There’s a general belief that if you want a successful business, you must start collecting data—and lots of it. Data is the new gold, the new oil. After all, if Google and Facebook, two of the world’s most valuable companies, built their empires atop vast amounts of user data, why shouldn’t it work for other companies?
Reality check: Though data can bring immense value to almost any online business, simply collecting it isn’t enough. In fact, too much data can have an adverse effect on your business. Data needs to be mined and turned into something of value.