White Paper - Harnessing Big Data to Grow Revenue

Harnessing

BIG DATA to Grow Revenue Mending the gap between social data and ROI.

White Paper

White Paper: Harnessing Big Data to Grow Revenue

© 2013 GIGYA ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. | 888-660-1469 | www.gigya.com | twitter.com/gigya | blog.gigya.com

With the proliferation of large-scale social

networks, there’s certainly no shortage of social

data in the world today.

Each time a user creates a new social profile or

updates an existing one on a network like

Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter, his or her

personal information is stored in a secure

database. Thus, social networks now have more

insight than ever on their members’ backgrounds,

interests, contact info, and more. What’s more,

this well of data continues to expand and update

in real-time as users interact more and more with

websites, mobile apps, and other digital channels.

In spite of this, businesses generally lack the knowledge and resources to fully leverage user

data to increase user engagement, improve marketing performance, and discover actionable

insights. By failing to take advantage of the opportunities that social data presents, businesses

miss out on delivering value to consumers through personalized web experiences, which directly

impacts users’ site activity and marketing campaign performance.

Before social data can effectively be put to use, however, it’s important to understand how this

information is collected, stored, and managed. This white paper will examine the following:

Big data is so big, in fact, that 90% of it was created in the past two years alone.

Source: http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/bigdata/

• How social data is captured, stored, and managed

• Best practices for collecting user data

• Ways social data can be used to deliver direct value

http://www.gigya.com/



HOW SOCIAL DATA IS CAPTURED

It’s commonly understood that social data is important, but how is it even collected in the first

place? It all begins with social login.

Social login allows users to register with and sign in to your business’s web properties using one

or more of their social media accounts, also known as a social identity. Users who log in to a

website using an existing social identity are essentially granting that website permission to

access their first-party social data such as full name, interests, education, social connections,

email address, location, and much more.

Be a PRO at Collecting User Data

As useful as social login is for extracting valuable user

data, it’s even more crucial that businesses follow

best practices when collecting personal information

from customers online. Here are some tips for

handling your users’ sensitive data like a PRO:

Protection

Protect users’ right to data privacy by being

completely transparent and clear with just how their

users’ information will be used before prompting

social sign-in. By being upfront and honest about

your data usage practices, businesses can establish

trust with users that translates to positive brand

perception and loyalty.

Relevancy

Assess your customer base and offer social sign-in for

social networks that make sense for your properties.

For instance, it probably would not make sense for an

e-commerce site to offer LinkedIn as a sign-in option

since most LinkedIn users do not share personal

purchases with their professional networks.

Options

Present options to your users instead of limiting them

to a single social network. Providing choices increases

the likelihood of customers logging in to your web

properties socially, giving your business more

opportunities to capture helpful data.




HOW SOCIAL DATA IS STORED AND MANAGED

The 2 C’s of Data Storage

1. Cloud Storage for Elasticity and Scalability

With the total volume of big data across the

globe already in the zettabytes, the need for

efficient, dynamic storage systems is greater

than ever before. When it comes to storing big

data, traditional IT infrastructures lack the

elasticity and scalability of cloud storage

systems. In other words, cloud storage models

allow easy access to data by multiple users and

are equipped to handle massive amounts of

data.

2. Centralized Storage for Unification

Businesses with more than one web property (i.e. a website and mobile app), or multiple

locations for collecting user data, can allow stored data to be accessed easily by keeping it

in a centralized location. Unifying data this way makes it easier to scale marketing efforts

and reach the right users at the right time.

How Big Data is Managed

Historically, data is managed in a traditional database, also known as a relational

database, which is made up of a fields organized in a grid-like fashion. Because of the

dynamic, unstructured nature of social data, though, it needs a database equipped to

handle large volumes of varied information, such as profile photos, interests, behaviors,

and social graph connections. This database structure is known as a schemaless

database, and it enables sites and apps to store all types of unstructured (social and

behavioral) data without any constraints.

Why are scalability and

elasticity important for data

management?

Scalability refers to a system’s ability

to accommodate larger workloads by

quickly and easily adding more

resources.

Elasticity refers to a system’s ability to

adapt to fluctuating workload sizes.

Like a rubber band, elastic systems

stretch when handling large data loads

and retain their original shape to meet

decreased capacity requirements.




3 Key Characteristics of Schemaless

Databases

To give you a better handle on what a schemaless

database is and how it works, below are a few key

characteristics:

1. Scale

Schemaless databases are equipped to handle large,

growing data sets. This ability to manage and grow in

accordance with the data is known as horizontal

scaling, or scaling out.

2. Structure

Schemaless databases provide structure to

unstructured data that relational databases would

otherwise not know how to manage by indexing data,

or making it searchable.

3. Speed

Schemaless databases speed up data management

processes by allowing businesses to automate data

capture and access, search, and export data quickly.

BEST PRACTICES FOR COLLECTING SOCIAL DATA

Now that we understand what social data is, it’s important to know how it’s collected.

Choose Data Points Wisely

We discussed earlier how social login is used to facilitate the collection of social data. By

encouraging users to register for your website or application socially, businesses can easily and

quickly collect up-to-date, accurate information on users’ backgrounds, habits, and preferences

while providing an efficient, simple registration and login process for online audiences.

The social login registration process requires the user to authorize the corresponding web

property to extract data from his or her social media profile. In essence, users must give a

virtual agreement before businesses can collect their personal data.

