So, it’s sad, but kind’a comical too to see how quickly the everyday use of the web for communication is eroding everyone’s grammar and syntax (cough, Twitter). What’s truly tragic, however, is the frigg’n pandemic spread of companies promising machine based linguistic and sentiment analysis services, all of them knowing oh too well that the web has damn-near its own dialect now, be it acronyms (FTW!), abbreviations (RT) or any number of adhoc classifications (#[hashtag]), and maybe more importantly, a growing appetite for unspoken gestures of expression and opinion (be it thumbs, stars, likes, or otherwise), yet, for whatever reason, these companies continue to over-promise mountains of insight and perspective into “how your customers think and feel,” based only on what a bot and an algorithm spits back!? I don’t know, it’s just, uh, flawed. Update: check out Microsyntax.org, this entire organization is diving into the ‘new’ unconventions of communication on the web.
Updates from April, 2009
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Machine-Based Sentiment Analysis is Flawed
mike manuel
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2 Tactical Tips for Corporate Video
mike manuel
Okay, so as a quick follow up to my previous post on video distribution, here’s two tactical tips for companies.
Tip #1: Who has the best embeddable player? I think Viddler does (full disclosure, they’re a Voce partner). I say this less for Viddler’s technical merits (even tho I consider them quite good), and more for the simple fact that the Viddler player can be branded with your corporate logo AND embedded with a custom link back to a site of your choosing (example). And this folks is frigg’n *gold* if you want to squeeze more value (over time) out of all the people discovering and spreading your videos on the web.
Tip #2: How do you maximize the reach (and quantify the metrics) of *all* your video services? Try using TubeMogul. It’s a great service that allows you to centrally upload and then syndicate your videos to all the video sharing sites (e.g., YouTube, Blip.tv, MetaCafe, etc.) The central management and control of your videos from TubeMogul allows you to track all sorts of performance metrics, not only for your videos, but for the video networks you’re using too.
So, net-net, Viddler + ‘other’ video sharing sites + TubeMogul = a pretty powerful combination if you’re serious about milking your online videos for all they’re worth.
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3 Ways to Think About Video Distribution
mike manuel
So video distribution is one of those inevitable parts of any social media program. A lot of people, well, too many people will say YouTube’s the easy fix to all your worries. Man, trust me, it ain’t. Yeah, there’s a place for services like YouTube, but my advice is to think about video distribution three different ways: 1). Think about the player. Which service offers the *best* embeddable player? This is particularly important if you’re producing HD content. 2). Think about the reach. Which services offer the best possible reach for your videos? YouTube’s a frigg’n virtual Times Square, so just ask yourself: is that *really* going to reach my target market? And 3). Think about metrics. Which service offers the best access and insights into the performance and spread of your videos? There’s a lot more to video metrics than a simple tally of views. The thing about this three-way slice is that for a nominal amount of effort, it puts you in a position to use a mix of services to help squeeze more value out of your video investments, and hey, right now, given the trajectory of video use and the web, this is a good thing.
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Dear Social Media Monitoring Companies…
mike manuel
Here’s the problem, guys: when it comes to large-scale *online response* programs, too many of you are trying to shoehorn people into systems that don’t gel with the variety of workflows that are naturally found when, you know, silly humans get involved. Some people will dig your bookmarklet, others your dashboard, and still some your email alerts and feeds, but none of them will like *all* of these things, and I can guarantee you all of them will use more than one — so yeah, that makes your job very, very difficult. And your products, well, either loved or hated.
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How to Create a Social Media Monitoring Strategy
admin
So I was talking with a peer recently about his online community work, and in that conversation I asked him what his company’s social media monitoring and response strategy entailed. His reply:
“Oh, you know, we’re using Radian6….”
Frankly, his reply didn’t surprise me. Radian6 *is* a kick-butt service that a lot of companies are using, ours included, however, the more I think about his response and continue talking with other folks about conversation discovery, tracking, analysis, and the like, the more gaps I find….
