Audience Intelligence Blog

Pulsar Introduces Advanced Data Filters

Cierra — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

We have recently shared the news about the launch of social media panels in Pulsar. We are happy to announce another development that will help you make the most of your social data. In addition to looking at specific panels, you can now sort your data with 2 new filters: Gender Ability to filter conversations by the gender of the author. Using this filter you can now select conversations from male or female authors and from entities (such as companies or organisations). City This new location filter allows you select data from specific cities present in your dataset. Just start typing in the City/Town form and a list of active cities in your dataset will show up. Country OR Language Clusters These new filters give you even more options and flexibility to analyse data in Pulsar, enabling you to gain an in-depth understanding of your social audience. If you are not a Pulsar user yet and would like to book a personal demo of the platform, please get in touch with us at info@pulsarplatform.com.

Who Am I on Twitter? How To Analyse Your Own Data Archive

admin — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

cc http://thesocialchic.com/2014/01/14/how-to-export-and-analyze-your-twitter-archive/ on regular expressions [more intro] In this post I'll share 5 easy ways to get started analysing your own Twitter data, and the cool things you can learn in just 15-20 minutes. Why analyse your own Twitter data? Lots of reasons!

See what you've been paying attention to in 2014 - e.g. use the links you've shared to record and remember the most interesting articles you've read
You're into quantified self and life-hacks: your favourite apps are My Fitness Pal and Trello. By analysing your tweets, you can quickly find ways to tweet more effectively - e.g. to get more retweets and build your reputation in your professional field
You want to become a social media researcher. We'd definitely be impressed by the initiative of somone who approached us with a smart analysis of their own data as an example of their analytical thinking and self-taught skills
You're concerned about your personal privacy - so find out what can be deduced from the data you're sharing publicly
Minor narcissism
General nerdery

For me I think it's about understanding who I am online. Is it who I thought I was being? Who I want to be? I spend a lot of time on Twitter (as my 28,000 tweets as @hautepop attest) and it's a significant part of my life. Let's make sure I'm being the person I want to be in this space - that I'm putting a good face forward, not something boring or narrow-minded or or snarky. The spectre of personal branding rears its face! But so be it. Does that sound worthwhile? If so, what do you need to analyse my own Twitter data?

No programming skills - hoorah!
No money - even better!
A Twitter account
Microsoft Excel for pivot tables (or Google Sheets should work too, and is free)

What I'll be doing in this blog post is walking you through 5 quick, simple and insightful analyses you can do using your Twitter Archive data. Hang on, what's that? Much as it sounds, it's the data export of all your tweets - or about the last 3000 of them, at any rate. Why use Twitter archive data? Good question. There are lots of great free tools out there for analysing your own Twitter account, such as Followerwonk or Unfollowers.me for audiences, ____ ior ____. But this Twitter archive data has some nice information in it that you can't get anywhere else. It comes from Ads.Twitter.com, the advertising side of Twitter where brands build their marketing campaigns. That means it includes data fields that brands care about, such as impressions or reach (the number of people who see each tweets), and % engagement (how many people who see that tweet do something, e.g. RT or favourite it?) You can't find these things out anywhere else - that's why Twitter Analytics data is interesting. First steps:

Log in to Twitter, then go to http://Ads.Twitter.com
Pretend you're a brand for 2 minutes, and set up your account as though you want to run ads on Twitter (no credit card required, no actual need to do any advertising either.)
Click on 'Your Tweet Activity' in the menu
Click on data export, and you'll get around your last 3000 tweets downloading as a .CSV file [Can you get all of it from Settings?]
Open that file in Excel and save it in your Documents folder as a .XLS. Ready to go!

On to the analysis [5 analyses - What do I tweet about overall? How do I tweet (originals, @replies, sharing links, quotes) What were my most popular tweets? (Impressions, Engagement, Favourites) How can I be more popular on Twitter? (Code top mentions) What shouldn't I bother tweeting? (0% engagement) Analyse my Twitter followers & how we interact (this is mostly in Ads.Twitter.com, but also who you @reply most often) Next steps Here are 5 less well known tools that will enable you to dig deeper into your own social media activity: Mention Mapp (https://www.mentionmapp.com) visualises the people you talk to. This is a technique called Social Network Analysis, which usually requires more advanced tools like API calls and Gephi (or at least the NodeXL Excel plug-in, and some patience). Tweet Stats (http://www.tweetstats.com/) shows you your tweets per hour and tweets per month on a nice "time density" visualisation. This can be alarming - it shows how much I tweet in the l

New Pulsar feature: Historics preview

admin — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Historics

The historics preview option allows you to preview your historical data order and see the volume of mentions it's likely to bring back.

A blue progress bar shows you that the stats are being calculated. These may take up to a few minutes to return and will come in two estimates split by channel, so please do take the time to wait for both.

Once ready, the expected contents will be shown in the search status section. You will also receive two emails notifying you of the expected contents and the next steps you can take.

New Search Setup Process

We have streamlined the Search Setup process so that you can get new searches up and running as fast as possible and get more control over your search definitions.

After you've specified your Keywords, Blacklist and Target (which have remained unchanged) you now go to a Summary page which summarises the details of the search you want to launch. If you are happy with this you can click on "OK, Create this search", and you'll be taken to the Status page. There you can specify whether you want to collect Realtime data, or Historics data (with Preview), or both.

Once the search has been created, and the data collection has been launched, the Summary page will be accessible from the left side menu in the search settings. It will replace "Keywords, Target and Blacklist", which are now only Steps in the Search Setup Wizard and are all summarised in the Summary Page.

We hope you find these new features useful in helping you get the most from Pulsar. If you have any questions, please email: Jamie.Watson@facegroup.com and he can give you a call to discuss further.

Otherwise please do keep in touch about how you're finding using these features. Your feedback is invaluable in helping us create new features and improve existing functionality.

How Twitter drives the news agenda

admin — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Yesterday my friend's tweet about fancying the new Greek finance minister ended up on TV network Russia Today. This felt... very contemporary. Let's unpack what happened to see what we can learn about how old and new medias today work. Original tweet (link) Guardian liveblog (link) Greek press coverage (link) Russia Today video 2. The media quote tweets to get a sense of grass roots authenticity It's a media running a bit scared of the shift in media from old to new, print to online, TV to YouTube and social. They're afraid of looking irrelevant and out of touch. Quoting some tweets is a pou It's a media short of time and budget to go out and interview people Looking This is dangerous - it allows algorithmic sorting such as Twitter's Top Tweets to be over-interpreted as public opinion. Top Tweets aren't the most representative tweets at all. They're just a mix of the most retweeted and what's popular in your network. Top Tweets is all about fec (If you want proper social media public opinion, you need Twitter Firehose and 100% sample x a hefty understanding of Twitter's psycho- and demographics vs. the electorate. Pulsar's got the first part and our researchers the second... Anyway.) 3. But still get things wrong. Over to Michael on this: "just make sure you mention that in practically every instance my words – which are REALLY OBVIOUSLY pro-varoufakis – have been somehow used to illustrate the 'varoufakis a shambles!' line. it's really quite annoying." Michael even had to issue a clarification tweet in frustration. This shows how lazy and/or deadline-driven journalism is now: with tweets so helpfully written down in black & white, editors don't feel the need to check with the author what they actually meant. Given the condensedness of the form, perhaps they should do this more. 4 .Context collapse The mis-interpretation [note to self: check there was one 4. The social media search for authentic consumer opinion isn't new We saw this back in 2012, working on mobile and financial sector clients. Any time a mobile tariff rose or a bank's website went out, the news would be full of articles quoting angry forum users. 5. Tweets living outside Twitter is the core of Twitter's business model December's Monthly Active Users figure of 284 million was widely held as a disappointment - it proved that Twitter's now smaller than Instagram. Twitter CEO Dick Costelo responded with a rather clever blog post that argued that users didn't count so much as audiences - not social media volume, but reach. And Twitter had an audience 5x bigger than its userbase, he said... ...because of how tweets make the evening news. 6. Can feedback on politicians swing the general election? 7. The democratisation of shallowness: not just men getting comment on what htey're wearing However we might read this as kind of a power-play: putting Varoufakis in his place (as the Guardian's fashion blog tries to). Like women in politics, he is an other and outsider (a radical, a philosopher) and so he's subject to the same social policing as women. ENDING QUOTES Guardian ocmment: "A greek proverb says "Τα ράσα δεν κάνουν τον παπα", which in free translation would be "The clerical robe doesn't make someone a priest". [...] 2015 and society is still caught in autocratic dress code protocols. How behind! Love the jacket!" Another comment: "Putting your opponent off balance is a time honoured negotiating technique. He is also telling his opponent that he is a PhD and a world known economist who doesn't need to impress by getting into a costume. [...] This man is an expert in game theory so we should assume he has thought about what he is doing." We might actually note that dressing in a casual, everyman style is not exactly unknown in British politics - instead, our own radical (from the other side of the political spectrum), UKIP's Nigel Farage, is playing a similar everyman game - to not dissimilar success. Of course Farage is a former stockbroker and Varoufakis an academic philosopher - so it seems costume can be quite effective in spinning public opinion. CONCLUSION Twitter has enabled the public to speak truth to politicians (a bit), and occasionally they may be listening.

Facebook Topic Data: 3 ways the tech and marketing industries misunderstood the announcement

admin — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

What do people talk about when they talk about Facebook Topics data? We tracked the announcement with Pulsar to find out. 17,347 posts later, we visualised the discussion and found 3 suprising misunderstandings... Pulsar data visualisation of key topics in the Facebook Topics Data announcement 1. The Facebook Firehose? Not exactly Mashable and TechCrunch's headlines drove the "Firehose" angle and the term picked up a chunky 4830 mentions - 28% of total buzz. Problem is, err, Facebook Topics Data isn't a Firehose - an API providing a 100% coverage stream of every single piece of content created on the platform. Instead what Facebook are offering are aggregated analytics - not the posts themselves, but statistics (demographics, topics and so on) derived from this data. So that's a pretty big misunderstanding in public perceptions. 2. Facebook Topics Data isn't just an advertising tool "Advertisers" lead with 4,005 mentions, vs. "marketing" (1,931 mentions) and "marketers" (1521 mentions). Which is again interesting, because again the point of Topics Data is that it's not a datasource to use for ad targeting. Instead note Facebook's announcement and the focus on [quote] 3. Third misunderstanding Learn more ____

Cricket World Cup: What Twitter has told us so far

Cierra — Mon, 23 Mar 2015 12:46:22 +0000

With one of the worlds most viewed sporting events soon coming to a close, we here at Pulsar wanted to see what social media could reveal about the Cricket World Cup. Over the past month, we’ve been tracking all online Twitter content around the relevant Cricket World Cup hashtags including #cwc15, #cwc2015, and #cricketworldcup. The first thing is that we wanted to know if the flagship event of the international cricket calendar would also see high amounts of chatter online… and indeed it does, often reaching over 100,000 tweets per day.

Conversation particularly spiked on February 15^th when the world cup began, and then a week later on February 22^nd during the following matches: Afghanistan vs. Sri Lanka and India Vs. South Africa So besides people using the Cricket World Cup hashtags on Twitter to get their voice heard, what else is this global audience talking about? First there’s lots of match and game terminology from people sharing moment-by-moment events and scores in the games. Next it’s countries and teams, with India, England and Ireland are mentioned among the top conversations. Question is, does all this buzz come from home fans? We analysed Twitter conversation by location to find out:

Indeed it does – this chart really shows the global power of Twitter, with India and Pakistan being by far the most active and passionate cricket supporters. The UK drives less than a quarter of India’s cricket tweets – though that’s still a healthy 200,000 plus. Next, who was leading this conversation and reaching the biggest audience on Twitter?

The top 10 Twitter users talking about the Cricket World Cup are global or regional news or informative sites giving the audience real time cricket updates and tips for things to watch. Before we started to research the Cricket World Cup on Twitter, we read an article reviewing the top players to watch out for. This got us to thinking if there was any correlation between the top players and people talking about them online.

Not to our surprise, there actually was a lot of conversation about the athletes that naturally occurred in relation to the Cricket World Cup. However it’s clear that AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli are the online fan favourites.

With the end of the Cricket World Cup creeping up on us, we will again be taking a look at the online conversation once the cup comes to an end on March 28^th. So keep on eye on this space for our second Twitter analysis of the World Cup. Interested to start tracking conversations taking place about other events near you or around the world? Reach out to our Pulsar team at info@pulsarplatform.com to learn more about our strategy for tracking the Cricket World Cup or see what else we are getting up to.

Pulsar How-To: Using Content Search [HOLD for edits]

Ed — Wed, 07 Oct 2015 17:27:02 +0000

This is the fourth in a new blog series where we will take you through different features on Pulsar – a step-by-step guide to show you how simple and easy the platform is to use. So far we’ve looked at Topic Searches, Clusters and Keywords. Simply put, content search is used to see how people online are sharing links. Content tracking is a great way to see the difference in how people talk about topics vs how they share links (and there is a difference). It allows you to discover how audiences around the world are interacting with your owned content (e.g. a video, or your website) or that of a client. With this type of search you can track any form of content as long as it has a valid full length URL.

What can I use Content Search for?

Here's some top examples of URLs being tracked: ["Here are 3 things you can learn with URL tracking"- that's a stronger lead-in] 1. People use this as a way to see a different virality [This is very roundabout phrasing - rewrite and make it more direct. I'm also not quite sure what 'different virality' means?] – sharing videos, as opposed to measuring Likes. Sharing is a much richer way to track and understand the success of a piece of content. Look at it this way - people will throw Likes left, right and centre, but when it comes to sharing, they're more reserved. 2. Following on from that you can track any online PDFs and press releases [Roundabout phrasing - this is a numbered list! It needs to be punchy single clause phrases. If you want to write fuller paragraphs, don't format as a list]. For example, it allows you to understand how your press release travels. You can also use it at a corporate level to see if any senior stakeholders or colleagues are sharing it. 3. Basic sharing of blog posts and images – tracking visual social is crucial to any content strategy. Using visual language to communicate is on the rise and as a result a lot of the content we share is visual. With content search you can track images as well as your basics like blog posts.

Step 1. Contents

Our example is really plain and simple – we want to track how our last blog post was shared. Firstly, you need to enter in the URL and press the addition button to officially add the link. Here are a few useful tips to consider when deciding the kind of links to input:

Always make sure you enter in the full length URL – Bitly’s and any shorten links will be detected as long as they lead back to the full urls you are tracking.
It’s better to track specific sections of a website and specific links, opposed to full website domains. For example, DON'T track 'pulsarplatform.com', DO track 'pulsarplatform.com/blog/how-a-single-image-changed-debate-on-refugees'.
It's very rare for someone to share an entire site, and if they do you need to think whether that kind of data will add anything to your analysis.
You can enter as many URLs as you want, but keep in mind the amount of content you want to see in your search.

Once you've added the URLs to your search, you will be taken through exactly the same process as that of Topic Searches (If you've read our previous Topic Search blog, you should know what to do from here.)

Step 2 - Blacklisting specific sites

This part of the set up is to make sure you block out any words or sites you don't want to show in your dataset. Remember, the more you blacklist, the more relevant your search will be.

Step 3 - Target your Content Search

Before reaching the summary page and launching your search, you will need to refine in 'Target'. You need to specify the countries, languages, social media channels and content types you want your search to be targeted at. For example, if you want to discover the volume of US readers sharing a specific article from the Daily Mail website on Twitter, then this is where you would specify that. * If you want to find out more about Content Search or you’d like a full demo, please send an email to: Info@Pulsarplatform.com.

How and why broadcasters should use social media listening

admin — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

On 3^rd May 2015 the world tuned in to watch one of the one of most talked about sporting events in history – the match between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. But whilst volumes of conversations ran high it was live streaming that took the final bell – captured perfectly by ex-Twitter CEO Dick Costolo: The streaming service was used to lend a helping hand to those who could not get access to the event, or simply refused to pay. This trend understandably displeased the networks, particularly as Periscope was event partner to HBO. We live in a golden age of online streaming and short form video (e.g. Vine and Snapchat) with numerous new platforms disrupting the space. Never before has there been such a choice for the average consumer when it comes to access your favourite sporting event or TV show. But what does this mean for broadcasters and how can they keep up with the wealth of competition? To quote Larry Page, co-founder of Google: “…you need to be a bit uncomfortable to stay relevant.” First and foremost broadcasters should listen. A TV channel may create some great shows, but without listening to the consumer this process is like shooting fish in a barrel - the best way for them to listen is to track and monitor their content online (uncharted territory for many traditional broadcasters). This is one of the only ways they can tailor their content, helping them to answer the key questions at the centre of both their brand and their content – putting the consumer at the centre of everything they do. This is paramount if broadcasters are to stay relevant. Answering these questions through social media listening is a fascinating research exercise, but what does this mean for the broadcaster? How can they use it to improve their service?

Engaging with viewers

TV has become an interactive communal experience. Last week Farhad Manjoo categorised this revolution in his article on social TV. The correct use of social dialogue running alongside content results in a more engaged audience. Take Channel 4’s new programme Young Free and Single as an example. Plucky singles looking for love go on a date each week. As the date ensues viewers can vote for or against a second date, putting them at the centre of things. An innovative way of engaging a young audience whilst utilising social media - taking advantage of the second screen trend and allowing the audience to not only view, but feel like they have a fundamental role in what unfolds on the show.

Identifying social channels to promote content

Monitoring shows will help them to discover the patterns of dialogue across each social channel by week, hour and even minute, helping them to solve questions that were previously unanswerable. Here are a few I came up with:

With increasing traffic outside the broadcast window (catch-up TV), has this affected the conversation online?
For example: how does a young professional’s experience watching TV compare with that of a student’s?
Are their large peaks in conversation during the show and what is driving this peak?
Which channel saw the most traffic?
Facebook has a privacy wall, so are there more organic conversations on this channel?
How does the demographic differ on each channel and each show?

Answering these questions would be no hard task for a monitoring tool, simply filter the volume of data for your show/channel by time and analyse. Once you have your results, compare it to the linear schedule of your channel and the peaks and troughs of activity on catch up. Et Voilà you have some actionable insights to re-align how you market, promote and schedule your shows and channels.

Connected topics and how to use them effectively

One of the most interesting elements to social monitoring is identifying connected topics. More often than not we uncover things that we never knew people were talking about. At the same time it can also act as proof, evidence that those topics are the most associated with the content. This discovery allows you to stay connected to your wider audience and capitalise on some weird and wonderful findings. But how can a broadcaster use this to their advantage? When people talk about Britain’s Got Talent, what else do they talk about? Undoubtedly there will be topics that are typically associated with the show such as ‘contest’ or ‘competition’ or a judge’s name. But with more access to social channels we are seeing a whole range of connected topics that producers didn’t even know existed within the conversation. TV Researchers should be using these connected topics. They should be using them in marketing campaigns, promotions, and most of all for content creation. Take ITV’s Loose Women for example. Every evening the junior researcher on the show scours the press to plan the next day’s show. They choose themes that are topical and often contentious. But what if the researchers didn’t have to scour the press? What if they could run a search through a social media monitoring tool to find out exactly what people were saying about the election or dog welfare? When they talk about these themes, what else are they saying? This will undoubtedly unearth some interesting connected topics to use as the content for the next day’s episode, which were chosen by their target audience. Similarly, in the case of connected brand names, this can solidify the ROI for a sponsorship partner or even act as a lead for a new partnership.

Identifying Key Influencers

Identifying people online with influence is an inexpensive way for any brand to collaborate and create sticky content. The Great British Bakeoff has become a household name for the BBC. I am sure that if you listened to conversations around the show it would reveal a multitude of food bloggers from around the world with high visibility. What an opportunity for the BBC! These are viewers that hold great influence online. They are people to invite to events, promote to, and collaborate with. These are golden moments to promote and advertise content above that of traditional means. In this platinum age of broadcasting, broadcasters are finding it increasingly difficult to stay relevant. The best way to do this is through a culture of listening to the viewer first. Social media listening tools are the best way for them to do this. Our tools at Pulsar are already helping many broadcasters answer the questions that demand asking around their shows; allowing them to stay competitive in this highly disruptive market. If you're a broadcaster and you want to know more about the benefits of tracking social data, please send an email to: Info@Pulsarplatform.com.

Being Social: Rising to the challenge of interpreting social media data

Ed — Thu, 22 Oct 2015 16:59:49 +0000

Impact Magazine's October issue features a special report entitled, 'Being Social: Rising to the challenge of interpreting social media data'. Our VP of Product, Francesco D'Orazio (@abc3d) was one of the experts called upon, by author Tim Phillips, to discuss how researchers need to embrace the change that comes with social media data in order to progress market research. If you're a MRS member you can download the full magazine here. "Social media data can provide valuable insight into people's behaviour, and research agencies have the analytical skills to take a lead in interpreting this information stream as long as they embrace the challenge" In this blog I will summarise the article by drawing on the key arguments from the industry experts.

What the experts are saying

Francesco D'Orazio, VP of Product at Pulsar:

Fran discusses the challenges faced with the uptake of social media data and his "frustration" with why researchers aren't using social data more in research projects.

Fran believes clients' are limiting themselves to PR and marketing related social data research briefs, even though the possibilities with social media listening can go far beyond that. Social media monitoring is no longer just about text and sentiment analysis - the majority of posts feature some kind visual language. Social media analysis is capable of recognising images, so research briefs need to evolve to include this.

Stephen Maher, Chair of Institute of Practitioners Advertising's (IPA) social media group:

IPA believed social media measuring was the future so they began showcasing peer-reviewed social media measurement case studies on the IPA website. However, 90% of the entries failed. They failed "because we couldn't see any casual relationship between the social data and business goals". Clients were asking "how do we measure social ROI?"

Maher argues that the industry is yet to learn to 'measure, not count' social media's impact. Maher agrees there are elements of social media measurement that are standard practice and everyone can adopt, but believes non of which are innovative.

Simeon Duckworth, Global Head of Business Planning at Mindshare:

Duckworth argues that it's easy to get attribution wrong when social media activity correlates with sales:

"Social media measurement has a rigour problem. Partly, this stems from the construction of the sample. This is no different from the 'biased sample' problem in every other branch of statistics, and arguably more obvious"

"The availability of numbers, however - and excitement around social media - create more subtle cause-effect inferences, which are massively overstated in social media."

There is confusion with social ROI and conversion to sales. When a social media user engages with a brand on social and it results in that user purchasing a product, the likelihood of that pool of engagers buying a project is clearly higher than those who are not involved in the brand.

Olesya Mossman, Head of Research at Twitter

Remember when it wasn't easy to hear or even understand the customer voice. Mossman reminds us that this is a modern day luxury. Take Twitter for example, 500 million tweets are sent every day - that's half a billion thoughts, opinions and expressions.

"This is the largest public library of consumer opinion ever amassed and opens up opportunities to understand, anticipate and meet customers' needs."

Although the research team areas vary on what they measure, social media monitoring is often spread across the business. Mossman argues that this is the perfect time for research teams to co-work across departments and innovate with social data.

Six innovations in social media

In the article Fran highlights six areas he thinks widespread innovation should be occurring, but isn't yet. I've highlighted them below:

Don't listen for keywords, listen to your target audience - being able to define a community helps create a benchmark of exception, so results are easier to translate into action
Predictive behaviour redress agility - web-server activity allowed a concert-ticket seller to predict demand for tickets a few hours ahead. Social activity allowed to predict a few days ahead. If the company can adjust its behaviour to account of the data, this could have value.
Social, meet analytics - few retailers don't integrate their Google Analytics and social data tracking. By doing this, you can begin to see a ROI model for social data.
Social, meet share prices - few companies are supplementing their stock forecasting with social data.
Social, meet loyalty data - joining the dots between a customer and their social media presence can give public context that might help with segmentation
The internet of images - according to Citrix, 63% of social media updates are images. Companies need to start understanding and analysing these images.

Being Social highlights that researcher attitudes need to change - by embracing the challenge that comes with using social media data as a tool will slowly change industry perceptions and concerns. If you have any research briefs in the pipeline and you'd like to see how you can integrate social media data, then contact our Commercial Director James on James.Cuthbertson@Pulsarplatform.com or 020 7874 6577.

New on Pulsar: Bulk sentiment recoding & data tagging

Ed — Fri, 13 Nov 2015 16:14:59 +0000

Content analysis on Pulsar just got a lot easier and faster. We recognise that tagging individual pieces of data can be extremely time-consuming, which is why we've updated this feature. We're very excited to announce that our users can now complete bulk sentiment recoding and data tagging.

Changing the way you tag

Bulk sentiment recoding and bulk data tagging means you can recode the sentiment of messages, or apply custom tags and taxonomies across an entire dataset in just a single click. Use these high speed data coding tools to segment your data faster, building in categorisations from other reports to help connect social to other datasets in your company.

How will these updates empower the platform's user experience?

If you don't agree with the sentiment assigned to multiple pieces of content you can change it in one go
With a single click you can change every piece of data you know needs to be categorised under a single tag

Data coding can be incredibly time-consming, but with this new beautiful update our clients can now cut down the amount of time they spend on sorting through data. Content analysis is a crucial part of social media listening, which is why it's vital to make it as simple as possible. We hope our users love this as much as we do! If you’re already using Pulsar and want to learn more about bulk tagging and sentiment recoding, please contact your account manager or email: Accounts@Pulsarplatform.com. Alternatively, if you’re yet to experience the power of Pulsar and you’d like to set up a demo, email James.Cuthbertson@Pulsarplatform.com or call us on 020 7874 6577.

New on Pulsar: Arabic sentiment analysis

Francesco DOrazio — Fri, 20 Nov 2015 14:27:49 +0000

Arabic sentiment analysis is now available on Pulsar. This means Pulsar can detect whether a post written in Arabic is positive, neutral or negative and score it accordingly on a scale from -50 to +50 to get a granular understanding of the attitudes in your audience. If you’re already using Pulsar and want to learn more about sentiment analysis, please contact your account manager or email: Accounts@Pulsarplatform.com. Alternatively, if you’re yet to experience the power of Pulsar and you’d like to set up a demo, email James.Cuthbertson@Pulsarplatform.com or call us on 020 7874 6577.

Hearts on Pulsar: Introducing Twitter Likes

Francesco DOrazio — Fri, 20 Nov 2015 14:31:12 +0000

Out with the old and in with the new. Twitter revised its 'favourite' feature two weeks ago, in favour of the Like. As a result, we've added Twitter Likes to Pulsar.

Twitter Likes creates a new way for you to identify the top Twitter posts in your dataset. Not only can you view mentions by reactions, visibility and reach, you can now view your Twitter data by number of Likes. This new metric comes included as part of your data allowance. Just one thing to bear in mind: Likes only work with Historical data, as when we fetch real-time data it's unlikely to feedback accurate Like counts as users don't like in realtime, but rather in the minutes and hours after the post. So if you want Like counts, use Historics.

If you’re already using Pulsar and want to learn more about Twitter Likes, please contact your account manager or email: Accounts@Pulsarplatform.com. Alternatively, if you’re yet to experience the power of Pulsar and you’d like to set up a demo, email James.Cuthbertson@Pulsarplatform.com or call us on 020 7874 6577.

Social Data's guide to Christmas gifts

admin — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

With Christmas almost upon us, and the time for last minute present shopping dwindling, I thought it would be useful to find out what the most talked about gift ideas for 2015 are in the UK - and I have Pulsar TRAC to do the leg work and brainstorming for me. Every year it’s a constant battle to find the perfect present for that special someone, or figure out what to buy the person who seems to have everything! I personally have a wide assortment of gifts to buy; from pre-teens to adult bookworms, none of whom make the task at all easy. Am I alone in this? I think not. After tracking hashtags and keywords of all sorts in order to understand what might be on Christmas lists this year, I managed to make some rather interesting conclusions.

Despite initial expectations that people would talk about gift ideas more publicly online and predicting that males would be using the likes of Twitter or Facebook to get inspiration for girlfriends, wives, or families presents last minute. Using aggregated and anonymised Facebook topic data, it was fascinating to see that more than three quarters of the discussions were done within private Facebook posts, with 77% of them being female millennials controlling the conversations. Similarly, 25% of the data had to include the keywords “gift guide”, “best”, or “list” in order to make the cut when it came to reactions or visibility to a wider audience. When comparing luxury versus general gift topics, it was rather surprising to discover how much of the content was tech focused, with beauty and fashion coming in a respective second and third. It does also show that supposedly ‘luxury’ items are more talked about than ‘general’.

Where are people getting their gift ideas?

The most shared ‘gift guides’ - measured through Pulsar’s visibility metric and influencer feature are as below: In this day and age, the growth of tech, electronics, and gaming as industries is without a doubt insurmountable; however, I didn’t expect the dataset to be focused so readily on young children and teens as the demographic (around two thirds of the data). The 30 Christmas Gift Ideas for the Tech-savvy Children gained the biggest amount of traction on Twitter – originally posted via their Twitter handle @GuardianTech. It shows the epitome of the age old term “early adopters” when it comes to the tech industry as a whole, and in particular its weight in Xmas gift buys. With constant updates and product releases in the blossoming retail tech world it’s no wonder that headphones, cameras, and the newest games are top priority this Christmas with both adults and children alike. In 2014 the government coined “The Year of Code” helping push the digital shift with children learning to code at school, and the new-found prioritisation for touch typing and computer integrated learning in schools. This has merely shown that the lifecycle and annual releases could only build year on year, thus making the tech items a fixture in the Christmas list. This year Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals showed trends for gifts such as wireless headphones taking over and the newest PS4 game release to be a the common theme on Santa’s list, whilst last years 3D printing excitement has become available to the masses in the form of a pen. @ED - PICK WHICH ONE YOU THINK IS BEST TO HYPERLINK http://www.trustedreviews.com/opinions/best-black-friday-deals-in-the-uk http://www.techradar.com/news/world-of-tech/roundup/black-friday-deals-2015-1294927 http://heavy.com/social/2015/11/top-best-christmas-presents-for-women-men-gifts-2015-gift-ideas/ What will be next for the Digital Generation? Will tech continue to control Santa’s list for Christmas 2016?

Pulsar makes Altimeter’s top digital trends 2016 report

Ed — Fri, 22 Jan 2016 15:51:30 +0000

Visual Social Media Lab's study 'The iconic image on social media: a rapid research response to the death of Aylan Kurdi' has been featured in Altimeter’s Top Digital Trends for 2016 report. Altimeter, an agency which "provides independent research and strategy consulting on disruptive technology trends" named visual web analytics as one of their top digital trends for 2016. Alongside this, the study is also featured in the 'Civic Participation' video below. 'Civic Participation' is an episode of the World Economic Forum’s video series, which is part of the 'Shaping the Future Implications of Digital Media on Society' project. 'Shaping the Future Implications of Digital Media on Society ' was launched at Davos, the WEF's Annual Meeting, a couple weeks ago. You can learn more about this report and our involvement, in our blog post here or on their website. The Altimeter report brings together four of their best analysts to predict this year's top digital trends. The report covers areas from the rising digital ecosystem complexity to how ethical data use and privacy will emerge as brand issues, from predictive intelligence for content to how the Internet of Things will power post-purchase marketing efforts. Susan Etlinger, an Altimeter researcher, identifies that there will be an increase in the amount of analytics we see for the visual web this year. Etlinger uses Visual Social Media Lab's 'The iconic image on social media: a rapid research response to the death of Aylan Kurdi' as a point of reference. Check out her predictions from the extract below:

Susan Etlinger's digital trends for 2016

Ethical data use and privacy will emerge as brand issues

We saw a lot of stories this year related to the explosion of digital information, multiple data breaches, pending legislation related to biometric and location data, and of course the news that the European Court of Justice had invalidated the “safe harbor” data transfer pact between the U.S. and the European Union. The law continues to struggle to keep up with user expectations, but my hope is that the conversation will become more productive. I will be looking at topics such as differential privacy and vendor relationship management—in which the individual, not the company, is at the center.