To encourage account creation with social login, businesses need to discern which permissions,

or data points, to extract from its users. The sum of user data stored in social media sites is

vast; and, quite frankly, your business probably doesn’t need all of it. In fact, studies show that

requiring more permissions from users results in lower registration conversions. By asking for

more permissions and thus increasing the time and effort it takes for users to register,

businesses risk missing out on valuable opportunities to understand their users better.




As a general rule of thumb, we recommend that businesses implementing social login carefully

choose two to four data points that are absolutely critical to their marketing efforts and ask for

those only. Requesting too many permissions at the outset may discourage user trust and

prevent first-time users from registering. Furthermore, businesses can collect more user data

after the registration process by offering incentives for users who share more information and

measuring site activity.

Below is an example of a permissions request that a user receives after selecting Facebook as a

social login provider:

This permissions dialog demonstrates discernment by only requesting a few data points--public

profile information, birthday, and location.

Automate Data Capture

Social data is constantly changing. For a real life example of just how dynamic social data is,

consider how populated your Facebook News Feed gets each minute with new updates from

your friends. Each of these updates represents a new data point that needs to be changed

within a social database.

Social data can only be utilized at its full potential when it’s kept up to date at all times. To

streamline this process, it’s advisable for businesses to automate data capturing to ensure that

their database is accurate at all times.




By employing a hybrid of a schemaless database and a relational database (dynamic-schema) to

manage social data, your business sets the parameters for automated data capturing. In other

words, automated data capture keeps users’ information up to date as the dynamic-schema

database equips the system to manage data points in ways that can be easily sorted and used.

Increase User Engagement to Collect More Data Agents

Social login is the first step to collecting user data, but it shouldn’t end there. As users engage

with your web properties through social plugins through commenting, sharing, writing reviews,

and more, your business can turn these actions into valuable user behavior insights.

Collecting data on these engagement points requires an automated system for capturing data

in real-time and a dynamic-schema database for storing it. These different systems work

together to capture and manage the large amount of data that can be accumulated through

capturing user engagement insight.

HOW BUSINESSES CAN USE SOCIAL DATA TO DELIVER VALUE

Let’s examine some best practices that businesses can follow to reap social data’s full benefits.

Find or Build a Web-Based Dashboard for Holistic View of Data

As important as the data collection process is, having access to social data is only as useful as

your ability to make sense of it. In order for your business to harness social data to gain a more

comprehensive view of your users, data needs to be accessed and managed in a way that

makes sense to the end users that are analyzing it.

Traditionally, user databases are managed by IT departments. Thus, accessing this data

requires marketers to first submit a request to IT to generate a report that presents the data in

a digestible format. Not only is this method extremely time-consuming, but it’s also a drain on

IT resources and a difficult process to sustain over the long term.

Instead of relying on IT resources to interpret social data, businesses need a marketer-friendly,

web-based dashboard that enables marketers to access user data, define their audience

segments, and apply these findings directly to their marketing strategies. This grants marketers

full control over their marketing efforts, allowing them to work with the data themselves to

glean new insights on their user base and turn these insights into measurable actions.




Integrate Data with Third-Party Marketing Platforms

Now that we’ve established the importance

of collecting data for user analysis

purposes, it’s crucial to understand how

this information can be leveraged to

deliver direct value to your business.

When utilized properly, social data can be

leveraged to personalize user experiences

and drive revenue for businesses. One way

to leverage social data for targeted

marketing is to integrate this information

into third-party marketing platforms such

as email marketing systems, advertising

services, recommendation engines, and

more.

By implementing existing data with third-

party marketing platforms, businesses can

personalize marketing efforts and create

more meaningful user experiences. The

panel to the right outlines some ways that

social data can integrate with third-party

platforms to accomplish user engagement

and marketing goals.

FIVE STEPS TO SUCCESS:

Third-Party Marketing Platforms

that Work with Social Data

1. Email marketing services can use social

data to personalize email marketing

campaigns.

Examples: MailChimp, Responsys, ExactTarget

2. Advertising services can use social data to

curate and display tailored ads to site viewers.

Examples: Google DoubleClick, Lotame, ADTECH

3. Recommendation engines can use social

data to provide unique content and product

recommendations to users.

Examples: RichRelevance, Certona, MyBuys

4. Web analytics can integrate with social

data to provide a more comprehensive view

of users’ site activity and engagement.

Examples: Google Analytics, Omniture,

KISSmetrics

5. Data management platforms can turn

social data into measurable, actionable

insights.

Examples: Bluekai, Adobe AudienceManager,

Core Audience

Step 1: Find a dynamic-schema, secure, cloud-based database solution to store and manage

social and behavioral data

Step 2: Implement social login

Step 3: Maintain accuracy of data through automated data capture

Step 4: Acquire more data through user engagement

Step 5: Transfer data to third-party marketing platforms




ABOUT GIGYA:

Gigya’s mission is to socialize the rest of the web. We provide websites with a complete social

infrastructure that creates immersive social experiences for users and provides unparalleled

customer insights for businesses.

Gigya equips businesses like ABC, Pepsi and Verizon with a comprehensive solution to socialize

their online properties. Our technology enables seamless registration with Social Login and

Registration-as-a-Service, increases traffic and time spent on-site via Social Plugins and

Gamification and transforms marketing by leveraging permission-based social identity data.

Gigya works with more than 600 enterprises and touches more than one billion users per

month. Our platform extracts the real value from social networks, empowering online

businesses to attract, engage and understand users like never before.

Gigya at a Glance

Leading provider of social infrastructure for businesses

600+ customers, including 50% of the comScore top 100 U.S. web properties

Technology reaches more than 1.5 billion unique users every month

2012 CRM Watchlist Winner


White Paper - Harnessing Big Data to Grow Revenue

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