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Interesting queries for tracking a subject area.
December 2008 Archives
News from the companies of social media analysis. Things are quiet going into the holidays.
Layoffs are spreading, but social media analysis companies are hiring. Use the discount code 4QSMAV for $10 job listings through the end of the year. Job board / Post a job
Companies and services
- 16 June - Twingly launched Twingly Top 100 (top blogs in 12 languages) and BlogRank, a PageRank-like rating for blogs.
- Software updates: eCairn, Filtrbox, Spiral16
- Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining, due January 30.
What do you want that you can't have today? Specifically, what would you like to see in a social media analysis tool or service that you can't get (as far as you know)? Most of the vendors are probably reading this blog, so here's a chance to air your wish list while I get out of the way. I'll start with one that Lee Odden mentioned on Twitter yesterday.
SMA for SEM
Lee wants an automated keyword analysis tool for social media sites (process described by Marty Weintraub):
Really need to the social media monitoring industry to step up and come up with a good keyword analysis tool specific to social media sitesLee heard from three companies in response (ok, the rest of you need to monitor social media keywords on Twitter). Is anyone else working on that application or want to talk about it (publicly or privately)?
@leeodden
What else do you need in 2009?
Open mic time. What's on your wish list? Mention it in the comments, and I can guarantee that companies in a position to offer it will see your suggestions. You might even hear from someone who already does it.
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Tracking generations of pass-along app/widget users. Web analytics meets WOM research.
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Anyone want to take this on? "Interestingly, even though social networks refer to “degrees of separation”..., very little work has been done on social network analysis in actual social networks." Most of what I learned about SNA came from companies who apply it to social media.
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Nicely written up in real language, not corporatespeak.
News from the companies of social media analysis. Were you expecting a year-end slowdown?
Companies and services
- 9 December - BuzzNumbers launched its social media intelligence platform. press release (PDF)
- 9 December - Leximancer announced an OEM partnership with Satmetrix. press release
- 9 December - RepuMetrix announced RepuTrack, an online reputation monitoring dashboard.
- 21 November - Brand Titan completed its acquisition of Attenalert and has relaunched it as a free, online reputation management tool. press release
- 12 November - BurrellesLuce introduced iMonitor, a self-service Internet search and monitoring tool that delivers results through the BurrellesLuce portal for analysis and reporting. press release, via Gail Nelson
- 4 December - Scout Labs is widening participation in their beta in anticipation of an early 2009 launch.
- 9 December - Social media content sourcer Trendiction presented in the LeWeb '08 Startup Competition.
- Software updates: Dow Jones Factiva
- BurrellesLuce release 2009 Top Media Outlets: Newspapers, Blogs, Consumer Magazines, and Social Networks, a chart that lists circulation figures for 100 US daily newspapers, 25 English language blogs, 25 social networking sites and 25 consumer magazines. press release
- CIC released the final two parts of its third quarter white paper series, The Internet is THE Community: "The Diversity of Chinese Net Language" and "Reshaping the Relationship between Brands and Consumers." via Sam Flemming
- com.motion released the 2nd Annual com.motion-Pollara Social Media Barometer. (PDF). In the survey of Canadian business and marketing leaders, 82% say they will spend as much or more on social media in 2009 than they did in 2008. press release (PDF), via Darren Kelly
- VibeMetrix released a new ebook, Secrets of Local Business Blogging (PDF).
- 16 December - dna13 is presenting a free webinar, Demonstrate Your Value Beyond The Traditional Role of PR, at 1:00 PM EST (GMT-5). The session will focus on dnaEnterprise, a PR management, monitoring and measurement platform.
- 16 December - Techrigy is presenting a free webinar, Become a Social Media Marketing Expert with SM2 from Techrigy, 2:00 PM EST (GMT -5). The session will focus on profitable social media marketing models and the SM2 application.
- 17 December (London) - MeasurementCamp, 10:00 AM at Chinwag.
- 17 December - Biz360 is presenting a free webinar, Industry Briefing: What is driving consumers to buy cars in today's market?, 2:00 PM EST (GMT -5). Brad Brodigan and Tony Priore will discuss Biz360's recent automotive study (PDF) and using technology to analyze opinions from review websites.
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Use quant skills and practical application experience to take ownership of corporate analytics. Got ambition?
