For long, the internet has been a source of information to us. Whatever information, product or service we require can easily be availed online. In today’s competitive market, businesses are finding it increasingly difficult to remain relevant in consumers’ minds. Traditional marketing techniques have stagnated in terms of the lead generation process. As a result, Digital Marketing has emerged as a front runner to generate leads. Businesses are now reaching out to a far greater audience than ever before and social media plays a key role in the process of data-driven decision-making.
Businesses have statistics and data available on the internet that helps them in devising their marketing campaigns. On social media platforms like Facebook provide the convenience of selecting an audience and making data-driven decisions. Advertisers can select their audience based on age, region, and interests. Moreover, advertisers also get an in-depth analysis of the performance of their ads. This helps them in making amends to their data-driven marketing strategy.
This type of data is available to businesses due to the information individuals share on social platforms as well as from cookies. A cookie is a type of message that is given to a web browser by a web server and helps identify users and possibly prepare customised web pages or to save site login information. So, whenever someone searches for anything on the internet, cookies enable businesses to advertise their product to such consumers. For example, if someone searches for a cellphone on an e-commerce website; cookies enable businesses to obtain such data and hence advertise their cellphones on apps or websites via banner advertisements.
Beyond the business world, this type of data also helps us connect with people with similar interests and attitudes on social media. Raymond Fu, assistant professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Northeastern University wants to build a better social-media ecosystem. The objective is to design an algorithm that helps individuals get better suggestions based on the data they share, maintaining privacy and ease of communication.
Harman Singh