Battle of the Brands: Angelina Jolie vs Bacon

Friday, July 30th, 2010

Angelina Jolie and Bacon. Both loved by many for many reasons, and disliked by few for few reasons. Which has more guts? Which has more glory? Which is the stronger contender?  The only way to tell is with…

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Battle of the Brands!!
Using only the thousands of social media opinions generated by their fans as their weapons, we have analyzed, samplized, sentimentalyzed, and contentalyzed them. The person to win the most of 7 matches will be declared the victor. Let us begin.
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The Cool Factor: Who wins the battle of hip, cool, and fashionable?
Angelina: 39% of conversations talking about the cool factor say that Angelina has it. But, another 5% say she doesn’t.
Bacon: 19% of conversations put bacon on the cool list. Oh, sorry bacon!
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Advertising: Who has the best advertising campaigns?
Angelina: 30% of opinions are in favor of her advertising.
Bacon: 50% of opinions are in favor of bacon advertising. Mmmm, drooling at the photo…
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Emotions: Who makes peoples knees sink with eternal, undying love?
Angelina: 35% of emotions towards Angelina are positive
Bacon: 31% of emotions towards bacon are positive. So close, it’s pretty much a tie right now!
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Anticipation: Who makes us wait desperately for more, MORE, MORE!
Angelina: 39% of opinions are desperately wanting more.
Bacon: 35% of opinions are wanting more. Again, it’s a tie, but bacon is trailing oh so slightly both times…
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Shape: Who is more shapely?
Angelina: 39% of opinions like the shape of this fine, lookin’ lady.
Bacon: 16% of opinions like the shape of bacon. But really, who are these people who care about the shape of bacon?
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Breakfast: Who would you like to have for breakfast?
Angelina: 67% of opinions towards having Angelina over for breakfast are positive. Wow, how can bacon beat this?
Bacon: 26% of opinions are in favor of a bacon breakfast.
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Yummy: Who’s the yummiest?
Angelina: 67% positive is a huge score to beat and bacon really needs this one.
Bacon: 43% positive is a good score but it just won’t cut it in this war.

Well, with a score of 4 to 1, and 2 ties, … the winner is Angelina!

Sorry bacon, but you’ll just have to sizzle in the oven a little longer if you want to beat Angelina.

EvoPlay aims to sell brands on the utility of social media research

Monday, July 26th, 2010

From Research Live
By Brian Tarran
July 26, 2010

Excerpt:

“Social media may be a big hit with consumers, but brands are not entirely sold yet on the potential of social media research – a state of affairs Conversition is hoping to change with a new data visualisation app.

The social media research agency today launched EvoPlay to encourage brand owners to explore the type of data available to them via the web.

Co-founder Tessie Ting said “there is still a lot of reluctance” to the idea of using data from blogs, forums and social networks – what the company refers to as “social media data” – in place of the more traditional market research data sets.”

Click here for the rest of the story

Conversition Strategies launches EvoPlay, a consumer friendly social media exploration tool

Friday, July 23rd, 2010

For Immediate Release

New York, NY, July 23, 2010 – Conversition Strategies, the developer of social media research product evolisten™ and www.tweetfeel.com, has launched EvoPlay, a social media exploration tool for consumers.

Unlike evolisten™ which has been specifically designed for researchers, and tweetfeel which has been designed for  instant twitter analysis, EvoPlay is a free tool that consumers and brands alike can use to visualize sentiment across the entire internet space. Based on the most topical brands, the tool presents sentiment and conversation topics and provides a taste of social media research in a fun way. Sentiment can be displayed over limited time period allowing consumers to see brands rise and fall as marketing campaigns succeed and fail.

“The scientific principles of social media research can be intimidating, but this tool helps people see it in a more basic form by creating an engaging experience,” states Tessie Ting, co-founder of Conversition.  Jean Davis says, “This new tool will allow people to get inside the data and really experience what social media research is all about. Not just Twitter, not just Facebook, but the entire internet space.”

About Conversition Strategies:

Conversition Strategies is a boutique online market research firm based in the US (Conversition Strategies Limited) and Canada (Conversition Strategies Incorporated).  Conversition listens to consumers by applying scientific principles to the collection and analysis of social media data. Its strength lies in combining the expertise of globally respected market researchers with social media mavens.

For more information, please contact:

Jean Davis
Conversition | By researchers, For researchers

Introducing EvoPlay: A new way to look like you’re working when really you’re playing

Friday, July 23rd, 2010

Sentiment, sentiment, everywhere!

