Lyden Foust
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May 2, 2019
Last updated
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min read
From Bloomberg:
Spatial.ai, a startup that studies online conversations, collects location data for 72 categories — from “nerd culture” to “farm culture” — and helps businesses determine whether specific personality types correlate with sales. Frequent topics in the “hipster” segment, for example, include antiques, vinyl record albums and coffee.
Working with Spatial.ai, shopping-center landlord Brixmor Property Group Inc. identified a lot of online talk about “girls night out’’ in the neighborhood of its shopping center in Newtown, Pennsylvania. So Brixmor opened a “female friendly organic concept” called Harvest Seasonal Grill instead of, say, a steak restaurant, according to Brixmor CEO Jim Taylor.
“You get a much better sense of the commuting patterns of the community that utilizes your center, and it’s oftentimes quite revelatory,” Taylor said.”
This use case represents one way that innovative property owners and operators are using Geosocial data to optimize merchandising strategies to better serve their communities and customers.
The article also discusses privacy questions regarding how companies gather and utilize your personal data, specifically tracking mobile device movement, which is a valid concern. Geosocial data is different from mobile movement data, and does not utilize tracking of individual users or devices. It is an aggregate summary of the characteristics of communities and neighborhoods expressed through publicly posted content.
To learn more about Geosocial data check out our The Essential Guide to Geosocial Data.