With all the work these last couple weeks in bringing the new version of Rapid Purple to beta I somehow managed to overlook a news release from Facebook introducing topic data to marketers. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, topic data is essentially exactly what it sounds like. Data about a specific topic. What demographic is discussing a specific topic, at what frequency, combined with what other keywords, etc. Now before this causes another huge privacy scare, Facebook has said, “We are not disclosing personally identifying information to anyone, including our partners and marketers. And, the results delivered to marketers are analyses and interpretations of the information, not actual topic data.”
Facebook provides the following examples of what topic data would provide for marketers:
- A business selling a hair de-frizzing product can see demographics on the people talking about humidity’s effects on their hair to better understand their target audience.
- A fashion retailer can see the clothing items its target audience is talking about to decide which products to stock.
- A brand can see how people are talking about their brand or industry to measure brand sentiment.
Like other insights information on Facebook, all the information used for topic data is anonymized and aggregated. We are not disclosing personally identifying information to anyone, including our partners and marketers. And, the results delivered to marketers are analyses and interpretations of the information, not actual topic data.
Facebook topic data is currently available by way of a new API from DataSift called Pylon. Facebook itself says it’s still figuring out all the different ways topic data can help marketers, and is only offering it to limited DataSift partners in the US and UK.