Today, we introduce to you, fresh out of the box…. EvoPlay! A fun new visualization for watching how people talk about brands and people online. If you love trying things out for yourself, there’s no need to go any further. Check out EvoPlay for yourself right now. Go! Now! For those who prefer a little bit of handholding, there’s no shame in that! Let’s take a quick walk together and see the cool things you can try.

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1) Welcome to EvoPlay! Simply click on the black arrow to begin.

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2) What brand interests you? A person? A product? A movie? Make your choice here by clicking on the name. That in itself is a bit of fun! (Enough already, I want to play now!)

3) Wooooohhhhh, coooooool. The bubbles disappear into the screen or fly crashing into your face! These represent just a small sample of the thousands or millions of conversations out there. Imagine if you could see them all! Click on one to see the conversation it represents. (OK, OK, Let me play now!)

4) What are the conversations about? Right now, conversations about all of these topics are showing. Click on one to see what the bubble stream looks like for it! Are most of the conversations about humor? Or are they about recommendations? It’s up to you to find out! (I got it now, let me play!)

5) Where are these conversations coming from? Right now, everywhere! Click on a checkmark so that conversations from there disappear! Try turning on one data source or two or more. See if there are conversations happening in each of the places. See where many or few conversations are taking place. (Cooooool, let me play now!)

6) What do the colors mean? Well, red is always negative. And here, yellow means positive. Sure, we could have made green mean positive, but then it would just look like Christmas all year round.  Perhaps that’s not so bad? (Christmas present? Let me play now!)

7) Want to fly through space yourself? Click on the black button and drag yourself forward and backward though time. It’s yours to discover. Just don’t blame the motion sickness on us! (I figured that out by myself, I’m going to play now!)

Want to try another brand? Simply click on left arrow at the bottom of your screen and choose another brand. Is there a brand you’d like to see here? Just send us a note, or a leave a comment here, and we might pick your favorite! Are you ready to begin??

I WANT TO PLAY NOW!!!!!

Flipboard Day 2: Server crashes and failed connections bow to true love

Friday, July 23rd, 2010

We heard it all yesterday. The amazing, brilliant, stunning, and incredible Flipboard for the iPad had a few problems from server overloads to failed connections with twitter and facebook. Did that phase people at all? Let’s have a look at the most recent online conversations to see how consumer sentiment changed since yesterday.

• Overall sentiment: A very slight decrease from 61% positive to 58% positive with 3% (as opposed to 0%) of opinions now in the negative zone. The problems with crashing and connection failures may have bothered a few people, but they just couldn’t damper overall spirits. The Flipboard is still “amazing,” “awesome,” “brilliant,” and “incredible.”
• Recommendations: Remained stable at 58% positive. The app still comes highly recommended as the “greatest” thing since the last greatest thing.
• Ease of use: Decreased from 70% positive to 62% positive. This is a noticeable decline but still stunningly high given that 30% positive is a score most brands would hope to achieve.
• Fashionable: Decreased from 79% positive to 74% positive. A small decline but not nearly enough to take away from the app being “beautiful,” “sleek” and “very cool.”
• eReader: Decreased from 68% positive to 64% positive. Today, we also saw 2% of the opinions fall into the negative zone, but overall, people like the app as an ereader.
• Facebook: A small decrease from 68% positive to 65% positive. And, today brought 1% of scores into the negative zone, again likely because of the connection issues. People like how the works with facebook.
• Twitter: Another small decrease from 65% positive to 61% positive, plus 1% of scores in the negatives also because of the connection issues. People still like how the app works with twitter.

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For the most part, scores decreased by several points. However, since the average positive score for most brands is around 30%, the fact that Flipboard is still registering scores in the mid to high 60s, even after a decline from day 1 is a stunning achievement. With negative opinions reflecting only 1% or 2% of overall opinions, the Flipboard seems to have continued its winning streak directly into day 2.

Apparently, even the crashes and failed connections are unable to counter the boxes of chocolates and bouquets of roses that are being handed to this pretty little app.
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Links you might be interested in:
Flipboard on EvoPlay
Flipboard – The greatest thing since, well, the iPad came out
Conversition on Facebook

Photo credit: hotblack from morguefile.com

How to overcome your fear of social media research

Thursday, July 22nd, 2010

Photo credit: chelle from morguefile.com

Social media research has stepped out of the shadows and into the limelight. Phrases like sentiment analysis, content analysis, text analysis, microblogs,  and web 2.0 have begun to clog up our already over-flowing research dictionaries and caused us to question this strange beast. How can market researchers possibly make sense of it given that it is completely different than anything we’ve seen before?

