AnyLogic North America

Facebooks Location Feature Will Help Companies Build Better Models

Facebook is preparing to roll out a new feature that will identify user’s locations and will allow the ability of advertisers to more accurately target users geographic data.

McDonald’s will be the first brand to test the new features. The McDonald’s integration will involve users checking in at McDonald’s restaurants and showing featured food items in their posts. Digital advertising and marketing shops around the country are preparing to construct campaigns around this new functionality.

What this means for Agent Based Simulation:

By integrating the data of some of the 400 million Facebook users, agent based models and simulations will be able to more accurately simulate the dynamics of the market.

Knowing what and where users react to advertising and promotions will allow companies to identify the trends of multiple markets, not only geographically but by age and status as well.

Agent based simulation and system dynamics are only as good as the information provided. The ability to tap into enormous user groups who have a record of willingly providing valuable information into likes and dislikes will prove incredibly valuable.

Help is on the menu!

One of the things we learned in our 2009 customer survey (watch for a review of this in a later post) is that a surprising number of AnyLogic users don't avail themselves of the services of our support team.

  

We find that email support for the type of content-rich question our team answers is superior to tele- phone support. Our support team is comprised of simulation experts, mathematicians, researchers, etc. -they are bilingual but the kind of support question we get usually requires some modeling review and work rather than a quick factual answer.   The “Get Support” feature takes a snapshot of the customer’s system and build and eliminates all the initial questions and shortens the overall support cycle. The customer can attach files or use the popup window to describe the issues in detail and get a “solution” the next day.  That's right, a simulation solution such as "how do I model a queue where the operator takes frequent breaks -- to simulate the lost productivity of smoking, for example"?  You can attach your file and get it back with edits.  This is much more of a third-level support than most users have experience with.  We can also answer the "which version of Java do I need" types of questions -- but many of these are already in the Forum and FAQ pages of the XJ website.  For example, here: AnyLogic Knowledge Base

So don't forget -- expert help is built right in to every AnyLogic license.  Your personal "don't panic" button is right on the menu (see screenshot).