Social Big Data: The User Data Collected By Each Of The World's Largest Social Networks - And What It Means

Social networks constitute a huge amount of consumer "big data." The average global Internet user spends two and a half hours daily on social media, and their activity reveals a great deal about what makes them tick.

Now, social networks are making significant investments in putting this data to work. If they achieve a firmer grip on users' relationships, interests, and spending habits, social networks will be able to provide their users with personalized content, and advertisers will be able to hyper-target users. But the kinds of data each social network collects varies dramatically based on what activity is conducted on each network.

In a new report from BI Intelligence, we take a close look at the kinds of information each of the biggest social networks collects on its users, and how that data fits into the overall strategy of each network.

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Here's are some of the unique pieces of data each social network is collecting:

• Facebook collects 63 different pieces of data for its API, more than any other social network. So much content is shared on Facebook, Facebook can provide a window into what people care about. Facebook's "like" button is pressed 2.7 billion times every day across the web.
• Google+ will help Google contextualize its trove of search data, offering hints into why people might be searching for certain kinds of information. The relationship goes in the other direction, too - the number of "+1s" and other Google+ data are now a top factor in determining how a Web page ranks in Google search results.
• Twenty-two percent of LinkedIn users have between 500-999 first-degree connections on the social network, and 19% have between 301-499. The data is creating a new way of understanding recruitment and retention.
• At its peak on Aug. 3, 2013, Twitter was processing 143,199 tweets per second globally. These tweets provide a real-time window into the news and information that people care about. Fifty-two percent of Twitter users in the U.S. consume news on the site (more than the percent who do so on Facebook), according to Pew Research data.
• Hundreds of thousands if not millions of product images are pinned to personal pages (called pinboards) on Pinterest every day. They represent a unique window into millions of shoppers' aspirations. More than 17% of all pinboards are categorized under "Home," while roughly 12% fall under "Style/Fashion." What's more, 80% of pins on Pinterest are repins, so images of products have a long shelf life, long after the initial pin.

In full, the report:

• Identifies the key pieces of data each network is collecting
• Contextualizes who this data stands to benefit and what kind of user information can be parsed from it
• Provides key statistics on just how big these data troves really are for each subset of information
• Looks at what sort of information these social networks will seek to collect next
• Lays the groundwork for our next Social Big Data report on what information the different social networks are tracking through their APIs and making available to third-parties