Xyte's insight into online behaviors

McIsaac said, "The data from our study suggestthat some of the broad generalizations about social media, particularly as a replacement for a search system or  face-to-face interaction, are inaccurate. That means that advertisers are missing 47 percent of the population. However, 38 percent do log in daily, and 16 percent do log in several times a week. Who are those consumers who most heavily use Facebook? What should an advertiser know about them to better engage them?"

She continued, "Not surprisingly, consumers who are most in tune with the written word are more likely to use Facebook. These consumers are the most frequent Internet users and use Facebook primarily to communicate with friends and connect with family."

The Findings

I found the description intriguing. I dug through the materials that McIsaac e-mailed me after our initial conversation. I noted a summary of a study Xyte had performed for a large commercial enterprise. The identity of the client was redacted, but the findings from her analytic method were startling:

• Consumers who are most in tune with the written word are more likely to use Facebook. These consumers are the most frequent Internet users and use Facebook primarily to communicate with friends and connect with family.
• Facebook users in the sample like to keep their information up to date, meet new people, share photos, follow celebrities, share concerns and solve people problems. Most importantly, they like to learn about and share experiences about new products.
• Facebook users have a number of characteristics—for example, showing compassion for others, wanting to be emotionally connected with others, having a natural intuition about people and how to relate to them, adapting well to change, embracing technology such as the Internet, and enjoying gossip and messages delivered in story form and liking to read and write.

The Xyte study triggered the idea that advertisers with innovative products and services may want to key in on this important Facebook segment because they are early adopters. The Xyte study concluded, "Facebook constituents are emotional, idealistic and romantic, yet can rationalize through situations. Many do not need concrete examples in order to comprehend new ideas."

How could a Xyte type of predictive analysis help inform a search system procurement? McIsaac told me, "When used optimally, Xyte's system facilitates best use of advertiser dollars for an audience most likely to be receptive, offering greater chances of hitting the target with the message or service. The result is a win-win situation."

I pointed out to McIsaac that in search-related surveys, those in an organization think they are experts in search, but the Google-like systems do much of the heavy lifting for the user. As a result, providing a search solution that works on the Web will not work equally well in an organization. The result is a cycle of dissatisfaction-procurement-deployment-dissatisfaction.

Predictive System

She responded, "Xyte's methodology predicts an individual's behavior rather than events, trends or relationships between variables/information found on the Internet. For example, we know how often each of Xyte's behavioral cognofiles interacts with Facebook, why and how to tailor a marketing message for your product. A sample of Facebook members who have taken an assessment and received their profile could be included in other big data found on Facebook for identifying other interesting habits per profile or explaining  the ‘why' of the behavior."

With the expense and opportunity costs of a failed enterprise search system, the Xyte methodology deserves a close look. With traditional survey methods and one-on-one conversations with selected employees, the track record for most enterprise search solutions has been less than satisfactory.