Monday, July 22, 2013

Big Data: Looking Back. Looking Forward

Looking Back

The term Big Data became an industry buzzword in 2012, but the term has been around for decades.  In fact, an article published in Forbes entitled “A Very Short History of Big Data” states the term was first used in 1944 in an attempt to quantify the growth rate in the volume of data. In my quest to learn more about Big Data, and where the term came from I came across a great TedEducation video which details the history of Big Data.
 
Exploration on the Big Data frontier - Tim Smith
 
 
Looking Forward
Fast-forward to 2013 and Big Data continues to be a trending topic. The ever-increasing amount of digital information is a key component of what we now call Big Data. In the article “Why big data is the sexiest new marketing tool” the author is shocked by the stat that "Humans now create in two days the same amount of data that it took from the dawn of civilization until 2003 to create." That’s a pretty crazy statistic. Can you imagine what that number will be in 10 years?  So what does this all mean for digital marketers? Why should we care about Big Data? Below are the Top 3 reasons why digital marketers should care about Big Data based on an article I recently read entitled “Big Data, Analytics And The Future Of Marketing And Sales” 
 
1)      Fresh insights into customer needs and online behaviors
2)      Increase productivity and profitability
3)      Improved marketing ROI
 
Those sound like pretty compelling reasons for me to care about Big Data. Wouldn't you agree?
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