Big data and the Internet of Things (IoT) are transforming what it means to be social and seen online. With the increase in connectivity and the ability to be connected to many devices and systems, businesses must be able to adopt to changing technologies and create superior communication efforts, especially to serve clients and consumers.
Big data and the IoT bring together the detailed analysis of vast amounts of electronic devices that are connected to the Internet and communicate autonomously. They’re impacting social media tremendously as they transform how enterprises interact with their clients and consumers. The technologies create an intelligent network from which enterprises extract valuable information about consumers and their online activities.
Big data provides great utility for evaluating the information generated by the IoT. Components such as power conservation and collection devices, radio frequency identification (RFID) tags and sensors culminate to provide cutting-edge utilities, such as smart services as well as security programs and hardware. The technologies are enabling engineers to develop and implement could-based applications that are designed to maximize the usefulness of devices, information and services. Machine learning technology allows developers to leverage the information generated by the big data/ IoT network. The resource aid enterprises in extracting meaning from massive data stores generated by the latest marriage in information innovation. With this in mind, the following three sections highlight 3 ways that the confluence of big data and the IoT are changing social media.
Change 1: Businesses Are Delivering Better Service
Contemporary enterprises must pay more attention to how they communicate and connect with consumers in the modern, competitive marketplace. They must create real and meaningful connections to stand out from their competitors and enhance how they interact and engage with consumers.
More devices are becoming part of the digital ecosystem, and as the IoT universe expands, people are generating an escalating amount of information. This development gives enterprises a profound opportunity to learn more about their consumers. However, there’s a bigger benefit in learning more about how consumers interact with the real world; enterprises now have unique and valuable opportunities to create consumer experiences that truly enhance peoples’ lives.
Change 2: Enterprises Are Building Better Rapport With Their Audience
As the technologies used to analyze social media and the IoT mature, enterprises have more opportunities to build strong relationships with their target consumers. This allows firms to increase their visibility and establish their importance in the lives of consumers.
Social media is a powerful resource for influencing the adult demographic. In fact, 74-percent of adult consumers use social media platforms to connect with family members, friends and businesses. Studies show that at least 71-percent of adults use Facebook and 23-percent use Twitter. The platforms allow enterprises to interface directly with current and potential consumers and provide an efficient channel to deliver fast and effective customer service and transparent media communications.
Change 3: Privacy Is Growing in Importance
As social media, big data and the IoT evolve, consumers’ perception of privacy will change. Some digital pundits proclaim that privacy will soon be nonexistent because of social media, the IoT and big data. Despite the future of privacy, technological developments necessitate the need for consumers to have a better understanding of their digital presence. More than likely, privacy in its current form will give way to even more social media participation and its ability to share all things big and small. As this happens, consumers will experience more personalized and geographically targeted media messages, as personal devices increasingly and autonomously share data with the IoT.
Privacy will not cease to exist, but how consumers view privacy will become more sophisticated. As this grows more pervasive, consumers will slowly learn to make subtle decisions about where, when and with whom to share information, limiting or controlling what brand messages cross the screens of their devices. In time, people will develop an increased awareness about where and when they’re “on the grid.” In time, skillful digital presence management could become a purposeful and potentially prosperous practice for consumers as well as businesses.
Gartner, an information technology (IT) consultancy, forecasts that IoT spending will reach $1.5 billion by the end of 2018 and surge to $3.1 billion by 2021. Moving forward, data will be the driver of important business decisions, and big data information will result in the radical transformation of the business models of many enterprises. Eventually, social media and the IoT will change how businesses interact with consumers and how people interact with the world.
