Twitter Data Strategy Chief Chris Moody has found a way to make good use of tweets made by users. While talking to The Guardian, Moody said that in the time ahead, companies will be able to react to tweets in new and unusual ways.
Twitter, a massive source of data
Giving an example, the Twitter executive said that if one of its users is traveling to meet his/her newborn grandchild, boards a flight, they are given a pleasant surprise by the cabin crew, who comes over to congratulate them on the arrival of a new family member and addresses them by name. This surely will please the customer to a great extent, encouraging the user to travel again with the same flight as it gives a personal touch to the service it provides. The airline might also give the customer a small gift such as a rattle and a lovely note, says Moody.
According to Moody’s vision of the future, getting surprises from companies will eventually become an everyday occurrence for customers because Twitter cares to listen to them through the tweets they make on the micro-blogging site. Even currently, huge efforts are made by research companies to get meaningful information from tweets that could help advertisers.
Privacy concerns loom
Other major tech companies such as Facebook and Google have resorted to the sharing of customer data for building their businesses. However, their efforts have also raised concerns about how the public and private information of users is controlled. There are massive ethical and reputational risks surrounding the area, as acknowledged by Moody: “One of the questions we get asked is: how do we ensure that we are not being creepy?” He believes context is the key.
Data sales contribute very little to the company’s overall income. The company’s income last year was $1.3 billion, and data sales contributed only $70 million. Advertising contributes a huge share of the company’s income, but Twitter has plans to generate more income out of data sales. The micro-blogging company acquired Chris Moody’s analytics company, Gnip, in April last year for $130 million, which confirms the company’s intention of monetizing its data.
