I have noticed more often these days the attempts of platforms to personalize my experience. When I say ‘notice more often’, I am saying that it is too obvious and also clear to me that they have not profiled me that well if this is what they believe I am looking for. And frankly, it is becoming boring!

Or the picture of me that they are reflecting back to me is seriously flawed, like a cartoon character version of me. Perhaps their algorithms are not tuned well, or they are only seeing a part of the information I have to offer as I have changed my search methods to be less obtrusive to an observer?

I say this in light of research work I am doing with Ovum on Account Based Marketing strategies and vendors. When you see the plethora of data being collected, yet in the case of me personally the mistakes being made on what interests me and what I might click on, it tells me that marketers generally are not realizing that most of us are turning down the volume on social media in our lives, and only listen to trusted voices of friends, family and people who influence we look to as trend setters. It is harder for marketer to remember that it is a ‘pull’ market right now, no longer a ‘push’ market.

I am helping someone I know craft their personal branding message, and I see others who are trying to help them implement it get it wrong on the basis of not understanding all of the parameters involved.

This leads me to believe that the problem with the social media algorithms used is that the data model is not large or complex enough to understand the subtleties involved. There appears to be a lack of learning occurring, and re-targeting efforts just amplify that finding.

So like many others I know personally, I am dialing down the use of social media and going back to more original sources, personally mined, to get my information for decisions. I’ll let you know how that goes in a few months. 🙂