Topic Data: a potential show prep gold mine

Facebook is about to launch a product called Topic Data, which is likely to be a show prep and marketing gold mine.

Two small drawbacks. It won’t be available in Australia yet, and it may be expensive, but time will fix those two little sticking points.

Topic data will show what audiences are saying on Facebook about events, brands, subjects and activities.

It is pitched at marketers, who can use the information “to make better decisions about how they market on Facebook and other channels, and build product roadmaps,” but it will also be a great show prep tool for getting a sense of what talkable topics are top of mind with audiences.

Facebook says: “While this type of data has been available from third parties before, the sample size was often too small to be significant and determining demographics was nearly impossible. With topic data, we’ve grouped data and stripped personal information from Facebook activity (not including Messenger) to offer insights on all the activity around a topic. That means marketers get a holistic and actionable view of their audience for the first time.”

Topic data won’t be used to target ads directly. All the information used for topic data is anonymized and aggregated. Facebook will not disclose personally identifying information.

Facebook says: “We are still discovering all the ways topic data can help marketers, so, to start, topic data will only be available to a limited number of DataSift’s partners in the US and UK. (The data will be limited to those countries too, to start, and every partner DataSift works with for topic data is reviewed and approved by Facebook.) Our plan is to iterate on topic data thoughtfully and deliberately, and look to expand its availability at a later date.”

Watch this space.

 

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