Social Media Data and Our Day Jobs

How can social media data improve our lot in life? (or at least at work)

There is no doubt that social media produces a fire hose of data; there's even a Yahoo! Pipes application by that name. The question at the recent DMA in Las Vegas about social media was: How to make it actionable?

Now this audience is biased to a direct response view of things where every tactic has to be measurable in terms of sales, conversions, or other hard action. So, there is probably not much headway in using the 'Listen, Join, Participate' line of thinking. But how can social media data be used in direct marketing?

Here are three thoughts.

1. the language people use to discuss a problem becomes very evident and provides excellent ideas for messaging, offers, and copy
2. the social networks people use can be over laid onto a house file for both segmentation and modeling activities
3. the creative assets people produce can be leveraged and shared as part of the brand's community through other media

UPDATE: an article in MediaPost's Search Insider made similar points. Came across it later in the day.