Word on the street is that data is the new oil. If you haven’t heard that little soundbyte (excuse the awful pun) then get ready, your going to hear it a lot more. It’s going to go down in the internet slogan hall of fame along with “maximising the long tail”, “2010/11/12/13 will be the year of the mobile”, and “understanding the consumer journey”.

There is a lot of truth in these somewhat nauseating e-catchphrases. “Data being the new oil” is no exception.

The internet is data. Successful e-commerce happens when you leverage that data to give your consumers more of what they want. This isn’t ground breaking in itself. Supermarkets have long been using their loyalty data to segment and re-target customers based on what they buy.

What’s changed is the volume of data now freely available and the potential this data has if you mash together different data sets. The internet economy is essentially a data economy and there is a lot of money to be made.

So ”Data is the New Oil”.

This concept really got me thinking. Oil makes a lot of people rich but it has a downside. It’s dirty and valuable. Therefore in the same way we try and recycle oil should we be recycling data more?

I’m not claiming academic rights here. Doing a quick search on Google and http://www.datarecycling.org/ ranks 1 in the natural listings. The term data exhaust has long been banded about but as ever with this blog, I wanted to work through the concept and Think Out Loud!

So the premise is this. How green are you being with your data? Are you recycling all the data that your different marketing channels are giving you? Do you make the most of what you have before you buy in more? Let me explain some examples.

A quick win would be to make your search “Green”. Re-using PPC data to inform your SEO strategy by sharing PPC keyword data with your SEO team. Then doing the reverse with SEO informing PPC keyword selection. I could write for a long time around SEO/PPC integration but this has been done to death. So lets try and push this concept into less obvious areas.

Are you passing keyword reports to your commercial team so that they understand what brands/products currently have the highest search demand?

Are you giving keyword reports to your creative teams/agencies so they can use language which people already typing into search engines?

Product feeds are a veritable data goldmine.  Are your PPC campaigns being properly informed of the current stock levels and adjusting bids according to your pricing within the market. Within the feed is there a measure of previous sales performance of the products to allow for further intelligence in bidding? Do you even have a usable feed?

Assuming you do are you sharing your feed with as many partners as you can? Is your display copy being adopted to promote the products you have in stock for example?

What do you do with all the conversations you have in social media? Is this used in anyway to inform keyword lists, develop copy or used to shape media buying?

Are results from on-site testing shared properly with other marketing channels to avoid repeating tests?

The list goes on for a long time….

Essentially the concept is anchored around using data not only for it’s primary purpose but also seeing how it can be useful in other ways. There is a huge amount of value to be gained from going “data green” both in the cross discipline insight you may receive and the fact that you can divide the cost of obtaining that data by more than one. I am certain there is room in every organisation to get substantial efficiencies by being data green and recycling more.

While we might not see a “data-peace” type organisation campaigning against businesses who aren’t data green I can see eco-data consultants helping us be more data green in the not so distant future.

First off a disclaimer….a lot of the following ideas I am sure have been thought of and I am not claiming them to be original. However I can’t find decent references to stipulate where these thoughts have come from so if anyone out there can please let me know! I will be in your eternal gratitude.

Solution number 1 – Make privacy less private

In short public education and debate. Privacy and security on the internet is now so important to everyone’s life and well being that it should become part of the national curriculum with the material pooled together not by academia but by the IAB or another industry body which has a closer touch with what is relevant today. As well as specific courses within schools online resources should be made available and publicised to help the adult generation develop the necessary skill set. For example a series of educational programmes could be stored on iPlayer or YouTube with a supporting site with wiki advice and help pages allowing people to ask questions and get answers.

Topics should range from how to set up your privacy settings for popular sites to dealing with bullying on the net. It should bridge the gap between IT technical skills with social and personal skills looking to equip people with what are now essential life skills.

With a bit of luck this is already happening within schools however to me there doesn’t appear to be a strong enough united voice from an organised body whose mandate is to educate. I am sure key internet brands would be keen to join such groups and benefit not only from the PR but also the more engaged user base who are better educated in the application of their tools.

Everyone will have different views on what they are comfortable with sharing. We therefore need to be informed so we are empowered to set our own boundaries rather than being blissfully unaware that you can’t eat all cookies and everyone means anyone. Indeed failure to educate could lead to internet bigotry and scaremongering from those that want you to believe that the world will end tomorrow. As I am sure Gordon Brown will tell you education is the best form of defence against bigotry.

