What are the inputs for social signals and digital footprints?
We are on the look out in the digital world for social signals, spikes, pulses, wave and trends and how they are combine to delivery value propositions such as authority, influence and reputation
In the physical we are trying to take a known set of inputs and create algorithms so we can interpret what is happening. However human interaction is not just about the here and now but has deep dependencies on personal history; which introduces a degree of randomness.
It is no easier to look for these interpretations when we start to look in detail at what digital data could tell us. In the book I took a long deep look at what you can do with this data and concluded the value was in the analysis not in the collection.
Whilst there are some obvious differences between physical social signals and digital ones an important one is about collection of data as in the physical world you have to collect face, distance and audio data before you can start to work what is going on.
| Social Signal (physical) | Social Signals & Digital Footprint inputs | |
| Gesture | Facebook Like or Google +1 responses | Number of friends & connections |
| Distance | Number of mentions & replies | On-line history and IP data |
| Posture | Appearance in lists | Favourites |
| Height | Blogs, tweets & comments | Recommendations from you |
| Gaze | Location and Routes & routines | Attitude to privacy settings |
| Vocal behaviour | 3rd party reviews of your data | Email, SMS, BBM and IM data |
|
| Unfriending & unfollow | Personal details |
|
| TV and viewing history | Purchase history |
|
| Preferences | Attention |
|
| Clicks & key strokes | Device history |
|
| Words & grammar | Recommendations about you |