The background (as of Dec 2012)

2006 founded, 100+ million active users per month, 50 million per day, over 250+ million tweets per day and currently 2,400 advertisers. Renewal of advertisers is 80% with 3 to 5% response – better than click through

The models

Cost Per Follower (CPF) : $2.50 to $4.00

Promoted Tweets: (PTw) : open to offers

Cost Per Engagement (CPE) $0.75- $2.50  [ where engagement = (Clicks + Favourites + Retweets + @Replies) / Impressions]

Worth 30 minutes - The Truth About How Twitter Is Making Money with chief revenue officer Adam Bain explains:
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ZoneAlarm infographic, common ways identities are stolen ...

In a study from Edgerank discovered new insights into the value of Facebook comments and likes. Every time a post gets liked, it receives approximately 3.1 clicks. For every comment, a post will receive 14.678 clicks, which is 4.73 times or almost 5 times as many clicks as a like. Edgerank also examined shares and clicks by day of the week, and discovered that Wednesday had both the highest shares and clicks ratios.

More results and graphs are on their blog.

The first post on facts or opinions this was my agreement with Peter Drucker

However, Sam Arbesman (picture) from The Kauffman Foundation also points out that most facts change over time. There are few absolute truths. He introduced the notion of “mesofacts”, warning that “your reality is out of date” and that “whatever period we are born in we view as the state of affairs”. Facts (averages of facts) obey (mathematical) rules: half of scientific data changes in about two generations. Many of our decisions are based on outdated facts. “Are your facts up-to-date?”

If data has a half life, opinions rule…..

Artwork: Rachel Perry Welty, Lost in My Life (Playmobil), 2010, pigment print 

HBR has an article about Know What Your Customers Want Before They Do  - you need to register to read it in full …. But well worth it –

There is also an article in Ad Age on the same theme "Here's My Personal Data, Marketers. What Do I Get For it?"

however if in a rush, here is the summary.

I like the article as it mirrors the ideals and principals of “My Digital Footprint”

-          because of your data we know what you want to do before you do

-          we can effect / distort your buying behaviour

-          loyalty is not rewarding customers for behavioural change

-          we can make it better/ easier/ faster

-          the model is collect data, store data, analyse data, understand the gaps between analysis and action, close the feedback loop, gain more control

-          customer is now on both sides of a business – creating data and consuming the analysis

-          The customer ( you and me) are in control….

Liquid Robotics Inc.

The company developed an unmanned seagoing craft propelled by the power of ocean waves, a system that allows it to remain at sea for long stretches. The craft, called a Wave Glider, consists of a surface buoy and a submerged glider with wing-shaped panels. It converts the up-and-down motion of waves into forward thrust, propelling the buoy indefinitely without relying on batteries or other power sources.

Where Are They Now? After hiring a new chief executive and raising $22 million in June, Liquid Robotics has decided to focus on selling the data the robots provide, rather than the product itself. The company has embarked on a wide range of projects, among them pipeline monitoring, acoustics, mammal studies and oil-leak detection. One of its biggest current projects involves mapping new northern shipping lanes in North America.

Liquid Robotics has picked up new oil and gas clients in addition to BP PLC last year. It is also in talks with wind-farm-analysis and shipping companies, where the robots would be used for communication and information, "like cellphone towers at sea," Chief Executive Bill Vass says.

If retail could be summarised as understanding intention, purchase behaviour, payment decision and settlement - then companies in payment only know a very small part of your digital footprint - but is it the most important part?

Keep coming back to this; how much are you (your data) worth? Irrespective of the scenario below that you favour there is always a balance between the time, effort, management, commitment and any real cost/ benefit. 

Whilst each scenario, depending on how you add it up, is worth a min of $2bn; one scenario is growing fast.

scenario 1 – the insurance sale

            Data loss

            Data recovery time

scenario 2 – the identity loss

            Access to material you wanted to keep private

            Loss of Privacy/ liberty

            Recovery of direct loss

            Reputation/ falsification

            Setting up and securing services again

scenario 3 – the social exchange

            Barter your data on an exchange

            Improvement in personalisation and recommendation

            Filtering

            Speed to discovery

Source: http://blog.mycube.com/

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