I recently picked up a Gartner paper that questioned the value and relevance of spreadsheets in the age of sophisticated measurement and big data. Like many of you, I’ve grown up with those delightful excel spreadsheets and the funky colors on excel charts, so this paper caught my eye.
Ahhhhh…………..Excel.
The hours we’ve spent together.
The editing I’ve done on your bizarre default chart colors.
The thousands of times I’ve linked one sheet to another, and another, and another.
Good times.
But here we are, in the age of innovative measurement where measurement platforms like Social Snap can do magical things with data and analytics, almost to the point where … dare I say … the spreadsheet won’t be needed any more.
A few months back, I gave a quick talk at the 140cuse conference and spoke about how measurement and analytics is on the verge of real-time. In many ways, we can now track marketing in real-time so that if a campaign isn’t making an impact then we update it or remove and run with something that has more success. Some aspects of ROI on social media and digital marketing are now possible in real-time — giving marketers and advertisers huge benefits if they can turn that data into action. We’re also taking some of the real-time learnings and tools from the social measurement space and applying that to physical marketing like trade-shows to improve our engagements with potential customers offline.
And that’s where I come in, turning data into action. Over the next few months, I’ll be publishing a series of blog posts right here on Social Snap about how you can take that precious social media data and use it. I’m a big fan of data that is both accurate and simple to understand, so look for quick tips on getting the most from your data without the need for an advanced mathematics degree. I like to think of the digital world as a level playing field for data, where David can effectively compete with Goliath by using a few tricks and tools.
In the meantime, you can find me on Twitter (@chrisdowsett) for all things related to getting the most out of data.
Chris Dowsett is a Marketing Intelligence and Social Platforms Manager at Quantum. He helps businesses learn more about their markets and audiences. He is also studying for a Doctorate with USQ (Australia) that examines the value of research data to business leaders, how research is used in businesses and the value different types of data are given.
