Tell me what your tweets are, and I’ll tell you who you are.  Twitter has been the outlet of my heart and mind. My tweets are a product of mixed emotions and liberated imagination.  And I’m just a tiny portion of a global population that tweets as assuredly as they breathe.  Multiply myself some six digits and you get 200 million tweets a day– tweets that carry data, massive amounts of information that could unlock doors to more business opportunities for the ecosystem Twitter’s inspired.  This is where big data and Twitter embrace each other and give birth to varied and unthinkable purposes.

Big Data + Twitter = Better Customer Service

People pour out their sentiments in social platforms for one reason: to be heard.  Twitter has become a fertile land to harness customer feedback regarding products, services or schemes.  When you get pissed at your mobile phone provider, you can easily tag them (even if the company doesn’t have Twitter account): @moblileprovider or #mobileprovider, I am very disappointed with the poor signal here in Arizona please do something about this or I’ll look for another provider.  These “mentions” easily catch the attention of anyone on the lookout, and could be seen by who knows how many others. To extinguish the fire from spreading, the company responds to the tweet to address the concern in the shortest possible time.  By extracting patterns on which grievances flood the Twitter “timeline,” companies are able to determine which services or products are not performing well. This is where extensions of improved customer service comes in.

Big Data + Twitter = Decision Making/Advertising

Every time I get hold of my phone, I tweet.  When my mood changes, I tweet.  When bored, I tweet or retweet.  Twitter is home to all kinds, types and sizes of data. These collections of links, texts, numbers, photos and so on, when managed properly, can be utilized to predict customer’s behavior—a very vital aspect in decision-making and advertising. If you’re able to decipher what desires your target market is looking for, you already have a critical advantage over competitors.

The travel industry is well aware of this and is now trying to utilize social media to check the temperature amongst consumer ethos.  Walmart will also be commencing the use of social data and media to power an e-Commerce revolution and close the gap on Amazon. Punchfork is also hoping to exhaust data that will be able to leverage and improve the quality of recipe searches. Perhaps one of the most catching here is that Twitter helps investors predict social market happenings through real-time data.

Twitter is little by little realizing their long term potential in the market. The micro-blogging site is now preparing to invade the big data market for its own monetization purposes, and will soon be able to offer real-time tracking of data and trends.

In just five years, Twitter has blossomed into an influential name amongst social networks. The scale, new monetization strategy, acquisition of Bagcheck and growing numbers of followers entrust us to a fate that’s highly integrated with Twitter as a communication tool.