And, well, the more it seems that very few companies actually have a fully baked social media monitoring and “engagement” strategy.
I think part of the problem is that for too long now, too many companies, like my colleague’s above, have just wanted to get their arms around the conversation discovery challenge, and things like analyzing, acting, and archiving those conversations were secondary concerns. And, you know, that’s fair enough, but by no means is that a complete plan.
It’s with this in mind, that I thought it might be interesting to outline, at a really basic level, what a social media monitoring and engagement program looks like in its entirety (if you take a sec and extend it past the obvious tasks). And note, I’m looking at this more from a general internal infrastructure perspective, so yeah, beware, your mileage may vary.
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The Three O’s
of Social Media Measurementmike manuel
“How do you measure social media programs?”
You know, I try not to, it’s a buzz kill. I’m kidding…
This question surfaces all the time. It’s hands down one of the biggest challenges we marketers face, but come on, it’s not impossible. Yeah, we need better weights and measuring sticks for new media — they will come — but don’t let that stop you from adapting and customizing an approach that works for your business.
There are three things you should think about when it comes to measurement, each I’d argue are equally important:
Outputs
Pretty self explanatory, right. Is content being created? It could be a blog post or a forum topic or a video, you get the gist. Try not to get too hung up on the “how much” part of the output. Focus instead on the quality and relevancy of what’s being produced and the utility of the medium for you and your customers.
Outgrowths
Again, pretty simple. What stems or grows from the content that was created? It could be comments, links, tags, diggs, votes, etc. How people choose to participate with the content will vary so try to think about the value and weight you place on certain actions — and how you might better enable them.
Outcomes
Basically, the net result or response to the first two things. It could be attention (influencers, media), amplification (memes), engagement (quality/quantity of comments), sentiment (positive/negative), this is where you have to simply interpret and weigh the shake out. And then compare your analysis to whatever the hell your goals were to begin with. Oh, and then pray they line up.
Keep in mind, all of this is just one approach to measurement — an admittedly simple one for an increasingly complex web. I tend to think social media measurement will always be half science/half art, and maybe for that reason, always be a headache too, but hopefully this gives folks a framework to pivot and build on.
Related Post:
Social Media Measurement Deconstructed
Also Read:
PR Measurement Blog (Katie Paine)
Like Nailing Down a Shadow (Brian Oberkirch)
Social Media Measurement (Jeremiah Owyang)
[Cross published on Voce Nation]
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Boost Your Monitoring Mojo with Yahoo! Pipes
mike manuel
Just ruminating here on my previous post, you can tell where my head’s been at lately….
The monitoring vs. mining nut is a tough one to crack, no question, but I’m becoming increasingly convinced that of the many services that do exist, very few, if any frankly, are very good at real-time monitoring. And even then, those that come close, come at a cost - that cost ultimately being the time and effort that comes with good ol’ fashion human analysis ($$$).
So, for those of you that find yourself in a place where by either choice or, uh, default, you’re shouldering the task of monitoring online chatter for a brand, a quick tip:
Make a pipe. A Yahoo Pipe.
You can go crazy creating all sorts of custom feeds, alerts, watchlists, and the like, and while these things in aggregate can help you stay abreast of conversations, generally speaking, they waste a ton of your time too. Why? Because what you have is a loose set of data sources, each making dumb matches on a keyword, tag or string you’ve selected, and each lacking filters for relevancy, importance, language, etc.
It’s a little like standing in the entrance of a grocery store. You know all the food you need is front of you, but you’re still left having to traverse aisles hunting and picking for what you really want.
Yahoo Pipes basically lets you mashup and manipulate all sorts of data sources, adding a layer of intelligence and utility, and most important, efficiency, to your monitoring mojo that’s tough to beat. Now, I’ll admit, building a Pipe requires a little patience and know-how, but there are some great how-to’s available, plus there’s a growing pool of shared Pipes that you can take as-is and put to work immediately. A few favorites: Aggregated News Alerts Pipe, Video Search Pipe, Digg/del.icio.us Pipe, Upcoming Events Pipe….
