Buzz Study

What happened with Toyota?

almitra — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:02:35 +0000

Earlier this year, Toyota announced a series of recalls for many of their most popular models. The uproar in media has definitely impacted Toyota sales, not to mention their overall reputation as America’s top selling auto brand. So what did Toyota do to manage this crisis? They took to the world of social media. Now to answer the question that everyone is dying to know: is it working?

Here we see the rise in social media activity from the end of 2009 to present day. The number of raw posts has quadrupled, hitting a high point of nearly 120,000 posts in a single day. Today’s biggest related news: The Run Away Prius.

Looking at sentiment, to the left we see an analysis of how people felt about Toyota pre-incident. To the right, you can see the influx of negativity as it increases about 30%. And it doesn’t seem to be calming down one little bit.

Above is an illustration of sentiment over time. As you can see, the red line (which depicts negativity) has yet to show a distinct decline, meaning that people are still upset and Toyota needs to try harder at resolving these issues. Hmm.. now if only they could figure out where to start…

By looking at this classification of buzz, it looks like they should start with Twitter as it is pulling in the biggest portion of the traffic. Toyota has a big following on Twitter whether they’re direct followers or not. It’s time for Toyota to accelerate and start reaching out one to one.

Hockey, Canada & the US in the 2010 “Social Olympics”

almitra — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 23:16:36 +0000

We all know that Canada triumphed this past Sunday when they beat the US 3-2 for the 2010 Olympic gold medal in hockey (here’s a video to clue you in if you didn’t know). The game itself was very intense and I found myself sitting in an airport refreshing my iphone browser trying to keep track of the game, and I don’t even care about hockey! I was more interested in seeing the impact this North American civil war was imposing in social media.

Numbers peaked on game day, cumulatively reporting upwards of over 9,000 blog, news and forum posts directly related to this final game.

Microblogging activity like that on Twitter took up nearly 60% of the chatter with numerous hashtags, RTs and banter reproducing over the internet.

It could have been the fact this is the first time in many years that anyone has doubted Canada to win the gold in hockey, but it is surprising that even with all the drama revolved around this year’s winter Olympics (the luge guy dying, the ice skater’s mother passing, etc), that hockey (as a gaming division) prevailed more talked about than any of the other categories.

Its interesting to see what sparks peoples’ wires and the issues / stories that push us to post on the internet. From the past weekend’s events, I can predict that hockey will eventually tower over football. Hey, you never know, right?

Apple iPad: What Happened in Social Media

almitra — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 23:19:19 +0000

Last week, Apple confirmed many speculations of the release of a computing tablet after announcing the launch of the Apple iPad. In wake of the news, social media felt a massive influx of iPad related posts, tweets, mashups as Apple endured praise and criticism from all over the world. Here’s a look at the social media buzz surrounding the iPad:

Activity surged on the day Steve Jobs unveiled his precious new product and nearly 400,000 bits of content were generated on the interweb on this day alone!

Apple must be doing something right upsizing the iTouch because people seem to be really into this new product. Without even getting a chance to sample the actual device, 75% of social media references have been positive.

Here we see a word analysis that shows the to terms associated with each sentiment. “Lack” was the most popular negative term and it seems that the deficiency of the usual computing features and abilities (can someone say Flash?) really tickled some nerves.

This is what it looks like to put all iPab conversations into a word cloud. Here you see that Steve Jobs was a big part of the chatter as were alleged product features. So here it is, straight from the horses mouths. People dig the iPad. Are you going to get one?

Haiti: Text to Help

lauren — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 05:22:13 +0000

As the digital world continues to develop, companies are continuously thinking of ways to better target their consumer. From iPhones to smartphones, mobile campaigns are now becoming a focus for several companies. Large brands such as Nike, are now integrating mobile campaigns into their marketing efforts. Other organizations like the American Red Cross are using the power of technology and the development of mobile phones to help relief effort abroad. The American Red Cross has developed a Text 2Help campaign to help those devastated by the earthquake in Haiti.

Haiti is known to be one of the worlds most depressed and underdeveloped countries in the world. On January 12, 2010 a massive earthquake struck the country leaving mass devastation. The magnitude 7.0 quake damaged buildings throughout the capital leaving many feared injured and dead. In addition, the debris and collapsed bridges have made access to several areas extremely difficult. However, the people of Haiti are not foreign to struggle. The country has experienced constant political battles, health crises, and environmental degradation throughout the years. On a positive note, Haiti’s government is backed by the U.N. peacekeeping mission and many are moving fast to help those in need. The outpouring support of the general public as well as organizations like the American Red Cross have helped tremendously with the relief effort.

We took a look to see what the overall sentiment was regarding Haiti.

