Facebook Looks to Compete with Twitter for Data Monetization

With assistance from DataSift, a leader of brand analytics, Facebook recently launched Topic Data, a product that lets marketers tap into the social media’s hub of user data. For marketers and brands, information about what users are sharing on their Facebook accounts is especially valuable when trying to determine how to best reach key demographics. Facebook says that while marketers will have to this type of data, users’ personal information and identities will remain anonymous.

facebook33According to the social network, “Topic data shows marketers what audiences are saying on Facebook about events, brands, subjects and activities.”

In order to let brands access this information, Facebook established a communication pipeline by which marketers issue specific queries about people’s thoughts and opinions regarding products, trends and just about anything else to third-party analytics. These third-party members then submit these queries to DataSift.

DataSift taps into Facebook’s data to make appropriate matches and provide desired feedback. When all is done, “DataSift hands the analytics tool back anonymized statistical data about posts that match the query since it was issued that can be formed into charts and insights, or bundled with social analytics from other networks,” TechCrunch explains.

Because Topic Data only reveals information about demographics, marketers cannot use the results to run targeted ads.

TechCrunch reports that Facebook’s Topic Data is only available in the U.S. and U.K. for now. Facebook has positioned itself to compete with Twitter in business for data monetization. Once the data analytics start coming in, brands could have a much better gauge of where to spend their ad dollars.

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