The Stats behind the Social Networks
October 11, 2013
Who uses what social network? Younger kids say Facebook is old school and have moved onto younger pastures and older folks tend to stick with the social media they become accustomed to. These are just general trends that I hear in passing, but for cold hard facts I turned to a Business Insider article entitled, “A Primer On Social Media Demographics.”
BI Intelligence conducted a report that broke down the various demographics about who uses what social network. The main purpose of the report was to provide companies with data for them to target consumers:
“Being able to identify the demographics of social media audiences at a granular level is the basis for all targeted marketing and messaging. The report also spotlights the opportunities that lie ahead for each social network, how demographics affect usage patterns, and why some platforms are better for brands than others.”
The numbers are quite interesting. Facebook still remains the standard for most users, especially with a surprising 86% outside the US. Instagram and Pinterest are female driven networks, while men prefer LinkedIn and Google+. Twitter remains mostly for the younger folks, as does Tumblr. Then there are these people from Marketing Land: “Who Are The 15 Percent Of Adults Who Do Not Use The Internet?” The numbers dwindle down to 38 million people who do not use the Internet and they are people in the over 65 range with less education and money. The reasons are that many people in this age group claim not to need it or find it difficult to learn. Also they are paranoid about hackers and rely on friends and family to do the surfing for them. Such thoughts are relics of the past and are annoying to marketers. I will say, though, I will not sign up for paperless billing, so maybe I am a relic.
Whitney Grace, October 11, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Changes in the Social Media Monitoring Field
October 11, 2013
A recent move by social media monitoring firm DataSift has Business2Community contemplating “The Stratification of Social Media Listening.” DataSift is now working with Tumblr to distribute that site’s content to subscribers, and writer Mike Moran takes the occasion to discuss ways social media monitoring has changed since he began working in the field five years ago. At that time, he says, it was all about crisis management, and SalesForce’s Radian6 was a central player. Moran writes:
“Salesforce’s purchase of Radian6 is still the biggest deal ever in this business. But the Radian6 purchase was the last gasp of the fully integrated software stacks in social listening. Top to bottom, you bought it all from one vendor. Radian6 crawled the blogs, screen-scraped the message boards, contracted with Twitter for the firehose. Radian6 analyzed the data. Radian6 presented the dashboard of streaming messages and the dashboard that aggregated the metrics.”
Lately though, Moran tells us, media monitoring has been moving away from the centralized to the stratified. Companies now have the option of straying from their Radian6 (or similar) structure to embrace other tools, like Tableau for their analytics dashboard, or Clarabridge or Lexalytics for text analytics. He expounds:
“Which brings us to today’s DataSift-Tumblr announcement. Why should you care? Because this stratification of social media listening is truly allowing the best solutions to be brought together out of component parts. Cloud computing allows us to quickly and cheaply cobble together these pieces into what our clients really need.”
Moran goes on to note that this departure from the integrated stack opens a myriad of possible advantages. Off-the-shelf solutions are no longer enough to stay competitive, he insists; to excel in social media monitoring now calls for a customized approach. That sounds like a lot of work to me. Organizations should not overlook the cost of added hours when considering their options.
Cynthia Murrell, October 11, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Clarabridge Obtains a Stunning 80 Million Dollars in Funding
October 6, 2013
The increased use of social media over the past decade has led many companies to pay closer attention to customer feedback for fear of having harsh criticisms plastered all over their Facebook page and Twitter feed. In order to get a better understanding of what customers are saying, according to the recent VentureBeat article “Clarabridge Scores $80M to Evolve Customer Experience Management”, more and more businesses are investing in customer experience management software provided by Clarabridge.
In addition to obtaining $80 million in equity funding, the article states:
“That’s on top of a successful three-year period in which the company saw 150 percent revenue growth and recurring revenue growth of more than 250 percent. Clarabridge’s platform helps businesses act on what their customers are saying about them (the Voice of the Customer, in industry terms) across a wide variety of sources. It also helps organizations pay attention to what their employees are saying, which typically leads to better customer service.”
Large retailers like Walmart, Best Buy, and Dell have already bought the software and more are likely to follow their lead. However, we think its a tall order to expect Clarabridge to generate half a billion in revenues right out of the gate.
Jasmine Ashton, October 06, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Be Wise and Do Not Ignore Social Media
September 30, 2013
Half the time when I speak with a customer service representative they are either automated or come from a foreign country where their English speaking skills are less than adequate. My most recent experience involved Priceline.com and a bull-headed rep somewhere in Asia. Three hours later I won, he lost. You can be sure I wrote about my experience on Twitter and how poorly I was treated. Sameer Nori started working at Attivio this year and in his blog post, “360 Degree View Of The Customer-Broken Promise Or Technology Limitation?” he takes a look at how companies are constantly searching for a business intelligence solution that allows them to monitor all aspects of their information.
