Digital Analytics Research Report and Recommendations

Digital Analytics Research Plan

Jennie Jefferson

Dr. Dionne L. Boyd

11/4/2017

Market Research and Digital Analytics

Equifax is a consumer Company which specializes in collecting and aggregating information on individual’s consumers. The Company currently has over 88 million clients in form of businesses in the world. Equlfax was founded in the year 1899 in Atlanta Georgia; this company is rated as one of the big three in the industry alongside experiant and TransUnion.

Most Americans with credit reports woke up to the news that their sensitive information has been exposed in a data breach situation by Equifax which is one of the largest Credit monitoring Company in the US. According to the facts that were released, the breach lasted for some two months. The hackers were said to have accessed the social security numbers for clients as well as other personal details.

There were some cases where even driving licenses were compromised. Credit numbers were stolen in their numbers and this affected about 209,000 people, there was about 182,000 dispute documents amongst the people. This scandal was not just in the US but some people in the UK and Canada were also affected.

The cyber attack left the company grappling with poor publicity and declined confidence in their client base and this would have a big impact on the business operations of the company. In order to win the confidence for customers, there is need for a coordinated social media Campaign that would ensure that the glory of the company is restored back.

In order to help the company improve its services and restore confidence, the following research question is suggested. How can Equifax create better security measures in order to protect customer information and regain their trust?

The question will be instrumental is seeking for the information which will help the management to develop a more secure system that would beat any cyber attacks by malicious people. If the question is answered adequately, the company should be in a position to put together all the required mechanisms that would protect the data for their clients from future cyber attacks like the one that happened.

The main issue at hand was not the lose of data but it was the way in which data was handled, since information is the most powerful tool in the world, it is important that Companies like Equifax equip themselves with facilities that would ensure that such information is not accessed illegally.

In order to get the required information for the company, there will be need to engage the publics on social media so that we can be able to get the actual picture of the scenario, for this to be possible, social media listening tools will need to be put in place in order to track the opinions and information from the general public. One of the most effective media listening tool that will be used is the tool known as Topsy.

Topsy has amazing tracking mechanisms that can sense social media posts through Twitter. This tool has some improved metrics in the sense that it has some competitive intelligence capabilities as compared to conventional social media like Facebook. The other social media parameters to be implemented will include blogs. Blogs are effective in letting clients and customers vent about their problems and also provide suggestions on what would need to be done in order to improve the situations. There will also need for information to be searched through search engines like yahoo and google, these two have been tested and found to have credible information.

Since the information is needed to ensure that the systems are free from future cyber attacks, it means that it will be necessary to have logical channels to dispense the information. The channels should be accessible, yet easy to monitor so that the infiltration of malicious people and elements can easily be identified.

For this to be achieved, there will be need to chose a proper media news channel that has credibility among listeners or viewers because many people would not watch news from channels that are known to exaggerate news or tell lies. As for social media channels, blogs will be preferred because this is a channel which engages the clients so that feedback can be obtained for further action. The use of face book groups will also be advantageous because groups can be formed and then the administration can also be done efficiently to avoid people with bad intentions.

The research methods will be defined by the above discussed listening tools because that is how the information will be collected. Once the information has been collected, the media tools will be used to analyze it and generate reports for further actions.

Reference:

Harold, M. (2011). The role of social media in fighting cyber security. London :Macmillan

Milton, G. (2010). Social media and research .Oxford :Oxford University Press