Tuesday insights from our VP Business Development, Kaitlin Atkinson…..

When you are in the market for analytics and insights, you have to see past the platform. You need to know what data powers the platform from the back end-especially social data.

Most of the time with social data, you must ask questions of where the social data streams are coming from. Many companies have a black box approach to how they report social data audiences.

After you see a pretty front end, here are some questions to ask a vendor when you are in the market for a data tool:

• Where are you pulling your social data from?
• Are you using a social data provider such as DataSift?
• Are you breaking any PII laws with this data?
• Can you provide a list of providers or sources that your front end pulls from?

Even in these initial conversations as a buyer, you can see the backbone of a platform.

By breaking down to the skeleton of the platform, you can have more confidence in the data you are pulling from the platform. Inadvertently, when you use the data for internal and external stakeholders, you will have confidence that your analysis is relevant.

Better to be data transparent and accountable then go to market with a black box and no answers.

What are your thoughts on data transparency?