Brad Riva Analytics

I was recently told of a story about Nike and Michigan University. The theory was who can uses the data of devices given to Michigan athletes by nike? The athletes had Nike Plus Shoes that track steps and heart rate monitors. These data points could find if a player had a heart condition and didn't know it. The problem is do the athletes have an option to not use the products and the data will be collected without them knowing. Another main idea related to this is wearing a fitness tracker like Fitbit. If Fitbit were able to sell your data to your insurance company would you change your habits for cheaper insurance. This can also be used to show insurance companies if you are more at risk because these devices track heart rate while you are sleeping.

What if filling a job wasn't so time consuming. Companies are using a version of search engine optimization to fill job openings. By using a process that scans resumes that are submitted they search for keywords to see if you are worth looking into as a candidate. This process can hurt you so make sure to used words that represent your desired field. This process can also be used on your linked in account. Companies can look your profile up based on things you follow and ask you if you are interested in applying for a job there. This has happened to me a few times but all of the opportunities required an advanced degree. So as this can tell it still needs some work. All this means is KEYWORDS matter in everything.

The last chapter of Surfing The Tsunami is what to do next. This chapter has example of what to do after you finish the book. When I read this the first thing I know I want to study is Tableau. This software is really prominent in the analytics field of data visualization. Another thing I want to study is a programing software like R or C++. I believe that if I am able to learn these programs that my resume will fit most entry level jobs in analytics or digital marketing.

Chapter 7 of Surfing The Tsunami is about getting to know AI people and Perspectives. I recently went to an event held by the Looker company. They are a corporation that designed analytical software so business can use massive data files and make the same solutions from each part of the company. They stated that each department can make data look good for them and their process helps take the bias out of the data scrubbing. This is now what relates to this chapter but it was the connections that I made at the event. The first gentleman I met was a software developer and he told me that if I was looking to go into the analytics field that its best to go into consulting first. The next guy I met was a data engineer for Uber and he said the same thing. When reading this chapter I noticed that to understand AI you need to first understand the people behind it.

Chapter 6 of Introduction To SEO is titled Analyze How Things Are Going. The purpose of this chapter is to learn how to analyze your data based on your recent SEO process. One way you can test this is by using Google Analytics or Adwords. The other one listed into the book was SEO Centro. I used SEO Centro and here is what I found.

I have been staying away from Introduction to SEO the past few weeks because I have been writing thing that are prominent in SEO and AI. The trade off was this is a smaller book and I will still get through the entire thing. Chapter 5 is try see. In this chapter we are walked through the process of using SEO on our blog. This process will gain page views by the use of links. We also dive into basic HTML. The main point of the chapter is to get your feet wet when implementing SEO.

In chapter 6 of Surfing The Tsunami is about becoming adept in ai. The 3 main parts that are repeated in the last 3 chapters are Adapt, adopt and adept to AI. In chapter 6 we learn that adept is developing skill and knowledge. When I think about adept and AI I think of Tableau. This software is something that I need to be skilled in to get a job in the analytics field because it is used across the business. AI is needed by understanding these new software methods.

For this weeks post I wanted to talk about a something I noticed at my recent trip to the United Center in Chicago Illinois. When attending a Blackhawks game I purchased a beverage and noticed that there were no cupholders on the seats like most venues and stadiums. At first I was upset because I would have to hold my beverage because I didn't want to risk it getting spilled if it was left on the ground. I found myself drinking it faster than usual because it was more convenient than holding it for the duration of drinking it. Analytically speaking when these stadiums sell products like beer for $10 a serving they have a tremendous markup on the product. When they sell more beers they make more money per game. How do you sell more beer? You make them drink faster. They do this by eliminating cupholders. The selling price per seat is much higher because instead of someone drinking slow and enjoyably they will subconsciously drink faster and buy more. By optimizing the seat they are...

Chapter 5 of Surfing The Tsunami is about adopting AI and the what it can do for business. The main thing that I noticed from reading this chapter was the part about automation and routine work. When it comes to manufacturing jobs today there has been a push away from human skill and more of an influence of robotics which can do the job to the same standards every time. These jobs are an example to what is considered routine work. So what is going to happen to all those jobs where people do repeated tasks throughout the day? There will be technicians who will check quality and performance of the robots. So to adapt to this changing industry invest in an education in engineering or AI where you can have job security and make money while creating free flowing production.

This past weekend I went to a local McDonalds where it was very busy. I decided to attempt to use their new kiosk cashier which uses a touch screen to order instead of a cashier. When doing this I was asked to think about adding an additional item via a recommendation from the computer. This made me think would I be willing to try one of these products as well as my traditional breakfast sandwich? This recommendation process is just like when we use SEO to find relevant search results. If McDonalds wants to promote a product they can use their new virtual cashiers to do the work for them. This new kiosk could change the fast food market if created and excepted by all. With a recent strike for McDonalds employees to make a minimum of $15 an hour this could substantially lower cost of production in an industry where cost is key. The analytical part makes it easy for customers to notice new products and pair them to their "Usual" order.

In chapter 4 of Introduction to SEO it talks about Keyword searches. When searching keywords on google most of the time an ad will be at the top of the search information. For example if you were to search "cars" on google a bunch of dealership ads may pop up like they did when I searched it. The organic searches after included cars.com and other car related websites.  Keywords make up part of SEO in the other 10% of what I explained in my last blog. Keywords are very influential when getting your website into the top searches on google. If I am being honest I rarely go past the first page of a google search because a lot of the time the keyword I searched comes up in the description.