We will start to see analytics for the visual web

2015 was the year of the selfie stick, Caitlyn Jenner’s groundbreaking Vanity Fair cover and Jon Hamm’s final, enigmatic smile on Mad Men, but it was also the year that a single, heartbreaking image of Alan (Aylan) Kurdi, a Syrian child of Kurdish origin, reached 20 million screens around the world, poignantly conveying the impact of the refugee crisis in a way that words could never do. Also this year, Flickr faced complaints about its auto-tagging algorithm, which mistakenly tagged photos of concentration camps as “jungle gym” and “sport,” raising the issue of how algorithms for visual content draw inferences, and what impact that may have on institutions and individuals.

With artificial Intelligence, the future is becoming more evenly distributed

In 2015 the Internet of Things hit the “Peak of Inflated Expectations” on the Gartner Hype Cycle, with autonomous vehicles and neurobusiness (!) not far behind. Just this week, investors such as Reid Hoffman, Peter Thiel and Elon Musk pledged millions of dollars toward an OpenAI research center, which will “focus on improving digital intelligence in the way that is most likely to benefit humanity as a whole.” in 2016, AI and algorithms will enter the mainstream of business conversations as we grapple with the implications of automating thought and decision-making. On a related note, I fully expect “algorithm” to be word of the year in 2016. * If you want to explore the full report, you can view it here. For any questions around the Alyan Kurdi visual social media report do reach out to Francesco on Twitter at @abc3d or email him at Francesco@Pulsarplatform.com.

Pulsar turns 3: Thank you O2

Ed — Tue, 12 Apr 2016 12:27:14 +0000

This month Pulsar is three years old! Our clients are mean a lot to us, without them we wouldn't have been able to do what we love - to innovate. We want to say a massive THANK YOU to all of our clients - we've loved having you on this journey, and we can't wait to continue delivering the most innovative audience intelligence software on the market. We decided to interview our longest running clients who have been with us since the beginning. This week, we've interviewed Daryl West from O2 - one of our most loyal clients.

Facebook IQ: Health in the Digital Age

admin — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

How the Food Standards Agency uses Pulsar to help issue early warnings for Norovirus

Judith — Wed, 27 Apr 2016 12:47:09 +0000

Using social media data to help predict, rather than just report on diseases such as the Norovirus is something the Food Standards Agency (FSA) can now do at an 80% accuracy level.

CHALLENGE

Most researchers working on health and disease topics rely on information they receive from labs, hospitals and GPs. For example, collating lab reports of quantities of people getting a virus at a given time will give a good understanding when outbreaks occur, after they’ve happened. Useful? Absolutely. But how can you wrangle data to help you predict, rather than just report, on outbreaks of diseases in order to inform the wider public?

SOLUTION

Sian Thomas, Head of Information Management of the Food Standards Agency, started looking into the true potential of different data streams around people’s illnesses in 2014. After testing a variety of methods and data sources, she came to Twitter, a key platform when it comes to sharing spur-of-the-moment thoughts and feelings such as feeling rather unwell. Zooming in on the highly contagious (and equally notorious) Norovirus, her team could soon identify correlating words users shared to describe the disease, such as ‘puke’, ‘vomit’ and ‘diarrhoea’.

Monitoring this manually at first, the team decided to start using Pulsar as one of the tools to keep track of activity around the disease online due to its flexibility when it came to the range of needs expressed by the FSA (LINK TO any USP talking about slicing data in different ways / the only platform combining keywords topics and people) and its fundamentally real-time approach. Says Thomas: “The problem with lab reports is that they only give you the ‘hindsight’ view. They are useful, but you are working with old information which obviously doesn’t help much in terms of predicting to a certain level outbreaks of the Norovirus. Plus, it’s often elderly people who go to the GP with these types of diseases. Younger people are more likely to deal with it on their own terms and might not even visit the GP. So in that sense, the lab reports give a skewed view. It’s just very hard to say how skewed.” (this might just stress the fact that social media in this case also gives a skewed view… elderly people are not on Twitter) Sian’s team of analysts then created an algorithm by using historical data from Twitter – one, should be added, the FSA Analytics team has won the inaugural cross-government Data Science competition for in November 2015 when presented by David Millson, Operational Research Analyst at FSA – and started comparing the volume of mentions to Norovirus lab reports reporting confirmed cases of the disease in the UK. They’ve been doing this for over a year now, and the overlap and timing turned out to be even better than the analytics team had hoped for. Using their custom algorithm, the FSA can now predict outbreaks of the Norovirus at an 80% accuracy rate – which is incredibly high.

OUTCOME

Using Tweets to communicate early warnings to the general public about the Norovirus is now something the FSA can do, thanks to their approach to different types of data. (Social) data science can definitely make a difference in health care, as Sian Thomas and her team can attest to: “More people turn to the internet than ever to find information about disease areas, and they are open about sharing information too. Mining this information in the right way can help us raise awareness with the general public – which in turn can result in disease prevention. There is huge scope for using social data this way, we’ve only scratched the surface. I’m excited about the opportunities it offers for researchers, health care professionals, and ultimately, the wider public.” If you work for a healthcare organisation and you're interested in learning more about Pulsar Health, don't hesitate to send us an email: Info@Facegroup.co.uk.

Pulsar at 3 years: Goodie bags for clients

admin — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Pulsar turned 3 this month and to celebrate and say thank you we sent gifts to all of our clients. We managed to deliver

Using social intelligence to identify network influencers

admin — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

SnapChart: Why Italy love a good Instagram lunch

Ed — Mon, 04 Jul 2016 15:28:35 +0000

At Pulsar, discovering behavioural insights is part of our daily work. So far, we've shared insight on when people book their holidays, what car brands are the most discussed, and who's driving conversation around PAD. With Italy being famed for its food (and food culture), we decided to see if this was reflected in how Italians talk about and share their meals on social media. It turns out that there is an interesting platform split: looking on Facebook, we can see that Italians love to talk about dinner. We compared the volume of conversations for each meal time and saw that 47% of food chat on Facebook is focused on dinner time. Mentions of dinner gains traction at around 4pm every day, eventually dying off at 10pm. The other thing we noticed was that dinner is very much a social event, one which is about having good company and eating together. With dinner being the main meal of the day, sharing habits reflect consumption habits: this suggests that dinner is a planned event, which sees Italians discussing their dinner plans and asking for friends' opinions & recipes online. Lunch, on the other hand, is a completely different story: Italians may talk mostly about dinner, but less so about lunch. Lunch turns out to be a visually-led meal time, a perfect opportunity to share images on Instagram. Lunch, for Italians, is about having good food. Does an extended lunch break culture affect what people eat and how they share meals on social? An image-led focus suggests that lunch is for eating out, going to restaurants and enjoying an extended break where possible. Breakfast is the least talked about and photographed meal, but that doesn't mean it's less important. For Italians, breakfast is about being good to yourself, enjoying rich coffee and light food. Now that's something to live by... If you would like to find out more about how using audience intelligence platforms can benefit your audience understanding and social insight, please send us an email on Info@Pulsarplatform.com.

Join Us at Social Data Week 2013

admin — Fri, 13 Sep 2013 14:25:32 +0000

This September, Pulsar is joining forces with Datasift, Tableau, Splunk and The Next Web to bring you Social Data Week 2013. Social Data Week is an event in both San Francisco and New York that will dive deep into just how social data can be used by businesses and organizations. There will be demonstrations and talks from a variety of social data experts representing customers, companies, data providers and analysts. The speaker line-up is very impressive, including Robert Scoble, Brian Solis, and Jon Steinberg, to name a few. You can see the full list here. Our CEO, Andrew Needham, will be participating in a panel in New York on September 20^th on Passion, Disruption and Connection: Building Brand in a Social World. We’ll also be attending the even in San Francisco on the 16^th. In both cities, you’ll be able to catch us at our booth where you’ll be able to see Pulsar in action. We’ll also be presenting at the #SDBB Social Data Week Meet Up where our Chief Innovation Officer, Francesco D’Orazio, will be discussing different use cases for social data, including our latest study in our How Stuff Spreads research series. We recently completed the latest installment of the series with a study commissioned by Twitter on how videos go viral on Twitter. We looked at four different types of videos, which allowed us to understand the different social dynamics that can be involved. How fast do viral videos move? Who are the hubs, the communities, the influencers? Through these cases, we produced four dynamic data visualizations and a set of network maps exploring different dimensions of how the videos spread. As soon as the blog was posted on Twitter’s website the visualizations from the study have spread like wildfire across news and media websites. And now you’ll be able to hear the whole story of how we accomplished this study at the #SDBB Social Data Week Meet Up. To see the official programming schedule for Social Week, check out the event agendas for New York and San Francisco. Just to give you a taste, programming in New York includes “How Big Data Can Have Social Impact” by UN Global Pulse, and in San Francisco panels include “Infusing Social Into The Enterprise” presented by Dell. It looks like it will be a great event – we hope to see you there! Register now. Keep up to date with our latest thinking about by signing up to our mailing list here. We send out a newsletter once a month with company news, thoughts, and industry insights.

FACE Launches Pulsar to Mine Big Social Data for Research

admin — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 14:31:32 +0000

Pulsar TRAC moves the marketing industry beyond social media monitoring

Today we are unveiling Pulsar, an advanced social intelligence platform which pushes social media research beyond keyword tracking. Born out of 10 years experience of research and planning with social data, Pulsar is built on a robust intelligence framework enabling marketers to do more than just keyword tracking: measuring the reach of conversations, mapping brand audiences and tracking content diffusion. It solves many of the issues found in current social media monitoring tools, such as the obsession with volume-led metrics, the lack of demographic and behavioural context, no understanding of the audience, poor interfaces and the inability to weight the impact of conversations. That’s why Pulsar is the only platform on the market currently that allows mining of big social data in four new ways: 1) Visibility measurement - Estimate the reach of each post

2) Audience mapping - Who are you talking to and what do they like?

3) Content tracking - How does your content travel the social web?

4) Advanced filtering - 14 behavioural, contextual and demographic filters so you can find exactly what you are looking for

“We've been really impressed with the speed and efficiency of Pulsar and its ability to provide real time actionable insight. We're particularly excited about the audience mapping and content diffusion capabilities – they allow us to really target and understand specific groups of people in real-time." - Jake Steadman, former Head of Real Time Research at O2 Telefonica (now Head of Research at Twitter UK)
“FACE's Pulsar is invaluable for identifying real-time insight into the way that our audiences are engaging with content and stories. The key difference with Pulsar is that the platform offers a high quality social media insight system, supported by analysis that creates meaningful stories from the data with clear actionable steps for our business.” - Justin Wyatt, Vice President of Primary Research at NBC Universal

Engineered for complexity, scale and speed, Pulsar’s Big Data engine is built on Apache Cassandra and Solr. This enables Pulsar to store and index multiple data points besides keyword mentions, including social graphs, interest graphs, demographics and behavioural data. Our Chief Innovation Officer, Francesco D’Orazio, explains what drove the design of Pulsar TRAC:

“There are more than 200 social media monitoring tools on the market, and yet none of them allowed us to do proper research on social media data. And that’s why we built Pulsar TRAC. Whereas all traditional social media monitoring platforms on the market only look at the content of the conversations, we found a massive opportunity in indexing and analysing everything around it. This means very Big Data. But with Pulsar TRAC we can now process all that and still deliver on the real-time user experience which is key to exploiting Big Data’s real potential: finding out what you don’t know you don’t know.”

Our CEO, Andrew Needham, comments:

“With Pulsar TRAC we are delivering on our vision of social intelligence for brands by helping companies put consumers at the heart of their business, giving them a real time, in depth and holistic view of their customers. Having doubled in size in the past 12 months with offices in New York, Singapore and Hong Kong, Pulsar TRAC is the first in a series of planned product releases from Face which marks an evolution of the business from a research agency to a technology driven insight consultancy.”

So this is Pulsar, designed to deliver real-time insights for global brands and agencies. Please contact us to get more information or request a demo.

Small Networks Trump Influencers

Kate — Wed, 01 May 2013 15:22:22 +0000

With all the talk about online influencers over the past few years, you’d think they were the holy grail of online marketing. Klout has made a business of it and many bloggers use sponsored posts to help pay the bills. But, the funny thing is, if you want to get the word out about your brand, product, or cause, influencers aren’t actually where you should be focusing your efforts. Let me explain. Yes, influencers do help - I’m not going to deny that. Get Lady Gaga to tweet about your charity or fashion statement, and tons of fans will go out to investigate it. Want mothers to start using your diapers? Yes, try to get the mommy bloggers to write something up about them. But that tactic will only do so much. It leads to a spike in sales, but not a long-term trend. As a word-of-mouth marketing strategy, it’s limited. This has been known in the publishing industry for quite some time as an effect of book clubs. An initial spike is launched by one large book club, like Oprah’s book club (she’d be your influencer), but the long-term trend continues as smaller book clubs pick up the torch and then those readers pass on the good book to their friends in turn. This phenomenon becomes traceable as a long tail. It’s not just about the niche topic, it’s about the niche communities, of which there may be several for each topic. We did a joint study with our sister agency Blonde not too long ago that illustrates this nicely. This study was actually where we developed the concept for the content tracking feature of Pulsar TRAC, our recently launched advanced social intelligence platform that pushes social media research beyond keyword tracking. Meet Irn-Bru Irn-Bru is a soft drink that’s spectacularly popular in Scotland. So much so you wouldn’t be far off calling it the national Scottish drink. In fact it is one of the rare carbonated beverages to outsell Coca-Cola in any market. Coming from such a position of strength in its main market, the marketers at Blonde decided to do something a little different when launching a recent commercial. This allowed us to demonstrate the power of small groups in spreading something – and even compare this with the power of influencers. Releasing a Commercial Blonde released this commercial by giving it to just one person: a regular young woman on Twitter who had won a competition. Rachel Orr (@larachie on Twitter) started out with just 153 Twitter followers – bang on average. Irn-Bru promoted her account and managed to increase her follower count to 329 - still not exactly Lady Gaga levels - before they gave her the link to the YouTube commercial. But a few of those followers were “influencers”. Blonde encouraged some of Scottland’s top tweeters to follow @larachie with the incentive that they’d use this as a way to measure their influence. Some of these people included @AndrewBurnett, Head of Social at Yard Digital, and the band Bleed from Within (@bleedfromwithin). After @larachie tweeted the initial YouTube link, the video reached 100,000 views in one day, led by her but amplified by these influencers. Small groups trump influencers (at sustaining growth) So, we have learned that influencers are really awesome at jump-starting an ad campaign. Likewise looking back to my book club example, influencers jumpstart sales. (Thank you, Oprah!) But how do you keep those sales growing? This is where small groups trump influencers. Small groups, not big influencers, are the Holy Grail of word-of-mouth marketing. Sticking with our book club example, these key groups are the smaller book clubs, the ones that hear about a book from the big influencers and then bring it to people in their community, who then carry the book to another gathering or tell a friend who is part of another book circle, and so on. This is how something goes from an initial spike to a burgeoning trend. We can see this play out online. In the microcosm that is Twitter, that Irn-Bru commercial continued to grow even after the influencers had played their initial role. Over the next 21 days, the commercial’s YouTube stats increased from 100,000 to 650,000 views. That’s about 26,000 people per day. This coincided with the commercial being passed around smaller, interconnected groups. The visualization above depicts not the number of shares or mentions, but the number of connections each account has with other accounts that have also mentioned the YouTube video. As you can see, quite a few are really small – those would be the small groups. Those are the ones that are apparently behind the growth in views for the next three weeks after @larachie launched the commercial. Yes, the influencers were really helpful. Yes, they probably jump-started the whole thing. But the ones who kept it going, who probably got the video mentioned on the Poke’s Viral of the Day three days after the launch, were the small groups. Here’s the difference:

Influencers: Contribute a big spike, good for a jump start and initial push
Small Groups: Contribute more sustained engagement and spread, good for the long term

Find content small groups can get behind This commercial managed to appeal to many small groups because it was funny, original, and took creative risks. And, of course, because it was Irn-Bru and in Scotland. This won’t always be the winning content recipe (especially if you’re not Irn-Bru and in Scotland). You need to find content that appeals not just to your audience, but which appeals to specific niches and communities within your audience – the more the better. Once you do that, your content has a higher chance of spreading naturally - virally. You may still want to include some influencers in your release strategy, of course - It’s not an either/or situation. But if your content isn’t something small groups can get behind, it won’t travel. * In May we’re releasing a substantial new study into the dynamics of viral video. Sign up for our mailing list here to be one of the first to know.

5 Reasons to Track How Content Spreads in Social Media

Erika — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 15:31:17 +0000

So, you’re the brand behind a sensational viral marketing campaign, and you want to understand all of the nooks that your brilliant work reached. Of course you do! (And we helped Irn-Bru do exactly that) But why track content otherwise? …if you think you already know your audience So you did your homework. In fact, you designed the content strategy and seeded it from scratch. But what if your link caught on with an audience you never expected? Unless you track the dissemination, you won’t know about the people you didn’t know about when you started. You may not ever choose to spend money marketing to them, but making sure you’re not alienating them and maximizing their advocacy needn’t cost much—except incremental sales if you don’t take action. And if you do decide they’re worth pursuing as a new target population, then you definitely need to know more. It probably goes without saying that you can of course also track which influencers and channels that you seeded were the most effective, so that your careful execution is even more efficient next time round. How influencers shared an Irn Bru advert …if your campaign didn’t get the traction you expected What happened? By taking a step back and understanding the networks of people and movement of information, you can understand not only the flow—but also the blockages. Which bloggers delivered more than their fair share of dissemination and advocacy, and which should you not engage with again? Does the map of where you spent money align with where the successes were seen? Inspecting the ‘nodes’ (people, platforms, and channels) at a more granular level can help you fine-tune your model rather than indiscriminately chalking it all up to failure (which will almost certainly ensure you don’t learn from the mistakes!) …if you want to understand ROI By knowing who’s shared or come into contact with your content, you can also understand who has not been exposed. Measure purchase intent (or any other historical tracking metrics you might have) in these contrasting populations, and compare the differences. FACE is currently pioneering a number of exciting methodologies that mix Social, Qual, and Quant approaches to get at these client needs. …if you work in a highly regulated industry and aren’t permitted to market to consumers Marketing is just information – and information is power. Or so they say, right? Understanding the knowledge and information that people hold is essential to industries like pharma and banking. Rather than asking about marketing content, instead consider, “How does information and misinformation spread?”, or “can I add value for consumers by sharing helpful guidelines, regulatory information, or other informative content?” Content tracking isn’t limited to marketing content: I’ve tracked flu outbreak information with the CDC and WHO that has informed everything from where (and on what topics) individuals need more disease information, to whether emergency supply needs could be predicted based on knowledge of the early reach of information. …even if you believe your target consumer isn’t the blogging type If you honestly believe your target population isn’t contributing online – I might not agree, but on this occasion I’ll turn a blind eye – what about consuming content? Sure, not everyone is a ‘writes 3 blogs a night’ type person. But the modern affinity to referring to review sites is difficult to deny. When was the last time you booked a holiday without looking to Trip Advisor or bought electronics without reading some online reviews? You’ve probably mapped out consumer segmentations and a consumer decision journey for your brand. What about accounting for the role that the online world now plays? Track content to understand how people at different consumer decision journey (CDJ) stages are consuming your content. How could you tailor your content to different segmentations or different purchase stages? How could you use content to understand and address the questions that consumers have pre-purchase, or to get post-purchase advocates to connect with those still deciding? Don’t forget that probably 90% of our word of mouth, sharing, and influencing with others occurs offline. All the more reason you should maximize what you can control – and measure – online with social media content tracking. * Interested in discussing how content tracking could work for you? Just drop me an email at Erika.Ammerman@Facegroup.com, or say hello on LinkedIn.

How Video Goes Viral: our Twitter data visualisations in the press

Jess — Wed, 14 Aug 2013 15:37:07 +0000

We’re excited to have received some fantastic press coverage this week for our data visualisation project for Twitter UK. Here’s a few details of the project and the interest it’s generated. The brief: Understand how different types of video go viral. How do people share this content on Twitter? We analysed 4 different types of videos to understand the different social dynamics of different types of content:

Commander Hadfield’s cover of Space Oddity by David Bowie, sung from the International Space Station
Dove’s Real Beauty Sketches brand advert
Ryan Gosling Won’t Eat His Cereal – a series of 10 Vines (Twitter’s new mini video format)
Breaking news video from the Turkish protests in April (see our September release)

We tracked these videos using our social media intelligence platform, Pulsar TRAC. Having built this technology ourselves, specifically for research, we developed a unique content tracking function that searches content by URL – as well as by keyword. It even “unbundles” shortened URLs such as t.co and 0w.ly to ensure it can handle Twitter’s shortened links. Which is what made this research study possible. What we created: A different kind of research output:

4 dynamic data visualisations in video format (on YouTube)
4 network maps for each video, exploring different dimensions of how they spread, such as visibility and Klout

Here’s how Twitter reported the story on their blog: And then it started being picked up in UK press… Then we got picked up by global tech press, including Mashable, Business Insider,GigaOm and All Things D. But the highlight for the team had to be this tweet from none other than Commander Hadfield himself: Gorgeous though they are, these data visualisations alone don’t tell the full story of how videos go viral. We’ll be publishing our full analysis in the first week of September – watch this space! Meanwhile, meet us at Social Data Week in NY and San Francisco. And keep in touch with Pulsar through @Pulsar_Social and its creator Francesco D’Orazio (@abc3d) on Twitter.

Sir Alex Ferguson retires. Visualised. #thankyousiralex

Francesco DOrazio — Fri, 10 May 2013 16:17:14 +0000

24 hours of global tweets about Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement, from the rumour to the announcement to the aftermath. Through the lens of two visualisation approaches: the streamgraph and the rose. Streamgraph > Tue 07 May – 10 pm / Wed 08 May 10 pm Nightingale Rose or Coxcomb Diagram > Tue 07 May – 10 pm / Wed 08 May 10 pm Data based on 100% of public tweets collected, analysed and visualised with Pulsar.

Measuring LeWeb: top speakers, topics, influencers & countries

Jess — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 16:20:01 +0000

We had a great time at Le Web 2013, the innovation and entrepreneurship conference that came to London this week. Generously hosted by Datasift – our social media data providers – we showed off our social media intelligence platform Pulsar to hundreds of people. Meanwhile our CIO Francesco D’Orazio spoke on a panel about what happens when social meets big data. When we arrived, we realised we had to track what was going on. Within 5 minutes we had a search set up, looking for all mentions of LeWeb, @LeWeb, and the hashtags #LeWeb, #LeWeb13 and #LeWeb2013. Thanks to Datasift we have easy access to Twitter historics, so we could quickly capture discussion about conference preparation a couple of days earlier too. Friday morning, we started analysis. These are the results – the people, events and topics that mattered at LeWeb 2013… Most-discussed speakers Analysing the volume of discussion by hour shows which speakers and events generated the most discussion. AirBnB were the biggest draw on Wednesday morning, with 1800 tweets and retweets between 10-11am. In fact, tweeting volumes dropped over the course of the conference, perhaps as Twitter fingers got tired or people found more productive discussions face-to-face. We can also analyse the keywords and topics of discussion to see which people and topics generated the most discussion: Top 10 People The most mentioned people in LeWeb discussion were…

@LeWeb (of course) – 2879 mentions
@Loic – host Loic Le Meur – 979
@JOwyang – Jeremiah Owyang, Altimeter – 500
@MSuster – Mark Suster, GRP Partners – 299
@JGebbia – Joe Gebbia, AirBnB – 287
@Natital – Natalia Talkowska, live sketching – 270
@Scobleizer – Robert Scoble, in the Google Glass panel – 247
@AirBnB – 231 mentions
@Axelletess – Axelle Tessandier, speaking on Digital Hippies – 194
@Papadimitriou – Paul Papadimitriou, attendee, analyst & speaker – 180

This may suggest speakers to invite back and prioritise – but also some valuable attendees and infographic sketchers worth paying attention to as well. Top 10 Topics

Sharing Economy
Startups
Google Glass
Community
Collaborative
Bitcoin
Data
Future
Crisis
Entrepreneurship

It’s clear the main message of LeWeb ’13 – the sharing economy – came across clearly, and the start-up competition drove a lot of buzz too. But the chance to see Google Glass in the flesh, and hear Loic Le Meur and Robert Scoble debate its impact, was a massive draw for the London audience too. Here’s a Bundle visualisation of the connections between the topics – everyone was fascinated by this at the Datasift stand! We’ve selected teh keywords most associated with Altimeter’s Jeremiah Owyang (@jowyang): Most-shared stories Pulsar doesn’t just track the content of messages. Using Datasift’s Bit.ly data, it can unpack the URLs mentioned in each tweet or blog post (even if they’ve been through URL-shorteners like ow.ly or t.co) to understand what web content is the most shared. This is extremely valuable for understanding the press and PR impact of the event. The LeWeb top content included:

The livestream on YouTube
London Tech Talk Facebook page, arranging meet-ups
CNN’s Storify: LeWeb: How Grateful Dead were early adopters and Lily Cole makes wishes true
Coverage at Frenchweb.fr
Loic Le Mure’s keynote, The Sharing Economy on Slideshare
The Next Web: Smart online retail tool Pricing Assistant wins the LeWeb London Startup Competition

Influence Now we’re not the only people to have been measuring influence at LeWeb. Kred built a leaderboard (with Loic Le Mure on top), and Synthesio’s rankings place Silicon Valley speaker Thomas Power on top. That’s two ways to look at it. But Pulsar is built by researchers, for researchers – for people who know there are different types of influence and who want to understand the specific benefits and strategies for each. Otherwise you risk up mixing journalists with VCs with self-promoting “internet marketers” and auto-retweeting RSS bots… So we can measure influence at LeWeb across several dimensions:

Most vocal - that’s @ThomasPower, with 463 mentions of LeWeb – he was retweeting heavily Most visible - that’s @LeWeb, with 398 mentions of the event to a bigger audience of 138,000 followers, and driving more engagement and retweets too Most engaging - that’s @TheNextWeb, with 126 retweets for their tweet about the startup competition

Of course, we can build this into bespoke metrics which weight the different dimensions of influence in the most relevant way depending on clients’ strategic goals – awareness, reach or engagement. Who was the LeWeb audience? But to focus too narrowly on influencers misses seeing the bigger picture – the whole LeWeb audience. Pulsar is uniquely able to measure this, thanks to the metadata Datasift attach to each tweet (which includes full details of the author and their network) and our ability search this data, tag it by clusters, and build custom graphs. Of course it’s limited to the data people share publicly – and not everyone has a detailed profile bio – but the indicative results are very interesting:

Startups are the biggest group, at 43% (startup, founder or entrepreneur in their bios)
22% marketers, PR and advertising agency types
11% journalists and bloggers
10% students
6.5% C-Suite influentials (CEO, CIO, CFO etc)
and a handful of developers and speakers

And here’s where they came from – France narrowly beating the US for second place, as befits LeWeb’s origins as a Parisian conference So that’s LeWeb – the events, the speakers and the topics that drove discussion. Thanks again to Datasift for kindly hosting us and promoting our work on stage. (That’s founder Nick Halstead showing off our visualisations of Alex Ferguson’s retirement announcement). And using PulsarTRAC – built by researchers, for researchers – we found all this out after just 5 minutes set-up and a couple of hours analysis. Can your social media monitoring tool tell you all that? If you want to learn more about Pulsar - and how FACE turn social data into social business intelligence - get in touch. My email is Jessica@Facegroup.com. Let’s do a demo to talk through how Pulsar could work for you.

Viral Video Webinar: Learn How Stuff Spreads

admin — Wed, 18 Sep 2013 18:35:45 +0000

Why do some Internet videos go viral while others collect just a bunch of clicks? And just what are the dynamics of virality anyway? Working with Twitter UK, we studied four videos that recently went viral on Twitter to find this out:

a series on Vine called "Ryan Gosling Won't Eat His Cereal"
astronaut Commander Chris Hadfield singing David Bowie's "Space Oddity" while orbiting earth aboard the International Space Station
Dove's Real Beauty Sketches marketing campaign
a video documenting the April protests in Turkey to contest the urban development plan for Istanbul's Taksim Gezi Park.

All four videos went viral in different ways and whilst there is no simple answer such as a virality formula, all cases provide interesting bits of advice for social media marketers, content strategists and video creators. Is it possible to identify patterns and correlations between the type of content and the way it travels the web? The webinar analyses the common traits of viral phenomena and how to engineer them in your creative process in order to develop a data-driven content strategy and increase the chances of virality for your campaigns. We produced 3 video outputs and a series of beautiful network visualisations such as the one below, showing the different dimensions of influence affecting how the video spread:

Webinar speakers Francesco D’Orazio is a social scientist and technologist with a digital media background. He holds a PhD in Social Sciences and Digital Media and his research focused on immersive media, the evolution of audiences and the rise of social software. As Chief Innovation Officer at FACE Francesco specialises on building systems that help analyze social data and extract insights from the social web in real time using computational social science and data visualisation. He is a regular speaker at technology, innovation and research conferences such as Big Data Week, Social Media Week, Strata, WARC, MRS, and Esomar. Joining Fran is Jess Owens, a founding member of the FACE social media research team and co-author of the viral video studies. She presented our Gangnam Style webinar back in July, and has spoken with Fran at ESOMAR on social media research methods. * You've seen the press coverage in Mashable, The Guardian, The Independent, Business Insider... And on Commander Hadfield’s Twitter feed. Now hear their take on how viral video memes spread and what brands and marketers can learn from this:

Sign up for the free webinar here, on GoToMeeting
Wednesday 9 October
4pm GMT / 11am EDT

We look forward to seeing you there!

3 new use cases for social data in research

admin — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 15:58:46 +0000

With 1.7 billion people using social media globally, social media communication is now undeniably a mainstream activity. Tapping into this, there is now a healthy industry dedicated to tracking brand reputation using simple keyword-based platforms. As researchers, we should be asking ourselves how we can harness insights from this huge source of qualitative data to help our clients understand people and their needs better. As both a social media and a qualitative research agency, this is something we at FACE are always thinking about. And we thought it was time to share more. So here are 3 use cases that go beyond brand tracking where social data is increasingly being used to answer research briefs. 1. Problem Tracking for Innovation When you’re thinking innovation, asking people what products & services they want to see has an obvious drawback: these things don’t exist! So people find them hard to describe.

Image by Flickr User Jason Bolonski

You can often learn more from what listening to what people don't want, or what they hate than asking them what they do want. And the advantage of social is that you don’t just tap into the dislikes of 15-20 people in an online community – but potentially 15-20,000 responses in social media discussion. Using a skilled keyword search strategy you can isolate conversations around product and service discussions in most categories. In the past year we have worked on numerous innovation projects where social data has been used early in the process to identify consumer needs. A good example is one of our haircare clients who have been tracking how women talk about their hair frustrations across 6 markets. From this our analysts have dug out unmet needs - and just as importantly, a detailed understanding of how those needs are expressed in consumer language. Using social data in this way combined with strong qualitative analysis has helped this client uncover insights in a matter of days and at a fraction of the cost of their usual international group methodology. We’ve also used social media to identify needs in a project for Nokia. 2. Social panels for consumer understanding and profiling Social listening can go beyond tracking keywords and is increasingly focused on tracking specific groups of people’s conversations in what we describe as social panels.

