Big data refers to lots and lots of data (well actually, just more data than what can fit into an Excel sheet), and data is something social media continually creates whether companies want it or not. Think about Twitter: according to MediaBistro.com, there are over 175 million tweets sent each day, creating real-time data about products, brands and experiences. The information is also being stored as historical data and can provide instant insight into what was going on and/or how people felt at a particular place and time.It is now the job of marketers to collect the data, understand it, and create actions based on analyzing the data results. The challenge? It’s not always easy to grab mass amounts of data and process it in a way that creates useful analysis for marketing and business growth.

The solution? Understand the concept of big data and find a software program that collects the data and makes calculations upon it. Then use a human brain with emotions and logical understanding to analyze the results for desired insights — insights that make sense and guide online strategies and actions.

Once a marketer acknowledges the relationship with big data and understands its importance to the overall business and marketing strategy, he/she must determine which data sets and outcomes will be important and how those results can be used. Examples can include processing data to determine online attitudes and tracking response. If the marketer is realizing that messages are being interpreted incorrectly, it might be imperative to alter a social media campaign because it is pushing out unintended messages, resulting in a negative change in consumer sentiment. This would not have been known if the marketer wasn’t processing lots of data into readable data results and, of course, knew what he/she was mining to find.Once those goals and overall visions are determined, the next step is working to find a software solution that exists, can be customized, or can be created with the work of an IT team. There are numerous software systems that now offer these solutions and it makes sense to shop around since there are options. Sometimes a marketer might find the right software for one aspect, but it needs to be combined with another system to really get the necessary data. If a marketer knows what is needed, it can be found!

Understanding data and learning to process it and turn it into actionable analytics is where a lot of social media marketers fall short. They are too busy focusing on the tactical execution of “tweet this,” and “update that,” to really dig deeper into addressing the question, “What does all of this mean?” Ever hear a social media marketer say that the efforts are “tough to measure?” If so, go the other way. It really just means that they are not privy to understanding how to collect, process and apply the mountains of data they are generating from hosting conversations and creating engagements.