These examples just scratch the surface of what you can do with Yahoo Pipes, dig in and give it try, my bet is that you’ll find it alleviates some of your biggest web monitoring headaches. Good luck.
[Disclosure: Yahoo! is a client of mine, but that shouldn't stop you from trying this or me from sharing it....]
Technorati Tags: monitoring, yahoopipes
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Third Thursday: Social Media Measurement
mike manuel
Just a quick Third Thursday update: Measurement has long been the achilles heal of communication and marketing programs so we’re returning to Palo Alto this week to talk about measurement - specifically, social media measurement - with folks from Nielsen Buzzmetrics, Buzzlogic, OpenMind, and Biz360. SNCR’s Jen McClure will be leading the discussion.
Details are on the meetup page, hope to see you there.
Also Read:
Social Media Measurement (Jeremiah Owyang/Podtech)Technorati Tags: meetup, social+media+measurement, silicon valley, thirdthursday
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Finally, Somebody Ranks Brand Monitoring Services
mike manuel
If there was ever a research report I’d like to get my hands on, it’s this one from Forrester.
The folks at Forrester have completed what looks to be a pretty comprehensive analysis of the most popular brand monitoring services (e.g., Nielsen Buzzmetrics, Cymfony, Biz360, Umbria, Brandimensions, MotiveQuest, and Factiva).
I can’t tell for certain how deep this report goes, it costs a thousand bucks, but they’ve posted a Q&A and an executive summary along with the graphic you see embedded here, which tease some of the findings. A few of the nuggets (verbatim):
- Nielsen BuzzMetrics and Cymfony are market Leaders, thanks to their comprehensive technology platforms and extensive data source coverage.
- MotiveQuest — with the most services-focused and strategy-oriented offering — finishes as the leading Strong Performer.
- Biz360’s focus on traditional PR monitoring services lands it as a midrange Strong Performer.
- Rounding out the Strong Performer category are Factiva, with its strong print orientation, and Umbria, which excels at speaker segmentation.
- Brandimensions falls into the Contender category, with targeted expertise in the automotive, entertainment, and pharmaceutical industries and an approach that relies heavily on human filtering.
Brand monitoring online is top-o-mind for a lot of companies that recognize the need for conversational marketing and communication, but lack the tools and insights to analyze and measure the impact and success of their efforts. It’s a real pain, and unfortunately, where there’s pain there’s also exploitation. I think some of the popular brand monitoring services have a reputation of over-promising and under-delivering — which is why I’m glad to see a report like this surface.
Brand monitoring and sentiment mining online is a tough nut to crack, I personally don’t think any of these companies have it nailed yet, but some are getting close.
For that reason, it’s good to see that Forrester will be revisiting this report next year, I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a big shake up in the rankings, perhaps even some new players to watch. Forrester, if you’re listening, I’d totally understand if you wanted to send this to me for "review.";p
Related Posts:
Social Media Monitoring
Synthesizing Social Media
Mining and Monitoring the Conversation Gap
Blog Monitoring As PR Service
Technorati Tags: forrester, measurement, brand+monitoring, research
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More on Social Media Monitoring
mike manuel
Alright, so I’ve been on a bit of a kick lately about monitoring and synthesizing social media, it’s just a great practical example of where technology, client services and agency business models are all colliding. And now I’ll toss another variable into this messy mix — human bandwidth.
Let’s face it, there’s a finite amount of information that you and I can realistically absorb and act on, at some point we’re each limited in our info intake, if by nothing else but hours in the day. And therein lies yet another challenge for agency account teams chartered with managing a client’s online health, particularly the big brands.
