Can Social Listening Make Consumer Behavior Predictive?

Over the past few years, I have been using a hodgepodge of analytic tools in to monitor, engage, and in some cases change the course of consumer behavior through a variety of engagement strategies. Given that my first few ventures included running a few thousand dating, gaming sites, and entertainment websites, I thought that among my peers what I was doing was common place. I was recently invited to speak at Goizueta Business, Emory University’s MBA program, and had the unique opportunity to interact with both business leaders and the brands that they represented. As part of my introduction, Dr. Benn Konsynski (former Yahoo and Netscape adviser), played the following video, which was more of an eduction my me than the attendees for my presentation.

In the above video, IBM is using data grouping and analysis in real time to make better decisions.

In my experience real time data is a small part of a much larger picture. Yet, what if you could  process real time data of not only current events, but project forward that data into a fairly accurate forecast. Now let's take this one step further, if you understand the yin and yang, the cause and effect that relates to changing behavior patterns, and you selectively engaged those which influence the mass opinion, could you change the attitudes, behaviors, and perception of those which influence others? If you captured the sentiment of those socially influencing others, would you actually cause a ripple effect in which human behavior of those following be altered to a probable outcome? My name is John Cataldi, and I am an entrepreneur.