Let’s consider a few points:

• If you have uploaded survey data into SPSS, you already know how to upload social media research data into SPSS
• If you have used survey data sets with numeric and string variables, you already know what a social media research data set looks like
• If you have selected variables, grouped cases, and run SPSS crosstabs with survey data, you already know how to do those things with social media research data
• If you have built a frequency bar chart or tracking line chart using survey data, you already know how to do it for social media research data
• If you have read survey verbatims before, you already know what you’re looking for in social media research verbatims
• If you have drawn conclusions from survey data before….. why haven’t you transferred your expertise to social media research yet?

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Bet you didn’t know you’re already an expert in analyzing social media data.

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Other blogs that might interest you:
10 things you need to know about social media research
Annie Pettit Discusses Social Media Research at the ARF Audience Measurement conference
Social Media Research: Conversition’s Presentation at MRA Boston
Conversition on Facebook

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10 things you need to know about social media research

Monday, July 19th, 2010

The Good

1. Anyone can benefit from social media research even if you have no social media presence. You can research your own brand, your competitors’ brand, the category, or the industry.
2. You can measure far more types of information than the longest survey can. When your survey must be cut-off at 60 questions or 60 minutes, social media research answers questions that might require a 10 hour survey.
3. You can listen to the voice of the consumer in their own, real, unfiltered words. Unlike surveys and focus groups where consumers may clean up their voice, or try to conceal hatred or indifference, genuineness is clear and strong in social media research.
4. You can measure data using any scale imaginable. 2 points, 5 points, 10 points, 100 points. Your wish is our command.
5. You can impress your boss with the statement that you are using data fusion technologies to combine the insights of survey research with those of social media research.

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Photo credit: snowbear from morguefile.com
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The Bad

1. You need to sample your data sources properly, or you won’t be able to predict to the general population of internet users
2. You can’t measure incidence. Just because people don’t say they are using your brand, doesn’t mean they aren’t using it. They just haven’t said so.
3. You can’t measure awareness. Just because people aren’t talking about your brand online, doesn’t mean they haven’t heard of it. They just don’t talk about it.
4. Because most people don’t share their personally identifying information when they contribute online, demographic and geographic is less precise than what you are used to with surveys or focus groups.
5. The validity of sentiment and text analysis differs by vendor. Users of social media research need to ask their provider how they validate their results.

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Buyer beware. Buyer be smart.

Coke it is! Or not. I’m not sure. I can’t tell.

Tuesday, July 13th, 2010

Last but not least, here is our third installment of social media research data quality blunders. Whether you prefer Coke or Pepsi, this one is sure to tickle your fancy.
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After gathering thousands of verbatims from all across the internet, we created a word cloud that would help us determine what are the other types of beverages and brands of beverages that Coke drinkers mention a lot. Obviously, Diet Coke and Cherry Coke are bigs hits, as are Pepsi and Minute Maid. But if you’ve read the last two blogs, you know where we’re going with this.

What exactly would the word cloud look like if we only used words that didn’t actually mean Coca-Cola the delightful bubbly beverage? Prepare to look away if you’re easily shocked. Somehow, if we don’t put any effort into collecting quality, relevant data, we collect a lot of data referencing illegal drugs. Cocaine, marijuana, heroin, and meth rise to the top of the data. I can’t say for sure, but my guess is that Coca-Cola wouldn’t care to have this data affect their results. But that’s just my opinion.

Like this blog? Here are two others in a similar vein.
Apple pie, Apple orchard, Apple cider, or Apple iPad
British Petroleum, Brad Pitt, Blood Pressure, or Basis Points?

How to choose between human coders and automated coders

Thursday, June 3rd, 2010

Photo credit: cohdra from morguefile.com

In the right hands, text analytics can turn a nightmare into a dream come true. With the increasing popularity of social media research, companies are regularly collecting thousands, and even millions, of verbatims that require analysis. On the other hand, human coders have been carrying out text analytics for decades now, and in particular, why use automated systems when humans are doing the job so well?

Here are some guidelines to help you decide which method is right for you.