How many people does it take to successfully find, follow and flip solid client counsel based on online discussion levels? And can that structure scale as the volume of social media increases?Again, no easy answer here, at least not yet. I think technology will solve some of this pain, I also think the pain itself will force some firms to rethink how they approach brand monitoring and reporting. For example, economies of scale could very quickly be achieved if online monitoring was no longer the function and responsibility of a client team, but instead the entire agency (i.e., a distributed service). Group delicious accounts and private corporate Digg sites, hell, even the idea of a simple bookmarklet on every browser, are all interim solutions that could — and should — be implemented to maximize the online eyes and ears for a client.
More to come on this, particularly this idea of distributed PR services.
Related Posts
Synthesizing Social Media
Mining and Monitoring the Conversation Gap
Blog Monitoring As PR Service
Technorati Tags: distributed PR, Measurement, PR, socialmedia
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The Importance of Reputation in PR
mike manuel
I’ve been experimenting with RapLeaf, a new reputation system that launched over the weekend. Mike Arrington aptly calls it “eBay feedback for the rest of the web, and the offline world.” It’s a simple idea, elegantly executed, with tons of potential, but what I find most interesting are the implications this sort of service has for PR practitioners. Bear with me on this….
Shel Isreal wrote recently about the power of personal brand, specifically, how personal brands are increasingly influencing and shaping our perceptions of various corporate brands. I think you could argue there’s a fine line between “personal brand” and “personal reputation,” they each ultimately represent a subset of qualities and traits that outwardly define you, me, and every other poor sap out there, nothing new here really, however the difference today is that our personal brands, our personal reputations, comes with a degree of permanence and public accessibility — be that for better or worse — thanks to the web.
Case in point, the major search engines, like Yahoo and Google, are crawling and aggregating the bread crumbs of our digital selves, our digital reputations, making this info discoverable to anyone who seeks it, while the vertical search engines, like Technorati and Sphere, are taking it a step further by focusing on blog content and assigning authority and relevancy metrics to that.
To me, RapLeaf’s service seems like the next logical step in this progression, where real-world feedback and offline sentiment can now be combined with algorithmic metrics and online measures to capture and represent one’s reputation. I think the message this sends to PR practitioners, particularly consultants and agency folks, is the obvious one: that you’re the keeper of your reputation, manage it diligently, or face the consequences. Write a bad press release, the world can see it. Send a bad pitch, the world can see it. And if you act unethically, the world can now see that too.
Now, there’s an upside to all this as well, especially in the context of new media. A RapLeaf score has the *potential* to become a unique, at-a-glance qualifier for bloggers, podcasters, etc., who are increasingly being approached, or pitched, by PR folks who might not otherwise disclose their agendas or exercise any degree of transparency. A RapLeaf score could help bloggers and such determine the credibility and trustworthiness of a source, in much the same way that eBay feedback helps buyers and sellers determine who they want to do business with. If this sort of thing was to catch on, the implications for PR would run deep: those that act and operate ethically and responsibly would be largely listened to, and those that don’t, largely ignored. Think about it….
For now, ironically, under the premise of this post and my own RapLeaf score, I exist among the ignored masses, but you can change that, and so can I…;-)
Technorati Tags: Personal Brand, PR, RapLeaf, Reputation
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Technorati Stats, Just a Sign Post, Folks
mike manuel
For all the hype and hyperbole surrounding the latest Technorati stats, I think, to Jeremy Pepper’s point, a lot of marketers are sitting on the sidelines looking at things and asking, “how the hell does this really help us with our social media plans?” Truth is, it probably doesn’t help that much, in the end it’s just a quantitative snapshot of blog activity, and a questionable one at that — but it’s also a sign post, and when you put it in context with other data points and new media trends, it becomes a *little* easier to navigate through the noise and determine where the real opportunities (and threats) may reside for your organization.
Related Post:
Job title of the future: social media analyst (Church of the Customer)
“All of this seems to point toward a new job responsibility inside companies whose growth depends on word of mouth: social media analyst.”
Technorati Tags: Marketing, Measurement, PR, Stats, Technorati