Positive Words	Posts
good	15.3%
strong	11.5%
great	10.1%
best	9.7%
grand	6.9%
clean	4.6%
enjoy	4.2%
beautiful	4.2%
benefit	3.2%
nice	2.0%

Negative Words	Posts
poor	14.2%
problem	7.6%
bad	5.9%
difficult	5.2%
worst	4.3%
lack	3.9%
sad	3.8%
risk	3.3%
ruins	3.0%
corrupt	2.6%

You can see that ultimately people have both positive things to say about the country but also realize how poor and sad this massive earthquake has left the people of Haiti.

If you would like to support the relief effort in Haiti, you can text “Haiti” to “90999″ and a $10 donation to the American Red Cross will be made! (Donations will be taken out of your next monthly bill)Participating carries include Alltel, AT&T, Sprint-Nextel, T-Mobile, and Verizon.

Please join the many others and text to help!

Conan and Jay: Take it to the Streets (of Social Media)

almitra — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 16:33:47 +0000

Earlier this week NBC unleashed some strong arm on Conan O’Brien, threatening to push The Tonight Show to a later time slot following The Jay Leno Show in an effort to pump up Leno views. This rearrangement upset many Conan fans and the repercussions are being felt in social media.

In the past week, posts referencing the two late-night stars has nearly tripled, with huge bursts regarding Conan peaked today when he announced his refusal to play nice with NBC.

Based on this sentiment analysis of both hosts, we can see that Leno produces higher negative sentiment amongst users. Diving into categories, people are a-Tweet voicing their concerns.

With 88% of buzz hailing from Twitter, it’s no mystery that Conan O’Brien is the crowd favorite. Related hashtags (#TeamConan) are infiltrating my feed and I feel like I’m reliving the whole “Twilight Team Edward/Jacob” craze that took over a month ago. Do you think NBC execs will finally smarten up and start giving the people what they want?

Avatar’s huge in social media too

almitra — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 00:00:22 +0000

I’ve been pushing off seeing the movie that’s rumored to top Titanic as the highest grossing movie of all time. After researching the buzz in social media, I’ve finally caved in and have purchased my VIP tickets to see Avatar in 3D tonight. Here’s a peek at what people are saying about this new flick:

With nearly 40,000 blog posts written after release date, it seems these mysterious blue people are capturing what small attention span us humans currently have up for grabs.

This word sentiment analysis gives a better idea of the emotional state people were in after having seen the movie. It’s comforting to know that almost 27% of people writing thought the movie was somewhat good.

Above are frequent terms associated with all Avatar posts. I had no idea who Sam Worthington was before I pulled up this chart. I then took it upon myself to Google him and I’m glad I did. What did you think of the movie?

Social Radar Top 50 Social Brands of 2009

Adam Coomes — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 09:39:33 +0000

The Social Radar Top 50 measures the brands with the most active Web presence based on overall online conversation volume. To create the Top 50 list, we used Social Radar to analyze millions of blog posts, news feeds, forums, social networks and Twitter posts to aggregate a list of the words and brands mentioned most frequently on the Web during all of 2008 and 2009. The list measures the number of unique individuals or sources that posted content about each brand during 2009 rather than the overall number of mentions, which would be more heavily influenced by big fans who post frequently about a specific brand.

This year has certainly been interesting. Several new brands made their way to the mainstream making our 2009 Top 50 list, such as Kindle, Amazon’s hit e-book reader, and Android, Google’s mobile OS that is spreading onto smartphones like wildfire. Interestingly, Samsung and Nokia took a big hit this year, as sexier smartphones such as iPhones and Android-powered devices from HTC and Motorola gain more attention.

The list certainly shows that 2009 was the year of Social Media. Twitter moved ahead of Google to take the number 1 spot, while Facebook and MySpace made significant leaps over big brands as well. Most video game related brands were down this year as well, including Sony, Wii, Xbox, and Nintendo. It also appears TV brands all jumped this year including Disney, MTV, Fox, BBC, CNN, ESPN, and ABC.

Download the PDF:

Rank	Chg	Brand
1	(+2)	Twitter
2	(-1)	Google
3	(+6)	Facebook
4		iPhone
5	(+2)	YouTube
6	(-4)	Obama
7	(-2)	Mac
8	(-2)	Apple
9	(+3)	iPod
10	(-2)	Microsoft
11		Windows
12	(+5)	MySpace
13	(-3)	Yahoo
14	(+5)	Amazon
15	(+7)	Fox
16	(+10)	Disney
17	(+17)	BlackBerry
18	(-4)	Firefox
19	(+4)	BBC
20	(-2)	Wii
21	(-6)	Sony
22	(-1)	XBox
23	(+2)	Playstation
24	(-8)	Linux
25	(+7)	CNN
26	(+13)	MTV
27	(+8)	AT&T
28	(-15)	eBay
29	(+12)	Starbucks
30		NFL
31		Android
32	(-12)	Nokia
33	(-9)	Ford
34	(+2)	ABC
35		Skype
36	(-8)	Dell
37	(+8)	UPS
38	(-7)	Wikipedia
39	(+1)	NBA
40	(+4)	LG
41		ESPN
42		Oprah
43	(-16)	Samsung
44		NASA
45	(-12)	Nintendo
46	(-17)	Canon
47	(-4)	Nike
48		Gap
49		Kindle
50	(-13)	Intel

