Best Social Monitoring Tool Depends on Who Is Asking
August 28, 2013
Confused about social media monitoring? A thread at Quora, “Which Are the Best Social Media Monitoring Tools?” suggests that like search, social media monitoring is pretty tricky. The overall consensus statement makes it clear there is no simple answer: “No overall best tool. Pick the best fit for your needs.” Hmm.
Several respondents share their thoughts. One had compared Radian6 and Sysomos, and found the latter much easier to use. Another liked Engagor for its low price point. Perhaps the most comprehensive (though admittedly promotional) answer comes from Web Liquid account executive Ben Semmar, who shares:
“[. . .] Over the past couple of months, I’ve been involved in the creation of a Social Media Monitoring Buyer’s Guide. We began with a list of over 40 vendors, and based on a variety of criteria, whittled it down to a list five ‘finalists’ that we then conducted hands-on trials with. We found that some tools perform better than other tools in certain areas (but, really, doesn’t everything?) and so we don’t proclaim one tool king of them all; suffice it to say, though, that the five tools we tested are, based on our experience with and objective evaluation of the market, the best out there. You can find the study here: http://www.webliquidgroup.com/social-media-monitoring-tool-buyers-guide.”
Note that the guide he mentions is free, but requires a name and email address to view. Semmar goes on to assert one important caveat: We have not reached the point where algorithms can make reliable judgments about which insights a business should focus on, and how to use them. Though quality monitoring software can be a useful tool, the human mind is still required to wield it. (For now.)
Cynthia Murrell, August 28, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Business Intelligence Integrates Customer Support and Social Media
August 22, 2013
Search encompasses a myriad of different components used by businesses in day-to-day operations. An article we spotted on ICMI, “Best Practice: Use Business Intelligence to Optimize Customer Service,” delves into the world of Interactive Voice Response (IVR). Unfortunately, as the article describes, many companies see IVR as an operation that can run itself once turned on.
Michael Flores, CEO of Bretton Woods published a research paper commissioned by Contact Solutions on the role and importance of properly optimized IVR systems. We learned more about the research in the referenced article:
According to the research, IVR is the first touch-point most consumers have with a company. It either facilitates a positive self-service experience, or drives consumers to opt for a more costly live agent. Unfortunately, many companies overlook the improvement potential in their IVR systems, and generally tend to consider it a “set it and forget it” technology. However, optimized IVR provides excellent, cost-effective customer service. Optimized IVR is built to increase goal completion within the automated system, but not necessarily solely to automate more customer service interactions.
Ultimately, optimizing this technology to provide a greater ROI will also benefit brand management by placing customers first. There is a company that we have been watching as they take semantic technologies into new arenas, Expert System. Their solutions poise companies who place emphasis on excellent customer service in the right direction for brand security through holistic social media monitoring and business intelligence that is semantically charged.
Megan Feil, August 22, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Fewer VCs Eye Social Media Investments
August 22, 2013
Some would say it was inevitable. Bloomberg Businessweek tells us that “The Social Media Bubble is Quietly Deflating.” After a rapid ascent to the remarkable point of capturing over 20 percent of internet-centered venture capital funding in 2011, the field has seen investments dwindle drastically. Reporter Joshua Brusetin informs us:
“Social media companies drew only 2 percent of the venture capital headed to Internet-based enterprises last quarter, according to data published on Tuesday by CB Insights, a research firm that tracks venture-capital investment. In the two-year stretch that ended in the middle of 2012, social media companies took in at least 6 percent of overall venture capital invested in Internet companies each quarter. But for three of the last four quarters, those social startups have brought in 2 percent or less (with the outlier quarter largely the result of a huge investment in Pinterest earlier this year). The peak came in the third quarter of 2011, when social companies led by Twitter took in 21 percent of the total $3.8 billion in Internet deals by venture capital firms.”
Fortunately, the slide has been more gradual than, say, the collapse of the Internet bubble of the 1990s. It is important to note that, though the social media fervor may be receding, overall investment in internet companies remains around 2011 levels. What is turning investors’ heads now? Why, big data and the cloud, of course. We shall see how long that bubble floats.
Cynthia Murrell, August 22, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Study Reveals Social Data to be Isolated in Silos
August 13, 2013
When enterprise organizations understand the value of unstructured data, and especially the value of it when it is integrated with structured data, what kind of solutions do they utilize? According to a recent study by Altimeter Group reported in “Enterprise Social Data Isolated in Departmental Silos,” 42 percent of the 35 large organizations surveyed were using business intelligence tools. Other areas where data sets converged were market research at 35 percent, CRM at 27 percent, email marketing at 27 percent and sensor data at four percent.
