5 Great Ways to Use and Share Geospatial Data on Social Media
Most of the geospatial data use cases require showing data on a map. Whether you’re in business or not, chances are you’ve used geospatial data. Most of us who are always on our phones use this data on a daily basis. So, what does geospatial data entail?
In its most basic form, geospatial data is information that has a geographic aspect to it. If you’ve ever planned a road trip, searched for the closest hotel or pizza shop online, or even synced your location with your Facebook or Instagram posts, you’ve worked geospatial data.
Geospatial data, also known as geodata or spatial data, describe something with location data on it—address, city, ZIP code, latitude, etc. Whether it’s natural or man-made, if it can be drawn on a map, it’s geospatial.Geospatial data has many use cases. In this post, we’ll look into how you can use and share geospatial data on social media.
Let’s dive in!
1. Exploring Undisclosed Spaces
Geospatial data helps us explore and understand the world, and it can help us discover uncharted territories. Caves and underground spaces, for example, can be difficult to spot and explore.
With geospatial data, you can create a photographic interpretation or a digital model of a location or space that has never been explored before. You can then use a collage maker to create a collage of breathtaking images based on geospatial data and share them on social media.
Hikers, explorers, mountain climbers, and archeologists use geospatial data to better understand hidden spaces on the earth’s surface.
2. Mapping
Mapping lays the foundation for using geospatial data.
Geospatial data is most commonly used in visualizing the area the data describes. Whether the data is about transportation routes, building footprints, or any other point of interest, a precisely-drawn map based on accurate location data can have a lot of uses in today’s world.
In the business world, geospatial mapping helps businesses achieve accurate location data to facilitate marketing and growth.
The maps can show segments, such as the following.
- Demographics of customers or prospects
- The proximity of the proposed business to public utilities
- Social economic backgrounds of the prospects (income, occupation, etc.)
Individuals can also use geospatial mapping to better understand a location. For example, travelers can use this data to know their way around a particular area.
3. Consumer Insights
Geospatial data can prove extremely helpful in providing you with consumer insights. These insights can give you an edge over the competition.
For example, you can look up the shops customers visit before or after they visit yours. To illustrate, suppose you run a spa-like business. You may notice that a lot of your customers go to the gym or yoga studios after leaving your business.
This might tell they’re either coming to cool down or fuel up after a workout. You can use this knowledge to cross-sell some of your offerings.
4. Urban Planning
Geospatial data is used in urban planning by allowing modeling and spatial analysis of urban environments. Getting all the required data for land maps, site selection, and planning applications can be challenging, and the data collection and quality are improved by advances in geospatial technology.
Using a moving vehicle, it’s easier to collect massive data sets about city blocks or large areas quickly and efficiently. This data can be used for urban growth, particularly in determining the right direction of expansion. When applied appropriately, geospatial data can help discover new sites for further development.
5. Logistics and Supply Chain
Logistics is a crucial component of supply chain management.
It encompasses many supply chain processes, including purchasing and delivering raw materials, packaging, warehousing, and shipping of products.
Effective transportation of products (finished goods) from one point to another is key to business success. And this is where geospatial data comes in. Organizations use effective geospatial mapping to optimize routes. Through this, businesses can accelerate delivery time, increasing customer satisfaction.
Moreover, geospatial data also provides visuals to be used by businesses to track their progress in defined geographical locations.
6. Analyzing Competition
A viable marketing strategy should provide insights into what the competition is doing.
In other words, you’ll need to conduct a competitor analysis. This may involve knowing who your competitors are, what they offer, how their products are priced, and what they’re planning to do. But how do you acquire this data? Geodata can help!
Geospatial data provides competitive intelligence to your business. It lets you see and know your geographical influence compared to your competitors.
Through this data, you can determine whether consumers are finding your business more accessible than others businesses around you.
Wrapping Up
Geospatial data is any data that has a geographic aspect to it. This data may be complex but has many uses, particularly for business owners. It can be used to explore undisclosed spaces, improve logistics and supply chain processes, provide competitive intelligence, and enhance urban planning.
James is the head of marketing at Tamoco