Big Data is gaining more and more importance, but … what if we don’t have so many data? Another way of the problem is … can we analize data from another point of view?
Let’s read this post http://pandodaily.com/2013/09/18/big-data-does-size-really-matter/?goback=.gde_4762568_member_275234744#!, because it describes perfectly how to use information, what are the benefit of collecting and analizing data:
Big Data has no importanc, except if you know how to use it
Big Data and Small Data
Big Data tries to define people or consumer behaviour where Small Data tries to retrieve emotions and feelings of people.
Small Data allows you to talk directly with your clients
With Big Data we are not interested in what the client knows, but with Small Data we want to be transparent and responsible with the client. Two different philosophies.
One day …
… one person come to my restaurant, ask for a coffee, and … it taste horrible. The reaction of this person after drinking the coffee is to mention this on Twitter. Fortunately, a Big Data team and a Small Data team is working for my restaurant. The first team will retrieve all possible data, whereas the second is concentrate only on social networks.
The Big Data team analize “Likes”, retweets about promotions on my restaurant, but is does absolutely nothing with conversations where my restaurant is named. The information I can get is about the profile of people that visits my restaurant, what the like, what they don’t, hours of visit, …. even I can send short time discounts. The aspect that I cannot know if about the satisfaction of my clients about my restaurant.
The Small data team is aware of the tweet that is not speaking good of my restaurant, and the awful coffee some one drank this morning. They capture data on real time, and … and it’s time to act! A negative mention can be answer with a direct message to the dissatisfied client, and apologizing. At the same time, the team will inform the restaurant manager about this circunstance and can ask to check if the coffee machine has had a problem. A third task is to verify the geografical location of the tweet and check the veracity if the location is close to my restaurant. The final outcome of all this actions should have to convince the cliente to come back, and alert him of the improvements after its discontent.
Conclusion
A simple and normal act to taking a coffee can generate more data than you thougth, and analazing them should be convinient, because …
It is not more important Big Data than Small data, nor the other way around, but a combination betwwen them that allow my business to grow!
Have a nice day!