This directly relates to customer service, because not all companies are watching customer feedback on social networks. People flock to social media networks to complain, which is then instantly broadcasted to thousands if not millions. It is the quickest and easiest way to ruin a reputation. What do you do? Attivio says:
“Customers are talking about your products and their experiences with your brand and you need to be prepared with the right information about them at the right time. I’m very happy to report that Attivio is being used at some of the largest companies in the world to reduce customer churn and increase customer satisfaction by bringing together structured data, unstructured data and unstructured content. The promise of the 360 degree view of the customer can finally be realized through Attivio’s unified information access platform!”
A piece of advice quickly turns into a big data product pitch. Still, this is how big data can be used. It can monitor all instances of when a company is mentioned on social networks and analyze the data for companies to implement better customer service policies.
Whitney Grace, September 30, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
LinkedIn Pins Hopes on Economic Graph
September 29, 2013
Writer Rachel King at ZDNet shares some of LinkedIn’s strategy for the future in, “LinkedIn’s Long-Term Plan? Build the ‘World’s First Economic Graph,’ Says CEO.” The article describes this vision, which does sound interesting. We here at Beyond Search, though, could wish for more emphasis on search functionality, which seems to be a secondary issue for the professional networking site. Well, maybe tertiary.
King writes that LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner spoke about the company’s plans at TechCrunch Disrupt 2013. We learn from the article:
“Weiner described that LinkedIn’s current value lies its ‘professional graph,’ which explained maps the world’s professional connections through profiles and job listings. The long-term vision for the next decade, he continued, is to develop the world’s first ‘economic graph,’ or mapping the global economy digitally. ‘Increasingly, jobs are fragmented. They’re not always about full-time,’ Weiner reflected. ‘We’d like there to be a profile for every company in the world.’ . . .
“When asked by TechCrunch’s Eric Eldon about potential competitors (notably Facebook, Salesforce.com and Google) in regards to this economic graph, Weiner avoided dropping any names. But he responded that there is ‘no company right now that has the professional focus that we do.'”
Yes, LinkedIn’s focus on the professional realm is indeed what sets it apart. It is also moving into a pre-professional space, if you will, with its new university pages. The project, combined with an age limit that has been lowered to 13, aims to help students find a college that is right for them. The hope is that students who use that feature will stick with LinkedIn throughout their career. Some may complain that lowering the age limit diminishes the professionalism of the site. However, this tactic could help ensure LinkedIn’s relevance well into the future.
Cynthia Murrell, September 29, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Facebook and Google Plus Face Off in the Ring
September 7, 2013
Which social media platform is better? Google Plus and Facebook each have their pros and cons, but for a serious comparison read the article from Makeuseof.com: “The Final Showdown: Google Plus Vs. Facebook, Which One Is Really The Best?” Each social media platform is broken down into the basic functions and like an elementary school open response question they compare and contrast. A tally score is kept.
User interface goes to Google Plus, because it is slicker and looks like it was made in 2013. Facebook, by a small amount, wins the profile challenge with its Timeline function. The chat feature contest ends in a draw. Google Plus takes the lead with its circles when it comes to managing friends, plus it scores another point for its easy updating ability. Both platforms offer good ways to upload photo albums, but Google Plus seems to be easier to use.
Google fails, though, when it comes to privacy settings. We all know that Google gathers data on all its users, but managing the social networking aspect is hidden somewhere in the account settings. Facebook at least has its privacy out in the open.
The end result is that Google Plus is the winner, but:
“The main reason most of us still prefer Facebook is simple: it’s where people are. Why are people there? Probably because it was first. This is a recursive argument, because if we all move to Google+, that’s where people will be. But it’s not easy, and in the mean time, if you truly want to stay updated and have an audience, you will understandably stick to Facebook (I know I do).”
It all comes down to a matter of preference again. Does not everything?
Whitney Grace, September 07, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
LinkedIn: Content but Lost?
September 6, 2013
I read “All LinkedIn with Nowhere to Go.” The write up discusses the “glorified résumé distribution service.” I am not looking for a job. As I race towards 70 years of age, I just don’t have the stamina to keep up with the wheel reinventing younger wizards. However, lots of people do use LinkedIn. I know because I get invitations to connect with folks whom I don’t know. I also get endorsement about skills which surprise me. After working at Booz, Allen & Hamilton, I have seen some spectacular résumés only loosely anchored in reality.