Image by Flickr User Deb Nystrom

With more sophisticated social research platforms such as Pulsar you can identify discrete groups of people such as brand followers, bloggers, mums, tech experts in fact the list is endless. We are currently working with a major UK retailer to track groups of their customer conversations to identify opportunity areas for the development of more personalised shopping experiences. Social data helps to profile customer with a richer layer of behavioural and qual data. When this is combined with existing data sets it gives clients powerful insights on a scale – and timeliness - that is impossible to achieve with other types of research. For an example, take a loot at this previous project we’ve done, profiling a brand’s audience with @O2. 3. Content tracking for creative development Lots of media spend has moved to social media in the past few years, and brands understand that they need to evolve to become creators and publishers if they are going to engage people in social. This means that developing compelling content and intelligent seeding strategies is crucial to achieve ROI on this media spend.

Clicks and impressions tell some of the story, but seeing how content is shared and is talked about is crucial to understanding how stuff spreads successfully. We have been working with Twitter UK over the past year using advanced network analysis to help them demonstrate to advertisers the dynamics of how to create compelling content. This type of behavioural social tracking is a necessity to conduct research in the area of content development as it is the only way to get the full picture of how and why things spread amongst online communities. * Want to learn more about how social data can help you spread your content? Join our Viral Video Webinar, October 9th at 4 pm BST/11 am EST to see how 4 viral videos were passed around the web - and what you can learn from them.

The future of social media research: or how to re-invent social media listening in 10 steps

Francesco DOrazio — Sat, 05 Oct 2013 16:16:39 +0000

In an article recently published in Research World Magazine and on his Tumblr blog Abc3d, our Chief Innovation Officer, Francesco D'Orazio outlines the challenges facing the social media monitoring industry - and 10 ways to tackle them. We wanted to make sure to share these thoughts on our blog, as well. Social media monitoring is a growing industry but one that is stuck in its old ways. And in need a of a urgent re-think. Since it emerged 15 years ago, the industry has been largely responsible for driving some of the most interesting evolutions in the research space, such as the democratisation of text mining and computational approaches to mining qualitative information. This is an approach that for the first time enables both a granular and a birds-eye view of the data, making it possible to produce qualitative observations on a mass scale. A new perspective that is blurring the lines between qualitative and quantitative thinking. And with computation also comes the ability to mine larger (and messier) datasets, which is in turn steadily shifting the focus of what we call knowledge, from understanding causation to identifying correlations. However, despite the broad impact of social data on the market research industry and the evolution of its infrastructure, the social media monitoring toolbox hasn’t evolved much in 15 years. While the web, its users, the brands and the advertising strategies have changed dramatically, most social media monitoring platforms today still do exactly what they used to do when the industry first emerged. The more than 480 platforms currently available on the market all tend to be affected by similar issues: the obsession with shallow volume-led metrics, the inability to measure exposure, the lack of context to the social data, no understanding of the audience and poor data manipulation and visualization interfaces. Add to this the more systemic revolutions the industry is facing, such as the visualization of social media, which is going to pose huge challenges to an industry that’s been entirely built on text mining. Most of these issues can be ascribed to the lack of research thinking in the design of the tools we use today. The majority of the companies that established the frameworks in the monitoring space have come at it from a web analytics perspective. Which has lead to favouring the monitoring and analytics framework rather than the insight and intelligence framework for studying online social interactions. But the analytics approach has also lead to another big misconception. Social data is not quantitative data, rather qualitative data on a quantitative scale. This might sound like a very byzantine distinction to some but over the past ten years this approach has had huge implications on the way social data has been modelled, analysed, sold, delivered and used by organisations worldwide. Now with social data intelligence becoming central to many organizations and brands, researchers can and have to play a more active role in shaping the tools for the job. So how can we help disrupting a shallow social media monitoring model to make it more powerful and relevant to the way the web works today?

Introducing new ways of sampling social data beyond keyword tracking: Audience Mapping (harvesting content from a set of users) Content Diffusion (harvesting content that contains specific URLs), Social Simulations (agent based simulation based on social data), MROC Augmentation;
Shifting the focus from the content of the conversations to everything around it: context, behaviors, social graphs and interest graphs;
Implementing solid analysis frameworks to move away from basic analytics towards intelligence, for example embedding techniques to make the most of social data such as social network analysis, discourse analysis, reach analysis, attribution analysis;
Opening up the social silo by connecting social data with other datasets such as sales, NPS, stock trading, media exposure;
Introducing scalable human analysis alongside algorithmic coding by crowdsourcing parts of the research process;
Making machine learning ubiquitous to capitalize on the benefits of human coding;
Improving the Data User Experience to support intuitive data manipulation and delivery at different levels of the company and across multiple devices;
Help re-design the company decision-making process: organizations are learning that they have to re-engineer the way they make decisions in order to make the most of real-time intelligence; there’s no point in delivering real-time intelligence if your client can’t make real-time decisions;
Create smart research products based on integrating traditional methods and social data: live segments, social panels, social surveys;
Making Research Programmable: shape the transition from monitoring platforms to social data driven business applications as social data becomes invisible and embedded into the way any organization creates new products, plans advertising or stocks their stores. Move away from dashboards and Powerpoint reports and plug the data and the intelligence into the products and services we deliver.

Time for the researchers to roll up their sleeves. * Found this interesting? Here more from Francesco at our Viral Video Webinar October 9th when he presents on how different videos go viral differently - and what marketers and brands can learn from it.

Why marketers should listen when a picture says more than a 1000 words

Ed — Tue, 30 Aug 2016 11:37:13 +0000

Images have always been a popular way to communicate, but with the popularity of image-led social networks like Instagram and Snapchat, it's no surprise that images now fully dominate the way we express ourselves. We use emojis & images to communicate our emotions, to add expression to expressionless text, and to put text into context (and yes, we're waiting for the day WordPress integrates an emoji keyboard). Altimeter, a research and strategy consultancy recently launched a new report about this shift ('Image Intelligence: making visual content predictive') which maps out the current landscape for marketing opportunities, challenges and opportunities that can be explored using image analysis. Brands can obviously benefit from exploring image analysis in that light. In the report, Altimeter highlights how brands should be spending time analysing and understanding the meaning of images, stating that "80% of images including one or more logos do not directly refer to the brand with associated text". In short, text needs context, but so do images. And that’s why Pulsar looks at images from multiple angles - to understand that context:

logo detection will bring back any images that show your brand’s logo.

image text identification allows you to identify any text mentions of your brand within any images - as well as any keywords that might be related to a new campaign or slogan.

emotion analysis - simply acting as a sentiment upgrade. Instead of analysing whether your audience are talking in a positive, negative or neutral manner, Pulsar can see whether they're angry, happy, sad, joyful, or disappointed, bringing a higher level of sophistication to your analysis.

Image analysis: 4 key functionalities

Within these features are some crucial functionalities that make image analysis a key component to understanding a specific topic or audience. We've highlighted four from Pulsar which will take your analysis to the next level:

1) Image tagging

Image tagging goes beyond basic logo recognition, it uses deep learning to understand the content and context of an image. That means Pulsar will be able to recognize a can of Coke even after someone crushed it on their forehead in a dare. This type of analysis can help us understand and group a collection of images by scene, object, behaviour and logos. The image above is categorised instantly as Jeep, Desert, Car, Driving, so we can begin to build a database of images that include these specific areas.

2) Face detection

Another key functionality within image analysis is the ability to detect certain facial expressions that provide insight into age and gender. Face detection also allows us to automatically identify whether the person in the image is a celebrity or famous figure. This type of detection means we can identity images that fit our demographical search criteria in a fast and easy way.

3) Filters

Not only can Pulsar detect and understand specific areas within images, we can also use filters to collect and segment the data.

Image tagging allows you to filter the image by topic. The image above is tagged as "Bottle Caps", so we could filter the data to only bring back images featuring bottle caps. You can use this data to discover the demographical make-up of people drinking Coca-Cola bottles verses those buying cans. This data can then be fed into your marketing strategies for both products.

We can also look at the text within Captions, which means we can filter by any keyword in the text of the image’s caption. For example, if we want to run an analysis of how successful Coke's Olympic campaign has been, we could filter the data to only bring back mentions of "Rio2016".

Image analysis allows us to go even deeper into the image. We can also filter by any keyword in any text present in the image. If we wanted to see how Coke's newest variant is fairing online, we filter the dataset by "life" and it'll bring back all images with "Coca-Cola life". Lastly, we can filter by any emoji contained in any text present in the image or caption of the image, which is vital if you want to add emotion to your analysis.

4) URL image extraction

URL image extraction identifies the most relevant image in any web page. So, if you're exploring a specific topic you can bring back the images which are most relevant to that topic across a URL search. As an example, we tracked the death of Margaret Thatcher which brought back a selection of the most relevant images shared across the web and on social. This analysis creates an overall picture of how her death was covered in the press and received by the public. CNN released images of her with Jimmy Savile, another publication states she died following a “strike”, and someone tweeted the song ‘Celebrate Good Times’ – all of which have negative attributions. On the other hand, there are images of her meeting the world’s greatest leaders, subconsciously putting her on the same pedestal. By analysing these images we can understand the political allegiances of the publications and get a feel of what the public’s reaction is to her death. In summary, image analysis allows you to understand images, put them into context, and add another measurement to your audience intelligence.As the world gets more connected and our dialogue becomes image-led, the potential for image analysis is huge. If you want to know more about Pulsar's image analysis features, please get in touch: Info@Pulsarplatform.com.

Facebook & Instagram: How two world's collide

admin — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Facebook is a network I'm tied too (it's been in my life for nine years, it's like having a sibling I never wanted), I check in on it everyday; to stalk, to talk, to say "I'm interested" in an event. Instagram is for photogenic memories, Twitter is for second screening and to feel apart of a community. And Snapchat is for those cool moments I want to share but don't deserve a Facebook or Instagram post. My point: each network has it's own uses and audiences. For a while, I've wondered whether I think about my social channels a little too much - but it feels like a subconscious decision to identify which moments to share of which networks. Apparently, I am not alone: Facebook IQ recently published an article which shares information from their research collaboration with Ipsos Connect. The study surveyed 18-64 year olds from Australia, Brazil, France, Japan, the UK and the US who use Facebook and Instagram on a weekly basis. Why is this important to marketers? Marketers of any kind, need to understand how different types of people (and audiences) use Facebook and Instagram. How often do they log on, where are they based, what kind of content do they interact with, how do engagement rates differ depending on age, gender and occupation? This information is crucial for you to understand your audiences. The primary reason why people visit Facebook is to stay connected with friends and families, but people on Instagram want tho follow celebrities and use it as mores of a search tool - where they can find tips and examples of other people's ideas and work. In terms of large events, the study revealed that people head to Facebook for opinions and to Instagram for more of a "behind the scenes" aspect. One of the main examples of this from the study was looking at Cannes Films Festival, the most popular event on Instagram, was the feeds of celebrities own photos, whereas on Facebook it was a film critic who criticised one of the judges. Instagram is more about inspiration and inspiring other, whereas Facebook is about "exposure to new ideas".

The Outnet & Pulsar visualise how people share moments of "joy"

Ed — Thu, 04 Aug 2016 16:36:28 +0000

The Outnet's Social Media Study On Joy Provides Key Content Lessons For Brands

We teamed up with The Outnet to analyse 33 million social media posts related to the way in which consumers share moments of “joy” and “thrill”. One of the key findings was that we like to celebrate individuality, but also seek a sense of belonging and the ability to identify to a tribe or community. The study covered The Outnet’s key markets; the UK, the US, Australia, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Singapore, and the UAE, and found that people love to share their discoveries on social media, but want to belong within a digital community - with the main drivers of conversations being everyday beauty and personal growth. As the world becomes more connected and the time spent on social networks increases, the way we use and communicate on these channels differs depending on your demographic make-up. In the study, we discovered the younger generations will turn to Snapchat to share open feelings, whereas older women will use different channels. Selfies are the new status symbol One-third of all the images we analysed were selfies, and often involved more than one person. What we found was surprising - rather than being solely about personal image or a means to draw attention to the creator, these images (when put in context) were about leaning towards individuals growth and development. The idea of personal growth drove 49% of conversations: the way we talk about health no longer refers to dieting or exercise, but to mental and lifestyle choices. This is crucial as it can impact businesses at every level. Social media empowers and celebrates the idea of individuality, however, the study found that 31% of the conversations globally talk about the sense of belonging. The ability to connect with digital tribes and communities on social media is just as important as individuality. For brands or companies looking to find topics to connect with their audiences, the study shows that personal growth and wellbeing is a clear talking point. Organisations no longer need to just sell products, but they need to sell emotions, feelings, a lifestyle. As Andres Sosa, EVP of The Outnet, said: “Having these results available for the business will be a key focus point in helping to drive our communication strategy forward. We can create touch points in relation to these moments, ensuring what we offer as a brand truly replicates and resonates with [them].” Experience vs material Our study also found that the idea of "joy" and "thrill" relates to experiences and discoveries. For example, people value the idea of travel so much more because they have greater things to share on social media. We live in an era where for the first time consumers value experiences over material possessions. This is exaggerated when analysing millennials, who are the main drivers for experiences over material wealth. The study is a reminder that consumers seek so much more than just a transaction, they want to be taken on a journey of discovery, experience new things and create meaningful relationships. If you're interested in connecting with your audience by identifying their demographical make-up, understanding the main influencers, and knowing what the key topics of conversation are, we;d love to hear from you. Please send us an email on Info@Pulsarplatform.com.

Pulsar Redesign 2.0

admin — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

With many features added over the past years, we've reassessed the user experience on the platform and implemented several key improvements in usability, as well as refreshing the look and feel.

In short, you will still have all the functionalities you know and love - but the platform will be easier to navigate, and the results will look better.

In anticipation of the launch of the new platform, below are 5 key changes you'll find. [would be great to add webinar sentence here as to introduce the look ahead of launch, see my previous mail]

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact your Account Manager directly or email Account.Team@pulsarplatform.com for more information.

1. General - updated the logos for TRAC and CORE, this is now consistent with the website. (image attached)

2) (TRAC) - For each section of the dashboard we've optimised the graphs to make them easy to use and less fiddly.

- Users can now get to the data and insights that matters to them the most, at a glance.

- Users now get an in-depth summary of their entire dataset in the Overview dashboard: total Posts, total Engagements, average Sentiment and Sentiment split, Impressions, and Emotions.

- For each graph, users can now simply x-out the data they don't want to view. No more fussing around with scrolling up and down to see the graphs update. See these graphs in action. (Need gifs from from Harrison).

3) (TRAC) - Social media is an ever changing landscape. As terms and new user behaviours emerge across the different social media channels, we've also now adopted on Pulsar a more universal language and approach to the analytics we provide.

- We've replaced the term Reach with Impressions.

First of all it’s important to stress that the figures we've always provided you with on Pulsar are related to the number of impressions a post generates, not unique users. Impressions are the number of times a post has been displayed in a timeline, (Twitter, Instagram or Facebook), whether the post is clicked or not, therefore an estimate of how many times people have most likely seen a piece of content. On Pulsar we give you Potential Estimated Impressions (PEI), and Actual Estimated Impressions (AEI). People may see multiple impressions of the same post. Reach on the other hand is the number of unique people who received impressions of a post. Reach might be less than impressions since one person can see multiple impressions.

- We've dropped the term Reactions, and we are now using Engagements, which is a universal term applicable to all social channels. Engagements are when a user interacts with a post, for example retweets on Twitter or comments and shares on Facebook or Instagram. (Image attached)

4) (TRAC) moments: You will notice that we have dropped the Top Posts and Density graphs. Following user feedback and analytics on how our end users use the platform, we realised that these graphs were not intuitive enough to help you understand the "when", i.e. time of day and day of the week. So we are excited to introduce the new Moments graph, where you can now see the best time of the day and the best day of the week for your content. (No Image yet as graph is not working)

5) (CORE) - New and cleaner Brandset dashboard. (Image attached).

What’s up on WhatsApp: How native messaging apps can make the difference

Ed — Mon, 26 Sep 2016 14:48:10 +0000

In our fast-moving world, how can research agencies keep up with the way consumers express themselves? Tereza Lachmanova, who heads up Pulsar’s online research communities and helps researchers manage and draw insights from community data, discusses how using publicly available digital tools can benefit self-ethnographic research in this new white paper. We use social data combined with other sources to really understand consumers. Pulsar has a fully functional qualitative research arm which gives us the ability to get inside the target audience. This qualitative arm extends into the world of ethnographics, co-creation, focus groups, and in-home interviews - among other methodologies - allowing us to create a detailed picture of the people behind the keyboard. And in this instance our research fused social data and qualitative research via WhatsApp communities. Tereza says: “With technology rapidly changing, market researchers have been faced both with great opportunities and challenges when it comes to working with online communities. We are constantly evaluating how to get our communities most engaged with our research, and this paper discusses our findings on testing the use of existing mobile messaging apps rather than using research-specific ones.” “Having worked on a wide variety of self-ethnography projects, Tereza tested numerous approaches to ensure community members would feed back ‘in-the-moment’ content, meaning they communicate experiences, preferences and emotions as they happen, rather than communicating them as a prompted task at a fixed time of day.” To read the full white paper, you can download it for free on the Pulsar website here.

Image hosting - IB

admin — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Finding the Lions Dream Team with Standard Life

admin — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Can social media be used to pick a world-class rugby team, that relies entirely on expert decision? With the British and Irish Lions tour looming, every rugby fan has been watching with anticipation to see who will don the famous red and white. Of course this has giving way for the fans to voice their opinion online, from the best and worst players, to the having the right game-plan, in the past have merely been opinions with no merit. Standard Life wanted to showcase just how much opinion matters. it might sound like a stretch at first, the Food Standards Agency has proven this can be done successfully. Using Pulsar in conjunction with other sources such as lab reports to build a complete picture of the spread of the Norovirus, the FSA aims to communicate high risk of outbreaks to the general public. This case study dives into the approach the FSA took, how Twitter was the missing piece to the puzzle, and how they've come to their current high success rate. Together with Ogilvy Healthworld, Pulsar recently released The Social Check-Up, a report that looks at how the top 20 pharma companies use social media. Interest so far has been great, with Get Social Health being the most recent healthcare publication focusing on the report. Pulsar’s Research Manager Sameer Khan, who was involved with the data collection and analysis of The Social Check-Up, joined Ogilvy last week to record a podcast for Get Social Health, that looks at the methods and thinking behind the report. This podcast is now available to listen to on getsocialhealth.com. Sameer (Sam) said after the recording: “What’s particularly interesting is how pharma compares to other industries; which are perhaps more mature at engaging their online audience. The activity of pharma companies has undoubtedly evolved since earlier reports Ogilvy have conducted, and we’re keen to see how it progresses going forward.” When Janet Kennedy of Get Social Health interviewed Ogilvy Healthworld back in 2015 for a similar report, the results showed the pharma industry being cautious and risk-adverse in regards to social media. But over the past decade, the rise of social media has caused a huge shift in the way businesses interact with customers nike air max 90 2016 sale. And consequently, one of the findings the Social Check-Up shares is that the pharmaceutical industry has in the past year really upped its game and using social to reach wider audiences. With both Ogilvy’s strategic expertise and Pulsar’s cutting edge data platform & in-house expertise, this podcast explores conversation around the latest trends in healthcare and pharmaceutical social media. Listen to the podcast recording here. If you’re working in pharma or with clients in the healthcare sector, or who have a general interest in social media and pharma or healthcare, get in touch to see how we can help you:

WHEN YOU ABSOLUTELY NAIL A TV AD…

louis — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Moneysupermarket have been running some pretty quirky ads for years now, but on Saturday they absolutely nailed it. He Man and Skeletor, the Dirty Dancing routine, and a quick tribute to The Fonz – this ad had it all. And an extended version ran for the first time right in the middle of X-Factor, sparking a huge spike in conversations around the brand on social media.

Twitter Passion Report: How the Hard Rock Cafe could take some music lessons from Jeremy Corbyn

Vic — Tue, 05 Dec 2017 11:44:42 +0000

What has the Labour Party got in common with Tanqueray? From #Grime4Corbyn to Gin and Juice, their messages are creating the right notes with music fans. We’ve been running a series based on our work with Twitter, uncovering a set of passion communities on the platform using analysis of 800,000 randomly selected users. Twitter users’ eight most important passion networks were broken down into Music, Politics, Fashion, Sports, TV & Film, Fitness, Food and Technology. So far, so predictable. But more importantly, the research found that those who identified with these passions do not make up monolithic audiences, but gather into a series of sub-communities, each with a very specific cultural footprint clustered around geographic, ethnic or interest affinities. This month, we’ll take a closer look at the community whose main passion is identified as music. [Zoom in to take a close look: Here's a visual representation of the music passion network, representing each of the subgroups using a unique colour. We can see a great amount of overlap within the subgroups, showing diversity within the network and overlap of affinities.]

Making music

Music fans on Twitter are a demographic that cannot be summarised. It is possible to draw some broad conclusions about music fans from the research. While they are, on average, male and under 30, their communities are so disparate, that it’s almost pointless trying to appeal to them as a group. The four biggest sub-communities of music interest identified were Hip-Hop, EDM, Mainstream Indies and Live Rock. These interests hardly overlap, and are often connected to where fans live. So how to make the most of music fans using this research? As we can see from the #Grime4Corbyn movement before the UK’s election this June, appealing to a music-based community taps into a niche, creating influence based on culture and values. The Grime4Corbyn website states that they got over 72% of young people registered to vote. London, where many grime fans live, overwhelmingly voted for Corbyn’s Labour Party. So what can brands learn from Corbyn? We looked back through some recent music-based campaigns...

Find the right note

The report shows that the EDM and Live Rockers sub-communities show brand affinity with the Hard Rock Cafe. But looking at the Hard Rock Cafe’s Twitter accounts, the brand is not making the most of this. Its main Twitter account is littered with shoutouts to the biggest pop stars: Beyonce, Kesha Rose, Miley Cyrus. This could be alienating for hardcore EDM or rock fans.

Budweiser, however, another brand favoured by both the EDM community, has tapped into the interests of its audience well. Its UK arm recently partnered with underground music community Boilerroom, who originally focussed on techno and EDM music, for a local gig. These are being repeated worldwide, featuring artists from the cities where the gigs are taking place, making use of the fact that these communities are often tied to where fans live.

Mind on the money, money on the mind

Another drinks brand to raise a glass to: London-based gin Tanqueray is branching out to the US. And what better way to target young men from California than teaming up with California hip-hop legend Snoop Dogg? He mentions the brand in his famous song Gin and Juice. So Tanqueray took notice - teaming up with Snoop Dogg, the brand recently launched a definitive list of ten young influencers across a mix of verticals including hip-hop, and creating a series of ‘updated’ gin and juice cocktails - giving hip-hop fans new communities to tap into, and direct action to take.

The Takeaway

Clearly, there’s a lot to learn from tuning in to the world of music. Marketeers, strategists and planners should take note of these cultural affinities while trying to target these self-defined audiences. Some key takeaways on how to speak to the music-loving audience:

Find local passions: music scenes are often based around where people live, as Budweiser learnt with its local gigs
Identify micro-influencers: pop musicians are often too big to have any meaningful impact outside their own fans, something the Hard Rock Cafe could pick up on
Tell true stories: the Snoop Dogg and Tanqueray partnership appeals because it is based on the artist’s history: music is based on authenticity

Keep checking back for more in this series about Twitter passion networks, and how brands are connecting with them. If you want to get insights like these for your brand or client, get in touch at info@pulsarplatform.com or call 020 7874 6577 today.

IGNORE - CORE Creative tab and Platform Launch Pad

Emily — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

‘Tis the season to be jolly and today at Pulsar we’ve come bearing gifts. We’re delighted to be releasing a new Platform Launch Pad, and a Creative tab on CORE, giving you a nice early holiday present.

The Platform Launch Pad

Pulsar is evolving as a platform. To show our full range of services, when you open Pulsar you’ll now both see products that you own and ones you are not yet subscribed to; as well as brand new, innovative tools that we are developing. As with any platform, it serves multiple use cases and it has become more and more important to give you better tools to decide what to use and when. For products that you are not yet subscribed to, we’ve made sure that these are always visible and interactive and takes you straight to the relevant part of our website for more detail.

Lastly, we have created space for brand new products that we are creating so that you can see what we are working on next. You can access the Product Launch Pad every time you log into Pulsar or open up Pulsar to restart your session. Once you click on the product icon you want to work with, you will be returned to the last place you were in that product.

The Creative Tab

Say you wanted to understand how to create the best content. You would need to know the media format, what copy you should use, the images that work best for you and how you measure up to your competitors. To give you better tools to quickly arrive at a creative insight, we have added a 'Creative' tab to the Contents section of CORE. Format The format tab (previously known to users as ‘media type’) has been designed to show you which media types you should include in your content to get the highest engagement and impact from your audience. For example, you can see if images are generating higher engagements than links. Copy The copy tab (previously known to users as ‘keywords’) shows you which keywords have been working best for your content. You can now choose the copy of your content based on what has previously generated the highest engagements, visibility, impressions or engagement rate. Images

We have also added image recognition, which analyzes the contents of any images within your posts. So you can see (above) that the best performing image colours that work for Kim are ‘grey colours’, whilst ‘sea green’ works for Kendall and ‘light brown’ is Khloé’s most popular colour. Now if the Kardashians sisters need a little help choosing the best colour scheme for their next instagram post they know where to find us! Competitor Comparison

Now you can compare yourself against your competitors, and benchmark format, copy, and images within your industry. Looking at the treemap chart below, if Kim Kardashian wants to see, by engagement, how the format of her content compares to her sisters, she can do this on the Format Tab. She can see that she has around 20 million more engagements on images than her sister Kylie, and 60 million more than Kourtney! Over Indexing Finally, we have visualized the data so you can understand competitor performance proportionally, by the degree of shading. The darker the shade of color, the higher that insight is performing compared to the rest of your content and your competitors. When you hover over the tile we will also show you the average percentage of this insight’s performance, showing whether it is better or worse. If we look at Kylie, we can see (above) that she has 38 million more engagements on her images than Kourtney. However, the engagements she is receiving are actually -8.8% below the average amount she should be getting, compared to her content formats and that of her sisters. Equally, Kourtney is getting +7.1% higher average engagements on her images than her sisters. So despite having fewer overall engagements, Kourtney’s images are actually performing better than Kylies. As always, if you have any questions around these new features just open up the intercom chat and we’ll take you through them. Merry Christmas!

New Pulsar Feature: Facebook Pages now integrated on Pulsar

Cierra — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 15:36:58 +0000

Pulsar has recently launched a new feature called Facebook pages. This feature provides you with the opportunity to monitor multiple Facebook pages. It allows you to track and monitor content through two ways:

Posts made directly on your brand Facebook pages
Content related to any specific Facebook pages

But most importantly, what can you do with this new feature? Here are a few ways you could use the new Facebook pages integration:

You can benchmark your brand performance on Facebook against the performance of your competitors;
You can track your competitors and their product launches;
You can track your competitors and their marketing activities and see which one is getting more traction with their own audience;

In order to use the Facebook Pages feature, each Pulsar user is allowed to generate a unique token for Facebook. This unique token allows the user to create an audience search on Pulsar and then add a Facebook page to that search. You can only add one token per each audience search. However within one search, you can track as many Facebook pages as your token allows. The following steps guide you through the new feature:

Create a Facebook token

Create an Audience search

Select the Facebook page

Look forward to these new features hitting the platform within the beginning of December 2013.

