Can Facebook Provide Predictive Analytics?

As many of you know, my tagline when asked what I do for a living is something along the lines of “play on Facebook all day.” Fortunately for me (and my employer) my job is much more involved than “playing on Facebook.” As my final semester in Grad School winds down, there has been a large focus in analytics and how they are used to make informed decisions, or in this case using predictive analytics.

Looking at the Financial Industry (FI), it’s no surprise that predictive analytics are being used. What may surprise you however are the way FI’s, no matter the size, can gain insights. In the article Predictive Analytics: The Future of Financial Marketing by The Financial Brand, eight “data sources” are laid out as means of gaining information to draw insights.

As data becomes increasingly more available and the need for predictive analytics becomes more important, we as digital marketers must search for the latest ways to gauge our customers. Believe it or not, Facebook or social media in general may help to achieve the data needed for these “new age” data sources below.

Data sources listed in the article include:

• Channel preferences
• Social media insight
• Mobile data
• Consumer ratings and reviews
• Bill payment behavior
• Personal Financial Management
• Geolocation
• Weather and other external elements

While this list may not be impressive to some, you’ll note that almost all of these data sources can be gauged through Facebook, or other social media channels. While Facebook and social media is often noted as something for millennials, it is becoming more and more intrinsic in all digital marketing efforts.

Next time you deem Facebook as a simple social media platform, you may want to take a second look – it may be telling you exactly what you want to know about your customers.