The author of the write up states:
This frenetic networking-by-vague-association has bred a mordant skepticism among some users of the site. Scott Monty, head of social media for the Ford Motor Company, includes a disclaimer in the first line of his LinkedIn bio that, in any other context, would be a hilarious redundancy: “Note: I make connections only with people whom I have met.” It’s an Escher staircase masquerading as a career ladder.
And this from Ford whose in car automation system is almost as amazing as some of the LinkedIn services.
The article tackles “influencers” on LinkedIn as well:
Still, there’s a distinctly perfunctory quality to the offerings of the charmed circle of “influencers.” They often simply repost things on LinkedIn that they’ve written (or had ghostwritten, in some cases) for their personal sites. Their advice—on LinkedIn, “thoughts” almost always equal “advice”—ranges from the semi practical (embrace three digital media trends; get all of your employees on social media) to the lofty (be on a mission that doesn’t suck; search for a noble purpose) to the downright confusing (how to create time; how do careers really work?). The worst of the bunch reads like management-speak Mad Libs, such as this bit of gobbledygook about the career success ladder: “Failure to make a decision is often worse than making the wrong one. This ability is developed and honed over time based on both successes and failures,” writes one thought leader, who includes a complicated chart that is in no way ladder-like. Cue the vacuous, grammar-challenged sloganeering: “High-level thinking, problem-solving and critical decision-making is the cornerstone of long-term success.”
Then there is the notion of “thought leadership.” The author asserts:
Thanks to such fast-and-louche appropriations of the mantle of thought leadership, even its apostles are denouncing the fast-multiplying apostasies that dilute the essence of the one true faith. “In only 15 years we’ve managed to dumb down the idea of thought leadership from someone who has changed their area of business to someone who can create a marketing plan that implants the idea that they are a thought leader,” wrote sales guru Paul McCord in 2009. “When everybody’s one, nobody is one.”
Okay. I do want to point out a couple of characteristics I have noticed about LinkedIn.
First, I get spam of various sorts. The most egregious comes from recruiters who view me as a candidate for a job. Yo, recruiters! What part of my being almost 70 and residing in rural Kentucky is unknown to you? I know that LinkedIn is selling my email to these folks who just spam away. Profitable? Probably. Annoying? You bet.
Second, LinkedIn owns Slideshare. I don’t see much integration of the content on LinkedIn with the content on Slideshare. For example, the person who manages my LinkedIn presence posts the titles of my for-fee articles. We do this to see if any LinkedIn users follow up. Since we added this “content” a couple of years ago, we have received exactly zero inquiries about a full text copy. Furthermore, the input form for the content does not make it possible to list the articles in reverse chronological order. Careless? Nah. I think LinkedIn is just snagging content in the hopes that it will be useful in the future. But why not integrate the content from the two services so a person could snap between the two services, find related content, or better yet, find other LinkedIn folks who have written about a related topic? On a related note, we learned yesterday that for certain queries from behind our firewall, Slideshare would not process the query. We solved the problem by using a different Internet service and registering for a new account. Filtering? Sure seems like it to the law librarian and professional tech journalist who watched the LinkedIn system block my queries. Anomaly? Sure, why not say that?
Third, I find the entire idea of sending me emails from folks I don’t know interesting. The purpose is to get me to click a link and then try to figure out how to get past the different messages displayed to me. I usually just delete the LinkedIn emails. Too much hassle. I wonder if the youngsters whom LinkedIn is now chasing as “members” will get into the LinkedIn swimming pool. Even Facebook is less annoying says the gosling who manages my LinkedIn account.
Fourth, the content in the groups is pretty darned amazing. I see folks asking questions which can be answered via a Google or Yandex query. More interesting are the long dissertations about some topics by folks who want to show off their knowledge. I have instructed the analyst who looks at the LinkedIn content to post only questions in response to the most wacky write ups. Remarkably some people try to answer my questions. Fascinating and usually uninformed are the “answers.”
With LinkedIn chasing more money via a stock offering, I look forward to more bobbing and ducking. See “Linked In Cashing In: Social Network to Raise $1 B in Share Offering as Stock Flies High.”
In the meantime, LinkedIn will continue to make my “pulse” beat more rapidly. (See “LinkedIn’s Acquisitions of Pulse Promotes Role of Game Changer.” Wait, wait. I meant make my pulse beat more “vapidly.”
Stephen E Arnold, September 6, 2013
Social Media Can Prevent Death
September 1, 2013
In addition to exercise and therapy, there might be another way to lower the suicide rate among veterans. Benton Pena takes a look at how, “Monitoring Amicable Media To Cut A Troops Self-Murder Rate.” Big data specialists believe that by watching veterans’ amicable social media for despondency signs they will be able to intervene at the proper moment. Using analytics, the specialists would inspect thousands of posts for key terms and other red flags. Dubbed the Durkheim Project, the goal is to build algorithms to track the phrases or words that are predictive of suicide.