View the full list below, or download the PDF. For additional information about how you can analyze chatter sentiment to gauge positivity/negativity, view key words mentioned about your brand and identify key influencers, visit www.infegy.com/socialradar.

Social Radar Screenshot:

Questions or comments? Twitter me @adamcoomes.

Credit Card Statements meet Twitter

almitra — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:10:35 +0000

As everything on the internet becomes social, is it only inevitable that all of your personal information and private life matters will become available as a public offering? Would you give your 5,000 Twitter followers access to your checking account statements? There’s a new social network in town, in the form of a microblog, that is positioning their service as “A fun and easy way to see and discuss the things people are buying.” Blippy is stirring up some heated discussions on the internet and we used Social Radar to see what people are saying about this new social platform.

Blippy launched their private beta last week and got instant negative reactions as news spread through coverage from popular blogs TechCrunch and the NY Times.

With just over 30% of all related posts emitting negative emotion people don’t seem to think that Blippy is a very good basis for a microblog.

As Blippy is still only in beta, it will be interesting to see what happens as more and more people gain access to the tool. Have any of you tried it yet? What do you think of Blippy? Let us know!

AT&T and Verizon War: How is it affecting consumers?

Adam Coomes — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:40:25 +0000

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last month, you have probably been hearing about the ad battle between AT&T and Verizon that is paralleling a political campaign with constant attacking on both sides. It all started when Verizon decided to make a silly spin on iPhone “There’s an App for That” ads by making a “There’s a Map for That” ad, exploiting AT&T’s poor 3G network coverage. To fight back, AT&T decided to sue Verizon, leading to a war of attack ads back and forth that has no end in sight.

What does the consumer do in this situation? Sit back and watch in amusement? Take sides? One thing’s for certain - they’ve been talking, and Social Radar is showing us some interesting insight. Let’s take a look.

Now let’s take a look at the sentiment after the ad battle.

The sentiment appears to have effected AT&T the most severely, appearing to be a success for Verizon. But, both brands gained at least some negativity. Though this is good news for Verizon, let’s take a look at this from another perspective.

Below is a trend chart from September 1st, 2009 through today of Droid Mentions (blue line) versus Commercial/Ad Mentions (red line) within Verizon chatter.

What’s concerning here is that as soon as Verizon began to run these AT&T attack ads, chatter around their beloved Droid devices has dramatically decreased. We can see very clearly that consumers are losing focus and beginning to chat more about their commercials than the very ammunition they are using to sell against AT&T and the iPhone.

It will be interesting to see how this continues to play out. Are attack ads a good way to point out flaws of competitors or does it simply lose their consumers’ focus?

Tiger Woods: Measuring the real damage

Adam Coomes — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 22:29:16 +0000

Last week, the world received news of Tiger Woods being hospitalized with serious injury from a car accident. The world felt sorry for Tiger, wished him well, and waited in anticipation for news of his recovery. This week, the world has a different perspective. As details began to spill, the world had learned that his car accident was the result of Tiger fleeing from his wife as she chased after him, bashing his car with a golf club from news of his unfaithful behavior. How did the public react? How has the sentiment changed? Let’s do some research.

First, let’s compare the topics of conversation around Tiger Woods before news broke of his alleged affairs.

Tiger Woods Topics (Before News Broke of Affairs):

Tiger Woods Topics (After News Broke of Affairs):

Tiger Woods Sentiment Before Accident:

Tiger Woods Sentiment After News Of Affairs:

We then go on to measure which topics were being discussed the most around Tiger Woods chatter. Below are some of the topics we analyzed. We included some of the hot topics, including the names of potential mistresses being mentioned.

We also wanted to take a quick peek at the Nike. Let’s see if there’s any real effect or association of this negativity with their brand.

Tiger Woods mentions within Nike chatter

Nike Sentiment within Tiger Woods conversations

Nike BEFORE:

Nike AFTER:

Nike’s negativity did increase this past week, but not significantly. We can certainly conclude that Nike’s brand wasn’t severely affected by this mess. However, Tiger Woods’ brand certainly has been. It will be interesting to see how this plays out and how this continues to affect his brand in the coming weeks.