The Future of Social Media Research [presentation]

Cierra — Thu, 05 Dec 2013 12:43:49 +0000

In an article recently published in Research World Magazine and on his Tumblr blog Abc3d, our Chief Innovation Officer, Francesco D’Orazio outlines the challenges facing the social media monitoring industry – and 10 ways to tackle them. Following the article Francesco has been invited to present at the MRS Social Media Research Summit in London and at the Researching Social Media Conference in Sheffield. You can find the full presentation here: [caption id="attachment_63" align="aligncenter" width="695"] Click the photo for the presentation.[/caption]

Future Social Media Research from Face, Social Intelligence for Brands

How Stuff Spreads | How Video Goes Viral pt. 2: the role of audience networks

Francesco DOrazio — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 09:55:31 +0000

In the first part of this blog series (How Stuff Spreads | How Videos Go Viral part 1: Models of Virality) we identified 7 dimensions that describe and quantify virality. Although none of the variables alone proved able to define a viral phenomenon on their own, they correlated into two models of viral diffusion. One model we called “spike” – the sudden ‘explosion’ of sharing activity – and the other we called “growth”, where popularity is a slower and steadier grower. In this blog post, our Chief Innovation Officer and VP Product Francesco D'Orazio using social network analysis looks at how the audience composition and structure influence the way video spreads. What makes a viral video spread in one or other of these ways? Most studies on the subject focus on virality as a feature of the content. But what if virality is (also) a feature of the audience? Can the demographics and the structure of the audience for a video explain how it goes viral? To recap, we were studying 4 videos:

Commander Hadfield’s cover of Bowie’s ‘Space Oddity’, on board the International Space Station
Dove’s Real Beauty Sketches, to understand how brand & advertising content spreads
Ryan Gosling Won’t Eat His Cereal series of Vine videos, for serialised narrative content and mobile
A grass-roots video of June’s protests in Izmir, Turkey, for an international and news dimension

In this blog post we will show how we analysed the demographics and the social network properties of each video’s audience to understand better how they spread. Read on for some of our best network graphs yet and some fascinating findings… Metric #1: Amplification and influence The first thing we looked at is Amplification. Amplification is a measure of the average “visibility” of the tweets carrying the meme. Tweets with higher visibility imply a more influential status of the author who posted them. Can the influence level of the audience of a meme explain its slower or faster diffusion? Amplificiation is similar across all audiences. It’s fractionally lower for the Turkish protest video and for Ryan Gosling, the first primarily shared in Turkey, the second appealing to a slightly newer (though still very active) Twitter audience. And it’s slightly higher for Dove Real Beauty Sketches and Commander Hadfield. In both cases the variation doesn’t correlate with the virality model of the meme. Metric #2: How international were the audience? So the next hypothesis to explain the velocity of the memes was the geographic distribution of the audience. We quantified this as Globality: the percentage of meme shares coming from countries other than the main country. So does the “internationalness” of a video affect its virality? Does a more global or a more local meme spread faster? The answer is again, no. The Turkish protest video was “local” but so was Ryan Gosling – and one spread instantly but the other peaked on day 18. Since both Amplification and Globality seemed not to correlate with one or the other model of virality, we then looked at the demographics engaged with each video. Metric #3: Demographics. Does the demographics of the audience affect the way content goes viral? Do young, techie male students from global cities push a meme faster than, say, middle aged housewives from rural Germany? We used Bayesian statistical inference to analyse the demographics of the audience. This method uses the available information on Twitter and matches it to a sample audience interviewed in real life to get known demographics, across the various countries involved in the study. Below is a summary of the most prominent demographics traits of the four audiences: Although students and global cities feature heavily in all audiences, there doesn’t seem to be any direct correlation between virality models and demographic traits. Instead the demographics are completely different for each meme. Not to mention that students represent 33% of the Ryan Gosling audience, the slowest meme of all – so it seems that youth demographic probably isn’t necessarily a critical cause for a video to go viral quick. And now some Social Network Analysis… The audience gets more interesting when you start to look at its social structure. As we couldn’t find any correlation between demographic traits and virality models, we turned to the structure of the audience by mapping the social graph of the people who shared the video. Your ‘social graph’ is the network of the people you know, and how they’re connected to each other. Because we were studying Twitter sharing of videos, we had easy access to this data through two variables: who each video sharer was following on Twitter, and who they’re followed by. In technical terms, this gives us a ‘directional’ network with two possible ways for nodes to be connected. Analysing these connections highlighted some really interesting differences. Metric #4: Degree, or ‘social connectedness’ First of all we looked at the Average Degree of each audience network. Each person in a network can be assigned a ‘degree’ value: that’s a count of the number of connections they have to other people in the network. We were studying how videos spread in Twitter, so those connections are easy to identify: it’s who they’re following and who they’re followed by. Interestingly enough, the audiences of the Spiker memes (Commander Hadfield and Turkish protests) are showing the highest levels of interconnectedness – while the audiences of the Grower memes (Dove Real Beauty and Ryan Gosling) show the lowest. Metric #5: Modularity, or “fragmentedness” The memes that spread faster could do so because the audiences that engaged with them were highly interconnected. But how are this connections organised? To do this we used another social network analysis metric called Modularity. This describes how fragmented the network is and how many sub-communities can be detected based on the density of mutual social connections within clusters of users. The lower the modularity, the less fragmented the audience is into sub-communities, the more cohesive it is and the easier to reach it is. Not surprisingly, the audiences of the Spiker memes are the most cohesive ones, while the audiences of the Grower memes are the most fragmented ones. Cohesiveness and fragmentation becomes much easier to understand when looking at the total number of communities identified within each audience. Metric #6: the number of Communities Social network analysis tools allow you to measure the number of ‘communities’ in a social network. Tools such as Gephi provide access to algorithms, such as the Modularity one, that can quantify how people’ s connections tend to gather together into definable ‘clusters’ of closely-connected groups. Whereas the audience of Commander Hadfield is split into 130 communities and the audience of the Turkish protests is split into 51, the audience of Ryan Gosling is split into 382 communities and the audience of Dove Real Beauty Sketches into 1356. This has a strong impact on the ability of memes to spread through the audience network. Whereas reaching out to just 2 communities is enough to reach 50% of the audience of the Turkish protest, spreading the news to 50% of the audience of Dove Real Beauty Sketches requires reaching out to 8 communities. It follows, then, that where a meme has to travel through more communities to reach people, it moves a little slower – in a ‘grower’ model. By contrast, memes ‘spike’ where they take off in a small number of communities very quickly. So what have we learnt so far? Yes, the audience’s social structure – the way that people are connected within in – shapes the way something goes viral. Audiences with a low Average Degree, low connectedness or low density, are more fragmented. The more an audience is fragmented into sub-communities (high modularity of the audience network), the slower a video or piece of content spreads through it . But what causes a higher or lower fragmentation within a specific audience? Understanding the communities within an audience To answer this question we tried to measure the demographic diversity of the audiences. The assumption being that an audience showing a higher demographic diversity will also be more fragmented and therefore slower to transmit viral videos. So we ran the demographics analysis again on the four audiences: this time running it separately on each of the top 5 community clusters identified within each audience. You can see below the results for the top 2 clusters of each audience: The audiences of Ryan Gosling and Dove Real Beauty Sketches show higher demographic diversity, while the audiences of Commander Hadfield and Turkish protests show lower demographic diversity. So high demographic diversity correlates with high modularity and slower meme velocity after all. How is this useful? How the audience affects How Stuff Spreads To start with, this means that a meme which is appealing to a broad demographic is probably going to spread slower than a meme that is appealing to a narrow demographic. This also means that a meme with a broad demographic appeal is going to be more expensive to make go viral. Expensive because it will require more intense paid for seeding/advertising in order to reach out to a higher number of disconnected communities (Dove Real Beauty Sketches is a good example). It may also need persistent replication of the meme to break through the attention of multiple audiences who might not take notice the first time (Ryan Gosling won’t eat his cereal is a good example). Finally, the organisation of the audience in sub-communities means that influencers lists by subject are pretty useless when trying to reach out to an audience. For example, your top 100 influencers for beauty might well all be part of the same two communities out of the 1356 total communities that make the Dove audience. So identifying gatekeepers and influencers is useful only once the audience you want to reach has been mapped and its communities identified. The social dynamics of virality In our previous post we identified and defined two models of virality: Spike vs. Growth. From this audience and community analysis, we can now augment that with a 3-part model of how content is seeded through groups of people: 1) TRIGGER: A higher than average emotional response to the content triggers an impulse to share 2) VALIDATION: The impulse to share gets then validated against the community the user is part of. This validation happens both in terms of topicality (is this of interest to my audience?) and timing (has anyone else already shared this within my circles?). Seethis paper for more research on this aspect 3) ESCALATION: The gatekeepers (e.g. media channels, celebrities etc) share the meme helping it reach the tipping point within a specific community. The tipping point is when every member of the community is likely to receive the meme from another member of the community. Once everyone’s seen the meme and starts to share it on themselves… That’s when you’ve got virality on your hands! So what does this mean for you? Content that generates an emotional reaction is more likely to go viral. People share to say something about themselves. Emotional content helps them figure out easily what it is they are saying about themselves by sharing it. Picture the audience your content is going to be appealing to, and find them in social media. Learn who they are and what makes them tick. Your online audience is not a monolith. Online audiences are organised in sub-communities and congregate around key demographics variables such as age, profession, passions and interests. Map your audience and identify the key communities that are going to help you reach out to at least 50% of your audience. Once the communities are mapped, identify the key gatekeepers by community and the connectors between key communities. This will help you reduce the outreach effort. If your content is going to appeal to a broad demographic expect a longer run and make sure you have the right resources in place for seeding and advertising to a fragmented and harder to reach audience. Good luck.

Previous posts in this series:

Found this interesting? Got viral content of your own that you want to understand? Check out the tool we used for this study, Pulsar (PulsarPlatform.com) and contact us to arrange a demo – send an email to James.Cuthbertson@Facegroup.com and we’ll be in touch in no time. Or get in touch with the study authors, Francesco D’Orazio (@abc3d /LinkedIn) and Jess Owens (@hautepop / LinkedIn).

New Pulsar Feature: Compare searches

Cierra — Wed, 18 Dec 2013 12:11:33 +0000

Since launching Pulsar in April of this year, we’ve not been resting on our laurels! The development team have been hard at work, exploring new data sources to integrate and new ways we can visualize and analyse data within the platform. We’ve got a number of exciting new features launching that we’ll be sharing with you over the next few weeks – today, we’d like to introduce a new analysis functionality: Compare. What does Compare do? It allows you to compare searches, of course! Perhaps you want to compare your brand against its competitive set. Or see how one ad campaign has performed in relation to another. But flipping back and forward between multiple tabs is a fuss. Compare allows you to make that comparison at a glance, within one Pulsar dashboard. The Compare feature allows you to compare up to six different searches. This feature can be found on the top right corner of the Activity overview page on the dashboard. Comparing will allow you to see how your competitor searches are performing. This is shown by volume, visibility and sentiment, over a specific time period. This provides the opportunities to compare and contrast Topic, Audience and Content searches. On top of that, you can also compare individual data within the searches. What types of things can you do with compare? - Compare your brand to a competitor - Compare different brand audiences Volume Visibility This feature is available immediately on the Pulsar platform.

New Pulsar Feature: Introducing Clusters - build your own charts

Cierra — Mon, 06 Jan 2014 10:16:10 +0000

Our development team have been hard at work continuing to build new features for Pulsar. This blog post introduces another new feature within the Pulsar platform: Clusters. Read on to discover how it works and what you can do with it. The Clusters feature is a powerful functionality for segmenting an existing dataset but it's even more useful to segment incoming data in real-time. Clusters provides you with the flexibility to combine and customise different filters within your search combining a wide range of 20 parameters such as identifying moms and dads within your dataset by text mining the user bios, comparing the countries or languages in your dataset, segmenting the buzz by engagement levels or Klout scores of the users involved and any other filter you can use on Pulsar. Save these filters to create your own custom graphs and visualize specific segments for comparison. You can choose between various types of charts, such as a bar or a pie chart. You can then download your charts, export the data, edit your clusters and refresh in real-time to reflect changes in data shifts. Here's a few examples of clusters you could put together:

Comparing the data volumes in different cities
Comparing which languages are most prevalent in the data
Find out which products are most heavily talked about

1. Compare languages and klout scores 2. Compare followers and different brands 3. Compare TV shows and music artists Want to use Clusters on your dataset? You can find this feature on the far right tab, here:

If you want to get in touch to know more about Clusters and Pulsar you can find us here http://www.pulsarplatform.com/#contact

Pulsar is looking for a talented Product Manager to join the team

admin — Fri, 17 Jan 2014 15:09:49 +0000

Looking for a new challenge this year? Does the idea of working on one of the most exciting and innovative products to emerge in the social media space appeal to you? Well, then this might be for you, so listen up!

We are currently seeking a Product Manager with excellent technical and Communication skills to join our interactive Pulsar team in the London office, working on the Pulsar Platform suite of products. Your primary product focus will be Pulsar Flow and Pulsar Live. We’re looking for someone to truly own the development of these products in terms of new features and functionality – managing user needs, defining roadmaps, correcting course and delivering releases on the scheduled date. You will have at least 3 years’ experience working in a Product Manager or Product Support role, building enterprise-class software products. You will be accustomed to working in a fast paced, technically driven and client facing environment and be well versed in navigating various social media platforms at both a user and technical level. A strong practical knowledge of social media reporting and engagement tools is a great plus. If this sounds like you, then we would love to hear from you! Visit our Join Us page to download the full job description, then send a CV and covering email to our VP Product, Francesco D’Orazio (francesco.dorazio@facegroup.com). The Pulsar Team

Social media customer service as awesome brand building

admin — Tue, 21 Jan 2014 21:40:29 +0000

You want to meet someone special. Someone that you could start a long, prosperous and mutually beneficial relationship with. Someone whose goals match yours and who you can work with to achieve your goals together. You know what I mean? No, I’m not thinking about joining an online dating site. I’m thinking about how we work with our clients here at FACE. It's a partnership, and over time it gets even better. At the start, it can of course be terrifyingly...new. When you’re in a truly social business, you have to put yourself out there – just like in any other relationship. You have to talk openly. You have to listen. To experience the benefits of a dialogue with your clients or customers– not just a monologue by your brand – you have to be real. My former colleague Pete Blackshaw used to say: you’ve got to demonstrate trust, authenticity, transparency, confidence, consistency, and integrity to be socially successful. Subtext here is that being selfish and isolated is not recommended. Alongside account manager Anna Dorywalksa, I thought we'd share some advice. Consumers are changing, so should you What do you do when you want to find information about a new product, service or organisation? Do you Google the name and check relevant websites, or ask your peers and see what Twitter has to say? How about complaining about a company – phone call to their customer service or quick note to your Facebook friends and Twitter followers? In times when trust in businesses is declining (check out the Edelman Trust Barometer), an increasing number of us are likely to say the latter in both cases. It’s easier, quicker and, lets face it, less frustrating. For that reason it’s important for organisations to be truly present in social media and engage in conversations evolving not only around their brand, but also competitors and the industry in general. Participating in honest and dynamic discussions will help you strengthen existing relationships, but also be crucial in acquiring new brand fans. This is how they do it Whether your online presence is established and you’re rocking your customer service on social, or have only just started thinking about jumping on the wagon – one thing is certain, your customers are talking about you (and to you), and they expect you to react. And it’s a good thing! @O2’s epic response to customer feedback during the network outage in 2012 has been and probably will be used as an example of great customer service for years to come. The company managed to turn what seemed to be a hopeless situation into a successful showcase of its social media ninja skills (forgive us for using this phrase!) and company values. Not only O2 have benefited from a humorous and witty approach to customer care online. Netflix, Sainsbury’s, and Bodyform have also decided to show their ‘human face’ via social and engaged in a friendly banter with customers. We acknowledge some companies, financial services in particular, might find this type of approach challenging or even impossible. Fear not! It’s not only about the humour. What matters is having a solid social media strategy, a dedicated team (consisting of one or 20 members, depending on business needs) and technology supporting both. As Daryl West, Social Media Insight Manager at Telefonica UK, says:

“Social media customer service is now a large part of our service remit with over 4000 customer queries handled by more than 20 trained social media service specialists on a weekly basis. We helped develop an engagement platform with FACE that helped create a strong workflow management system that could filter and categorise queries to drive efficiency in social customer service.”

Telefonica was one of the first companies to realize the potential of social and implement innovative solutions within the business. The brand hasn’t stopped there and being a social business is as important as ever . Says Daryl:

“We truly believe that our presence on social media demonstrates to consumers that we are a forward thinking brand that’s future proofing our customer service by being responsive and supportive on new and developing service channels. Furthermore, we also use social media service as an indicator to flag customer problems, if repetitive issues arise in social we can flag to our other service channels. This is a great way of using real time social media insight to feedback and maintain excellence across all service channels.”

Being real should be easy, not to mention fun, right? So why is the threat of social failure still one of the most frequent concerns I hear from clients? Well, because just like personal relationships, brand and client relationships take work - and sometimes they can be scary. Inevitably, sometimes needs won’t be perfectly aligned and there will be differences of opinion on the right steps to take. And at FACE we've had a breakup where we've listened to our client's point of view but in the end had to be confident about our transparency and remain consistent and true to ourselves. Thankfully, when you're a truly social business, working on your client and customer relationships also defines you. Each interaction is an opportunity to affirm and communicate what your brand stands for. FACE CEO Andrew Needham wrote just a couple of days ago about the importance of “delivering customer obsession in the digital age”. Business is changing – moving away from a old manufacturing “product first” model, towards one where customer needs lead. That’s why we think social media listening, engagement and customer care is so important. It’s what turns an interaction into a relationship – it’s what turns brand awareness into customer loyalty. * Erika Ammerman is the Head of Social Insight at FACE. She has worked for clients ranging from healthcare to hair care and beyond. Connect with her on LinkedIn. Anna Dorywalska is a Social and Pulsar Account Manager. She is following her passion for social media, working with brands including O2, eBay and Samsung. Connect with her on LinkedIn or follow her on Twitter.

Introducing Tumblr Firehose data on the Pulsar Platform and a whole new interface for mining visual content

Francesco DOrazio — Fri, 24 Jan 2014 13:56:07 +0000

We are happy to announce that Tumblr is now part of the Pulsar platform. Over the past few months, our engineering and design teams have been working on integrating the full Tumblr Firehose onto the Pulsar platform. As a Pulsar user, you will now be able to see 100% of the Tumblr data as part of the suite of social networking platforms we integrate (we integrated Tumblr as a Social Network, not just a blogging platform, because of the networked nature of the interaction between the users and the way content spreads on Tumblr). The new Tumblr integration will provide you with both real-time and historic access to the full Tumblr Firehose. Using Tumblr we are able to collect many different types of content:

Text
Photos
Quotes
Links
Videos
Social actions (including posts and re-blogs)

In the Conversation View (right hand column), Pulsar also shows you whom a post was directly re-blogged from and who the original author of that post was. However working with a platform like Tumblr where 84% of the content is visual, we also realised that researching it meant designing a whole new interface which would allow visual mining. The first step we are taking to support visual mining is re-designing the Results and Conversation Views. This allows Pulsar to display the actual image and video content rather than a preview end enabling endless scrolling rather than organising the content in pages. This allows for easy browsing of rich media social content which, coupled with advanced filtering using all the metadata we generate, is going to give you a powerful mining tool to uncover visual patterns and trends in your dataset. To start with, Pulsar now displays the actual images and video content in the Results View. Users get the "Collapsed" view by default and in this view, the contents are tagged with "photo" or "video" label. Choose the "Expand" button at the top of the Results View to view the rich media content, including images, GIFs and videos. Play any media in the Results or in the Conversation View without having to leave the app. Tumblr data is now available on the Pulsar platform. Whether you are in Europe, North America or Asia, if you want to get a demo go ahead and book a meeting or a Webex with our team here: http://www.pulsarplatform.com/ - contact

Introducing Historics 360: Get 100% of Historical Data across all sources from Pulsar

Francesco DOrazio — Fri, 31 Jan 2014 13:01:40 +0000

Tracking social media in real-time is great, but we rarely know in advance everything we need to track, how people are going to react to a specific event or campaign or what story is going viral next. Reviewing your real-time brand or campaign trackers can also reveal gaps. New products and campaigns are launched everyday and customers ALWAYS find new and unpredictable ways to engage with your brand and their competitors. Or more simply, you might want to run a longitudinal global tracker on a specific product or service category over the past 3 years. This is exactly what Historics 360 is for. We are very happy to announce that Pulsar now allows you to collect historical data on all data sources, including Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, News, Blogs, Forums and Reviews. Getting access to historical data in Pulsar is very easy. Here are the steps on how you would set up a historical search: 1. Select the type of search 2. Identify the range of your search selecting Real-time, Historic, or both 3. Define the start date and end date of your tracker 4. Select the size of the sample of the historical data you want to collect (Pulsar allows you to collect 100% of the date or a 10% randomised sample on the same time range) 5. Preview your historic data stream to check on the final details 6. You are now ready to launch your historical tracker (you can check the data ingestion process on the green progress bar) Historics 360 is now available on the Pulsar platform. If you want to find out more about it and wish to get a demo of Pulsar, go ahead and book a meeting or a Webex with our team here: http://www.pulsarplatform.com/ – contact

Transfer #DeadlineDay full visualizations and analysis and why Arsenal FC owned it

Francesco DOrazio — Mon, 03 Feb 2014 14:49:31 +0000

Transfer Day Deadline is one of the biggest Twitter events of the year in Europe. If you're not familiar with european football, the Transfer Window is the period during the year in which a football club can transfer players to and from other clubs into their playing staff and TDD is the last day when such transfers can be agreed and announced. Last Friday’s Transfer Deadline Day generated a huge 1.9 million Tweets as fans, players, pundits and clubs flocked to Twitter to find out the latest updates on who was moving where. Francesco D'Orazio, Rob Parkin and Sameer Shah worked round-the-clock with Twitter's Research team to mine the data as it came through and create a series of visualisations that show how the conversation evolved over 22 hours, from 1AM to 11PM on Friday the 31st of January. The maps reveal who were the most talked-about players over the course of #DeadlineDay and which clubs they were rumoured to be moving to.

Each ‘node’ or circle represents one Tweet, and its size represents its visibility. Visibility is a Pulsar proprietary algorithm that takes into account the nature of the Tweet, the reach of the Tweet, and the engagement it generated in terms of replies, favourites and retweets. The colour of the node represents the team that a Tweet relates to:

Transfer Deadline Day is nothing if not unpredictable. However, the likes of Dimitar Berbatov (September 2008), Fernando Torres (January 2011) or Mesut Ozil (September 2013) lighting up the final day of the transfer window with mega money moves are exceptions to the rule. Furthermore, big mid-season transfers are even more difficult to pull off, with clubs loathe to sell and players often reluctant to move. To add another layer of uncertainty, the World Cup takes place at the end of the domestic campaign, and players are even more conscious of risking losing their place in their national squads. On the flipside we have Juan Mata, whose move from Chelsea to Manchester United was driven by that very reason. Frozen out by Jose Mourinho, the Spaniard felt he had no choice but to seek pastures new to ensure his presence in Brazil this summer. Whilst Mata’s £37m move generated greater traction on Twitter than the more lucrative deals for Ozil or Gareth Bale from last summer (most likely because it involved two English clubs), it occurred before the much-heralded Transfer Deadline Day. The biggest deal on the final day also involved Chelsea, who signed Kurt Zouma for £12m. However, the French defender only ranked fifth in terms of volume of conversation, largely because unofficial news of his transfer broke the previous day and he was immediately loaned back to selling club Saint-Etienne. Accordingly – and with Manchester United having completed their transfer activity prior to the final day of the window – it was left to Arsenal (24.8% share-of-voice) and Liverpool (15%) to drive conversation. Neither club had yet to make any signings in January, leaving fans particularly fervent for incomings. In terms of players discussed, the reds of north London and Merseyside again dominated proceedings. The Gunners’ loan signing Kim Kallstrom came out on top, with almost 140k tweets. Of particular interest, however, is that two players who did not move on the day were second- and third-most discussed; namely Yevhen Konoplyanka, whose move to Liverpool collapsed late in the day, and Julian Draxler, who had been heavily linked with Arsenal throughout the month. This shows that whilst successful unions naturally create buzz, football fans on Twitter especially identify with jilted lover syndrome. Arsenal amassing almost a quarter of all conversation should not go unnoticed. Aside from the aforementioned Kallstrom and Draxler, their failed pursuit of Miroslav Klose saw the German veteran rank sixth in the list, ahead of players who actually did move. This means Arsenal contributed three of the top six players discussed. Why? Their status as the most-followed Premiership club surely plays a role, but more pertinently might be their proliferation of insightful supporter blogs (with associated Twitter accounts, of course). As of January 2014, Arsenal-centric blogs comprised six of the top 20 most influential UK football blogs, as compiled by Ebuzzing Labs. For comparison, the next most prominent club in the top 20 are Manchester United with three. When increasing the scope and looking at the top 40 such blogs, Arsenal’s figure increases to 14, i.e. 35% of the list. Not only are Gooners hungry for news, but also amongst the most social media savvy.

Our First Newsletter of 2014

Cierra — Mon, 10 Feb 2014 17:30:09 +0000

We have recently sent out our first newsletter of the year. These monthly updates highlight the latest Pulsar developments and share interesting articles from the world of Social Data. If you would like to stay up to date with what we’re up to at Pulsar, you can subscribe by emailing us at info@pulsarplatform.com. Transfer Deadline Day Visualized Friday's transfer deadline day generated almost 2 million Tweets, as fans, players, pundits and clubs flocked to Twitter to find out the most up to date information on who was moving where. We worked round-the-clock with Twitter's Research team to mine the data in real time and create a series of visualisations that show how the conversation evolved over the last 22 hours of Transfer Deadline Day. Read the full analysis here. Introducing Tumblr Firehose data on the Pulsar Platform Over the past few months, our engineering and design teams have been working on integrating the full Tumblr Firehose onto the Pulsar platform. As a Pulsar user, you will now be able to see 100% of the Tumblr data as part of the suite of social networking platforms we integrate. Check out the full blog post here. New feature alert: Introducing Clusters Our development team has been hard at work continuing to build new features for Pulsar. This blog post introduces another new feature within the Pulsar platform: Clusters. Read on to discover how it works and what you can do with it. Check out the full blog post here. Introducing Historics 360: Get 100% of Historical Data across all sources from Pulsar Tracking social media in real-time is great, but we rarely know in advance everything we need to track, how people are going to react to a specific event or campaign or what story is going viral next. Reviewing your real-time brand or campaign trackers can also reveal gaps. New products and campagins are launched everyday and customers ALWAYS find new and unpredictable ways to engage with your brand and their competitors. You can check out the full blog post here. New Kellogg's study: Promoted Tweets can lead to significant greater purchase intent Here at Pulsar, we recently really enjoyed reading this new study ran by Nielson and Kellogg's. The study explains how promoted tweets can lead to a significant higher intent to purchase. You can read the full study here.

Meet us at… Insight Innovation Exchange, Amsterdam 19-20th Feb

OanaS — Tue, 11 Feb 2014 16:26:47 +0000

Next week the London team are off to Amsterdam on 19-20 February to attend IIEX-EU 2014 – the Insight Innovation Exchange European conference. In their own words “The Insight Innovation eXchange connects seasoned practitioners with new thinkers, human behavior experts with technology, and the private and public sectors. We set the stage for connections that help mash ideas and technology together, knowing that those interactions will help bring about the next rEvolution in marketing insights” Here’s quick rundown of what Pulsar's up to at the conference: First, we’re excited to announce that we’ve been shortlisted as one of the two finalists of the Data Insight Visualization Awards (DIVA) which “acknowledge the most innovative and effective data visualization examples within the insights space”. As finalists, we have been invited to join a panel of data visualization experts on the second day of IIeX. We will also be presenting on Wednesday 19th at 17:00, talking about “Social media research for agile, adaptive customer intelligence”. If you’re not able to attend the conference, check out our webinar on Thursday 13th Feb to hear more! And of course we'll be demoing Pulsar so come find us. We’ll be tracking the #IIEX hashtag throughout the event, so come and visit our booth to discover the topics, the speakers and the issues driving the conference buzz. Here’s a snapshot of last year’s conference through the lens of social media. And of course stay tuned for tweets from @Pulsar_Social and get in touch if you want to arrange a meeting while at IIEX. Looking forward to seeing you there.

January Transfer Deadline Day on Twitter Network Timelapse

Sameer Shah — Thu, 13 Feb 2014 13:18:26 +0000

Last week, we shared with you our analysis of the buzz generated on Twitter during Transfer Day Deadline (the last day of the period in which a European football club can transfer players to and from other clubs into their playing staff). As one of Twitter’s biggest events of the year in Europe, 2014’s Transfer Day Deadline generated almost 2 million Tweets and involved 1.1 million football fans discussing the 20 Premiere League clubs. To capture the dynamics of the day we've animated the network visualisations producing a timelapse video showing how the conversation evolved over 22 hours, from 1AM to 11PM on Friday the 31st of January. The visualisation shows which clubs were discussed the most and when and what transfers drove more engagement at what point during the day. Each ‘node’ or circle represents one Tweet, and its size represents its visibility. Visibility is a Pulsar proprietary algorithm that takes into account the nature of the Tweet, the reach of the Tweet, and the engagement it generated in terms of replies, favourites and retweets. The colour of the node represents the team that a Tweet relates to. The players' names fading in and out are scaled based on the total number of mentions that specific transfer received while they appear and disappear according to the time of the day when the story goes viral (measured as the story touching a Velocity of more than 33 Tweets/minute) . https://vimeo.com/86536188 Like what you’re seeing? Then follow us on Twitter and subscribe to our newsletter (email info@pulsarplatform.com) to be the first to find out about our work.

Pulsar wins the first DIVA (Data Insight Visualisation Award) at IIEX 2014 in Amsterdam

admin — Sat, 22 Feb 2014 10:00:26 +0000

Exciting news! We are happy to announce that we just won the first DIVA, Data Insight Visualization Award, at the Insight Innovation Exchange conference in Amsterdam. The winning visualization is called "How Video Spreads" and shows the diffusion patterns of four viral stories mapped using network analysis. Twitter invited us to explore how video content goes viral on Twitter. The stories we selected have been chosen to represent various types of video content: Commander Hadfield singing Bowie’s “Space Oddity” on the International Space Station (for music videos), Dove “Real Beauty Sketches” (for advertising - the most-watched advert ever on YouTube), "Ryan Gosling Won’t Eat His Cereal" series of Vine videos (for serialised narrative content and mobile) and a grass-roots video of June’s protests in Izmir, Turkey (for real-time, bottom up news content). Based on Pulsar's content tracking tools, the visualisation shows the diffusion patterns of each viral video. Blue nodes represent Twitter users sharing the video, yellow nodes represent Twitter users retweeting the video from someone else, edges between the nodes represent the Tweet/Retweet relationship and the size of each node represents the cumulative reach generated by the specific user with his/her tweets. Reach is measured using Pulsar's proprietary Visibility algorithm which takes into account multiple factors including the type of content, the size of the audience of the author and the engagement generated by the post. Using a comparative engagement graph technique (or Tufte's "small multiples" principle) the visualisation shows clearly that diffusion patterns are very different for each piece of content and there isn't one single model for virality. Instead, different types of videos spread in different ways. Different types of content appeal to different audiences and the structure of these audiences is what shapes the viral diffusion. The visualisation also maps out clearly the influence structure of each audience making it easy to identify primary and secondary influence hubs, how the audience is organised in sub-communities and how these sub-communities are joined by connecting hubs. Videos like Commander Hadfield show a rather top down diffusion pattern with one big hub (Hadfield himself) driving half of the sharing activity. Others like Dove Real Beauty and the Turkish protest video show a constellation of many smaller influencers, each being reblogged by smaller groups. Dynamic versions of the visualisations above are available on Twitter's Youtube account: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVqFe1IamU8&list=UUKp7DNa7G2Yxu1Frozc97Zw (Commander Hadfield) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrGySDMsYXQ&list=UUKp7DNa7G2Yxu1Frozc97Zw&feature=share&index=7 (Dove Real Beauty Sketches) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrGySDMsYXQ&list=UUKp7DNa7G2Yxu1Frozc97Zw (Ryan Gosling Won't eat his cereals) And by the way, we tracked the conference on Pulsar TRAC (of course!). Here's how the 1711 IIeX related tweets performed over the two days of the conference: Conversation volumes by hour: Most active Twitter users: Most shared links: 1. Our winning entry to the DIVA awards 2. DIVA Awards Panel announcement 3. IIeX Europe Homepage 4. #IIeX Focus Series - Technology & Market Research (2 of 5): Social Media 5. #IIeX Focus Series - Technology & Market Research (3 of 5): Photo & Video If you want to find out more about Pulsar book a demo with our team here: http://www.pulsarplatform.com/ – contact

7 Ingredients for a Record-Breaking Twitter Campaign

admin — Tue, 25 Feb 2014 10:31:17 +0000

On 11 November 2013, Pocky (a Japanese brand of chocolate-coated biscuit sticks) set a new Guinness World Record for the largest number of tweets about a brand in 24 hours: an unprecedented 3,710,044 tweets. Pocky chose the date due to its special significance for the brand, as it looks like four upright Pockys in a row: 1111. We worked together with Twitter Japan to analyse how the record-breaking campaign unfolded. The campaign kicked off on 5 November 2013, with a teaser tweet from the official Pocky Twitter account @PockyPretz11, showing a Pocky fan bearing the characters for “sure victory”, introducing the hashtag #ポッキー1111 (#Pocky1111), and hinting at an attempt to break a world record. This initial tweet picked up more than 150 retweets, providing an initial burst of awareness that there was something big coming up on 11 November.

The Pocky tweet that started it all

By 10 November 2013, the campaign was already gaining traction, with 460,000 Pocky related tweets getting people warmed up for the record day itself. Anticipation grew steadily during the evening, from about 6pm through to midnight. At 00:01, on 11 November 2013, @PockyPretz11 sent its first tweet kick-starting the Guinness World Record attempt. Following an initial peak at midnight, and after a night’s sleep, participation grew steadily throughout the day, peaking again at 9pm. The call to action tweet was RTed almost 140,000 times While Pocky’s midnight tweet was the most shared message of the day, other original messages from both Pocky and individual users, containing emojis, ASCII art, images, Vine videos, references to anime/manga characters, web comics or the Pocky Game drove engagement with the campaign throughout the day. As the day progressed, participation shifted from original content to lower engagement RTs. Volume peaks were driven by individual heavily-retweeted messages. Our analysis shows that just 5 messages drove 20% of the RTs on the day:

Most-shared messages of the campaign

Although Pocky’s participation largely stopped within 2 hours of the world record attempt finishing, they seeded enough messages and gained enough user-generated content for the campaign to be sustained for the whole 24 hours.

Volume of Pocky-related tweets by day

On November 15, Pocky confirmed it had broken a new Guinness World Record on #PockyDay1111 - with a tweet, of course.

Pocky’s Guinness World Record break announcement

We animated the network dynamics of the day in a timelapse video showing how the campaign spread on Twitter throughout the day, from 10 November 11.30PM to 12 November 1AM. The visualisation shows which Twitter accounts drove the most engagement and at what point during the day.

