Meek School of Journalism and New Media Hosts Data Day

The Meek School Journalism and News Media hosted its first Ole Miss New Media Data Day on November 5 at the Overby Center Auditorium.

Eric Schnabel, North American Director of Facebook Creative Shop, and Sean Callahan, Senior Manager of Content Marketing at LinkedIn, were invited to share their professional insights and talk about the importance of data in the marketing and communications fields.

Under today’s data-driven society, companies are focusing more and more on the usage of data to reach their target audience.

“People nowadays are in charge to find out what they love,” said Schnabel, as he firmly believes it is critical for companies to create data contents based on the behavioral preferences of their audience when conducting marketing campaigns.

“You have to have relevant information on your commercial to reach the target audience,” said Schnabel.

Eric Schnabel of Facebook speaks to audience at Overby Center.

Not only should the commercial be related to the target audience, but it also needs to be simple and eye-catching. “Telling beautifully crafted stories in simple, replicable ways is the key to keep your audience’s attention,” said Schnabel.

As more companies are using data to improve brand images around the world, data has become an unavoidable part in every business’s marketing agenda.

Sean Callahan, content marketer at LinkedIn, speaks at Data Day Nov. 5

“$60,000,000 has raised for Obama’s presidential campaign simply through the usage of data.” Sean Callahan said, “Global corporations like Google, Amazon, and Netflix rely largely on big data to keep their business running.”

Callahan used strong numbers to further demonstrate the crucial role data has on today’s society. “Every 10 minutes, 5 billion gigabytes of data is used by people across the world.” Callahan said, “98 percent of everything we build and create is online.”

The Data Day Speech, attended by a full house of the University of Mississippi students and professors, lasted a little over an hour. Students actively participated in the Q&A session at the end of the speech. A number of them also quoted Schnabel and Callahan on Twitter using #OleMissDataDay throughout the event.

The University of Mississippi Office of Institutional Research, Effectiveness and Planning (IREP) hosted an optional workshop from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. where the attendees learned to find data on the university. They learned to find the enrollment figures, graduation rates and even the toughest or easiest classes to take.

Schnabel and Callahan also hosted a second session from 1:00 p.m to 2:15 p.m. for an audience that was not able to attend the morning session.

Staff writer and videographer for HottyToddy.com, Sam Mitchell, filmed a wrap-up interview for the conference with Callahan and Schnabel. You can view it below.

Zurui Lin is a HottyToddy.com staff writer and a student of Meek School of Journalism and New Media. She can be reached at zlin@go.olemiss.edu.