We speak of "analytics" as if it were a single, clear, well-understood thing. But a diverse fleet of initiatives sails under that flag, from highly-focused data-collection, through support of A/B testing, to the targeting of individual consumers with optimal offers and experiences. This session will survey the range of analytic goals and methods currently deployed for social media, and especially for games. Predictive analytics will be presented as a general social-network analytical framework, but with a view towards specific results for predicting customer-specific probabilities of conversion, of retention, and of successful cross-promotions. Case studies will demonstrate the integration of predictive analytics into user-experience and marketing decision-making in telecommunications and other industries.
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