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Tips and tricks. Must go back and learn some of them.
Paul Dunay (@PaulDunay) mentioned this morning that he's developing a "ctweet" list of company chiefs on Twitter. If your card says something like CEO, COO, CFO, CMO or CIO, Paul wants to add you to his list. Which reminds me. Are we connected on Twitter (@gilliatt)?
News from the companies of social media analysis, Attack of the White Papers edition. There will be a quiz on Monday.
Companies and services
- 2 December - Leximancer announced that Polecat will incorporate Leximancer technology into the Polecat Intelligence Application. press release
- 1 December - Jodange received a Small Business Innovation Research grant from the (US) National Science Foundation to support research into linking automatically extracted opinions to business outcomes. press release
- 4 December - SentimentMetrics launched version 2 of their web interface. Radian6 announced new features.
Question: Should I link to software update posts here? Most vendors aren't using version numbers in public, and there are few major launches to trigger coverage.
- Geoff Farris has joined Visible Technologies as senior vice president of sales. Farris was previously president and CEO of Bueller's, a private investment firm. press release
- Andy Lark points out two recent studies of online media use: EIAA Mediascope Europe 2008 (PDF) and Ofcom’s International Communications Market 2008 (press release).
- Anderson Analytics released partial findings from their 2009 US College Student Report, GenX2Z. The 5th edition of the longitudinal study focused on social media use among US college students.
- Biz360 announced a new report on online customer opinions on automobile brands (PDF). press release
- CIC released the first two parts of its third quarter white paper series, The Internet is THE Community: "The Chinese IWOM Landscape" and "Alternative Ways to Measure Internet Community Dynamics." via Sam Flemming
- Cision released a new white paper, Engaging Social Networks:
How to Find Your Community, Build Relationships and Gauge Your Influence Online. - ComScore released UK PC & Mobile Internet Usage Report. Along with profiles of user populations, the report shows 179% year-on-year growth of social networking use among mobile Internet users. press release
- Digimind released The Map: Top Pharma and Healthcare Sources on the Web.
- Epsilon shares from their CMO survey, "while just over half of the companies surveyed already use consumer data mining, 23% more said that they plan to utilize the technology in the next 12 months." press release, via MediaPost, AdWeek
- The IBM Institute for Business Value released Undressing in public: Harnessing the power of Web 2.0 to rebuild trust in banking (PDF).
- Nielsen released the 3Q08 edition of its Three Screen Report (PDF) on how US consumers divide their media consumption time. press release (PDF)
- Rubicon Consulting released Online Reviews Second Only to Word of Mouth as Purchase Influencer in US (PDF). via Ginandrea Facchini, Marketing Charts
When you listen to social media, what paradigm do you bring with you? Are you thinking about measuring media, or are you thinking about people sharing their thoughts? Listening to the discussions at the recent Word of Mouth Research Symposium, this finally came together for me: part of the reason social media measurement is confusing people is the cross-functional impact of social media, and measurement—like everything else—is stuck in silos. Looking at familiar faces at WOMMA, I realized that each silo has its measurement club, and I'm not sure they know about each other.
Measuring Media or People?
As I've posted before, social media measurement means different things to different people. They're bringing assumptions, goals and metrics from work they did before social media, but they don't usually declare their perspective when they set out to "measure social media." That's left as an exercise for the reader, who may not realize that a particular measurement silo is at work.
I'm seeing at least four different measurement silos intersecting with social media:
- PR/media measurement
Viewing social media as media for their ability to reach an audience. - Word of mouth measurement
Viewing social media as online interactions among people (customers, if you're lucky). - Web analytics
Interested in people's usage patterns, as both audience and customers. - Opinion research
Mining online opinions as the world's largest focus group.
Today's measurement discussions recall the blind men and an elephant. Social media content represents both media and people, depending on what's happening and how you want to look at it. Recommendations to start measurement with an understanding of objectives are obviously on the right track. I wonder if we can introduce the measurement clubs from the separate silos and stop talking past each other?
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Lee Odden shares a completely daunting reading list.
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Good tips for getting more out of Twitter use.
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ROI is a financial metric. Here's a better way to approach the non-financial benefits of online engagement.
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Putting a sharp, new edge on an old tool.