The main argument presented by the article is that as long as people are working in departmental silos, information and data will be first and foremost stored in a way that parallels how people are organized.
We learned more about why some organizations face challenges when integrating data:
The report also revealed it’s not always easy to integrate this data, attributing the issue to the fact that so many organizational departments touch the data, ‘all with varying perspectives on the information,’ the article states, adding: ‘The report also notes the numerous nuances within social data make it problematic to apply general metrics across the board and, in many organizations, social data doesn’t carry the same credibility as its enterprise counterpart.’
We know that one company, Expert System, would have quite the rebuttal to this argument that unstructured data may not be worthy across the board for all departments. Their solution Cogito Intelligence API yields insights and actionable information after parsing both structured and structured data while using sentiment analysis and natural language processing technologies.
Megan Feil, August 13, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Social Media Disorganization at State Department
August 6, 2013
Well, that’s a novel use of taxpayer money. Australia’s News.com reveals, “U.S. State Department Spent $690,000 to ‘Buy’ Facebook ‘Likes’.”(That’s about $630,000 in U.S. dollars.) According to a report from the U.S. State Department‘s Inspector General, over the last three years the agency spent this money to buy social-media “likes.” Perhaps one can buy love?
Er, not really. The tactic did not work well, even before Facebook started charging to push content to a page’s fans as well as non-fans. The practice ceased only when the change at the social site prompted a change in strategy. Actually it turns out that “strategy” is too strong a word. The write-up tells us:
“The report also stated that the bureau did not have a social media strategy. Various State Department bureaus had over 150 social media accounts that were uncoordinated and often overlapping.”
That is discouraging; no wonder there was trouble. The article specifies:
“The State Department’s Facebook page likes increased during the spending from 100,000 to more than 2 million and to 450,000 on Facebook’s foreign-language pages.
“Despite the increase, the IG said the spending did not reach the bureau’s target audience, mainly older and more influential people. Only about 2 per cent of the department’s fans engaged with the pages by liking, sharing or commenting.”
The Inspector General also reports that many in the Department’s Bureau of International Information Programs, the division responsible for the non-existent social media strategy, voiced objections to the approach. That is something. Perhaps their voices will be heard as the agency develops that strategy, as they surely must be doing after this misstep. Right?
Cynthia Murrell, August 06, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Spotter Makes its Name with Sarcasm
August 5, 2013
While we are generally cheerleaders for all things big data and analytics, we are not blind to its weaknesses. One major weakness of most big data platforms would give it a devil of a time parsing much from, say, an episode of Seinfeld. That’s right, we’re talking about its inability to detect sarcasm. However, Slashdot thinks it might have the answer, according to the recent article: “Tech Companies Looking into Sarcasm Detection.”
According to the story:
Spotter’s platform scans social media and other sources to create reputation reports for clients such as the EU Commission and Air France. As with most analytics packages that determine popular sentiment, the software parses semantics, heuristics and linguistics. However, automated data-analytics systems often have a difficult time with some of the more nuanced elements of human speech, such as sarcasm and irony — an issue that Spotter has apparently overcome to some degree, although company executives admit that their solution isn’t perfect. (Duh.)
Spotter is really making a name for itself. We fell in love with the company a long while ago, after an Arnold IT interview set the tone. This is a sharp company and if their sarcasm detection comes through, they’ll be industry leaders.
Patrick Roland, August 05, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
IBM and the Social Analytics Push
July 25, 2013
IBM is fashionably late to the social-media-analytics game, and Slashdot touches on some factors that pose a challenge to the tech giant in, “IBM Pushing New Social Analytics Software.” Writer Nick Kolakowski informs us that the company is launching several new cloud-based social tools, including its Social Media Analytics platform.
The article asserts the new tools are a response to Salesforce’s Marketing Cloud, and suggests that Google‘s and Oracle‘s forays into social analytics similarly prodded IBM. However, I suspect the company has been eyeing the social space for some time, but felt no compunction to rush in before it was ready.
Kolakowski enumerates some of the obstructions for IBM in this arena:
“But IBM faces a crowded marketplace, with new and well-funded competitors arising from unexpected directions. Last week, reports emerged that IBM is locked in battle with Amazon over a cloud-computing contract for the CIA. Although Amazon boasts a well-established presence as a provider of cloud services to businesses, it’s a relative newcomer to the federal-computing space where IBM has operated comfortably for years; and given its technology and resources, it could definitely give IBM some headaches if the two end up fighting for the same contracts.
