Digital Footprints

A Digital Footprint is the record of your interactions with the digital world and how the data that is left behind can be exploited.

The interactions and data that create the digital footprint includes:-

1. The content a user leaves about themselves and that others leave about the user in the web. The user generated footprints include blogs, comments left on public sites, photo’s or a profile up-loaded and the content a user creates on a social networking site.  The content left by others records the move from a user as a single individual to that user being part of the social group.
2. Explicit data from the interactions a user has with the web. User’s activities are captured including web pages viewed, the frequency of visits along with the intervals between them, clicks, the time spent on each page, interactions with forms, landing pages, and downloadable content.  In reality every click, mouse move, keystroke and interaction with the web (from a PC or mobile) can be captured and stored.
3. Implicit data or implied data such as IP address, who the ISP is, attention, location (physical and derived), reputation, context, call records, routes and routines, liking, friending, burst data, behavior, and linking this (meta) data to other data.

Digital footprints are made up from extremely personal and private data and is subject to strict privacy laws which provide strong protection for the user.

The analysis of data is where the value lies and that value comes from behavioural analysis, profiling, targeting, prospecting, normalising, group profiling, feature profiles, benefit trades and determination of who influences you and who you influence.

Given that all this data is stored forever in a single database shared by both marketing and sales staff (with a SAMA system’s CRM System), the insight this activity data yields into prospect needs and interests is significant. This is especially true when the Footprints are added to:

• the prospect profile built up over time as the prospect completes Progressive Forms, revealing his or her demographics
• and the score or grade of the person, as the Demand Generation System qualifies, scores and nurtures the lead over time.

The resulting data  is invaluable in helping marketers to better understand their Ideal Prospects: where they work, who they are and what they do, and what features of the products they find most appealing.

Gossamar thanks Tony Fish for helping to expand this term’s definition! A more detailed exploration of digital footprints can be found at my digital footprint.com.