Each ‘node’ represents one Tweet, and its size represents its visibility. Visibility is a Pulsar proprietary algorithm that takes into account the nature of the Tweet, the reach of the Tweet, and the engagement it generated in terms of replies, favourites and retweets. https://vimeo.com/87172872

Our analysis reveals a few key learnings from Pocky's success:

Cultural relevance is key Pocky is already an extremely popular brand in Japan and the product is very easy to purchase, so it was easy for people to get involved, as there was no lack of awareness or availability to overcome. Keep barriers to participation low People didn’t have to think up anything clever to say, they could just tweet “I ate some Pocky” or simply retweet. Ability to participate at scale is also relevant – people could tweet or retweet hundreds of times and this legitimately counted towards the record. Tap into existing cultural codes Pocky had a pre-existing suite of memes around it (the Pocky Game, where people eat Pocky with a friend, and ASCII art depicting the snack food). Consequently people ‘knew what to do’ when Pocky Day arrived – they didn’t have to work out what to say from scratch. Use visuals to boost engagement Almost all top re-tweeted messages contained images: @PockyPretz11’s specially created images and Vine videos for the campaign, user-generated photos of themselves playing the Pocky Game and anime and web comic images referencing Pocky. Leverage influencers Finding and bringing the right influencers on board with your campaign is critical to its success. In Pocky’s case the influencers were people in anime/manga fandoms who proactively produced high quality visual content (sketches, comics), which inspired people to retweet. Cross-overs with other events on the day Coincidental cross-overs with other events that day, e.g. anime character Azunyan’s birthday provided another spur for people to create content. Lead the discussion The @PockyPretz11 Twitter account successfully drove the discussion throughout the day, receiving far more retweets than any other account and ranking top for visibility (reach). * If you'd like to find out how Pulsar can help you optimise your social media engagement strategy, email us at info@pulsarplatform.com and we'd be happy to help.

Pulsar teams up with SportsAid

CharlieM — Mon, 24 Feb 2014 17:07:39 +0000

Pulsar has formed a partnership with youth sports charity SportsAid to support its work with aspiring British athletes who hope to become our future Commonwealth, Olympic, Paralympic and world champions.The charity raises funds to help these athletes meet the high cost of training and competing – averaging more than £6,000 a year – at a crucial point of their careers when they get no other sources of support. The ability to stay in touch with these athletes and share their news with SportsAid supporters is a vital part of this fundraising process and this is what Pulsar will be helping SportsAid to do - identifying new channels of engagement with up-and-coming British athletes and raising awareness about the challenges they face. Social media is becoming an integral focus area for charitable organisations, offering another channel to not only generate awareness but also raise funds and support those who are in need. For exactly these reasons, Pulsar and SportsAid have formed a timely partnership which should make a big difference to the charity’s work. The analytical capabilities of Pulsar are being used to find out who is talking about SportsAid online, who might be interested in supporting the charity, and what the many thousands of young people who have benefitted from its support have gone on to achieve since receiving their SportsAid Awards. Pulsar is providing detailed information of the main topics that are being discussed online, identifying key influencers within the conversations, as well as informing when and where people are talking about them. By identifying topics being discussed and the influential people within these conversations, SportsAid can maintain its relationships and generate new and innovative channels of funding. [caption id="attachment_307" align="alignnone" width="862"] The most discussed topics amongst GB athletes at Sochi[/caption] Using Pulsar’s unique audience search feature SportsAid has created a panel of its athletes across Britain. This will give SportsAid a real insight into their needs and interests, and also the needs and interests of their followers: therefore keeping a finger on the pulse of what is going on among sports fans and athletes alike. One such search is monitoring GB Winter Olympic Athletes who have once received sponsorship from SportsAid: [caption id="attachment_305" align="alignnone" width="604"] The most influential British Athletes in Sochi[/caption] Everyone at Pulsar is extremely excited to contribute to the great work that SportsAid is doing to help young athletes become the sporting heroes of tomorrow. If you too want to get involved, then visit http://www.sportsaid.org.uk/get-involved/ to see the range of things you can do to help.

Meet us at... ARF Re:Think and #SMWF

OanaS — Mon, 17 Mar 2014 14:25:06 +0000

We are getting ready for two conferences this month: ARF Re: Think in New York and Social Media Forum in London. With a showcase of 50+ groundbreaking studies (cross-platform, social media, mobile research and more), 100 high-profile presenters, 2,500 industry peers (from P&G, Unilever, Apple, and Facebook along with many others) it's looking like it will be an interesting event. The NY team will be manning the booth and demoing Pulsar. Drop by to find out how to map brand audiences, track how content spreads, and manage your teams to engage effectively with your customers in social media. Register and check out the details here. Social Media Forum (#SMWF) Europe is a social and digital marketing conference, which examines the latest developments in social marketing and how it sits within an organisation. #SMWF launches in London on 31 March - 1 April 2014. We’re looking forward to talks from many industry thought leaders on how to drive engagement, manage brand image and understand great customer service. To name but a few: McDonalds, BBC, Walt Disney, Lithium, Philips, Unicef, Vodafone, Amnesty International, Wall Street Journal and Sky are all sharing their knowledge. Our VP Product Francesco D’Orazio will join the panel discussion on ‘Interdepartmental cooperation for a unified social campaign panel’ alongside Sony, Barclays, Yahoo and RSA touching on the following:

The practicalities of structuring and implementing a multi-channel social campaign;

How to create unity across departments and resolve issues for the best outcome;

Examining new trends and platforms in social and evaluating where the effort should be focussed;

Looking at how different social platforms fit together with more traditional media;

Social media expertise and top-level strategic advice is what we are all about so we're really looking forward to this discussion. The UK Pulsar team will also be there to demo Pulsar and answer any questions. Hope to see you there. Check out the event's website for more details.

The 'Absolute Value' of listening to social media forums

Jess — Thu, 13 Mar 2014 11:38:28 +0000

Social media researcher Jess Owens (@hautepop) on consumer decision-making and why brands need to listen to social media forums: There’s a new book out about how social media’s changed how people buy things. In Absolute Value: What Really Influences Customers in the Age of (Nearly) Perfect Information, Itamar Simonson and Emanuel Rosen argue that amid more reliable sources of information, branding is losing its value: “How people buy things has changed profoundly—yet the fundamental thinking about consumer decision making and marketing has not. Most marketers still believe that they can shape consumers’ perception and drive their behavior. [… But] when consumers base their decisions on reviews from other users, easily accessed expert opinions, price comparison apps, and other emerging technologies, everything changes. Counter to what we frequently hear, consumers will (on average) make better choices and act more rationally.” So it sounds like a book we ought to buy, right? But we wouldn’t want to be under-informed consumers! If social media is so good for helping people reach informed decisions, we thought we’d first turn to social to see what people were saying… Turns out it’s pretty contentious. What’s driving discussion is the “bad news” Simonson & Rosen have for brands: “…brands are less needed when consumers can assess product quality using better sources of information such as reviews from other users [or] expert opinion,” they said in HBR last month. This was picked up by James Surowieki in the New Yorker with a long piece on The Twilight of the Brands This is a big claim, and it’s driving reaction from the plannersphere. Twilight of the brand? Don’t bet on it – says Edward Boche. He argues in defence of branding: it’s not just a label and an advert, it’s the shaping of the whole product experience. Patricia McDonald, Chief Strategy Officer at Isobar UK, was more practical. She tweeted: “I think the idea of “perfect competition” implies a lot higher interest in many categories than consumers have and ignores the fact that many purchases are impulsive/emotional.” [1, 2] This is a great point. Sometimes we can overcomplicate things in the marketing world – but really, who researches the chocolate bar they buy at the station, or the toothpaste they pick up at lunchtime? What does drive those purchases? Habit, price - and brand recognition at the shelf. Simonson & Rosen’s claim that there’s no such thing as “information overload” (and so everything can be researched) just doesn’t stack up against the common sense of what we know of our own shopping behaviour. Much of the time it’s not rational to spend time researching and making a rational decision, right? The automatic, stereotype driven instinct of Daniel Kahneman’s “System 1” thinking is usually good enough. So brand functions as a decision-making short-cut, making sure consumers have the stereotypes and emotional associations to mind when it comes to making a decision at the shelf. No new ideas 'Absolute Value' ultimately reminds us of the Cluetrain Manifesto. Arguably Simonson & Rosen’s book is just fleshing out Cluetrain points 6-12, written fully 15 years ago: 6. The Internet is enabling conversations among human beings that were simply not possible in the era of mass media. 7. Hyperlinks subvert hierarchy. 8. In both internetworked markets and among intranetworked employees, people are speaking to each other in a powerful new way. 9. These networked conversations are enabling powerful new forms of social organization and knowledge exchange to emerge. 10. As a result, markets are getting smarter, more informed, more organized. Participation in a networked market changes people fundamentally. 11. People in networked markets have figured out that they get far better information and support from one another than from vendors. So much for corporate rhetoric about adding value to commoditized products. 12. There are no secrets. The networked market knows more than companies do about their own products. And whether the news is good or bad, they tell everyone. It’s funny how little changes, right? The answer Cluetrain give is a lot more listening. 34. To speak with a human voice, companies must share the concerns of their communities. 35. But first, they must belong to a community. And companies have to listen to what this community is saying, and what it’s concerned about. Market research isn’t just about product testing: “Here’s what we’re doing. What do you think about it?” It’s got to be built on a solid foundation of listening. “What are you thinking about?” So the brand can go away and think about "How might we fit into that?” This is arguably one of the strengths of social media forums and reviews: brands can’t talk back! The channel can’t be repurposed as a matter of comms and CSR. It’s just there for listening. So what can you get if you do that? There’s value in social media reviews yet Looking back to the book “Absolute Value’, it ultimately reaches a conclusion that’s still good news for market research. “Today, products are being evaluated more on their “absolute value, their quality,” Dr. Simonson said. Brand names mean less. The results suggest that companies should spend less money trying to shape consumer opinions in traditional ads, he said, and more on understanding what and who are shaping those opinions.” Now, we disagree with Simonson & Rosen on advertising’s supposed death – how do people start talking about a new product on a forum if they’ve not been exposed to it through broadcast media to spark an interest? But it’s a useful set of pointers for what might be worth researching. And as Simonson & Rosen indicate, social forums and reviews are a huge information resource for this kind of study. Sometimes they’re the most valuable sources for our research projects. Despite the rise in social media and social networks (Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram and so on), forums, reviews and blogs continue to be active sites of discussion – “Web 2.0” isn’t dead! Forums can be particularly valuable for research because they’re more in depth – people talk about details that couldn’t fit into Twitter’s 140 characters or that might bore their Facebook friends. What can you get out of it as a researcher? Firstly forum discussions give great insight into “System 2” decision-making: the rational thought-out stuff. This is most relevant for higher-ticket purchases such as mobile phones or personal electronics such as high-end audiophile headphones, or hair styling tools. What kinds of things can you learn?

What factors do people mention most often in their comparison and decision making process? E.g. price, design, particular functionalities,
Which brands do people mention as the competitive set?
What strengths and weaknesses are associated with each brand?
What are the tensions and trade-offs they articulate? E.g. in headphones, it might be a fundamental tension between “warmth” and “clarity” of the sound. These “insights with tension” can be great creative inspiration for later product and comms platform development.
Who are they citing as people they’ve listened to? E.g. “My brother said that __”
What are the expert sources they’re citing, e.g. websites, reviews, or other forum members

But even for FMCG products, there’s sometimes a treasure trove of information. Take a look at this Mumsnet thread on shrinking chocolate bars with the above questions in mind. But there’s another side as well – the bigger picture. Are you really listening if you just use forums to answer a fixed set of questions? They contain a wealth of wider information about the context of people’s lives and the topics they’re passionate about. If you’re making baby buggies, read up on what mums say about the pleasures and difficulties getting out-and-about – and the wider question of how people negotiate the role of “staying at home” or “going out to work”. Or sites such as Money Saving Expert's forums contain lengthy personal financial narratives, telling the story of how people ended up deep in debt – or the dreams of financial security they aspire to. It's not exactly the quick, instinctive decision-making of the "System 1" brain - but it is highly emotive. From the "mortgage-free wannabees" trying to make my dream a reality!! to threads talking about Why do you spend?, the wealth of insight is astounding. Often people talk about the families they grew up in and how this shaped their attitudes to money, spending and status - and they talk about how they're trying to do better for their kids. Sometimes it's pretty heartbreaking stuff to read. So? Simonson & Rosen's book, Absolute Value, is a useful reminder that consumer decision-making involves information gathering from many sources, many or most of which brands can't control. It pushes the emphasis onto improving customer service and after-sales care over comms and marketing. Ultimately it's a case for improving the product and product experience - make the object talk-worthy enough that it spawns all the positive word-of-mouth needed. That said, all these things remain part of "brand", the nexus of perceptions and associations people hold about a product. The claim that "brand is dead" is, shall we say, premature. Where do we disagree with Simonson & Rosen? It's not a brand new idea (Cluetrain got their first), and it holds more true for higher-spend, features-led techie product categories than others. But mostly we disagree with the emphasis on rationality. Really studying social media forums shows that, yes, a certain amount of rational comparison and assessment is going on, to be sure. But forums and reviews say just as much about the emotive sides of purchase too - needs, hopes, fears. We wouldn't call this irrational behaviour: what a purchase delivers socially and symbolically is just as much a source of value - and a valid reason to buy it - as its objective functionality. That's brand again. And that's why brands need to listen to people on forums. * Stay in touch with Jess on LinkedIn or Twitter. Or, if you think forums could hold the key to your brand's business challenges, speak to our Pulsar team at info@pulsarplatform.com

Esurance and Bank of America Super Bowl Campaigns - Twitter Visualisations

Francesco DOrazio — Wed, 19 Mar 2014 19:08:02 +0000

Bank Of America Visualisation Shows which Twitter accounts drove the most engagement during the Twitter campaign. Each ‘node’ represents one Tweet, and its size represents the total Retweets received by the author. Hi res: Low res: Esurance Visualisation Shows which Twitter accounts drove the most engagement during the Twitter campaign. Each ‘node’ represents one Tweet, and its size represents the amount of followers of the author. Following size has been chosen to make more authors visible. Low res:

Real-time Marketing on Twitter: Raising Awareness vs Changing Behaviour

Francesco DOrazio — Fri, 21 Mar 2014 12:14:18 +0000

Super Bowl Sunday has long been the Holy Grail for real-time marketers, and this year was no different, with many taking to Twitter to supplement their television spots. Two of these were online insurance company Esurance and Bank of America (BofA), who adopted different yet successful strategies. In partnership with Twitter, we analysed these two different types of online engagement campaigns. Here's what we learned. Esurance’s easy entry raises brand awareness Esurance’s primary goal was to raise awareness of its brand on Twitter, so it focused on a volume-led campaign. In securing the first spot after the Super Bowl coverage ended, it saved $1.5 million and sought to gain goodwill by giving this away to one lucky winner. To enter the competition, participants were required to tweet the hashtag #EsuranceSave30. This low barrier to entry was reinforced by the competition not being a quiz-type that required any particular thinking. There was also no limit to the number of times an individual could tweet the hashtag, creating an unlimited potential for the Esurance name to be spread. The competition elicited a total of nearly 5.5 million mentions in 48 hours – as tracked by Pulsar – of which over 3.3 million were original entries. The video visualisation shows which Twitter accounts drove the most engagement and at what point during the day. Each ‘node’ represents one Tweet, and its size represents the amount of followers of the author. Following size has been chosen to make more authors visible. If the ranking had been done by Retweets received or Visibility generated the only visible node would be Esurance who received more than 40k retweets during the entire campaign. https://vimeo.com/89098556 Dive into the Esurance diffusion network BofA and celebrities’ call-to-arms spreads a message and drives action BofA's objective was less about Twitter volumes and more a call-to-arms to drive a specific behaviour. Following the airing of U2’s new song ‘Invisible’ during half-time, the song was available for free on iTunes over the next 24 hours and every time it was downloaded, the bank donated $1 to (RED)’s fight against HIV and AIDS. The campaign raised over $3 million, despite it generating around 200k total mentions on Twitter over 2^nd and 3^rd February. How? Because of the people endorsing it. Namely celebrities with a reach so substantial and a standing so influential they convinced people to take an action that required more than merely tweeting a hashtag. The visualisations show which Twitter accounts drove the most engagement and at what point during the day. Each ‘node’ represents one Tweet, and its size represents the total Retweets received by the author. https://vimeo.com/89132151 (this video visualisation includes all the mentions related to the campaign) https://vimeo.com/89098557 (this video visualisation features the campaign mentions that specifically reference BofA) Dive into the BofA diffusion network Peak velocities highlight the different dynamics The difference in dynamics is crystallised in their peak velocities. Given the timing of its advert, Esurance went viral between 7pm and 8pm PST, during which it received over 23,000 mentions per minute at peak time. On the other hand, the BofA campaign – which had been announced in advance, somewhat dampening its spontaneous impact on Twitter – peaked at half-time between 4pm and 5pm PST at a velocity of 500 mentions per minute at peak time. A deeper look at the retweet:tweet ratio during their respective peaks underlines the campaigns’ contrasting characteristics. There are nearly 11 times as many tweets as retweets pertaining to Esurance, whilst retweets and tweets for BofA are almost level. Esurance sought to raise its own brand awareness, whereas BofA aimed to share a charitable message and encouraging action. All-star army of advocates drive downloads The top influencers for each campaign add to the story. Aside from Esurance itself and actor John Krasinski who starred in the advert, the most-retweeted individuals are ‘regular’ people. The BofA campaign is dominated by celebrities and accounts with a creditable and vested interest in the charity. A look at top locations verifies this, with Los Angeles, “home of the stars”, featuring much more prominently for BofA than it does for Esurance. With its all-star army of celebrity advocates, BofA was able to reach a diverse audience on Twitter. The initial burst of engagement prior to the Super Bowl was led by television and comedy personalities, namely Oprah, Jimmy Fallon, Conan O’Brien and Ellen DeGeneres. Actors and actresses such as Tom Hanks and Ashton Kutcher were also involved before kick-off, after which the music community took over. U2’s appearance ignited Miley Cyrus, Usher and the Rolling Stones. The campaign then filtered down to business (Apple’s Eddie Cue), politics (Bill Clinton) and fashion (Giselle Bundchen). If you'd like to find out how we can help you make the best of your social media campaigns, let us know at info@pulsarplatform.com and we'd be happy to get in touch.

Great First Day at #SMWF London

OanaS — Mon, 31 Mar 2014 18:59:22 +0000

What an inspiring Day 1 of Social Media Forum London! The day was full of tips, tricks and interesting brand stories as well as lots of great panel discussions throughout the day, like the one on Attracting brand advocates or the one on Creating a dialogue with your audience. Here are a few highlights from Day 1 of #SMWF:

The top tips on social media engagement from Sean Gardner, Forbes #1 Social Media Power Influencer (@2morrowknight): "show gratitude", "support other people's personal content", and "get to know people beyond your industry" to name just a few.

Karlijn Vogel-Meijer Manager Social Media, KLM (@Karlijn1903) acknowledging the importance of keeping track of your social media performance and adapting accordingly: "Always measure everything and stay relevant. Find and tap into real-time content, since people are talking about it anyway."

Dom Burch, Head of Social, Asda (@domburch) advocating the power of using content creators such as Zoella, but in the right way: "ensure credibility and relevancy by giving them the freedom to create content around your brand": let them choose any product in the store and ask them to include it in their vlog/blog as opposed to directing every single detail of their endorsement.

Blake Cahill, Global Head of Digital & Social Marketing, Royal Philips (@bcahill) explaining that "customers want to interact with you where THEY want to interact with you, not where YOU want them you interact with you." We couldn't agree more.

All in all it was a fantastic day and we look forward to tomorrow when our VP Product, Francesco D'Orazio will join the first panel discussion of the day on Interdepartmental cooperation for a unified social campaign. See you tomorrow and of course, don't forget to come by our booth to check out our social intelligence platform Pulsar.

Making Research Programmable: Pulsar releases Social Marketing API

Francesco DOrazio — Tue, 01 Apr 2014 15:54:17 +0000

Ever wanted to use Pulsar along with your other tools? Perhaps even use Pulsar visualizations within your own data? Well lucky for you Pulsar has recently released its new API, which is now integrated onto the platform. With the new Pulsar REST API v1.0 you can now integrate your social data into any of your enterprise platforms and third party apps. You can export any data point and visualize it on in-store screens, or integrate it into your campaign and loyalty apps or display it on your company command center alongside the rest of your company data. Access to the API will allow you to:

Call the API and retrieve information on your datasets
Create or update the definition of a topic, audience or content tracker remotely (e.g. synching your customer panels with your social tracker)
Get the ID for each piece of content in your trackers
Call the API for any data point to build external visualizations or integrate the data in any external or internal app

Here are some example methods that can be customized to suit your needs and data: 1) GET /api/v1/buzz_results/:id This method will return the latest contents in a search, starting from the specified start date and time. Date and time is passed as unix timestamp. 2) GET /api/v1/buzz_searches This method returns a collection of trackers available for the authenticated user. 3) PUT /api/v1/buzz_searches/:search_hash This method allows you to update your trackers with the latest values. For added security, each method requires an Authorization Token to be included in the header. If you want to find out more about our Pulsar API and how Pulsar can work with you, go ahead and book a meeting or a Webex with our team here.

New Pulsar Feature: Visibility 2.0

Francesco DOrazio — Mon, 07 Apr 2014 10:24:39 +0000

Today we are introducing a new updated version of the Visibility algorithm that's powering the Pulsar platform: Visibility 2.0. The main reason why Pulsar is called Pulsar is that the whole platform is built around the idea of making it easier for anyone to sift through vast amounts of social data by making "important" social media content more "visible".

One of the key ways Pulsar does this is through its proprietary Visibility algorithm. The algorithm defines "importance" as the ability of a piece of content to reach a larger then average audience and engage a larger than average crowd. The algorithm weights every content on the platform and applies a Visibility score to each post which is then available amongst the metadata used to index and filter the data.

Since we launched Pulsar the Visibility Algorithm has been one of the pillars of the platform allowing you to slice any data view (e.g. trends, influencers, topics) by Volume of data or by the Visibility of the content analysed. Below a series of comparative screens that show how different the same social data looks like when analysed by Volumes vs Visibility: Posts per Day VS Visibility per Day

Sentiment Volume per Day VS Sentiment Visibility per Day

Top Posts by Volume vs Top Posts by Visibility

But the web is an ever-changing ecosystem: new channels are born, new behaviours are introduced, old behaviours evolve to a new scale or disappear and new ways of measuring them are introduced on a weekly basis. In an effort to keep up with the evolution of the web and continue to deliver effective measures of reach and engagement, over the last three months we have been working hard updating the Visibility algorithm.

The new algorithm takes into account:

New sources of engagement data, which are now factored in the calculation of reach;
New sources of online viewership data which are now factored in the calculation of reach;
New sharing and engagement metrics introduced by the new channels we have integrated, such as Tumblr;
Raising levels of engagement across all channels resulting in a need for new engagement and reach benchmarks;
New behaviours introduced by new channels like Tumblr, where for example the "weight" of a reaction (a re-blog) is completely different from the weight of a reaction on Twitter or Facebook.

Overall, the new algorithm introduces three key improvements:

More accurate audience size estimates for all channels, particularly for News, Blogs, Forums and Review sites;
More accurate engagement figures across all channels;
A more balanced cross-channel view of reach, to enable effective comparisons between the reach of top down and bottom up media (eg. news vs. tweets).

The new visibility weighting applies from April 10 onwards. However, should you want to re-analyse historical data you can extend the reach of the algorithm to historical data from the Data Management interface in the Results View. We think the new Visibility algorithm is going to help you run better analysis and make more effective decisions and we look forward to hearing your feedback as you start seeing the new data coming through on the Pulsar platform. If you are not yet using Pulsar and want to know more about Visibility and Pulsar get in touch here: http://www.pulsarplatform.com/#contact

Identifying Influencers with Social Network Analysis

admin — Sun, 06 Apr 2014 09:59:39 +0000

Part 1 of our Network Analysis series, by Rob Parkin Introduction In our work as social media researchers we are regularly answering clients' questions about online influence and influencers. They know that they’re not the only force influencing perceptions of their brands, and they want to reach out to the other people who are. This could mean identifying the right bloggers to bring on board to increase the likelihood of a successful social campaign, or tracking who is most shaping a discussion about a brand or topic. Pinning down who is influential isn’t straightforward. The data hardly ever exists to connect a social media message with the actions it may have inspired, such as products purchased or businesses boycotted. Instead what we can really assess is ‘potential to influence’: who’s reaching a big audience, who’s engaging that audience the most and getting a lot of interaction, and who’s demonstrating consistent expertise on a topic. So influence is complex, an outcome of a combination of properties about people, contexts and relationships. That’s why we developed our own proprietary metric to analyse which messages were reaching the biggest audience. Our visibility algorithm assigns each piece of content a visibility score, taking into account the properties of the channel it’s on (e.g. blog content lasts longer than Twitter), the size of the author or website’s audience, and the virality of the post - how many times it’s been shared. Influencers ranked by Engagement & RTs generated (Pulsar visualisation) Alongside visibility, we also use Social Network Analysis to understand influence through analyzing the dynamics of online behaviours and relationships. It provides the theory, the algorithms and the software to capture, visualize and explore the data gathered using Pulsar. This can enable us to take influencer analysis to the next level – and it’s what we’re going to discuss in today’s blog. The role of influencers Previous research carried out by Francesco D’Orazio and Jess Owens highlighted the role of influencers in how information spreads through social media. It discovered that while influencers may only represent a small percentage of an overall conversation, their role does ultimately shape how information spreads. Tapping into close communities makes content shareable, but top-down influence is essential for content to achieve truly viral speed and scale. We’ll cover communities in more detail in our next blog, but for the moment let’s understand that influencers play a vital role in shaping conversations, and insight into how their influence is structured can also prove important. Network visualisation of how the Commander Hadfield video was shared on Twitter, with nodes sized by Visibility Identifying influencers In essence Network Analysis views relationships as connections. Some people in the network might have only one or two connections (e.g. they only have 1 or 2 Twitter followers), and others might have hundreds or thousands. So hubs or influencers in networks can be identified by looking for people who are highly connected in comparison to the remainder of the network. Because they’re better connected, these are the people who you may wish to bring on board with an online campaign, to help maximize its chance of successfully reaching the greatest number of people. So let’s look at an example that demonstrates how networks can help us investigate relationships between nodes and identify influencers. Investigating my ego network I’m going to use a very self-centered approach and investigate my Facebook network! I used an application called netvizz to capture the data, and Gephi to perform the analysis. When compiling a list of influencers you may start with a very basic measure, the number of friends/followers. Using Network Analysis and my social graph, we’ll explore the limitations of this metric, and how we might do a better job. Introducing my friends & family….. In this visualisation the nodes are people who are my friends on Facebook, and the edges are the friend relationships between them. It’s important to note that I’m not on the chart – so the connections aren’t their relationships with me. Instead, the connections shown are the friendships that they have with each other e.g. I’m friends with Amy and Bob, and if Amy and Bob are also friends, there’d be a connection between them. If they’re not friends, no connection. We can rank nodes by a number of measures; in this instance I’ve chosen degree centrality, which is the number of connections each person has. I’ve used this to determine the size of each node: the larger the node the greater the number of connections. This makes the highly-connected people easier to spot. We’ve also used what’s called a “force directed layout algorithm” to visualize the graph. This means that linked nodes attract each other and non-linked nodes are pushed apart. So the most-connected people tend to end up towards the middle of the chart. The first analysis that can be taken from the graph is that a lot of nodes share connections. This why why there is one large giant component in the centre of the graph with lots of highly-connected people all clustered together. This is to be expected as the sample of individuals is taken from my Facebook account, the majority of whom do share common acquaintances. The thing is, we can also see that the biggest nodes are basically the same size, meaning that they’ve got the same number of connections. This isn’t really telling us the story we need - but using network analysis we can go further. Here we’ve taken the same graph and ranked nodes by betweeness centrality. A betweeness centrality algorithm starts by finding all the shortest paths between any two individuals in the network. It then counts the number of these shortest paths that go through each node. Nodes with high betweeness centrality can be considered information brokers that can connect disparate parts of the network. The result is a smaller list of potential influencers, pin-pointing the people who are vital in connecting the different sub-networks (i.e. the different social groups) in the wider graph. We have identified four people who are now shown to hold a position of influence on the graph. And the layout of the graph begins to tell us how their spheres of influence are structured. The person over on the right for example is crucial in connecting two small clusters of individuals to the rest of the graph. I know network analysis has correctly identified this node as an influencer – because she happens to be my girlfriend! So she’s the key person connecting both our families to the larger network of my friends. How can this work for you? Admittedly there’s a very short list of people who are interested in the finer details of the network structure of my Facebook graph! Nonetheless it’s an interesting example to demonstrate some of the principles of Social Network Analysis. What can we take from this example? Using network analysis it is possible to study social groups in-depth, not just as homogenous wholes but understanding them as comprised of dynamic relationships between different individuals. And using data visualization and data exploration it is possible to infer a level of understanding which would be otherwise difficult to get hold of without real-world personal knowledge of the individuals involved. Using Pulsar TRAC it’s possible to scale this analysis up significantly, sampling mentions by keyword, content or user, and applying network analysis we can powerfully:

Identify individual messages driving engagement
Explore who is influential in shaping a discussion
Map a network of individuals following a brand online
Better inform future outreach strategy

Exactly the same methods would apply if we were studying, for example, the community of people talking online about beauty & make-up, or audiophile hi-fi equipment, or photography. We could first find the best-connected people, who a brand might want to target to promote their product to the largest number of people. But we could also find the connectors, the people that allow discussions to travel into new communities and ultimately travel further. In the next blog in our series we’re going to dive into this further, explore how we can identify communities in network structures and get stuck into some more network analysis we have previously carried out.

A Social World of Whisky Part 1: Big Drinkers, Small Talkers?

Anthony Fradet — Mon, 12 May 2014 14:19:39 +0000

“The water was not fit to drink. To make it palatable, we had to add whisky. By diligent effort, I learned to like it.” — Winston Churchill Amongst all spirits, whisky holds a very particular place. From teenagers to world leaders, from whisky and soda to $460,000 bottle - a 1946 Macallan in a Lalique decanter was auctioned at this price in 2010, whisky proves being more than simply a category of alcohol, but a potent landmark of social and economic belonging. The whisky market is diverse, but can be divided in two main categories: Scotch (i.e. distilled in Scotland and matured for a minimum of three years in oak casks) and non-Scotch whiskies. Both have experienced continuous growth, with some particularly dynamic markets in the last couple of years in emerging countries, especially India and China. Scotch whiskies represent around 85% of Scottish food and drink exports and nearly a quarter of the British total, according to the Scottish Whisky Association. Such a success in the context of our digital era questions us about the way this phenomenon echoes on social media, how consumers take part into the whisky related social discussion around the world, and what insight can social media bring for the whisky industry. This blog is the first of a series about the whisky industry that will demonstrate several ways we can investigate a broad social dataset and make sense of it thanks to the use of different research techniques and integration of other data sources like sales data. In this first blog, we’ll have a look at the big picture: identifying how whisky-related social discussion is naturally featuring, and how whisky in social media differs from actual consumer behaviour. Simply looking at raw social data volumes can be misleading since it doesn’t take in consideration the actual population size of each country, and the proportion of its population using social media. In order to balance the countries’ weight and get a better idea of the countries where whisky discussion is getting more traction, we weighted each country to its population: Average whisky related social posts per 1000 capita Content posted between August 15th to August 31st, including "whiskey", "whisky", "whiskeys" or "whiskies" What patterns do we see, and why? Whisk(e)y as a share of British and Irish identity - Ireland is the country eliciting the most social discussion per capita, demonstrating the vitality and weight of the whiskey topic in this country. The second place of United Kingdom in both overall social volumes and discussion per capita, also highlights the importance of the whisky industry and the passion towards this spirit, as home of Scotch whisky - at least for the moment! The home of Bourbon trails behind Ireland and UK - The United States remains a major country for whisky discussion, especially considering the impressive overall amount of content originating from this territory. But the volumes per capita put this domination in perspective, suggesting that Irish and British are more passionate about whisky. Whisky proves a healthy topic of discussion in South America and Oceania - A few less populated countries, especially in South America and Oceania, elicit a comparatively high level of whisky conversation, proving their attachment to this beverage, namely Uruguay (6th), New Zealand (7th), Venezuela (8th), and Australia (9th). Now we’ve drawn a map of social media whisky discussion, getting the most of this landscape implies connecting it to the reality of whisky consumption. To do so, we are using Euromonitor whisky consumption country data per capita.

