A large amount of data is created online every day. Here’s a quick peek into it. 4.3 million snaps, 5.9 million searches on Google, 66,000 photos, and 231.4 million emails are sent every 60 seconds. And when your account for the rest of the online activities, it all adds up to 2.5 quintillion of data every day.
All this data is worth billions of dollars for companies. With Big Data analytics, companies can turn this data into meaningful insights that help them meet their business goals. Insights into consumer behavior can help big companies tweak their product offerings to resonate with their target audience and improve user engagement.
What is Big Data?
Big Data refers to large and complex data sets that cannot be processed using traditional tools. Three Vs characterize Big Data. The large volume, the variety of data types, and the fast velocity at which it is produced.
Big Data comes from a variety of sources that include online transactions, user interactions on social media, and sensors on devices connected to the Internet of Things.
Sentiment analysis can help companies gauge the ‘mood’ of the people on a social media platform and create more engaging content.
How Big Data Enhances User Engagement
Predictive Analytics
This is the most sought-after data analytics application among online platforms. Anticipating the user’s needs and their behavioural patterns when they are browsing through a website is a game-changer. One of the best applications of this type of analytics is online casinos.
User engagement is everything for online casinos. They use predictive analytics to figure out which games and categories are more likely to attract players. These insights are then used to design their homepage to display those casino games that players will more likely click on.
Personalization
Going further, these casinos also design personalized offers for their regular players as loyalty bonuses and offers. Big Data analytics allows these casinos to design personalized offers that will resonate with a specific type of player.
These personalized offers include online casino free spins that can be used on a particular slot machine. Data analytics will help the casino pick the right slot machine so that the player will take the free spins offer. Personalization is also widely used by online streaming platforms to offer recommendations to keep the users engaged with their content.
Adapting in Real-Time
Online platforms can also use Big Data analytics to make real-time decisions based on user behavior. This is commonly seen on hotel-booking apps where the prices fluctuate once the user has logged in and checked for hotels in a specific area.
Pricing and discounts can be adjusted in real-time to ensure the user goes through the purchase or at least saves it to their cart. Abandoned carts are an issue for sellers on e-commerce platforms but the big companies have found a way around it is using analytics. They encourage sellers to offer a discount to those customers who have abandoned their baskets.
Impact of Big Data Analytics across various platforms
The importance of user engagement isn’t just limited to online casinos. Social media and e-commerce platforms also require high user engagement for their growth.
Social media platforms offer a personalized feed to keep their users engaged for hours on end. There is an endless stream of content with recommendations that cater to an individual’s interest.
However, with Big Data analytics, it goes beyond this. Social media platforms can recommend content to get users to interact in various ways such as visiting a page, clicking an ad, installing an app, subscribing, etc.
The placement of ads in the feeds is also tailored according to the user’s interactions on the platform using Big Data analytics. With e-commerce sites, pricing is a major aspect where predictive analytics comes into play.
Just like how online casinos need to find what the right ‘minimum bet’ amount would be for a game, e-commerce platforms must find the best pricing strategy to boost sales.
Along with pricing, information such as reviews, ratings, and how many units were sold in the last 24 hours, one week, or a month also plays a huge role in driving sales. This strategy, which is now common across e-commerce platforms is a result of Big Data analytics.
Conclusion
Big Data analytics has many applications in today’s world. It has changed the way social media platforms are designed. The success of social media today in keeping users glued to their feeds is mostly due to Big Data analytics. From big companies to small businesses, data can help digital platforms boost their growth by finding newer ways to improve user engagement sustainably.
