Tips to help you when you swim in the data lake

For many years, people in the know liked to bandy about the phrase data warehouse – or data warehousing. It was a term that suggested there was a lot of data, collected from whatever sources and used for whatever purposes, that was stored in an organized and sensible fashion where it could be retrieved at any time. It is a great notion, and in the analogue age, warehousing is exactly what was done with data. But that was a by-gone era and things have changed massively now that we are fully immersed in the digital age.

The reality of the digital age is that there is simply too much data to warehouse. Everything is trackable, every action is collected, locations monitored and tracked. Everyone who has a phone or who uses a computer has a digital footprint. The amount of digital data that is produced is mind-boggling, and it quite simply cannot be warehoused – no, modern data experts will tell you about the data lake. And we are here to help you make sense of what it is and what it means.

It cannot be ignored

The biggest digital companies in the world are outfits like Google, Facebook, and Amazon and they are all making huge plays in the data space. The reality is that the more you know and the more you can extrapolate from your users, the more valuable they are to you.

It is why these tech behemoths collect as much information as they can about everything. But once it is collected, you must know what to do with it and that is where big data consulting has become serious business in recent times. A good data consultant will be able to help you drive revenues significantly and derive much better value from your audience or on the flip side, a much better return on investment for your campaign.

Ask the important questions

Collecting your data is the first step, and there are many different platforms that you can use to help facilitate this. Be it BlueKai from Oracle, IBM’s Watson, or one of Google’s suite of products – or even a hybrid model that draws on elements of all of these, collecting data and tagging your platforms is a key first step. But don’t just tag your site because it seems like the right thing to do, you need to know why you are doing it and you need to have a strategy and a goal.

When it comes to data analytics Sydney is a good place to be as there are several world-class agencies who can help you to develop these strategies. If you know what it is that you want to achieve it will make the whole process a lot easier to map and navigate.

Think outside the box

For a very long-time, people regarded digital success as numbers. The bigger your audience or following was the more successful you were. That is an absurd notion, however, as it doesn’t really count for anything.

It is what you are able to do with your audience that really matters. In other words, how do you engage with them? Are you monetizing them effectively? How often do they return to your business site? These are much more relevant questions, and these are the metrics that big data can help to improve.