Annual whisky consumption/capita (in liters) Source : Euromonitor, Worldbank This data offers us a ranking of the biggest whisky drinkers that we can compare to the ranking of the biggest whisky “talkers”, giving us a new perspective over the whisky market opportunities in terms of social strategy. Whisky Drinkers versus Whisky Talkers * Searches didn’t include words in Hindi, Japanese or Chinese alphabets, so these ranks are likely to be higher in reality A correlation between whisky consumption and whisky social discussion Out of the top 10 countries with the higher consumption of whisky per capita, 7 also feature in the top 10 countries with the more whisky related social discussion per capita. However the ranking is quite different... Less social verbose, more drinking? Two groups of countries emerge: On the one hand, countries that feature higher in the consumption ranking than in the social discussion ranking. Including Uruguay, Australia, India or South Africa, this group bears a high potential for social marketers: healthy markets with a lack of social media structure, thus an opportunity for whisky brands to own the category with targeted efforts. The emblem of this group is France, that ranks at the first position for whisky consumption, but only 19th for whisky related social discussion. Some could think that French people drink too much whisky to be able to post their experience on social media. Being well placed to answer this exaggerated statement, I tend to consider that the reason is more likely to lie within cultural and media habits, both in terms of whisky consumption and social media use. This will be the topic of a future blog.

On the other hand, countries that feature higher in the social discussion ranking than in the consumption ranking. And this comprises almost all main whisky producers, namely United Kingdom and Ireland: in addition to a healthy discussion around the whisky consumption itself, distilleries, associations, news websites and organisations contributes to the fact that whisky also feature as a business and economy related topic.

This first glance at the whisky social landscape opens quite a few doors that we will enter in the next couple of months, and that will lead to how we dig more qualitatively into social discussion:

Scotch/Bourbon fracture: how is it tangible on social media, and which is winning the social battle?
Booze vs Nectar: whisky's duality
A whisky connoisseur social audience
The French enigma: understand the specificities of the French social whisky environment
Whisky brands: what is their place within the social conversation, and which ones are stealing the show

Stay tuned!

The Samsung vs. Apple court case shows the value of social media research

Jess — Tue, 20 May 2014 16:49:16 +0000

An excellent case study demonstrating the value of social media research has just emerged from an unlikely source: the Apple vs. Samsung patent dispute. Documents shared as part of the court case reveal some fascinating information about how the two companies were thinking about social data in 2013. It shouldn't still bear saying in 2014, but the messages seems slow in getting though: social media data isn't just about "looking back" at campaigns or the last quarter's KPIs. Samsung recognised the power of social data for "thinking forward", for understanding customer needs strategically to feed into product innovation and early-stage comms planning. Here at Pulsar, we think this is an incredibly valuable and under-used use-case. Here's how it works: 1. Samsung used social data strategically: to attack Apple From Neal Ungerleider in FastCo: Networked Insights Reveals How Samsung Used Social Media to Hack the iPhone: “Samsung took on a company with the arguably most successful consumer product ever created,” Networked Insights CEO Dan Neely told Fast Company. “Samsung asked us how to use analytics to attack Apple.” [...] Using aggregated online posts and machine learning techniques, Samsung found several specific weak spots where they could outperform Apple. Customers specifically complained about the iPhone’s comparatively poor battery life, the inefficiencies of Apple Maps, how small the screen was, unhappiness with the Lightning cable, the lack of customization, Siri, and the iPhone’s fragility. Samsung felt that it could compete with Apple on most of these points--and, importantly, that they hard data to back up these consumer preferences. When working with Networked Insights, a big part of Samsung’s strategy was to vacuum up any information on the iPhone 5 that was posted to social media. This meant using the dashboard they licensed to obtain every iPhone-related post on Tumblr, Twitter, Disqus (a popular commenting platform), WordPress, and YouTube, as well as new hits on Google. This information was then classified, as Neely put it, “15,000 different ways.” A big part of the problem for Samsung and others, Neely said, was the difference in extracting relevant information when they needed it versus finding erroneous information on other aspects of individual customers that were irrelevant to the task at hand. That meant a lot of data processing and fine-tuned analytics. Importantly, Samsung used the dashboard to find what people were posting online about the iPhone--rather than just looking for posts about Samsung’s own products. They then identified specific complaints about the iPhone where their own products outperformed Apple’s products, and tweaked marketing campaigns to emphasize these Samsung strong points. So: social media research isn't just about tracking your own brand activity. It's incredibly powerful when you search for unmet needs and pain points - what are the gaps where consumer desires aren't being fulfilled? Do this across a category (e.g. smartphones) or a competitive set (Apple, Samsung, HTC, Sony Xperia, Nexus, Motorola) to identify the "whitespace" opportunities that aren't currently being met. As such, social media has just as much of a forward-looking role to play in innovation and NPD as it does "looking back" at campaign performance and the past quarter's KPIs. Use it to shape campaigns and communications, not just to measure their impact. 2. Apple thought it was "nuts" to pay for social media monitoring tools. Their loss Business Insider's Jay Yarrow spotted something else interesting in the court documents: Apple famously don't do research, you say? No, Apple do do research - but they don't necessarily do it well, as Tom Ewing recently illustrated. You'd see the occasional interesting message if you just look at mentions of "iPhone 5" through Twitter search... But also an awful lot of noise, at a million mentions per day kind of scale. It'd only be through luck that you might stumble across a message that'd spark any strategic consideration. You want to understand the relative dissatisfaction with battery life, screen size, and poor signal reception? You need a social data research platform. Social media monitoring tools make this data analysable as a whole in a way that free online tools simply can't. For example our platform Pulsar collects over 1MB metadata around each tweet, making big datasets like this powerfully segmentable by sentiment, channel, hour, influence level, profile bio and other demographics - allowing for a really fine-grained analysis of not just what people are saying, but who and why. Technology and data augmentations enable the unmet needs to be identified, quantified and ranked. Use a tree graph to visualise the most common words and phrases that follow "I love..." and "I hate...". Use semantic analysis to aggregate topics, and compare the top topics across the range of positive, negative and neutral sentiment scores. Start coding tweets into clusters, and use machine learning to extend this across the whole dataset. Through structured analysis, the depth of insight that can be gained from social data is vast - Samsung realised this, Apple didn't. 3. What we've done This story was met by us with a nod of recognition - we have been using social data beyond reputation management for a while now. Here's a couple of examples of previous work: i) Mapping the 4G mobile launch Like Network Insights with Samsung, we also dug into what people were saying around 4G to identify complaints and pain points. What topics were driving discussion - signal, pricing, contracts/tariffs, or the iPhone? For each we identified the specific customer pain points our client needed to address in both comms and their product offer. "WHAT EVEN IS 4G THOUGH I DON'T UNDERSTAND" - tweet, Sept 2013 But it turned out the biggest unmet need was understanding - a high share of discussion came from people expressing their total bewilderment at the new, high-speed mobile spectrum band. We used social data to identify and categorise people's questions, helping our client (a mobile operator) recognise and simplify the messages they needed to communicate to help people understand the new proposition. ii) "Designing Relevance" for Nokia Unlike other social media monitoring companies who started with basic PR-led metrics and have built out from there, we’ve been using social data for strategic insight for years. Back in 2010, Francesco D'Orazio and Esther Garland ( from our sister company FACE) presented at ESOMAR alongside Nokia's Tom Crawford on how social media research can be used alongside co-creation to produce a better innovation process: Innovation should not be so much about ‘creation’, but more about ‘emergence’. Defining the boundaries of possible futures means creating the conditions for fostering the emergence of ideas that are already taking shape in the social space, but have not filtered up to the top or are not formed enough to bubble up yet. In a connected real-time ecosystem where the consumer can be as creative as the designer, the new model of innovation should be listening, reducing complexity, decoding the signal from the noise, collaborating with consumers and only then defining the boundaries of possible futures. The project started with a "download" from social media to gather the widest possible range of themes and scenarios for this project: The project kicked off with a two week Social Media Monitoring and Trends Analysis programme using netnography, semantic and network analysis across forums, social networks, blogs, news sites, microblogs, video and photo sharing sites from the United States. Using Pulsar we tracked more than 100, 000 ‘sources’ (where Twitter counts as one source) and harvested almost 1.5 million items of content. These were analysed to gather insight into how key consumer segments in North America talk about smart-phones and which key themes, topics and angles were most resonant with them. Analysing conversations amongst users talking to each other rather than responding to researchers yielded a huge amount of richness. Furthermore, this helped develop clear learnings on language, tone of voice and attitudes to the brand and the category. It allowed for a different kind of research landscape, one which subverts the traditional question and answer format and replaces it with something far more natural and intuitive. By working in a more natural communication mode we also ended up expanding our research agenda to challenges we didn’t even know existed or that we wanted to investigate. For the full story, read the full whitepaper up on Slideshare here, or check out the presentation: https://www.slideshare.net/Facegroup/designing-relevance

Or get in touch if you'd like to talk forward-looking social research.

Getting ready for Social Media World Forum, New York

OanaS — Thu, 22 May 2014 09:36:32 +0000

After a successful Social Media Forum in London, we decided to join the New York leg of the conference, on May 28-29. Here's what we're up to at SMWF NY: How Stuff Spreads presentation (Day 2, 4.30pm) Pulsar's VP Product, Francesco D’Orazio, will join the main stage to present breakthrough insights from our How Stuff Spreads research which looks at how content goes viral on Twitter. Why do some videos go viral while others collect just a bunch of clicks? Most studies on the subject focus on virality as a feature of the content. But what if virality was (also) a feature of the audience? Can the demographics and the structure of the audience of a video explain how it goes viral? And how can you predict virality? Francesco will share what we learned about virality using content tracking technology to look at four videos that recently went viral on Twitter: a music video, an advertising campaign, a citizen journalism video and a Vine series. All videos went viral in different ways and whilst there is no simple answer such as a virality formula, the talk reveals the common traits of viral phenomena and how marketers can engineer them in their creative and planning process in order to achieve virality and develop a data-driven content strategy. Moderating the Social Business panel (Day 1, 4.20pm) We are also looking forward to moderating the Brand Reputation: How to manage, maintain and grow through social session where Francesco will be joined by Toni Jones (Social Media Director, U-Haul International, Inc.), Jennifer Barckley (Director, Brand Communications & Values, The Body Shop) and Emery R. Skolfield (Senior Director, Digital Marketing, Office Depot). Join the session to find out how to successfully manage brand reputation, hear experts' views on social media's role in establishing a strong online reputation and the techniques you should use to increase visibility. Pulsar Demos If you're around, come to our booth (#10) where the Pulsar Business Development team will show you how Pulsar empowers you to go beyond keyword tracking, by mapping brand audiences, finding top influencers, tracking how content spreads and engaging effectively with your customers in social media.

Join us tomorrow at Social Media Cafe London

OanaS — Thu, 22 May 2014 13:00:07 +0000

We're getting excited about joining Social Media Cafe London, tomorrow morning at Timberyard. Jess Owens, our Social Media Research Manager and one of the earliest members of our Global Social Insight team will share some very interesting learnings from our How Stuff Spreads study which mapped how 4 different videos went viral:

Commander Hadfield’s cover of Bowie’s ‘Space Oddity’, on board the International Space Station
Dove’s Real Beauty Sketches
Ryan Gosling Won’t Eat His Cereal series of Vine videos
A grass-roots video of June’s protests in Izmir, Turkey

Join us tomorrow to hear Jess ’ take on what makes videos go viral and what you can do to broaden the reach of your social content. She will be joined by the Pulsar team who will demo the platform’s unique capabilities which allow you to go beyond keyword tracking. Social Media Cafe London is tomorrow, May 25th at 9.30am at Timberyard, 61-67 Old Street, EC1V 9HW. Reserve your free place here. See you there!

Meet us at... Big Boulder

OanaS — Fri, 30 May 2014 13:57:50 +0000

Two years ago, Gnip launched Big Boulder, the world's first social media data conference. Unlike most conferences, this is an exclusive, invite-only gathering featuring selected leaders of the industry, such as founders and executives from the top social media sites (Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Foursquare, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Klout). During last year's conference, the Big Boulder Initiative was launched, to address the challenges facing the social data industry. Made up of industry leaders, its mission is "To establish the foundation for the long-term success of the social data industry." Its Board of Directors is leading this year's conference. Big Boulder is back for its third edition next week (June 5th and 6th to be more precise), at the St Julien Hotel and Spa in Boulder, Colorado. The agenda is looking great: a mix of educational sessions in the form of interviews and panel discussions, networking events, and outdoor activities all centered around social data. This year's conference will feature "sessions from top social media sources, industry leaders, and consumers of publicly-available social data who will discuss trends, best practices, use cases, and the future of the industry.” Our VP Product, Francesco D'Orazio has been invited to join the panel on data visualisation to discuss how visualisations help tell a story and provide engaging and unique ways to analyze data. It's a great honour for us to have been invited to join this exclusive event this year and are really looking forward to all the inspiring sessions lined up. Stay up to date with what we're up to by following us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

How Videos Go Viral – Presentation Slides

OanaS — Tue, 03 Jun 2014 19:00:45 +0000

At the end of May we joined two social media events: Social Media Café London (May 23) and Social Media World Forum NY (May 28-29). It was really great meeting so many peers, getting inspired and sharing our work with the world. Francesco D’Orazio (VP Product) and Jess Owens (Social Media Research Manager) presented our How Videos Go Viral study which takes a unique approach to exploring how popular content spreads on Twitter: by looking at the structure of its audience. We shared the common traits of viral content and how brands can leverage them in order to optimise their content strategy. We wanted to share the presentation with you here as well, in case you missed it or if would like to have a look at it in more detail: http://www.slideshare.net/Pulsar_Social/how-video-goes-viral

If you’d like to understand how Pulsar can help you develop a data-driven content strategy, get in touch at info@pulsarplatform.com.

Join us at the Digital Lifestyle Technology London meet-up

OanaS — Thu, 05 Jun 2014 10:17:26 +0000

We're excited to invite you to this month's Digital Lifestyle Technology London meet up which we're hosting tomorrow evening in central London (Tottenham Court Road). The event starts at 7pm when we'll be kicking off the evening with a short presentation in which we'll show you how you can use social data intelligence to find influencers, understand online audiences and track how content spreads. The evening will then continue with a networking session where you can meet and chat to social media and digital technology peers. More details and free registration here. Hope to see you tomorrow.

The Visual Social Media Lab Launches

Francesco DOrazio — Thu, 26 Jun 2014 17:07:51 +0000

We are excited to join forces with the University of Sheffield, Manchester School of Arts, Warwick University and the University of Wolverhampton to launch a new research programme dedicated to the study of the visual aspects of social media. The programme, ‘Picturing the Social: transforming our understanding of images in social media and Big Data research’, is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, the UK's largest organisation for funding research on economic and social issues. It will kick off in September with the launch of “Picturing the Social”, a series of studies to focus exclusively on images across a range of social media platforms. The first study will concentrate on the images that people shared on Twitter around the death and funeral of Margaret Thatcher in 2013. Early findings of this work will be shared via the Visual Social Media Lab later this summer. 63 percent of social media is made up of images and more than 750 million images are shared daily on social media. That means nearly two-thirds of the updates we see on social media are visual content, according to a Citrix report from January. The 2013 Pew Research Study reported that 54 percent of all Internet users have posted an original photo or video that they personally have created. But the use of images on social media goes beyond the images that people take themselves. People also appropriate, adapt, and collect a vast range of already existing images. The same study from Pew reported that nearly half of all Internet users have reposted a photo or video they have found online. These images play an increasingly important role in our lives but there is still a very limited understanding of the visual dynamics of social media and the social media research approach and toolbox are still focussed on textual rather than visual content. Dr Farida Vis from the Information School at the University of Sheffield, says: “Images tend to be trickier to study than words. With the rise in techniques that focus on large volumes of text, specifically with the growing interest in so-called ‘big data’, images tend to get forgotten. They are not easy to ‘mine’ for content and even harder to interpret.” And this is exactly why the Visual Social Media Lab was created. Social scientist and VP Product at Pulsar, Dr Francesco D’Orazio, comments: “We are very excited to see Pulsar joining efforts with four major academic institutions on pushing the envelope of social media research. The Visual Social Media Lab gives us the opportunity to collaborate with a super talented team of likeminded researchers interested in mapping the genome of our visual digital culture and develop better tools to support other researchers in the process." Samantha McGregor, Senior Policy Manager, of ESRC qualifies the transformative nature of the project: “We are committed to fostering and promoting greater transformative innovation and risk in the research that we support. Our Transformative Research Call is central to that ambition and supports the development of exciting research projects that have the potential to make significant contributions towards social science. This award particularly highlights the importance of big data, and specifically social media data, in achieving transformative social science, as well as their relevance to our broader research portfolio.” For more info on the Lab check out http://visualsocialmedialab.blogspot.com/ and follow @VisSocMedLab

Introducing Social Panels: social data + context for stronger insights

Francesco DOrazio — Fri, 27 Jun 2014 13:36:24 +0000

Social Data has changed the research industry. Too often though social media research relies on very simple frameworks borrowed from web analytics rather than using more traditional but solid methodologies to leverage the value of social data. One of the key problems deriving from this attitude is the lack of context: we collect and analyze social conversations about specific brands or topics but we don’t really know how representative the dataset is and who is actually talking. Enter Social Panels. Social Panels work like traditional panels but with social media users. Using machine learning on the Twitter Firehose, Pulsar creates audience segments (5000 users each) which are then made available to any user of the platform. Use social panels to understand how your brand stacks up against competitors within a key segment. Find out what content travels faster so you can optimize your content strategy. Map demographics, attitudes and behaviours but also setup a real-time segmentation study to see what your audience is up to and how to engage with them. You can start with 4 panels already available in your dashboard today:

US Mums
US Dads
UK Mums
UK Dads

Simply log in, and in the Audience Search Setup section you’ll find the option to select one of the panels above and collect either anything the panel is publishing or only data that is relevant to specific subjects, brands, regions and any other target you are interested in defining. If you are not a Pulsar user yet and would like to book a personal demo of the platform please get in touch with us at info@pulsarplatform.com.

Introducing FLOW: Reinventing Social Media Publishing & Customer Service Experience

Charul Gupta — Wed, 02 Jul 2014 13:47:04 +0000

After a couple of years of hard R&D, co-design and prototyping with some of our closer users, we are happy to finally announce the launch of our new product 'FLOW'. Pulsar FLOW is the platform that brings together advanced Social CRM and Social Publishing. What makes FLOW different? We combine the complexity of data-driven Social CRM and Social Publishing with an intuitive interface to deliver the most seamless user experience. Here are a few key benefits of FLOW:

Manage all social channels from one place

Manage Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube all from one Smart Inbox, for a faster and more efficient workflow.

Manage your workflow

Create rules to automatically assign specific messages to specific agents for social media workflow management, based on the content of the message, the profile of the customer, or Pulsar’s automatic categorization.

Optimise engagement

Follow customers back, direct message them, or respond publicly to their enquiries. Track every social media engagement in your customer profile history.

Measure performance

Manage your channels and teams in real time with performance stats down to single message and agent level. Understand what content is working, what product has problems and what agent needs training. Set and track team KPIs and ROI from a single insight dashboard to ensure your social CRM activity meets agreed service levels and that engagement is delivering against sentiment benchmarks. The power of social media is not hidden anymore. With almost 70% of adults online using social media networking sites, social media platforms have become one of the most attractive places for marketing pitch. But managing social media activities can turn overwhelming, with thousands of messages and decades of channels. With FLOW, you can now ensure effective social media publishing and swift but quality social customer service. Success Story

O2 used FLOW to manage their social media communications during the 2012 network outage. With Pulsar FLOW in place, O2 was not only able to listen to what was being said about the brand in real-time, but also to respond to questions and react to comments instantly. Despite naturally high negativity, O2’s huge volume of care messages (over 1000 per hour) saw positive sentiment rise significantly as people recognized the company’s efforts and unusual approach to customer service.

The work O2 has done with FLOW has received multiple awards:

Best use of Social Media in a Crisis (UK Social Media Awards)
In House Team of the Year (PR Week Awards)
Crisis and Issue Management (PRCA Awards)

What our clients have to say Christian Ohm, Manager Vehicle Launch & Marketing Services at Mazda Motor Europe, says: "Since rolling out Pulsar across 12 European countries, we've been able to get truly insightful information from our customers in real time. The fact that Pulsar also offers a social customer engagement system in addition to the social media listening platform, was another reason we decided to work together, as we could use just one platform across all our social teams." Request a FLOW Demo Now.

Detecting Communities Using Social Network Analysis

RobParkin — Tue, 01 Jul 2014 15:09:21 +0000

Part 2 of our Network Analysis for Market Research series– read part 1 ‘Identifying Influencers with Social Network Analysis’ here. Introduction Social media research isn’t just qual or quant market research translated on to a different dataset – it’s got its own methods. We’re big believers in using the unique properties of social media data to answer questions that other research methods can’t get at. And what’s special about social data, particularly on Twitter, is that with sufficiently advanced analysis platforms (Pulsar!) you don’t just collect the message, but also metadata about that message and its author. This provides the information needed to analyse how that message is shared through social networks – or alternatively the network of who follows whom. The result: proper social research that starts from the premise that people are connected, not just atomized individuals. In the first part of this blog series we introduced some of the possible applications for network analysis in market research, revealing how network data visualization can enable you to identify influencers that have real-world meaning in the context of the social groups in which they belong. I also discussed how influence exists in different ‘sub networks’ or ‘social groups’, and if we are to truly grasp the structure of these relationships then it’s essential to take these into consideration. It’s this point that the second blog in the series will expand upon. Here I’ll look at communities: we all know what these are, but what do they mean in terms of social network analysis? And what can you learn from identifying them? Why look for communities? When investigating the role of influencers we highlighted previous research carried out by Francesco D’Orazio and Jess Owens: the How Stuff Spreads project. In this research we discovered how communities are vital in driving the spread of information. The more communities there are in the audience, the slower viral content spreads, as it takes time to spread between the different groups. So that’s one reason to understand social media communities – if you’re trying to spread a brand campaign or a piece of content, you need to understand the audiences it travels through. Different groups may well benefit from different messaging specifically targeted to their needs and interests – not one size fits all. Understanding communities is also important to ensure your influencer program is comprehensive: have you got influencers in all the social groups you want to target? How are we defining communities? A community is most often defined as a group of individuals living in the same geographical location. It can also be used to describe a group of people with a shared characteristic or common interest: the research community, for example Within the social sciences, there is also the approach that views communities as something socially and symbolically constructed, resting on a shared understanding that “I am part of this community alongside these other people”. Political scientist Prof. Benedict Anderson defined the nation state as an “imagined community” (1983). Using social networks analysis we define communities differently – by looking at how people are connected to each other, and clustering these into similar groups. So it is a statistical measure of connectedness, and it’s not based directly on whether these people would recognize themselves as being part of the same community. However, what’s so fascinating about networked community detection is that the communities it identifies very often DO have significant real-world meaning, and can help us explore what it is that is defining communities. How to identify communities? Using a social network analysis program such as Gephi, we can use a clustering algorithm called "modularity" to detect hidden patterns in the network. Modularity looks for groups of people who are more densely connected to each other than would be expected if they were connected by chance. . A network with high modularity has dense connections between nodes within clusters, but sparse connections between nodes in different clusters. As a result all individual nodes (people) in a network can be attributed to a specific cluster, as determined by the modularity algorithm. A real-world example: my Facebook social graph Let’s start by revisiting the ego network from my Facebook graph that we investigated in the previous blog. When identifying influencers in the graph I mentioned that it’s vital to pin-point people who the key connectors between different sub-networks on the graph. I was able to provide some real-world context to the data due to my personal knowledge of all the individuals in the network. But even on a small dataset such as this, modularity allows us to develop an even more granular understanding of the relationships. Here nodes are portioned by modularity, with each node belonging to a separate cluster or community, and coloured accordingly. For many of the separate and very distinct clusters on the edges of the network, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that these people belong to their own community. What is interesting is within the main component, where without the colour coding it’s hard to see any clearly divided partitions. But now we now have four different communities (blue, brown, purple & maroon-ish). So the question is, are these 4 different groups just statistical figments of the network structure? Or do they relate to anything real about the relationships between the people involved?

The blue community is made up of people I met at school, all around my age (17% of the network).
The brown community is people I went to school with, but also lived close to where I grew up (9% of the network).
The maroon community also went to school with me, but all at least a year older that me (7% of the network).
The purple community is people I attended college with directly after finishing school (also 17% of the network).

This is a great example of how we can segment individuals by very subtle differences, simply by analyzing the structure of the connections they share. But how could a network “know” these things about my friends? Well, it’s all based on the connections they have with each other. People who were in the same yeargroup at school are more likely to know each other, and therefore be friends on Facebook – so that’s what connects the real world to the network relationship. Large scale network analysis Strictly speaking I could have analysed my Facebook social graph manually – I know who my friends are friends with, after all, so I could have drawn the network manually (though it’d have taken a long time). But network analysis becomes even more powerful when the analysis is scaled up to a level at which manual analysis is impossible. Using Pulsar to gather our data means we can use network analysis to investigate the relationships in networks of thousands or even millions of people, where obtaining an understanding of the real-world relationships that make up the communities isn’t anywhere near as straightforward. Reverting back to our previous research into How Videos Go Viral, you can see that modularity and partitioning has been applied on the audiences in the same way it was applied to my Facebook graph. We then applied statistical modelling of the demographics of each group to understand who was in each. So for the Dove Real Beauty Sketches video (top right), we can see there’s one community averaging 32-year-old white women, in the USA/NYC, working in marketing – and another of teenage girls in Los Angeles who may be white or Hispanic, and who’re into pop music and reality TV. And indeed, it’s that appeal to a diverse audience that made the Dove advert so successful and the most-viewed on YouTube. How can this work for you? Think of communities as very similar to the segments identified in a brand’s customer segmentation model. (With demographics analysis layered on, you might even find that they’re the same.) While direct marketing communications is often customized by segment, historically this hasn’t been something brands have done in social. But, using social network analysis and also Twitter & Facebook ad targeting, it’s possible to send specific messages to specific groups of people. Powered by Pulsar TRAC these could be people engaging in a specific conversation, individuals sharing a piece of content online, or the followers of an account on Twitter. Any group of people, in essence, as long as we can define that audience through some property of its behaviour in social media – such as keyword, user bio, or location. Community analysis allows brands to really understand the behavior of their audiences in a way they can’t replicate with offline, non-social data. It enables brands to get maximum benefit from their influencer outreach and content seeding, by ensuring they’ve got contacts in each sub-community of their audience. And once communities have been identified, there’s scope for deeper analysis of how each community interacts with brands, the language they use, and the topic . This can allow for truly customized marketing, allowing brands to understand each group’s social media behaviour, and how best to communicate with them. Network analyses are also great communication tools – each time we put one on screen at a conference, the cameras come out and people start taking photos. We’d love to see more companies going public on their network analysis, and illustrating their audiences back to their followers. As we said earlier, community isn’t just about shared interests but a shared imaginary, a shared recognition that “We are part of the same group.” Sharing community visualisations could be one tool for a brand to create a real “customer community” – moving beyond individualized buyers towards positioning their brand as a source of meaning and identity. Thanks to Jess Owens for contributing her ideas to this blog post.

Automatic Message Categorization Now Available on Pulsar FLOW

Cierra — Fri, 04 Jul 2014 14:05:49 +0000

Managing hundreds or sometimes thousands of social messages a day can be overwhelming. One of the keys to success in social CRM is effective team co-ordination , ensuring the right resource is connected to the right issue as quickly as possible. But as your social media activities grow, assigning messages to team members manually can be time consuming. So to help cure message overload, we're introducing this new workflow management feature to Pulsar FLOW, our social CRM and social publishing platform. Automatic Categorization will help you process incoming social media messages faster by automatically assigning categories based on the keywords and tags they contain. And with the message categorised automatically, you will be able to assign messages to teammates immediately as they come in - improving your social media response times and increasing customer satisfaction. Sounds useful? If you are not a Pulsar user yet and would like to book a personal demo of the platform please get in touch with us at info@pulsarplatform.com.

Meet us at... the MRS Connected World conference

OanaS — Fri, 04 Jul 2014 13:33:42 +0000

On Thursday 10th July, Jess Owens, one of our Social Media Managers here at Face, will be speaking on a panel at the Market Research Society's Connected World conference in London. Connected World is an exciting new conference for the market research industry which aims to "help the insight and marketing world capitalise on the new technologies, behaviours and beliefs that are driving relationships between individuals, brands and consumers." It's a privilege to be one of the only research agencies speaking at a conference drawing on an excitingly wide range of speakers and expertise. Connected World aims to inject new ideas into the market research debate, drawing on everything from experts in consumer creativity (Hazel Robinson on tapping into the power of fans) to technologists visioning the future through pervasive computing (Adrian David Cheok, City University) and the Internet of Things (Moeen Khawaja, Umbrellium). Jess will be on a panel at 11.40am called Cutting Through The Noise, alongside Tom Ewing (Brainjuicer) and Paul Edwards (Working Plural and JKR), with discussion chaired by journalist Richard Young. The pitch: "An ever-growing amount of interaction between consumers, brands and beyond means only one thing for research professionals – an ever-growing challenge. How can the analysis keep up with the flow of information? How can research adapt to the new technologies and practices? In this case study-free debate, we discover the scale and nature of the task ahead of us." For more information, full programme details and registration, please have a look on the official site of the conference. Or catch up with Jess at the conference by saying hello on Twitter (@hautepop) or email jessica@facegroup.com.

Pulsar TRAC Launches New Location Maps

Cierra — Thu, 31 Jul 2014 15:01:32 +0000

Here at Pulsar we know how valuable it can be to pin down social media discussion to an exact location. Retailers want to know which stores need improvement or which regions are out-performing on customer satisfaction. Agencies need to see where their campaigns are gaining traction, and where they might need some top-up media spend. And brands want to make sure their social strategies are gaining traction in each & every market. So we've recently redesigned our location maps to give you more control over how you analyse social media location data. You can now access location in 3 ways:

Countries
Cities
Coordinates

What's changed? Our new Country maps now also allow localised data by US State and the newly added Coordinates let's you see where a social post has been published with GPS accuracy which is handy if you're looking to pinpoint those messages that are geolocated precisely to just a few metres. Here's how they look in Pulsar: Countries Cities Coordinates This new feature gives you the power to map conversations at street level and understand which retail units, public events or city areas are driving the engagement around your brand. If you are not yet using Pulsar and want to know more about how location mapping works, get in touch with us at info@pulsarplatform.com. Stay tuned for more Pulsar features being released in the next few weeks!