1. Sample sizes – Sample size will likely be the most prominent variable in choosing a method. If you’re working with thousands or millions of verbatims, automated systems are your best friend. On the other hand, databases of several hundred verbatims are best done by hand. Remember, even if an automated system is used on a small dataset, you would still end up reading every verbatim to get a human flavor for the data. If you’re going to read every verbatim, you might as well do the analysis by hand.
2. Number of constructs – If you normally use only a small number of predefined constructs, the human method is works great. Coders can easily remember all the intricacies of the coding scheme if it is strict and well-defined. And of course, it’s fun and interesting to get your hands right in there. But, if the research plan uses coding systems with hundreds or thousands of constructs, it is simply impossible for coders to remember all of them with sufficient within or between-rater reliability. Automated systems can really ease this process.
3. New constructs – Are you open to discovering and implementing any number of new constructs? If you’re open to adding a handful of new constructs, then automated systems won’t make it much easier for you and you will be happy with your standard manual processes. But, if you want to be surprised and see where the data takes you, automated systems can provide that.
4. Timing – This is the business world, after all. Are you in a rush? Are the results required yesterday? Well, if the data is already in a clean, computerized format, an automated system will work nicely. But, if your data consists of 20 sets of handwritten notes, most of which are barely legible, you might prefer the brain power of human coders who can turn scribbles into codes without any intervening translations.
5. Coder reliability – Are you able to train and retain enough reliable coders? If you have a good team of trusty reliable coders, then keep them happy. They are valuable people who should be treated with kid gloves! But, if you’re having trouble finding those gems, an automated system will ensure that a high level of within-rater and between-rater reliability is maintained. It will even eliminate within-pair compromise.

In the end, you must choose the system that works best for you. Whether automated or human, one method with have the pros and cons that suit your specific needs. Choose well!

Why Lee Won

Thursday, May 27th, 2010

After intense competition between Lee Dewyze and Crystal Bowersox for the title of 2010 American Idol, Lee took home the title. It was a battle between reflective, general competence and quirky, stylistic competence, and general competence is what the American people wanted this time. Though an obvious majority of idol fans are delighted that Lee won, another group of people are wondering how could this possibly happen. Well, here is the final answer on Why Lee Won.

First, let’s have a look at how Lee and Crystal have been doing on a weekly basis. The chart shows the percentage of opinions that were positive towards Lee and towards Crystal. Since the beginning of March, they have shared the top spot, but Lee has taken that spot on a more consistent basis.

Lee: Emotions towards the two contestants were fairly similar. About 48% of people had positive feelings towards Lee (as opposed to neutral or negative) while about 47% of people had positive emotions towards Crystal.

Lee: Recommendations for the two contestants were slightly higher for Lee. 43% of recommendations for Lee were positive as opposed to 39% for Crystal.

Lee: Physical appearance played a role as Lee generated 43% positive opinions about his looks while Crystal only generated 37% positive opinions about her looks.

Crystal: It could have been Crystal’s wacky locks that pulled her down but it wasn’t. Opinions about her hair generated 39% approval while opinions about Lee’s hair, as ordinary as it is, generated 36% positive opinions.

Lee: Crystal clearly had an issue with her discolored teeth and this also contributed to her physical appearance scores. But, many people were able to get past that as 24% of opinions about her teeth were positive while 29% of opinions about Lee’s teeth were positive.

Lee: Regardless of how true, Crystals disheveled hair and discolored teeth contributed to an overall opinion about cleanliness. Crystal generated only 34% positive scores in this regard while Lee generated 43% positive scores.

Lee: Crystal’s unique personality did not go unnoticed as 20% of people approved of her quirkiness. But, the calm, even personality of Lee was more desired as 39% as opinions about Lee’s emotional stability generated positive scores.

Lee: Lee’s quietness was very appealing to people as he generated a 47% positive score compared to Crystal’s 30% positive score.

Crystal: Not surprisingly, Crystal generated much higher new and different scores, with 50% positive opinions compared to Lee’s 42% positive opinions.

Crystal: And, Crystal definitely owned the ‘cool’ factor as she generated 55% approval compared to Lee’s 47% approval in this area.

Crystal: Crystal was also felt to be far better at selecting songs with 69% approval compared to 51% approval for Lee.

Crystal: These unique Crystal characteristics led to her generating slightly higher anticipation scores. Crystal generated 50% positive opinions while Lee generated 47% positive opinions.

Given that these are the areas generating the most differences between Lee and Crystal, one thing becomes clear. You might think appearances don’t matter, but that is Why Lee Won.