In this blog post I wanted to go a little off track and talk about something that came up in my Entrepreneurship class here at Benedictine that has to do with artificial intelligence. In class we were discussing a new way of getting from one place to another in a self driving electric car and if that was something we could see happening in the future. At first thought yes that seems like a great idea having shared cars that would take you where you wanted to go without the stress of driving but after a few minutes of thinking, a barrier I saw being very prominent is the cars artificial intelligence and its use of ethical behavior. I though of a possible situation where this self driving car had calculated it was going to be involved in an accident. The car would be able to calculate how much damage the car and passenger would take on and the possibility of the other car/driver being injured as well. With this in mind lets say one car holds a CEO of a major corporation and the other ...

Chapter three of Introduction to SEO is titled SEO basics. This chapter lays the foundations for understanding SEO. The fist topic discussed is where the content is going? Is it going towards ad campaigns or social media. In today's marking climate these are two things that have a major impact on brand awareness. When it comes to SEO there is a rule that 90% of SEO is content. The basics of content SEO is first to add more content than you actually need, two get more visitors, get more google notices and also get a higher rank of google which will increase websites value. It is also very important to include key words because they can help even more clicks to your websites. I will discuss Keywords next post.

Chapter 4 of Surfing The Tsunami is all about adaption. Adapting is a big part of the world today with the changing economy and also the changing world. Adapting is the process of making something suitable for new use. In todays economy we are seeing less jobs preformed in factories and more jobs in things like AI and robotics. Here are a few tips from the book about adapting to the changing AI. The first tips is to stay up on your surroundings and predict where things are going. The second is to adapt to new AI platforms so that you can keep up on the latest information changes and manage AI. The last tip provided by the book was get involved with developing AI and learn coding. This will help you get to upper level positions in new AI influenced firms.

In chapter 2 of Into To Search Engine Optiomsation you learn about skill box and creating content. The main part of this chapter is Curation, Creation, and Collaboration. Curation includes going out and finding content. This includes news reporting and other times of content. Creation is building content through a new idea. These includes blog posts and Youtube videos. The last C in content is collaboration. This is when 2 or more major parties get together to create content that gets more awareness from duel posting. When I think of these 3 C's the one internet based company that does it really well is Barstool Sports. They have a strong following in the 18-30 male demographic because they produce a lot of content. They Curate content on their blogs which cover all news from sports to politics. They also create content with podcasts and other media. And the collaborate when doing things with other companies like their newest source Rough and Rowdy boxing.

In chapter one it is an introduction to SEO or search engine optimization. It covers things like ads on google (Google Adwords) and search engine results. For my own experiment I chose to search a common term for me "Car For Sale" to see what results would come up. Here are my results: The first 4 results were all ads. The first was a link to car gurus a site to find reviews on cars. The next three where sites that people can sell cars on like auto trader and carmax. The other part of this chapter was all about digital marketing at its basics CASA. This is content adwords, social, analytics. These are the basic principals of digital marketing and when used together can create great marketing campaigns and increase profits.

AI is constantly evolving the job market. The major part that AI is eliminating is blue collar factory jobs. When I think of AI in the job market I think of the Ford factory where cars are built by almost all robots or machines. The process of manufacturing is almost all artificial because with high investment up front businesses can produce more efficiently and at a lower cost. If this scares you and you don't know if you will be able to work  in this evolving field here are some thinking point. We are human and computers have errors. The data that is being pulled has many datapoint it will take humans to come up with conclusions from the big data. Remember Adopt to AI and your will prosper.

What is AI up to these days? AI is constantly evolving and todays most news worthy part is self driving cars. These cars or things are smart to the point where they can drive themselves as the passenger can take over when they feel the need for speed. My biggest concern with this part of AI is what is the ethics behind the cost of a life. Lets say a self driving car is put into a situation where they will have to be in an accident and the other car has a mother and 3 kids. What way will the car respond injure the passenger of their car or hit the mother in a spot that puts the children in danger but saves the passenger. When I think of artificial intelligence I think of IBM's Watson winning Jeopardy against the two best players in the games history. IBM was able to create a computer that could answer verbal questions and recite back an answer with precise accuracy. With this technology already out there its only a matter of time until the computers start doing jobs at a higher lev...

In marketing today lots of resources are being spent on search engines. The first example of this is SEO or search engine optimization. This is using search engines to increase the visitors to your page without paying for ads. However this does have costs to companies because someone is taking the time and using the resources to optomise search results. The other way organizations are using resources on search engines is through SEM. Search engine marketing is using services to look at optimization. This gives you a cost per click number because you can see the return on your investment by how many visitors came through the sponsored channel.  This process includes SEO but adds the monetary figure per page view. This idea of investing in search engines is very prominent in digital marketing today and will be a big factor in the future.

The article we reviewed on LinkedIn today was about how artificial intelligence will effect on jobs in the business field. The article goes into talking about accounting/finance, analytics/marketing, entrepreneurship and HR management. However the part about Business Analytics and marketing is more focused on me so I chose to read that section carefully. Luckily the short term and long term for analytics jobs looks good with the introduction to AI. The skills needed to stay up with AI in this field are being able to think critical thinking with data analysis, SQL, and business intelligence. I feel as though after finishing my degree from this university I am able to successfully complete 2 of the 3 main fields. However SQL was not offered at the time of my class registration so I will have to research the topic on my own. The curriculum says that using Microsoft access satisfies this requirement but in my opinion if its so important we should be focusing on this as a core class.