10 tactics for rigour in social media market research

Jess — Tue, 15 Jul 2014 14:14:37 +0000

Last week I went to the MRS Connected World conference, a really excellent event gathering together an inspiring crowd to talk about new technologies and consumer behaviours. Not just to listen - though listening was great! I was also putting forward the Pulsar point of view on a panel with Tom Ewing of Brainjuicer and Paul Edwards of Working Plural & JKR. Our topic: "cutting through the noise". Digital media & technology has generated a dramatic shift - for the first time in history, there's not a shortage of information but an excess. But how to make sense of it all? How to find the insight amid the flood? Our session was kindly written up by Research Live, so I won't go into the details here. Instead, I want to pick up on a really smart question from an audience member - How do you do social media research with real rigour? Great question. How do you move beyond a set of observations made on a vast and potentially rather amorphous dataset, to get to something we might actually call research? On the spot I came up with 3 ways - but on reflection, there are more. Here's my top 10 ways to make your social media research rock solid:

1. Capture the complete universe If the dataset's incomplete (and especially if you don't know what's missing), you can't say anything about how your findings relate to the wider universe. Tweets found directly through Twitter search are really no more than anecdote until you can contextualise them within a meaningful totality of everything that's going on in social. Image source: Mapping The Global Twitter Heartbeat: The Geography of Twitter, by Kalev H. Leetaru et al., 2012 So make sure you're using a social media research tool that's built on top of Twitter Firehose (the 100% data API) and robust blog, forum & news data collection. Of course there's still a gap between "everything said in social" and "everything people think". But that's true for every research method - this is a risk we can only minimise, never remove entirely. 2. Your search strategy is critical Great data sources aren't enough on their own - you've got to set them up right. If you're searching for a particular category (e.g. haircare), you need to be confident you've collected the whole category - every possible way people can talk about hair, from products to styles and stylists, and verbs & adjectives as well as nouns. Just searching for all mentions of "hair" won't cut it - you're not capturing a meaningful totality. How to build good search syntax: Brainstorm. Then test it in Twitter & Google search, then iterate to add in new words & phrases that come up. Analyst experience is key here to build a search strategy that's both comprehensive and focused. 3. Qualify your quant insights Social data is qual data at a mass scale, says Francesco D’Orazio, our chief technologist. Numbers on their own aren't insights. Positive sentiment is 20% - so what? What are people saying? What are the needs and emotions driving that figure, and why is it higher for one brand than another? Read, synthesise, code. Quote the actual messages, show the verbatim. Keep the people visible in how you tell your insights. 4. Quantify your qual insights Say you're doing an innovation project, find out that fighting frizz is the most important consumer haircare need. Your immediate client might love the depth of qual insight you can build from beauty blogs and forums... But she's also got to communicate that insight around a larger organisation & to lots of people who won't ever read your full deck. So quantify that qual insight and rank it against other needs. Savvy use of Boolean search strings - NEAR operators & smart exclusion terms - can give you sensible approximate volumes for almost any concept. You'll not capture every nuance, to be sure - but it'll help support that qual insight as a really solid finding. (Ok, not really an example of quantifying qual insights - but a very cute example of Boolean syntax!) 5. Can another analyst find the same insights? Classic research methods such as data coding still can have a key role to play in turning social media data into insight. It provides a structured template for content analysis that helps iron out bias from the analyst's own preconceptions. Instead you've got a random sample of 200 messages and a structured grid, and it's easy to review across team to help standardise what you mean by particular categories and concepts. 6. Benchmark Is this finding real? How much does it actually matter? Display your research findings contextualised against other brands, other categories, or as share of voice – so your reader can get a sense of proportion. 7. State what you don’t know, or can’t prove

e.g. “This visualisation is based on Twitter data, a channel used by 26% of the UK population.”
"Social media messages almost never identify a store by its exact street address, and only 1.6% of tweets have geolocation. Consequently we cannot locate the se complaints to specific store, only town or region level."
"Social media data includes only information that is publicly available on the web, and not private email or text message data" (yes we get this one!)

Make the gaps explicit. It shows you know what you're talking about - and helps ensure your insights are interpreted accurately. Overclaim isn't rigorous! 8. Test hypotheses. Test a null hypothesis. Having hypotheses makes your data useful – instead of just drawing a picture of the landscape, you’re trying to find out something specific. But in the spirit of scientific enquiry, proving a hypothesis isn’t just going out looking for data that supports it. It’s also about looking for data that supports the null hypothesis – the counter-possibility that nothing is happening, or the opposite. Look for both - and if all the evidence really falls on one side, then you can be confident that your finding is really robust. Testing the null hypothesis or counter-factuals is also a great way to find interesting things you weren’t expecting (see point 10!) 9. Triangulate against other data sources Extract everything you can from your client, from sales figures to qual research to semiotics decks. Turn these into hypotheses. Is your research supporting these? Building on them? Taking them a new direction? Or disagreeing entirely? All are legitimate outcomes – and putting your insights in this context makes them much easier for your client to use. 10. Don’t do social media research if it’s not the right way to answer your question A contrarian point for closing – but we want to be honest about the fact that social media data can’t answer all research questions. Its genius is that the data we’re analysing is largely spontaneous and unprompted, making it a great way to find "unknown unknowns' - the things you didn't even know you wanted to know, or needed to ask. But sometimes you’ve got really specific questions to answer – how far are consumers prepared to trade off price vs. quality, perhaps, or whether a different shade of blue would make a better bottle top. And I’m afraid people just aren’t talking about bottle cap colours in social media… So you’d need to ask them directly: time for a focus group! Not social. * So that's 10 ways to make your social media research really robust. Any more to add? Get in touch with us on Twitter - we're @Pulsar_Social - and tell us your top tips! I (Jess) do a bunch of tweeting for Pulsar, so let's keep the conversation going. Or if you've got a really thorny research problem and you're looking for a rigorous solution, get in touch with my colleague James on james.cuthbertson@pulsarplatform.com - we'd love to talk it through with you.

Pulsar wins its first client in Mauritius - the benefits of social media listening in the travel sector

Treesha — Thu, 11 Sep 2014 18:50:22 +0000

As a Mauritian myself, I'm really happy to share that Pulsar has signed its first client in Mauritius: Veranda Leisure and Hospitality (VLH).

[Veranda Point Aux Biches resort, Mauritius]

VLH are setting the gold standard of social customer service and engagement in Mauritius, demonstrating a true passion for what their customers think and feel. Their resort consists of beautiful hotels, a cosmetic and spa brand, a championship golf course, an amazing beach club, a chateau-restaurant from the 19th century - and 50 luxurious managed villas. Although it is just a little island, social media is exploding in Mauritius: you are able to book a flight via Facebook or communicate with a resort via Twitter. Resorts such as VLH are increasing their presence on YouTube and using blogs for online promotion.

But company-created content is only half the story. Consumers broadcast their positive or negative opinion freely on social media and other travel websites such as Trip Advisor. This information is instantly available to the public, whether positive or negative, or even true or false. And this kind of peer-to-peer feedback is no longer the preserve of just techies, as it may have been 10 years ago. Internet & social media usage is now high enough that all types of consumers use social media to express their opinions, give advice - or just listen in and follow advice from other people.

This means that people who have stayed at the resort now influence the decisions of potential future visitors. With social media exploding, the necessity to differentiate your brand, resort, product or service has never been more vital. It is therefore time for you to increase participation in social network related incentives.

Communication with your clients and prospects is essential. Companies are able to put out information via their website but this method remains a ‘one way communication’ system, unresponsive to prospective customers' real interests, questions and priorities. But by using social channels such as Facebook and Twitter, brands are able to start a conversation with their customers, listening as much as talking, and assisting as much as selling. All this can help grow brand awareness, consideration and propensity to purchase.

How can resorts & hotels use social media monitoring in a structured way, to reap maximum benefit from this wealth of information?

1. Social Listening

Social media should not be considered as websites where you promote your products, but as a way to start communication with potential and existing clients.

Our social intelligence tool Pulsar TRAC enables you to keep a close eye on discussion taking place around your resorts and your customer service. Through Pulsar you can track review sites and monitor this critical channel alongside Twitter, Facebook, news and blogs. Pulsar TRAC allows you to keep an eye on social media discussion 24/7 in real time, meaning you can be confident that you are on top of everything that is being mentioned about your resort.

2. Appropriate Response

The second part of communication is of course to respond back. Social media listening can inspire a response in two ways - reactive, and proactive.

Reactive messages reply to content created by customers and other people mentioning your resort - so you might thank them for sharing a beautiful photograph, or respond to any questions or customer service issues. But social listening can inspire proactive, original messages too - the Facebook status updates, blog posts and tweets a brand or resort may put out. By using Pulsar TRAC, you would be able to identify the main topics of discussion around your resort and create content that responds to it - for example, if all your customers comment on the resort's amazing seafood, that suggests something to highlight in your digital content calendar. 3. Measuring key performance indicators

Once you have created your content, you will want to monitor how much impact you are getting. The best KPIs are often simple. For example, a resort may want to focus on visibility (Pulsar's metric for the scope of audience reached) to assess their overall impact across both social media and news & PR activity. What topics drive the most visibility, and what sources deliver it most effectively for your resort? In this way, insights built off KPIs can provide crucial fine-tuning and direction for social media content strategy.

For more advanced social media users, Pulsar TRAC can also offer performance analytics through content tracking. This feature enables you to track the spread of any digital content (video, advert, website) on the social web. This lets you see and understand how it is shared across networks in real-time and who your influencers are - the people you may want to build closer relationships with in future.

4.Competitor Tracking

While monitoring your own-brand activity is the first step, savvy companies realise that they can make the most out of social by listening to their competitors as well. This could mean keeping an eye on which types of online promotions work best, or seeing how customers are responding to their pricing and any special offers. Pulsar TRAC enables you to market your content smartly through understanding which type of content is driving positive or negative sentiment and understand how impactful people are about a specific topic and within special social networks. 5. Aspirations and dreams Social media monitoring can go a long way beyond simply the quantitative. Instagram and Pinterest are used by consumers to daydream about their fantasy lifestyles and share beautiful, aspirational pictures. Travel and resort brands should want to be a part of this too - it's all creating awareness (and potentially back links, good for SEO). While many of these people may not be able to afford a purchase at present, this kind of awareness can inform a longer term pipeline of honeymoons, special once-in-a-lifetime trips, or recommendations to people who can afford it (their parents!) *

So that's our five-part process for how resorts & hotels can use social media listening to take their digital marketing up a level, from individual responses to real customer and category insight.

If you would like to find out how Pulsar could help your resort monitor its presence on the social web, get in touch with Treesha: treesha.pandoo@pulsarplatform.com and the Pulsar team on 0207 8746577 / at info@pulsarplatform.com.

Webinar: How Social Media Predicts Concert Ticket Sales

admin — Tue, 16 Sep 2014 13:23:42 +0000

The real business value of social media lies in integrating social media data with other company datasets, such as sales and web analytics. Ever wanted to know more about how social media activity connects to purchase? How to measure social data and ROI? Which demographics give brands the best chance of social influencing sales? Join our Social Insight Manager Jess Owens for our webinar entitled ‘How Social Media Predicts Concert Ticket Sales’ on Thursday 25 September. Our recent research study explored how well social media works as a key driver in awareness of a concert and whether it provides a way and a measure to predict ticket sales. We used our in-house social data intelligence platform Pulsar to analyse the whole online ecosystem, and tracked discussions around three concerts: a festival, UK tour of a global female pop artist, and a 1970’s rock band. Join us for ‘How Social Media Predicts Concert Ticket Sales’ to have all these questions answered and more. The webinar will air on Thursday 25 September at:

3pm BST (London)
4pm CET (Paris/Berlin)
10 am EDT (New York)

This webinar is free to attend – just register here for details. We hope you can join us for this very exciting online conversation.

Brands, salons, hairdressers, bloggers and consumers. Who's really influential in pro haircare?

Jess — Wed, 17 Sep 2014 13:55:40 +0000

Which professional haircare brand has the greatest social media mindshare? A visualisation by Rob Parkin and Jess Owens "Marketing premium haircare is interesting. Unlike your usual Pantenes & Aussies, it’s not something women just pick up and buy off the shelf in Boots. Instead it’s a sale rooted in a relationship, between a young woman in a chair nervous about whether her style is going to work out, and miracle-working Michelle at Toni & Guy Islington. So how do you market premium salon haircare on social? Who do you market it to? In order to understand this complex intersection of brands, hairdressers and consumers, we worked with P&G to track the premium haircare category and understand it not just as a ‘conversation’ but in network terms. Here are the results." This study was a consultancy project from our sister company FACE. Click through to read the full story.

Does Social Media Change Everything About Public Affairs?

Cierra — Fri, 03 Oct 2014 11:25:37 +0000

Does social media change everything about public affairs? This was the question posed to the panel at Keene Communications’ debate last week, an event hosted as part of Social Media Week in London. In this interactive discussion, key speakers from diverse backgrounds in government, public policy and advocacy discussed the impact of social media in today’s rapidly evolving landscape of public affairs. Keene Communications is a London based agency offering practical communications advice in PR, Public Affairs and Representation consultancy. As a Pulsar client, Keene Communications uses our platform to derive deeper insights for their clients in the political and policy-based sectors by utilizing platform features such as audience analysis, campaign tracking and influencer identification. They even gave us a shout out on their debate backdrop! (see top left)

The panel was kicked off by Keene Communications Managing Director and former Head of Policy at STEP (The Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners), Jake Rigg taking the floor for introductions and then asking the panel “Does social media change everything about public affairs and if so, how?” The first speaker to weigh in on the topic was Sarah Anderson of feminist activism group No More Page Three, who spoke passionately about the power of social media to unite individuals who otherwise might not have the physical or emotional ability to connect on an issue (a phenomenon she calls “pyjama-activism”). Sarah’s main argument was simple: without social media, the vast majority of her group’s members and supporters would not be able to meet and galvanize on an issue. This point was supported by the second speaker of the night, Tim Lloyd, from digital engagement agency Helpful Technology. Tim’s experience in the public sector at both the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills as well as the Department of Health allowed him to speak on the matter from the perspective of policy officials and their constituents. Tim agreed with Sarah that social media is an important tool in effective communication, citing Twitter as a primary tool for policy leaders to engage directly with supporters and gain a better understanding of their constituents on both micro and macro levels. The last speaker of the night was Boni Sones, OBE and former BBC News 24 correspondent. Having worked in Parliament on both sides of the isle as founder and head correspondent for Women’s Parliamentary Radio, Boni approached the issue of social media’s effectiveness on changing public affairs from a conservative standpoint, focusing on the value of content over its rapid dissemination. "Social media is an effective vehicle for getting a message out, but you still need a message." Fair point: the traditional PR skill of crafting a narrative is no less important in this new channel. The panel concluded with some interesting and thought provoking questions being raised from the audience, such as how different political structures affect the value of social media as a “feedback mechanism” between civilians and policy makers, or how specific channels are more effective than others at building communities around a common cause or issue. The consensus among the speakers was that social media is undoubtedly changing modern public affairs, although it remains up for debate to what degree this is true. Here are some key points we took away from the discussion: 1. Social media is finally allowing the connection of social networks globally, beyond single communities. It has the power to galvanize and bring groups of people together on an issue with an immediacy that would be almost impossible otherwise. 2. Government officials are accessible and visible to their constituents in a way that they never were before. 3. Public officials are much more aware of their constituents’ common needs, beliefs, and desires through both systematic social media monitoring and their own personal participation on Twitter. 4. Many arguments against the power of social media as an effective tool in public affairs assume other reliable forms of news (via television, internet or paper) are available and that citizens are engaged in a government in which the freedom of speech is protected and exercised .Yet this is not always the case. 5. Without valuable content, what is the value of social media? 6. Social Media forces us to “Dig down.” This means finding out who is truly sending the message and for what motives (Who is behind a message, what are their objectives, who do they support, or what kind of reaction might they be hoping to receive?) 7. Many current public campaigns wouldn’t exist at all without the power of social media! Read back on the Twitter conversation by using #SMWSocialLobbying . Here at Pulsar we’ve won some great government and charity customers who find the platform extremely valuable not only for understanding online conversation about their own organisations but also the wider public interest. Last year we helped Action On Hearing Loss develop a comms strategy to reach out to a wider audience who may not have identified as being hearing-impaired. We have also tracked the horse meat scandal of 2013 to understand public reaction to this public health crisis – both in terms of short-term crisis management, and longer term consumer trust and concern for supermarket regulation. This shows how social media monitoring for public affairs doesn’t have to be just monitoring your organisation’s name and reputation – important though that is! Instead, the real value of social media in public affairs may lie in how it lets you keep your finger on the pulse of public opinion at every scale - from creating a broad, landscape view of your audience to “digging down” and investigating the nuances of each specific message. If you’d like to talk about how Pulsar can help with public affairs monitoring or see our horse meat search for yourself, contact me at Info@PulsarPlatform.com and I can show you round the platform and introduce you to our research consultancy offering.

Picturing the Social: Analysing Social Media Images Conference. Registration now open!

Francesco DOrazio — Mon, 06 Oct 2014 14:06:38 +0000

Thanks to smartphones, most people now carry a camera with them at all times and use it to document different aspects of their lives, sharing more than 750 million social media images daily. ‘Picturing the Social’ is the world’s first cross-platform academic research project into social media images, exploring the impact images of this kind have on society. A key aim of the project is to use the insight from both academia and industry to build a free research tool for the academic community.

This free one-day conference is aimed at policy makers, the business community, academics and third sector that focuses on researching social media images, paying specific attention to the developments of new methods and analytical approaches. The conference will also offer an opportunity to discuss the research tool the team is developing and offer early feedback. The conference will include presentations from leading social science, policy and industry researchers as well as presentations from the interdisciplinary ‘Picturing the Social’ team, highlighting methods, theoretical underpinnings and early finding of the project, including early work on Twitter images shared around the death and funeral of Margaret Thatcher. The conference will consist of four panels specifically addressing the following areas: (1) Key challenges and opportunities for research on social media images (2) Developments in digital photography (3) Politics and the nation-state (4) Identity and the self The conference will be particularly well suited to those with a strong interest in researching social media images. Confirmed speakers include: Gillian Rose, Peter Buse, Katrina Sluis, Adi Kuntsman, Ruth Deller and Shawn Walker. And from the Picturing the Social team: Simon Faulkner, Francesco D'Orazio, Mike Thelwall, Anne Burns and Farida Vis. Please note that registration is open from 9:30, with the first panel starting at 10:00. Lunch will be provided. Follow further updates on Twitter by following the project’s Twitter account: @VisSocMedLab. More information on the project can be found here and here. Image: Selfiecity.

The #1 social brand uses Pulsar: congratulations Irn-Bru!

Ed — Tue, 07 Oct 2014 13:52:04 +0000

Congratulations to our friends and Cello colleagues Blonde whose work on Irn Bru has seen the brand ranked #1 Social Brand in the UK. Blonde has run Irn Bru’s social media account for 3 years now and have been their digital agency for 7 years – all their hard work has paid off, well done! Headstream’s Social Brand Index analyses the social media accounts of the UK’s biggest FMCG brands, scoring their performance over 3 dimensions: a brand’s social engagement, its reputation, and customer service. The Index serves as a leading benchmark of performance for online social spaces.

Image courtesy of Keen and Able Brandmakers.

2014 was a big year for Irn Bru as they set out to make the most of Scotland’s “Year of Sport” as the official sponsor for the Commonwealth Games. This is where Blonde stepped in. The digital agency were asked to maximise the #BornToSupport campaign during Glasgow 2014 through the use of Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Read the full case study here. Blonde build relationships with key athletes and asked them to tweet quotes from the Irn-Bru advert before it launched, ending the tweet with #BornToSupport. This resulted in a buzz around the hashtag before the advert went live, generating anticipation and ad views. Blonde continued this strategy throughout the Games, tweeting relevant content in real-time alongside athletes’ performances. But why are we blogging about this? Because Blonde have long used Pulsar as their tool to maximise Irn Bru’s digital campaigns. Jamie McAdam, the social planning mastermind for Irn-Bru, says: “Pulsar plays an integral role in our social campaigns. We are able to use it to form important planning research upfront, monitor and track conversations during campaigns and then look back and evaluate campaigns once they are complete. Pulsar helps our social planning framework throughout the cycle of a campaign period and we have found it to be a very important tool” For Irn-Bru’s previous ‘Fanny’ campaign, Blonde used Pulsar’s audience mapping capabilities to identify the right person on Twitter to seed Irn Bru’s advert with before it went live on TV. As a result, the advert gained nearly 700,000 views before it even hit TV screens. Read the full case study here. Fancy a shot at being #1 social brand in 2015? Learn what Pulsar can do for you with a demo. CLICK HERE and our team will be in touch right away.

How are brands and agencies using Pulsar?

Jess — Wed, 22 Oct 2014 11:30:07 +0000

Over the summer we surveyed Pulsar users to see what you thought of the platform, and where you want us to take it next. We would like to thank everyone who participated - this feedback is invaluable for our customer understanding and product development. It was also great to see your comments about how you're enjoying the tool and getting meaningful social and customer insight. Ever wondered if there's a new way you could be using Pulsar? Read on to see some survey highlights:

Everyone secretly worries - am I normal? Well, if you're using Pulsar for social media monitoring you certainly are! It's our top usecase, attracting 89% of customers. We're also happy to see fully 3 in 4 people using the tool to mine audience insight - through audience tracking searches, social panels, & analysing user bio data.

What's your top Pulsar feature? 80% of customers use Visibility - our algorithm for assessing the reach and influence of every single piece of content, from Twitter to The Telegraph. And half of you (51%) are using Clusters, where you build your own charts for easy access metrics. Our in-house researchers find these super-useful, so if you're in the 49% not using clusters yet, contact your Account Manager for a personalised tutorial. Other notable survey results include many shout-outs for our fantastic Account Management team: "Cierra is incredibly supportive and offers excellent service - far beyond what I've received from other services in the past!" And: "You guys are awesome. Don't ever stop evolving & improving." We certainly don't plan to! On the basis of your feedback, we are happy to announce that as some new features will soon be released onto the platform – keep an eye out for:

Understand your audience impact better with our new Reach estimates
A boost to Location analysis: search for just geolocated content
Improved data management tools
Better querying for Asian language content

And there's much more in the pipeline, which we'll update you with each month as development is confirmed. When we asked for your help with our survey, the deal was that in return for your time and insight we would enter you into a prize draw for a brand new gadget. Congratulations to the team at Global Radio! You will be receiving your new Kindle Fire very soon. If you would like a demo to discover the power of Pulsar, send us an email: info@pulsarplatform.com

We’re in a book! 2 Pulsar essays included in new social media “book of blogs”

Jess — Mon, 03 Nov 2014 15:07:14 +0000

First you read them here, now get them on your Kindle! Two essays from the Pulsar social team have been included in a new book collecting together smart thinking on how to do social media research from across the commercial and academic worlds. On 29 October, the blog NSMNSS (New Social Media, New Social Science) published a “book of blogs” called ‘Social Media in Social Research: Blogs on Blurring the Boundaries’. This is a collection of over 50 blogs written by researchers from around the world, covering “a researcher’s journey from scoping phases to dissemination, demonstrating how new forms of data produced by social media can be integrated into a researcher’s toolkit.” Two FACE essays are included:

Francesco D’Orazio’s ‘The Future of Social Media Research’, first published in Research World magazine. In this post, Fran outlines the 10 ways to tackle the challenges facing the research industry’s use of social media monitoring.

Jess Owens’s '10 Tactics For Rigour in Social Media Market Research’ outlining how you can ensure the insights from your research project are robust.

NSMNSS (New Social Media, New Social Science) is a blog that brings together academics, researchers and social scientists to discuss whether social science researchers should embrace social media, and what the implications would be if these methods and practices were used. The blog is jointly owned by NatCen Social Research (Britain's leading independent social research institute) and SAGE, the research methods publishers. In the social media research field we’re constantly trying to find new ways of getting insight, solving problems – and working out how to do this accurately, ethically and efficiently. We think it’s really valuable for NSMNSS to be supporting this dialogue between commercial and academic researchers who often have very different priorities. There’s a lot we in market research can learn from academic discussions of what can be legitimately deduced from a given method versus what’s just speculation or error. And we hope our focus on actionability might inspire some students to think more widely about how they might connect their research through into real-world applications. Despite these differences, both sides are united by a keen interest in what’s next when it comes to making sense of social data. Pulsar has partnered with researchers at the University of Sheffield and 3 other universities to explore new techniques and technologies in visual social media and image analysis, and we’ll be reporting back from the first conference this Friday. So here’s to blurring the boundaries between research worlds! It’s a fascinating and exciting place to be working. Interested in Social Media In Social Research? Head over to Amazon to learn more and download the Kindle eBook. Or find out more about how media research can help you by emailing us on info@pulsarplatform.com

Picturing the Social: ‘Photobombing’ named Word of the Year

Ed — Wed, 05 Nov 2014 17:12:37 +0000

For the second year running, social media image-making has been named Word of the Year. Last year it was the omnipresent ‘selfie’ - this year it’s ‘photobombing’. (Ok, and ‘overshare’ is on that 2014 list too. But we want to talk to you about photos!)

On Friday 7^th November, social media researchers will be heading to Sheffield for ‘Picturing the Social: Analysing Social Media Images’. This conference, held during ESRC’s annual Festival of Social Science is the first project to explore the impact images of this kind have on society, and will focus on results from early ground-breaking research. As part of this conference, a panel on ‘identity and the self’ will pay particular attention to new forms of social media photography such as ‘selfies’ and ‘photobombing’. The aim is to develop approaches for studying a wide range of images shared on social media. But why is the act of ‘photobombing’ relevant and why is it something that we need to talk about?

Our VP of Product Francesco D’Orazio, co-investigator and panellist at the conference explains: “Photobombing - the act of invading a picture, unbeknownst to the photographer and the subjects of the picture - is not a new phenomenon and has been around for centuries. What makes it culturally relevant today is that the meaning behind the practice is changing. “Photobombing aims at shattering the glossy perfection of the staged self-representation by providing a contrasting anti-pose in the background which highlights the staged and therefore fake representation happening in the foreground. “So in a way photobombing is situationist guerrilla warfare against the tyranny of the pose! It's like dissonance in music: by introducing cacophony and inconsistency it helps us remembering that there's more to reality than the staged, polished version of ourselves social media is so good at.” Picturing the Social, now fully booked, highlights the keen interest in this area; from academia, but also from social researchers in government and industry. We’ll be reporting on it early next week – stay tuned, or follow us on @Pulsar_Social for real-time updates Early findings of the Picturing the Social project will also be shared via the Visual Social Media Lab website. Do you want to learn more about image analysis or social data research? Then get in touch by emailing Francesco.dorazio@facegroup.com

Pulsar featured in a new book and a data visualization exhibition! #MappeDelSapere

Francesco DOrazio — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 18:46:58 +0000

We are very excited to be featured in a new data visualization book and exhibition titled "Mappe del Sapere" (Knowledge Maps), opening tomorrow at Triennale Design Museum in Milan (here's how to get there). The exhibition, which opens at 18.30 and closes December 14th, features some of the best data visualizations produced over the past 3 years for «la Lettura», the culture supplement of Italian daily newspaper Corriere della Sera. The exhibition and book features fantastic examples of information design and we've added our two cents with an infographic called Gangnam Style vs Harlem Shake: Anatomy of two memes and a data visualisation project called How Stuff Spreads: How Video Goes Viral. Ahead of the opening, the museum will also host a conference on data journalism titled "Data Journalism: informazione e creatività" organised by «la Lettura» and Fondazione Corriere della Sera and starting at 15.30 at the Teatro dell'arte. The conference will explore the relationship between information and design, research and visual storytelling and will feature Professor Alberto Cairo from the School of Communication, University of Miami, Paolo Ciuccarelli from Density Lab at Politecnico di Milano (the guys behind the excellent RAW) and Daniela Piscitelli from Associazione Italian Design della Comunicazione Visiva. I'll be in Milan for both the conference and the exhibition opening, so if you want to get in touch hit me up on Twitter at @abc3d or email me at francesco@facegroup.com.

Why Big Data is a human problem, not a technology one

Ed — Tue, 18 Nov 2014 11:00:35 +0000

At the beginning of October our VP of Products Francesco D'Orazio hosted a talk at the Internet & Mobile World conference in Romania. This event was focused highly on the digital transformation of businesses, aiming to highlight the online and mobile challenges they are faced with. Leading experts from the technology world gathered to share their thoughts on what's driving forward the industry and how this translates to business. "Big data" has been around for a few years now but for every hundred people talking about it there’s probably only one actually doing it. As a result Big Data has become the preferred vehicle for inflated expectations and misguided strategy. As always, the seed of the issue is in the expression itself. Big Data is not so much about a quality of the data or the tools to mine it, it’s about a new approach to product, policy or business strategy design. And that’s way harder and trickier to implement than any new technology stack. In Fran's talk from the Internet & Mobile World, he looks at where Big Data is going, what are the real opportunities, limitations and dangers and what we can do to stop talking about it and start doing it today. Please see below if you want to have a closer look at the slides Fran used in his presentation:

Heavy, Messy, Misleading: why Big Data is a human problem, not a tech one

If you want to learn more about how social data can positively impact your company, get in touch by emailing: Francesco.dorazio@facegroup.com

The faces behind the phone: Meet the Pulsar sales team

Cierra — Thu, 20 Nov 2014 13:40:13 +0000

Who are the Pulsar Sales team? The Pulsar Sales team has been rapidly growing over the past year so we’ve decided that it’s about time for everyone to get to know them! Led by James Cuthbertson, the team includes Charlie, Alex, Ross, Treesha, Hal and newest member, Charlotte. They’re based in London in Midford Place, just off Tottenham Court Road, alongside research agency FACE .

Top row: Treesha, Ross, Charlotte. Front row: Alex, James, Charlie

Over the past few months, the team has been busy bringing in some of our biggest clients including Mazda and the Department of Health. But we did manage to steal a few moments out of their ever-hectic schedules to find out just a little bit more about them, from what they like most about Pulsar to their weirdest sales experience. Here’s what they had to say. What’s your favourite thing about Pulsar? GPS coordinates – James says, “It’s interesting to see how close we can pinpoint the data to particular areas around a city.” (See more here) Bundle visualization – Hal thinks, “It’s a great discovery and connection tool between the most talked about keywords and new areas of conversation”. James Cuthbertson – Ross says his boss is his favourite thing about Pulsar. Smooth moves! The people – Treesha (aww) Audience Searches – Charlie says, “ Pulsar provides very valuable audience information into specific conversation and people” Influencers visualization – Charlotte says, “Pulsar gives you easy visualizations to discover who the key influencers are out of a search or conversation”. Alongside influencers by volume, visibility and engagement, we’ve got a new visualization coming here soon – stay tuned for more What’s the most interesting Pulsar Project you’ve worked on? “Finding influencers for an alcoholic beverage brand on Pulsar and as a result the client chose to send these individuals free merchandise for being fans” - James “Getting sent to Denmark to sell Pulsar to potential clients” – Hal “A hair care search on Pulsar showing a relationship between shampoo and a lion's mane proved to be a random yet interesting discovery” - Ross “A swimwear search showing high volumes of sexually explicit data was a surprise and we didn’t expect to see that kind of conversation” – Alex. (Indeed!) “I got to see a really fun set of data when discovering conversation about Disney Land” - Treesha “Seeing the conversations and high social interactions that take place during TV episodes (eg. Social TV)” – Charlotte. A multi-lingual team The Pulsar sales team doesn’t just speak English: James has an elementary proficiency in Dutch having often visited The Netherlands. Treesha is fluent in both French and Creole having lived in Mauritius and studied in France. Hal has grown up speaking Bengali at home. Charlotte was born in Sweden and grew up in Switzerland, which gave her the opportunity to learn both Swedish and German. Strangest sales stories The sales team is constantly out in meetings and making calls selling our social media monitoring platform, so we thought we’d switch it around. What's the weirdest way you've ever been sold to? “A man selling sales training courses dressed as a surgeon saying, ‘It’s all about perceptions’” - James “I thought I was getting hit on, but it was actually a sales pitch” - Hal “I got physically grabbed off the street to be sold soap” - Ross “A retail sales associate actually put a jacket on me in the store without me knowing” - Alex “I cold called a photography company and moments later I got cold called back from that same company” - Treesha “A person selling me night out tickets while in queue to go into a church in Barcelona” - Charlotte “A little kid came to my family house trying to sell me conkers trees even though I had a whole field of them outside” – Charlie * So that’s the sales team! Get in touch with each of them on LinkedIn

Perhaps a discussion of bad sales techniques isn’t the best intro to asking if you’d like a Pulsar demo, but nonetheless – if you would like to learn more about Pulsar, send us an email at Info@Pulsarplatform.com

Pulsar TEAM: Why you should care about Yammer Analytics

Hal Khanom — Mon, 24 Nov 2014 11:00:55 +0000

Most companies understand why they need to listen in and analyse conversations on social media. Social monitoring can help them understand their customers better, know what language and content will resonate with their audiences, and measure the success of their campaigns (amongst numerous other reasons). But what about the conversations happening within your organisation? On your journey to being a socially intelligent organisation, it’s necessary to stop and reflect on the people across the room and the talent you have within your organisation. The office is a social space. It’s time we made the effort to understand our employees as well as we try to understand our customers, because they are just as crucial to our success. Says social business thinker Stowe Boyd,

“Whatever else social business comes to be, it has to be based on how people operate when they feel most free, most creative, most engaged, and most needed. We have to build a way of working where the people doing the work matter as much as the work being done.” Companies such as Telefonica have sought to encourage this through using internal social networking tools such as Yammer. Through these platforms, they encourage teams to share their knowledge and breed a culture of innovation through collaboration.