Solution number 2 – An online bodyguard.

I believe there is an opportunity in the market for some kind of third party privacy controller. Some kind of app or better a widget within a browser which you can log into and control you privacy settings for multiple online entities. In other words a one stop shop which would allow you to change settings across Facebook, Google, MySpace MSN, etc….

A kind of personal bodyguard for the internet if you like. Looking after your every move and helping you get into websites with a password manager, protect you from thugs with enhanced virus protection and ultimately help you control who gets access to your data. A loyal servant fighting to stop strangers looking at you funny if you will.

The reclaimprivacy.org bookmark dramatically helped me adjust my Facebook privacy settings and unearthed a load of stuff that I didn’t realise I was sharing. That’s despite me a few weeks ago going through all my settings and adjusting them. It really opened my eye to how even when you think you get it, you still might not. More recently I’ve been investigating my Google profile and sharing settings and if I am honest I am thoroughly confused. A 3^rd party tool which is designed to empower users to take control of their privacy by making it simple to be consistent across different sites would really help give privacy control back to the user.

It could even include a basic online reputation report giving you a top line indication of what you have shared on the internet and what is being said. Indeed this could be how the tool is financed; a kind of Experian Credit report but for your data.

Of course me saying wouldn’t it be great if… is easy. There are numerous barriers to some and all of the above with the biggest being trying to get a consensus from the multiple stakeholders to work together however we are seeing positive signs. Facebook’s revised privacy changes certainly are similar to the key points of option 2. Google’s Opt Out for Analytics is further empowering the user. Indeed I think the common theme of being more open and upfront about privacy controls will be a necessity to solving this privacy conundrum. The solution has to be focused on making it easy for users to understand how their data is being used and how they can control their data……it is theirs after all!

UPDATE: OK so I have found a source/someone who buys into similar thoughts on privacy. Whilst reading Jonathon McDonalds thoughts on the future of mobile his last point struck me as reaching a similar conclusion to my above post….education is a key lever to giving control.

Rewind the clock to today and people abandoned bountiful shopping carts if your site won’t make it easy to share your credit card details.

Now the big privacy issue is what sites do with the data we give them. Facebook in particular is hitting the headlines about their recent revisions to policy. Indeed social media is an area which faces the next biggest challenges. We have been happily drinking from their social cups connecting with others and in return we have been crossing the site owners palms with an unprecedented amount of personal information. Data is a key asset for most internet businesses and is at the heart of everything we do on the web however websites unfortunately can’t pay the bills with data alone. In order to survive they have to become data alchemists turning data into gold. This is where it all gets very tricky, as the data that Facebook is playing with is highly personal and emotive. They have to walk a very fine line of opening up this data to make some money and respect peoples privacy.

So initial solution was to give users lots of control. Let them tailor every aspect of Facebook so that they can control who and what they share. Makes sense. Only issue is to give total control is to make things complex for the average user. Lots of different settings amounting to a privacy policy which is longer than the US constitution.

So within Facebook you have have a wealth of settings you can adjust to decide what and to whom is shared. Trouble is this is definitely in “advanced” settings land. A place where only the super sharp fully understand what they mean and the implications of turning different knobs. For example how many times have you click on advanced settings when installing software? How many times have you tweaked your own cars engine to get a more customised drive? Chances are rarely to never as the defaults are generally good enough to get the job done.

This is where Facebook has slipped up, their defaults are share everything to everyone. A default that will help Facebook alchemists get the job done but leave the average user uncomfortable about this level of openness.

I am sure this will change as Facebook do have a track record of changing unpopular policy changes (and have already started to make noises they will) however I doubt it will be an ideal solution which will nip this privacy problem in the bud. Unfortunately this is an issue which will keep rearing its ugly head again and again. But we will get there as long as we everyone keeps talking about it and having an open debate. The benefits are just too great.

Yahoo have launched a new video Ad attacking Google for being boring. You can see the ad on Yahoo’s corporate site (here).

In the ad Yahoo points out the simplicity of Google’s layout and asks the question how something so simple can still help you manage your complex web life? Its an effort to get people to move their homepage from boring Google to exciting flashy and personable Yahoo.

