Check out Olivia. The one in the purple shirt talking about what’s trending. Say you want to reach all of the Olivia’s out there in one fell swoop. Gone are the days of scanning your brand’s twitter/facebook accounts looking to see if Olivia is saying good things about you, and if so, then trying to figure out a way for her to stay brand loyal. Now repeat that for all of your customers saying good things about you and your boss yelling at you to increase your bottom line. Then segment that list by which political party they follow. Then segment that further by whether or not they hate bananas. One more step: They REALLY like Starbucks. Now…. go.

No.

Machine Learning ceases the need for humans to translate all of the information in social media. Give the computer some parameters and voila. Here are all of the people you need to target with an anti-banana add in the Green Party, aged 32–34, that really like doing yoga and follow it up with a frothy PSL. And when I say voila, I mean, it’s like instantaneous.

We’re all addicted to our phones, to social media, to instant information. As my friend, Sean, said on facebook the other day, “If aliens came down from the gamma quadrant and observed us, they would think we were all in love with these little rectangular, electric, metal and glass boxes we hold in our hands. We stroke them with our fingers, hold them close to our faces, and take them to dinner. We pay more attention to them than other humans in the room. We talk to them and stare at them all day. We even sleep with them. Ummmm. Wow.”

But the reality is, we’ve grown so accustomed to this way of life that we can’t seem to go back. We can’t live without these boxes. Remember that tweet you sent out to USAirlines saying that they should do a better job content filtering? That comment you left on the Hutzler Banana Slicer?

“Where do the batteries go?”

You peruse your phone in waiting rooms, on public transportation, walking to work, DRIVING to work, leaving digital traces throughout the day. Think about it… where is your phone at this very second?

Think about the sheer mass of information we’re all trading around like its some sort of digital currency. Now from a consumer standpoint, I want marketing people to target me exactly. I want CVS to stop trying to give me coupons for men’s shaving cream. I want Burberry to tell me when there is a sale at their Copley store and have it say “Well, there won’t be cats… but there will be Burberry. On sale. With champagne.”

If I worked at a digital marketing company or at an online influencer, this would unlock the holy grail and finally help me understand and utilize the information I need to nail the science of brand loyalty.

Social media is full of noise. Target better. Engage more. Increase revenue. Talk to me at indico: julie@indico.io. No really, talk to me. It’s too quiet round these Medium parts lately.