The Great Hack

 The Great Hack

Link for documentary trailer, info and reviews:
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_great_hack

The Great Hack is a documentary available on Netflix that discusses what is now said to be the world's most valuable asset: Data. The main topic discusses how Donald Trump used Cambridge Analytica to target American voters on social media for the 'Trump Campaign'. Cambridge analytica claimed to have 5,000 data points on each of the 230 million American voters.

This documentary has opened my eyes to how in depth social media campaigns delve into our personal accounts and data to promote products and/or services. It is also unbelievable how much money a company pays to create a successful campaign.

Although this documentary predominately discusses the negatives of accessing data points from the public, in a marketing perspective, using data and analytics to reach consumers can lead to a campaigns success. From research I've gathered and from the documentary I have created a list of 3 important reasons to use analytics when marketing on social media:

• They help you understand your target audience - you can find out the best times to share content e.g. on Facebook you can use the 'Post' section in your insights to find your unique best time to post which can drive future engagement, traffic and sales

• Help you understand competitors - you can analyse data of competitors to figure out what is and isn't working for them. This can help to avoid mistakes already made and focus on techniques that bring positive results. Websites such as 'Similar Web' can be used to competitor traffic volumes and other information.

• Reaching only a relevant audience - For example, ads on social media can depend on your search history and what you have bought previously online. The screenshot on the left shows that blogging advertisements started to show on my social media when I began researching into blogging and blogger sites.