A four-step process for generating useful knowledge from social data.
Big data is great. But we should consider that we've actually had more data than we can reasonably use for a while now. Just on the marketing front, it isn't uncommon to see reports overflowing with data and benchmarks drawn from millions of underlying data points covering existing channels like display, email, website, search, and shopper/loyalty — and new data streams such as social and mobile engagement, reviews, comments, ratings, location check-ins and more.
In contrast to this abundant data, insights are relatively rare. Insights here are defined as actionable, data-driven findings that create business value. They are entirely different beasts from raw data. Delivering them requires different people, technology, and skills — specifically including deep domain knowledge. And they're hard to build.
...Here's a four-step marketing data-centered process that doesn't stop at the data, but focuses instead on generating insights relevant to specific segments or affinity groups...
[Good suggestions for social media measurement from the Harvard Business Review - JD]