The way veterans use social media is a direct reflection of their attitude. It corresponds with doctors’ notes about how veterans behave, such as a healthy patient focusing on hygiene while an unhealthy one will segway the conversation onto restlessness and fears. Monitoring social media over time paints a picture of the patient’s mood.
“This kind of sundry language, as good as a shorthand used on amicable media, can be intensely severe to analyze, pronounced Sid Probstein, a arch record officer for Attivio, that is obliged for that analysis. How those phrases change over time can also be a warning sign, Probstein said, so a outrageous volume of information has to be collected from content messages, Twitter, Facebook, and other amicable media outlets and analyzed.”
Social media has become a cache all of confessions and random thoughts, sort of like journals from the days of old. Unlike private journals, which were usually kept hidden, social media can be monitored and analyzed instantly. Preventing veteran suicides is important to post-war recovery and the work by the Durkheim Projects may indeed contribute to the saving of lives.
Whitney Grace, September 01, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
LinkedIn: You Search or It Finds?
August 30, 2013
One of the ArnoldIT goslings manages my social media presence. We try to provide information via automation or by asking questions. The “Stephen E Arnold” profile provides some information, but the detail located at www.arnoldit.com/sitemap.html is not included.
I am not sure what my area of expertise is. As I approach 70 years in age, I have worked in fields as diverse as machine shop janitor to advisor to the world’s largest search and software company. Along the way, I have labored inside nuclear facilities, sat in meetings which considered the fate of Fortune 500 companies, figured out how to make an online database produce a profit, and running laps for a person with $9 billion in personal assets.
I am surprised when my social media gosling reports that people are endorsing me for a wide range of capabilities. The most popular is analytics, which is okay. But my focus in analytics is how to make money. My relative, Vladimir Ivanovich Arnold, was into fancy math, which is supposed to “run in our family.” Whatever. The people recommending me are those who are “linked” to me. My view is that when someone wants to be my LinkedIn pal, the person should be involved in some way with content processing. I don’t recall most of the people, but some of the names are familiar. I stick close to Harrod’s Creek, Kentucky, and avoid the bright lights and big city.
Am I a monkey in a cage for those who pay LinkedIn for access to my “content”? Image from Alamogordo.
I was not surprised to read “Why Am I Being Endorsed for Skills and Expertise I Do Not Claim on my Profile?” (Note: I have no idea if you will be able to view this community post on LinkedIn. Your problem to solve, not mine.)
The main point of the post is:
I am receiving notices that I have been endorsed for skills that I have not listed on my profile. I have over 20 years of experience and may done these tasks at some point, but these are not necessarily the same skills I want to highlight currently on my LinkedIn profile and I have not claimed expertise in these areas. Why are any of my contacts being asked to endorse me for skills I don’t want highlighted?
My answer to this question is, “Generate revenue.” But the most interesting item in this community thread comes from someone whom I assume is a LinkedIn employee, cheerleader, or amanuensis. Use the search function in your browser to jump to this snippet once you are in the community post I have cited, please:
Thank you all for the valuable feedback. Our team really appreciates it and we definitely take it into account as we continue to improve the user experience across all of our products and features. With that said, I wanted to clarify a few things regarding endorsements:
1. You can only be endorsed by a 1st degree connection (a LinkedIn member you already know are directly connected with), and you can always manage which endorsements to show.
Connotate Broadens Partner Program
August 28, 2013
Last year, we learned that Connotate was partnering with Digital Reasoning on social media analysis. Apparently, the partnership model is working well for the web-data company, because now Connotate’s news page announces, “Connotate Expands Partner Program to Illuminate Potential of Big Data.” A key part of the program is their Data Value Showcase, which features tools designed for large-scale data analysis. The write-up reports:
“Higher quality data produces more reliable results. This is the essence of the mutually beneficial, symbiotic relationship between Connotate – the expert in precise Web data extraction at scale – and Connotate partners, who deliver Big Data analysis and visualization solutions. . . .
“Connotate’s Data Value Showcase is a win-win for customers and solutions providers alike as it makes it easier for customers to see the nuances between different analytics tools and zero in the one they really need.”
Connotate, based in New Brunswick, New Jersey, was founded in 2000. The company strives to lead the field of web-data extraction and monitoring, providing their clients with the best possible business insights through a user-friendly platform. Connotate continues to flourish; it has been named a KMWorld “Trend-Setting Product” for the past eight years, and last year acquired Fetch Technologies. Will their expanded partnership program help accelerate the company’s ascent?
Cynthia Murrell, August 28, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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