Big data analytics are incredibly important to the average modern business owner, especially when considering how competitive your industry is. You want to get every edge you possibly can. A good business is a growing business, and yours can’t grow without analyzing trends in your industry. This is how big data helps just about any ordinary business become extraordinary.
Understanding Big Data
The raw data that’s collected and stored in your databases is the key to unlocking this latent potential within your business. Understanding the trends behind this data is what helps businesses leverage it to their advantage to make informed decisions and integrate new policies. It can be as simple as identifying your targeted audience, but it’s much more in-depth than that. Knowing these trends allows your organization to apply them to your business model for potentially more profits.
A simple example of using big data for your needs is monitoring your social media pages for trends in followers. This could include age, gender, liked pages, and much more. These trends inform your business who you’re marketing to, and you can alter your approach to better meet the masses.
As explained by Bill Detwiler of ZDNet:
According to a 2014 study by Accenture and General Electric, 84% of the companies surveyed believe that big data analytics could "shift the competitive landscape" for their industry within the next year and 89% believe companies that fail to adopt a big data analytics strategy could lose both market share and momentum.
Therefore, businesses that take the initiative to integrate big data analytics into their IT infrastructure will gain a valuable advantage that will allow them to outpace the competition. Plus, big data analytics tools have grown vastly more affordable to meet the demands of all industries, making them readily available for small and medium-sized businesses in addition to the larger enterprise.
Getting Started with Big Data
The first step toward integrating big data into your strategy is putting together a solid plan. Unfortunately, it’s not always as simple as looking at your social media and finding trends. Consider what kinds of data you want to gather, and from where. According to Max Shron, a data scientist at Polynumeral, this is of the utmost importance. What would happen if you spent time and resources gathering data that was of no use?
This is why it’s so important to ask yourself what kinds of data your business already has on file. From there, ask yourself what kind of data your business needs. After understanding the overall target of your big data endeavor, you can start collecting the data in an organized fashion. When doing so, it’s important to avoid any predispositions you might have concerning the data you gather. Who knows; maybe you’ll find that your current target audience isn’t who’s most interested in your product.
Bardissi Enterprises can equip your business with the tools and resources to apply big data analytics to your business model. All you need to do is call (215) 853-2266 to get started.
