in the past six months. Best results in westernized most developed markets: Australia, US, UK. However, Snapchat pales by comparison to Wechat (408 million) much bigger in terms of users (China). Mander pointed out that western media tends to get more publicity, but cautions that other chat platforms, especially in India and China, has far more reach.
Mander pointed to some challenges in tabulating social media trends, including:
- The growth of device sharing per household. This makes it difficult to identify just how many social media platform users there are, as these users are identified by one device.
- The proliferation of VPNs (virtual private networks), as a major social gateway. 416 m (28 percent) of the social platform-using population use VPNs, which allows them to stay anonymous, and get you to website that are blocked in your own country (YouTube, Facebook, Netflix, Guardian, BBC website) in countries like China where accessing these sites is not allowed.
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