December is often a time for predictions, and the most consistent predictions for social media in 2013 concern data. Whether it’s called big data or social media data, brands are expected to make more use of the opportunities this data holds in the coming year.

And the opportunities are there for brands to explore – from better targeting of new customers to more personalised experiences for existing customers. The ability to structure unstructured data from social media, and combine it with a brand’s own data, offers huge potential for many brands.

But realising this potential is not easy – understanding and structuring data from social media sources is complicated. How do you understand what people are really talking about? How do you isolate discussions about your brand, competitors or your market? How do you match discussions with your internal customer data? And how do you use all of this to inform actions your business can take? – href="http://www.futurelab.net/blogs/marketing-strategy-innovation/2012/12/brands_need_consumers%E2%80%99_permiss?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Futurelab+%28Futurelab%27s+Blog%29&utm_content=Google+Reader">Brands need consumers’ permission to capitalise on social media data by Matt Rhodes

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