“If that wasn’t enough, IBM faces a new challenge from GE, which is rapidly expanding into healthcare analytics and the so-called ‘Industrial Internet.’ Given GE’s capitalization and reputation for innovation, it could also go toe-to-toe with IBM for customers.”
Yes, IBM has competition in the social media arena, and it will be interesting to see how it moves forward here. Even if it does not dominate the market, Big Blue is sure to capture a wedge of the pie (chart) large enough to keep it satisfied.
Cynthia Murrell, July 25, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Taming the Analytic Fire Hose of Twitter
July 24, 2013
If anything, Twitter is less a social media portal and more of an informational fire hose. The data that comes barreling through that outlet has been a horse no digital cowboy could break. However, we are starting to see promising signs of tools to do just that, according to a recent All Twitter article, “FirstRain Unveils First Tweets, Bringing Curated Twitter Intelligence to Sales Teams.”
According to the story:
“FirstRain’s FirstTweets bills itself as ’the world’s first solution for extracting business-relevant Twitter intelligence for sales, marketing and senior leadership teams.’”
The product filters out 99.9% of the Twitter fire hose to deliver only the most relevant Twitter intelligence directly into businesses’ CRM software and social enterprise platforms.
As anyone who’s used Twitter before, especially on behalf of a large brand, knows, it can be incredibly time-consuming to weed through hundreds of thousands of tweets to determine which to respond to, which accounts to cultivate relationships with, and what’s being said about your business on an hourly basis.
We are really excited to see this in action. However, we are cautiously optimistic. We’ve seen too many other social media analytics opportunities not live up to the billing. However, if FirstRain can pull it off, this will be on everyone’s wish list.
Patrick Roland, July 24, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Clarabridge and Brandwatch Partner Up and Promise More Sophisticated Customer Analytics
July 21, 2013
The article on Contact Centre Live titled Clarabridge Partners with Brandwatch to Extend its Clarabridge Social Solutions addresses the partnership between the Customer Experience Management provider Clarabridge and the global analytics provider Brandwatch. The two companies believe their integration will deliver the resources to gain a holistic understanding of any given business’s customer base. CEO of Clarabridge Sid Banerjee commented,
“Clarabridge has been and continues to be the pioneer in multi-source customer experience management for the Global 1000. Our partnership with Brandwatch provides our customers with an integrated end-to-end solution for social media, further expanding our Clarabridge Social offering. The level of rich social media data provided by Brandwatch, coupled with the intelligent analytics and operational capabilities of Clarabridge, adds up to the most sophisticated CEM hub available on the market and that is incredibly beneficial to our customers.”
The two companies bring different technological advances to the table. Brandwatch is able to capture data from millions of sites in over 25 languages and is able to filter out the irrelevant data, refining searches. Clarabridge, which seems to have moved beyond its original market, offers a method of skipping past social posts without merit and discover the insightful posts buried beneath the spam.
Chelsea Kerwin, July 21, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Excluding Business Services: LinkedIn Deletes a Content Space
June 20, 2013
Is this censorship? It is difficult to search for something when the content is not in the index. NBC News reports, “Frisky Business? LinkedIn Evicts Little-Known ‘Red Light District’.” The media hubbub began with what a representative calls a small clarification in the site’s policy statement: “Even if it is legal where you are located, [don’t] create profiles or provide content that promotes escort services or prostitution.”
We sympathize. Understandably, LinkedIn does not want to be confused with Craigslist. Still, if a profession is legal where practiced, should the site really bar its practitioners from its hallowed pages? Writer Helen A.S. Popkin consulted brothel-owner Dennis Hof of Nevada, where the vocation is aboveboard:
“‘What’s the problem? We have a license to do this,’ said Hof, whose employees also have LinkedIn accounts. ‘Our business is as legal as theirs. . . .'”
Hof hopes LinkedIn doesn’t try to remove his account, or the accounts of his employees. ‘If it’s OK to do that, is it OK to drop Dairy Queen too because it serves too much fat and calories? Is LinkedIn going to be the moral arbiter, and drop Coca-Cola or anybody who works for a cigarette company? Where do you stop with that?'”
I think LinkedIn is actually pretty clear on where it, specifically, stops with that. I’m sure the site is simply protecting its reputation and working to maintain what it considers a professional tone. Still, barring a law-abiding businessperson just because the company doesn’t like the occupation. . . . Hmm.
Cynthia Murrell, June 20, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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