The creative is OK, and does a job to get it’s message across that Yahoo is your friend. You can customise it to have whatever information you like at your fingertips and it will give you recommendations and suggestions. It’s completely flexible to you. Indeed the ad certainly left me thinking Yahoo could be my personal PA helping me to manage my internet life.

However there are a couple of reasons which means this ad for me does not herald the start of a Yahoo comeback and will fail to chip any meaningful market share.

My principle reason for this bold statement is that they have picked the wrong fight. People start their internet session with Google and then they go to Facebook.

This is why Google vs. Facebook is where the real homepage fight is.

Yahoo have addressed this by allowing you to add lots of different third party widgets including Facebook which you can personalise. This deserves commending; it’s in keeping with the open web philosophy and must of taken some balls to push through within the organisation.

But this is what leaves me perplexed.

The guys at Yahoo are clearly in touch with the direction of the web. They are aware they need to integrate with other sources and be open. However this should mean they are as acutely aware of the abundance of substitutes to their homepage concept, including Google’s own – iGoogle. Its fantastic they are clearly working hard to be more innovative however for me personally they haven’t truly differentiated which is why I can’t see a major Yahoo comeback on the cards. It will certainly help to slow the exodus they have seen however I don’t think it will lead to meaningful gains.

To be able to truly cause an upset Google’s competitors need to deliver not only a better user experience but also be fundamentally more relevant. Just putting some bells and whistles on the existing search offerings unfortunately won’t cut it. That’s why Facebook is the concern as if they are able to combine social data with existing search algorithms, they will be able to push the relevancy dial to a whole new level.

Image: Nicholas Tarling / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

So its the eve of the election. I’m going to resist delving into the various party’s approaches with digital media (already an abundance of this from all the usual sources).

Instead I am just going to use Google Insights as a marker to see how accurate it is as a poll:

Liberal Democrats have the edge in terms of search demand, however is this traffic going to convert to votes?

Image: federico stevanin / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I have just finished reading a very insightful book called “Herd: How to Change Mass Behaviour by Harnessing Our True Nature” by Mark Earlsby. The driving principle of this text is that humans have always acted in a herd mentality. We are “highly social apes” who thrive off social interaction. This has always been the case throughout our history and for me it proved to be a bit of a penny drop moment on why social media is such a big deal.

Some of the hype on social media is misplaced with bold statements that it is dramatically changing our social make up. I don’t fully agree with this. I agree it is changing the way we interact which has consequences but feel our inherent human nature remains largely unchanged. As Mark demonstrates in his book we have always looked to socially interact with people who share similar interests or beliefs. We have always formed connections with others and organised ourselves in groups.

This made me realise what social media is really doing – it’s broadcasting our social circles. To do this before Facebook/Twitter/Linkedin/MySpace we would have had to make our personal address books available in the public library. You could have gone into the library and looked up a new acquaintance to understand where your social circle may overlap. Big interview coming up? Nip down the library and look up the interviewer to find out if you have any pre-existing connections. This of course didn’t happen because a) it wouldn’t have been practical and b) privacy concerns.

Technology has certainly addressed point a) but point b) remains the largest hurdle.

What social media does is allow us to publicly declare your “social herd”. By becoming “friends” with people on Facebook or following users on Twitter we are lifting the veil on who has made it made it into our social circle. Who is in our chosen herd.

This means consumers are segmenting themselves. Marketeers are not pre-defining what demographics and profiles consumers should sit, they are doing it themselves and in real-time. This is unlocking a new age of targeting for the benefit of both consumer and producer.

Facebook’s latest announcements at F8 on “unlocking the social graph” are the first major movements to this. To be able to customise results based on a Facebook herds has huge potential. Getting reviews based from your friends not from strangers has obvious benefits. Product recommendations based on previous purchases could be expanded to include your herd building more robust data sets for less frequent buyers. Fashion advice could be tailored according to the style of your herd. TV shows could be recommended according to your herd with advertising targeted to your groups needs and interests.

This new data set holds a wealth of opportunity, hence the appropriate buzz. Privacy remains a major concern however social data holds too much potential for it to not be overcome.

Want to learn more about “Herds” – check out Mark’s Blog: http://herd.typepad.com/