Yammer: Facebook, but for work! Image from Wired

Pulsar TEAM analyses your internal stakeholder conversations, keeping you up to speed on the hot topics within your organisation, as well as helping to identify the individuals who are influencers in driving these conversations. By viewing Yammer activity as a social network, companies are able to measure and quantify the invisible networks of communication that already exist in their offices. Senior managers can for the first time see the big picture of how their offices operate – and identify the ‘super connectors’ who’re super-valuable in bringing people together and solving problems. But there’s more. Every time we post something online, we leave a digital footprint that says more about us than we think. That footprint stretches across channels and includes what we say on enterprise social networks, like Yammer or Jive. So to understand your employees holistically, internal communications and external communications need to be in constant dialogue. (Take a look at #TescoColleague on Twitter to see how one retailer is driving advocacy from employees’ social media use.)

Imagine looking at your influencers on external channels using Pulsar , and comparing them to your internal influencers as identified by Pulsar Team. You might just spot some overlap. Employee X who is engaging the most and being reacted with the most on Yammer could also be posting content on external social media channels that is gaining a lot of traction. Employee X is influential internally and externally within your context - and so worth their weight in gold for your company. Innovation in internal conversations seem a bigger deal to companies outside of the UK than within these shores, where we are still lagging behind. On our recent trip to Denmark, we noticed how different the Scandinavian business culture is to the UK landscape, with the Scandinavian egalitarian principles leading to flat management structures and a focus on team. This leads to advancement in internal communications in a way most UK companies have yet to engage with. It is no surprise that the second Pulsar TEAM client is Danish! Things are moving forward here in the UK though, with Content and Code recently holding the third Yammer UK Users event . A whole host of organisations discussed their internal collaboration journeys. A repeated topic that came up was the difficulty organisations were having in Yammer adoption rates. From non-desk workers to those who simply reject change, organisations face a number of barriers to higher engagement levels. Using a tool such as TEAM allows you to identify those who are not engaging or adding to the online conversation, through setting your own activity benchmarks. It’s a great way to find those you need to help out or those who just might need that extra coaxing. But it can also be a way to incentivise social collaboration: if people see the top internal influencers being identified, acknowledged and rewarded, that answers “What’s in it for me?” And leading by example from the top of the organisation is of course essential. So that’s Pulsar TEAM: A way to unlock the social networks within your organisation, just as the main Pulsar platform lets you unlock your customers. Contact James.Cuthbertson@Pulsarplatform.com to find out how we can help you understand the social life of your organisation.

7 big ideas about researching images in social media

Jess — Wed, 26 Nov 2014 13:39:49 +0000

What I learnt from 'Picturing The Social', a conference from the Visual Social Media Lab

Each year, as data storage gets cheaper and bandwidth gets faster - the internet only gets more visual. For those of us who're social media researchers, that's a big problem. Social media research tends to default to text analytics - but in a world of Instagram, Pinterest, memes and vloggers, our usual tools of keyword API searches, wordclouds & discourse analysis just don't work. Rooted in art and film theory, we've got a set of tools to make sense of images - but only one at a time. 1.8 billion images are posted to social media every day. How do you make sense of that? Figuring some of this stuff out is why we at Pulsar have co-founded the Visual Social Media lab alongside researchers from the Universities of Sheffield, Manchester Metropolitan, Warwick & Wolverhampton. A couple of weeks ago I went with my colleague Francesco D'Orazio to the Lab's first conference, Picturing The Social. It was fascinating. Here's 7 amazing ideas that changed how I think about understanding photos and images in social media.

7 big ideas about visual social media

1. We need to build new models for understanding visual social media Lab director Farida Vis (@FlyGirlTwo) introduced the conference. Her key point was that the traditional media broadcast model analyses communication in 3 separate stages (production, text, reception) but this isn't sufficient for understanding visual, socially networked media. Instead Farida proposed a 3-part model for analysing images online:

Structures (e.g. the social media companies hosting our images, and how they shape what we see)
Users (at every stage)
Content (close analysis of the images themselves: remember that it's 'qualitative data on a mass scale')

2. Social media decays over time Shaun Walker did a research project on viral videos & blogs – but by the time he got round to downloading & archiving those videos 2 months after they were created, 25% of the videos were gone. That's a huge challenge for research. Social media analysis has to both capture what was there in the moment, and then make sure we can study it in that form. “A webpage rendered in 1996 technology looks very different than rendered in a modern browser today," he noted. So the ideal social media research platform needs to be able to:

Expand shortened URLs to help avoid linkrot
Crawl URLs to capture the structure & HTML
Store rendered URLs (visual screenshots)

3. We can’t assume we know what users want or intend with images In particular, we can't assume that people are saving an image “for later” or for permanency given services like Snapchat. There's a generation gap here: older people tend to see images in terms of creating a historical record, or memory. That's not necessarily true for a 15 year-old taking 500 selfies a day because she's got near-infinite, free data storage and doesn't need to delete anything, ever. 4. The fantasy of the perfect archive A question from the audience raises the question of "The dream that everything is archived, ready for the social scientist to study. The fantasy of perfect software that can be developed," so that everything is visible and analysable. She argued we should, "Think of them as haunted archives from the beginning – a form of culturally remembering and rethinking things." Francesco D'Orazio flagged up the dangerous assumption that big data means ‘whole’, just because it’s big. And representative, because it’s whole and big. It's neither of these things! A useful reminder for us as commercial researchers (and our clients): Remember that we're not looking at any direct or complete access to public opinion. What we see is what people have chosen to represent in public. That's quite a different thing and affects the conclusions we can draw. 5. “Selfies are arguably the ultimate devalued photograph” [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="736"] Anne Burns at 'Picturing The Social' (Photo: Rebecca Lupton)[/caption] “We live in an age now where photography rains down on us like sewage from above,” said Grayson Perry on BBC Radio 4. Anne Burns (@AnneLBurns) argued that taking photos of landscapes or food may be equally repetitive – but the selfie is more stigmatised because it’s seen as a feminised practice. The media and popular discourse desscribes selfies as immature, degenerate, selfish, lazy, socially awkward, narcissistic, and insecure. These aren't seen just as qualities of the media form itself - instead they're transferred to the selfie-taker him- or more usually herself. Criticism of the selfie – for example men's disdain of the ‘duckface’ pose – becomes a means of shaming and disciplining others to enforce social norms and control. Yet once selfies are taken by socially valued subjects (astronauts, celebrities, Leica owners), the selfie is magically redeemed.. (NB the Selfie City project found that yes, women post 80% of all selfies in Moscow - yet among the over-40s, men post more selfies than women. As ever, reality is more complex than the social stereotypes allow.) Food for thought for brands here, who've been pushing selfie marketing campaigns hard in the last couple of years. How'd you build a campaign that doesn't get your customer slagged off by her friends for being vain, a band-wagon jumper, just out for attention, & so on? 6. Comparing the #NoMakeupSelfie and #ThumbsUpforStephen campaigns [caption id="attachment_786" align="aligncenter" width="685"] #nomakeupselfie criticism in Time magazine[/caption] Ruth A. Deller (@ruthdeller)'s presentation looked at exactly this issue: two charity campaigns that used selfies to spread their message, but got very different public receptions. As you may remember, #NoMakeupSelfie drove extensive commentary on the rights and wrongs of the campaign:

Showing off vs being charitable
Should women wear makeup? Is it wrong to say not wearing makeup is radical?
Criticism of how individual women (especially celebrities) looked in their photos

These rest on wider British cultural contradictions about how women are supposed to look - the competing pressures to look nice, not be vain, and definitely never admit that you might look good. Further, as a genuinely grass-roots campaign (started by single mum Fiona Cunningham, who was inspired to post in support of Kim Novak being photographed without makeup on) there was no central authority driving a clear narrative about what these selfies were supposed to mean. As a result, #NoMakeupSelfie was contested and drove as much criticism of participants as it did praise. By contrast, the #ThumbsUpForStephen campaign didn't drive any of this moral debate - the public narrative was simply, "This is a young guy, doing a good thing, let’s support him". Without the gendered beauty dimension (and muted by the fact that Stephen was dying - perhaps there is some decency left online), the tone of discussion was far more positive. 7. What do the machines see? The world according to image recognition APIs

My colleague Francesco D’Orazio (@abc3d) argued that that 1.8 billion images are being shared on social media every day – so text mining is not enough to understand what’s going on. We need to be able to analyse images properly at this mass scale. But you can’t just look at all of them – and superimposing them into one mega-image isn’t going to make any sense. So you need algorithmic analysis alongside qualitative research. But are the algorithms any good? Fran walked us through a number of analytics APIs like Alchemy Vision and Imagga to demonstrate what could currently be done. Now it's not qual. And it's not always accurate (the APIs couldn't tell Boris Johnson's yawn from his surprised face). But they demonstrated that automated analysis can get a lot further than many people realised - not just "That's a photo of a man", but estimates of his mood and social status. While fascinating to see this analysis in action, we've got to remember the risks too. Algorithms may be impersonal but they're not objective. Understanding the massive biases of these algorithms, and how their results can entrench inequalities, is work that tech sociologists are already starting to do (e.g. Syreeta McFadden, Kate Crawford) . But criticism alone won't change much. I'd like to see people working with the analytics firms to improve the algorithms, catching issues that programmers might not see, and finding ways to document & disclose the software's built-in assumptions. For example, the APIs Fran demonstrated seemed to be reading a lot from Boris Johnson’s suit and tie. Could it recognise a woman as a senior executive without those cues? Or might these algorithms end up unintentionally but systematically under-representing powerful women?

Find out more

We'll share Fran's presentation when he's got it up on Slideshare. Meanwhile...

Photos are up on Pinterest - that's a first for a conference! Thanks Rebecca Lupton for documenting.
Download the conference guide here, with abstracts for all the talks
Audio is available on Soundcloud , if you fancy Fran, Farida and all the rest as a podcast for your commute
Presentations will make it to Slideshare, but aren't there yet...
Follow the Visual Social media lab on their website and Twitter @VisSocMediaLab.
Read back on the conference hashtag #VisSocMedConf

Many thanks to Farida and the Visual Social Media Lab team for organising this great event - fascinating, friendly, and a great kick-off showing where the Lab's work is going. Fran and I will be sharing more from every step of the way, so stay tuned. Get the latest Pulsar and social media news from us over on Twitter at @Pulsar_Social, or contact me at Jessica@Facegroup.com

New Pulsar feature: Reach, for audience measurement

Jess — Thu, 18 Dec 2014 14:59:35 +0000

How many people did that message reach? It's the big question when you're running a marketing campaign. You want to know how many people have been exposed to your message to understand how effective your campaign has been in generating awareness. Reach has long been the key metric in TV and radio audience measurement, and services such as Alexa and Quantcast provide reach figures for websites - the number of visitors they get a day. But reach has been incomplete in social media measurement. Facebook Insights provides both Reach and Impressions metrics - Impressions being the number of times a Facebook page is displayed, and Reach the number of unique individuals who see it. And in August 2014, Twitter opened its Analytics dashboard to everyone - showing an impressions metric for each tweet, alongside the number of enagements (link clicks, retweets, & so on). Thing is, Facebook Insights and Twitter Analytics only cover owned channel content. It's great to know how well your brand's own posts are performing, but that's not very, well, social! What about the things other people were saying about your brand? (What about the value of the posts produced by your expensively-wooed 'influencer' programme?) It's all been a little unknown. Social media monitoring tools have let you track the number of people saying things about your brand. But that's only one side of communication. What about the number of people reading them? Fixed that for you! Our December Pulsar update includes a new Reach metric to solve exactly that. Reach provides an estimate of how many impressions a piece of content would have generated. It works across all social media channels - not just Twitter but Facebook, news, reviews, blogs and forums too. This is an addition to our Volume and Visibility metrics, which have been helping you identify the most active and the most impactful content in social since we launched. Now our Reach metric will help your social media reports fit in with stats from owned channels and above-the line media. The response from our media and PR agency clients in particular has been super-positive - with this update, we're providing something that's immediately useful for helping them communicate the impact of social media activities to their clients. We're glad to hear it! 4 key things to know about Reach:

It works on all social media channels - not just Twitter! Use it to compare the reach of a forum post to a Facebook one, or compare news reach against blogs
You get Reach figures for every post in your search, not just owned channels. So use it to compare the value of owned & earned content
See the Reach of an individual post in Results, or look at it aggregated over time in the Overview Dashboard
Pulsar gives you 2 ways to understand reach: Potential Estimated Reach, and Actual. That means you can use the metric that fits best with your other reporting

Let's say a little more about that last point, as this will help you really customise how your brand or agency use Reach. The Pulsar dashboard shows Reach in two formats: 1. Potential Estimated Reach (PER) The maximum potential reach of the piece of content. The algorithm assesses the size of the audience of the author or website, plus the audiences of people who have shared that post. Use this when: Your client needs the 'big number' to go "Wow, that had the potential to be seen by millions of people!" The Potential Estimated Reach when One Direction talk about your brand might break our dashboard, the number will be so big - so do be careful! ;) 2. Actual Estimated Reach (AER) The actual likely number of people who've seen this piece of content, based on that fact that not everyone who could potentially see the post actually will see it. For each channel, the Actual Estimated Reach is benchmarked as a proportion of the Potential Reach. We've done a bunch of maths based on brands' real reach percentages from Twitter Ads API and Facebook Insights, plus industry benchmark figures and publicly available studies. From this, we've calculated what percentage of your total followers on each channel will on average see that post. Use this when: You want a realistic figure for the audience reached by a particular post, to use in comparision against other media channels. Sounds great! I want to get using Reach right away. Where do I find it on Pulsar?

Overview dashboard activity graph: measure volumes, visibility or Reach by day
Results view: sort content by Reach, and see it next to every mention (see picture below)
Filter panel: select content within a certain Reach range
Clusters: build custom charts using Reach
Influencers : rank authors by Reach as well as Volume, Visibility and Engagement Network

We hope you find the Reach new feature useful in helping you get the most from Pulsar. If you have any questions, please email: Jamie.Watson@facegroup.com and he can give you a call to discuss further. Otherwise please do keep in touch about how you're finding using these features. Your feedback is invaluable in helping us create new features and improve existing functionality.

Penguins, Fairies and Lightshows Oh My! The UK's top Christmas ads in social media

admin — Mon, 22 Dec 2014 16:35:25 +0000

A few weeks ago, if someone asked you who Monty the Penguin is, chances are that you would have guessed a children’s book character or maybe that villain in Batman… And probably not the star of a new TV advertisement for John Lewis.

This is the power of advertising in the digital age. Stories and characters once confined to the television screen are now enjoying entire second lives online thanks to social media. Cross-channel or “transmedia” storytelling, a buzzy idea during the 1990s and early 2000s about telling stories across multiple media channels, has quietly become credible as a real, mass-market advertising approach. TV ads now fuel a whole host of online interactions too. This makes social media monitoring a great way to look at what makes Christmas campaigns tick. In this blog post we take a look at four of the UK’s biggest Christmas adverts. We’ve used Pulsar to dive into the ways that these ads don’t just live online, but thrive. Using data visualizations on the platform, we’ve sought to provide some insight into why that Sainsbury’s ad makes you teary-eyed every time you watch it and the theme song from the John Lewis ad with the boy and the Penguin is just so darn catchy. We’re not the only company to do a Christmas ads analysis, we know that much! But what we’re doing differently here is recognizing that different ads have different strategies. Instead of analyzing the ads with a one-size-fits-all approach - measuring them all in terms of volume of buzz generated, or sentiment stats - we wanted to understand what each is doing best. Sainsbury's: Christmas Day Truce Strategy: Use strong emotional content to get people talking (and sharing) online Released the day after Remembrance Day and the centennial anniversary of World War I, Sainsbury’s incorporates the themes of war and peace with an ad depicting the fabled Christmas truce between British and German soldiers. Relying on powerful imagery to associate the brand with a story that pulls at the heart-strings, this ad had a tremendous amount of conversation online, generating more than 20,000 messages on Twitter and public Facebook in the first 24 hours after its November 12th release. [caption id="attachment_863" align="alignnone" width="864"] Social media mentions of Sainsbury's Christmas advert[/caption] This is due to that fact that on social networks, people share content that they find emotionally resonant, and that they believe may resonate with their network as well. The fact that just so many people did indeed get choked up by the Sainsbury’s ad is seen on Pulsar in the Keywords visualization below. The keywords visualization shows the words that appear most frequently in the online conversation about the Sainsbury's ad. The dominance of words like “cried”, “choked”, ‘tear” and “omg” demonstrate the strength of emotion felt by viewers: [caption id="attachment_851" align="alignnone" width="564"] Keyword visualisation - most popular words associated with the Sainsbury's advert[/caption] This emotion was not confined just to happy viewers however, as the ad was perceived as a stunning piece of advertising by some, and exploitation of veterans by others, making it quite controversial on social media (see example below). This controversy proved important to the lifecycle of the ad online as viewers continued to weigh in and debate.

Regardless of whether you loved it or hated it, Sainsbury’s ad has succeeded in producing a lot of online chatter both during and long after its release on television thanks to social media.

Tesco: “Lights On” and “Wigan Light Show” Strategy: Use social media as a platform for direct audience interaction on local and national scales

Tesco’s primary advert Lights On sparked curiosity from viewers by offering a sneak peak into an online “behind the scenes” advert, Wigan Light Show. In this clip the brand showed its response to a 2013 holiday “mishap” in which they forgot to give the Wigan Tesco store its signature green hat during Christmastime. By creating content around a local Wigan woman’s tweet reporting the missing hat, Tesco champions its ability to engage personally with its customers and seeks to establish itself as a community-relevant retailer, not just the big, impersonal out-of-town superstore. This local engagement of Tesco’s advert can be seen in the location map below in where Wigan had an exceptionally high level of engagement with the brand online (notice the high density in the northwest corner of the country, between Manchester & Liverpool). [caption id="attachment_852" align="alignnone" width="565"] Locations - mapping mentions of the Wigan Light Show[/caption] As viewers went online to see the full-length version of the “behind the scenes” advert, many commented on Tesco’s social networks that they wanted to see it televised. Tesco responded to viewers with the post below, and aired the new advert on TV during the popular television show, X-Factor.

Not only does the Light Show overshadow the original advert in terms of YouTube views (Lights On received 881k views whereas Wigan Light Show gained 916k views), it was also lauded for Tesco’s ability to heed customer feedback and be flexible when deciding which content to publish online and on TV. This double-feature strategy proved useful as Tesco now enters the holiday season with renewed TV momentum. John Lewis: “Monty the Penguin” Strategy: Make people cry (again) - high emotion advertising for high brand engagement As King of the High Street, John Lewis does not disappoint in giving their viewers a magical experience for the holidays – not only by creating a visually beautiful and emotional advert but most notably by bringing their Monty the Penguin character to life - not just in video, but on Twitter! The Twitter handle for Monty (@Monty the Penguin) has given the TV advert a second, more adult-focused and humorous context online by engaging in conversation with fans from all over the world. Multiple celebrities, such as Little Mix and Russell Howard have interacted with Monty, boosting visibility for the brand and extending the advert’s reach from a national to international scale.

[caption id="attachment_855" align="aligncenter" width="310"] Visualization of the top influencers[/caption] “Marks & Spencer: The Two Fairies” Strategy: Use social media to build anticipation prior to releasing their advert If storytelling on social media is a successful strategy for building conversation, M&S has taken this one step further. This year the traditional British retail brand kicked off anticipation for their Christmas ad by creating online characters that not only interacted with fans online but in real life too. Prior to the launch of the ad, buzz built around a Twitter handle @thetwofairies which was anonymously pulling off charitable acts and surprises around the country. The ‘Two Fairies’ brought snow to a primary school and donated food to people in need during the holiday season. Who were they? Press coverage followed. When the ad was broadcast on television, this exposed the two fairies as Magic and Sparkle of Marks & Spencer. Following this big reveal, conversation about the brand peaked on social media as viewers were eager to connect M&S back with this specific Twitter account @thetwofairies.

By generating prior social momentum to back up their TV advert, Marks & Spencer has positioned themselves well on social media, where conversations about the Two Fairies and their good deeds are still ongoing. Final thoughts When it comes aligning traditional TV advertising with social media strategy there is only one rule and that is simply that there are no rules. This Christmas we’ve seen two brands get interactive and creative in connecting their TV and social media communications (as displayed by Tesco and M&S), and two other retailers go back to basics with highly emotional storytelling (as per John Lewis and Sainsbury's). Though these four advertisements use different strategies to garner attention online, the end goal is the same – to release engaging and exciting content that gets viewers talking… and talking… and buying. Social buzz is ultimately useless if people just stay on their phones tweeting rather than heading in-store or online. The real test of these 2 different strategies – transmedia storytelling vs. artistic traditional narratives - will be in the supermarkets’ Christmas sales figures. Can Tesco arrest their falling market share? We await the evidence in early January. If you'd like to discover how Pulsar can boost your social media strategy, then get in touch at Info@PulsarPlatform.com

New Pulsar feature: Geolocalised searches for more focused data

admin — Mon, 19 Jan 2015 08:33:59 +0000

Welcome to our first feature release of 2015, where we're making data smarter with a new way to search for only geolocalised content. At Pulsar we have very close partnerships with our data providers. This means we can be first to bring you the latest data augmentations that add invaluable context to social media messages. This month we’re bringing you a new level of granularity for message locations. What's this mean? More of what you want, less of what you don’t! What’s new with geolocalised queries? The way Pulsar previously identified location was to first collect all posts matching your search definition, and then identify all the contents that could be pinned down to a specific location. Searches had to contain the content that couldn't be localised as well - we marked this 'Unknown' location. What we can now do is query Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to only collect posts containing verified location metadata. Verified location data is based on either: (i) the GPS location of the content (ii) the city, country or timezone of the author of the post. This means no more extra content you're not interested in. When should I use localised queries? Short answer: not every time! Here's how to make this new feature work best for you. The most important point to understand is that, on average a geolocation-only search will bring back just 20-50% of the overall available data matching your search definition. Geolocation information is not always available for social media content – think of all of the people who leave their Twitter profiles blank, or who have jokey locations like ‘Planet Earth’ or ‘my house’. Benefits of geolocation searches:

A smaller set of data that’s all 100% relevant to the locations you want
Helps reduce your data usage and makes it easier to stay within your monthly allowance

Costs:

You’re not getting the whole discussion about your brand or topic – only the part that users attach to a specific location
You won’t get any content from YouTube, Sina Weibo, Tumblr or Flickr, as these channels don’t currently support geolocated data.
Localised queries are expensive in terms of data processing power because they are more granular, so they’re best used only in real-time, not for Historics. We may have to cap excess localised queries – so please speak to your Account Manager before you set up a geolocalised Historic search.

The table below will help you decide what type of search to use. What does it look like on Pulsar? When you set up a search, you’ll be presented with the usual search targeting options, where you can pick your Countries, Languages and Sources. What’s new is the checkbox below Country options, saying “Geolocated contents only”:

To fetch only geolocated messages (20-50% of the total discussion) – check it
For regular searches, same as you’re currently using – leave it unchecked (default)

Simple! We hope you find this useful - our research team are using it already for a new project in Australia, where it's useful to cut out the noise of 'Unknown' discussion from the US. If you have any questions about how to use this feature, contact your Account Manager - email Account.Team@Pulsarplatform.com. Or read up on our previous feature releases:

More on our new Location Maps: analyse by country, city and GPS coordinates
Estimate Reach, for audience measurement

New Pulsar feature: Better filters to find exactly the data you want

admin — Mon, 19 Jan 2015 08:52:14 +0000

Alongside our big release this week - geolocalised searches for content only from the exact countries you want - we've made a couple of improvements to Pulsar's filters that we wanted to tell you about too. Pulsar's data filters are already the smartest out there, letting you query your data by audience (who's talking? Search by bio) as well as influence, location and keywords. In this release we've made them even better with 2 handy little edits: 1. Better filters for countries and languages In the filters panel, we've introduced the ability to exclude languages and countries (not just include them), just like you can with authors. See that little 'minus' symbol next to France? That means "exclude". So this filter will bring back data from anywhere that's specified in your search set up options - but then hide any messages from France. Use Exclude Country to exclude Unknown location content, or exclude one market (in the screenshot above, France) if you're tracking a multi-market set. Just click on the symbol to toggle between include country and exclude country options. 2. Edit Saved Filters Not much we can say about this one - it's a small change but a nifty little one. You can now edit saved filters, so you don't have to save them again under a new name if you make any changes. The screenshot below shows you how it'll look in the Filters toolbar: We hope you find these little tweaks useful. If you have any questions about how to use this feature, contact your Account Manager – email Account.Team@Pulsarplatform.com. Or read up on our main feature release this week: Geolocalised Searches, giving you data only from the exact countries you want.

Who's talking about carbon footprints? Using Pulsar for environmental research

admin — Fri, 23 Jan 2015 13:19:29 +0000

Brands and products are only a tiny part of the social media conversation. That's why social media research offers such enormous scope for wider research into public attitudes and behaviours - all human life is out there online!

In this blog post, Pulsar user Philipp Gassner shares how he's used the platform for his environmental research as a sustainability consultant. It's a great example of how social listening is essential if you want to understand and connect with people - be they publics, voters, audiences or customers.

Over to Philipp: Finding this blog entry with the search engine of your choice produced about 7g of CO₂ - around as much as running a lamp for an hour. Likewise, every other move in our carbon-fueled world will leave a footprint - a carbon footprint. Or a water footprint, like the 140 litres of water hidden in producing the steaming coffee next to me. Or your ecological footprint, which would be close to 4.7 global hectares if you’re living in the UK. If you consider that our planet has a capacity of mere 1.3 ha per person, this gets interesting. As an environmental scientist it’s these questions that keep me busy. Overconsuming mankind meets limited planet. Doesn’t sound like a love story, does it? However, what gets me out of bed in the morning - my 140 L coffee aside - is not the nitty-gritty details of how we wreck the planet, but what we can do about it. And that’s where my passion as interface expert and international consultant comes in: translating between the different languages of scientists, politicians, business and your everyday Joe. In particular, I was curious what everyday Joes think about fancy sustainability concepts like footprints. After all, carbon number crunching aside, they are intended as tools to make sense of sustainability: calculate your footprint, be flabbergasted, change your behaviour, save the planet. Easy as that. Or is it? Hence, in my Master’s thesis at the University of Freiburg, I asked ‘Are Sustainability Concepts Useful (Knowledge)?’ But how on earth would you figure that out, and what’s ‘useful’ in the first place? Ask (social) scientists and they’d enlighten you to do a bunch of expert interviews or look at dusty books and papers, to analyse the discourse out of them. Didn’t sound convincing. But wasn’t there this new cool thing? Big data? Big social data? And if you could analyse worldshaking wonders like the Harlem Shake and Gangnam Style, why not also "footprint shake" and "sustainability style"? A quick research and a nice chat later, I had a much more convincing answer from the Pulsar guys. With the help of their social media monitoring tool I’d be able to look at what people really think about footprint indicators. Shortly after I started mapping some 350.000 mentions in New Media channels over 1 year: [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="824"] Daily volumes of social media discussion about ecological footprints[/caption] My goal was to find out whether footprint indicators are…

socially legitimate: Do people accept the concept, talk about it and do so positively? Who are these people in the first place? And who tells and influences whom?
communicated close to its intended (ii) context and are thus (ii) usable: Do people understand the concept as a visualization of overconsumption, offering solutions?
(iv) practically relevant. Does the concept pave the way to the reduction of environmental footprints?

[caption id="attachment_964" align="aligncenter" width="560"] Semantic connections between the Carbon Footprint keywords; size of connecting lines: volume of connected keywords[/caption] In a nutshell, this unique attempt to combine a data driven marketing tool with an old fashioned social science framework proved to be quite useful to drill down on environmental challenges. [caption id="attachment_903" align="aligncenter" width="724"] Wordcloud of Carbon Footprint keywords by channel, size, volume, color: micro blogs (light blue), social media (blue), forums (orange), news (yellow), blogs (green)[/caption] [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="566"] Social network visualisation of 'carbon footprint' with influencers; color: modularity class; bubble size: visibility[/caption] Interactive World map of mentions by volume by country of the Footprint Family More details can be found in an interactive infographic and soon in the scientific publication of the study. I’d like to thank the Pulsar team for their great support and remain curious to see such tools used creatively also beyond the realm of marketing, bringing us closer to useful knowledge. By Philipp Gassner

* We've also used Pulsar for sustainability research ourselves, in projects for Akzo Nobel and Telefonica - and carried out public attitudes research with the University of Sheffield / Visual Social Media Lab, looking at responses to Margaret Thatcher's death. If you'd like to learn more, email our research lead Jess Owens: Jessica@PulsarPlatform.com to get a case study. Meanwhile thank you Philipp for the fantastic visualisations in this post! The network visualsiation is using Pulsar's Gephi export feature, which will be the subject of a forthcoming blog post...

The top 10 Pulsar innovations of 2014 #smartdata

Francesco DOrazio — Wed, 21 Jan 2015 12:11:44 +0000

2014 has been a big year for Pulsar. We won an award for our data visualisations, co-founded the Visual Social Media Lab, ended up in a couple of books and got featured in a data visualisation exhibition.

We have been joined by many forward-thinking brands and creative agencies with our client base growing by 150%, we've passed the 1500 user mark on our platform, and we've quadrupled the amount of data we are processing and delivering on a daily basis.

To do all this, the Pulsar platform had to go through a significant and fast-paced evolution over the past 12 months. Our Product and Engineering teams ship new functionality on a bi-weekly basis (or faster) to stay on top of the ever-changing social media ecosystem, the needs of the social marketing industry, the feedback we get from our awesome customers and finally the real-time usage analytics we collect from the platform itself. So we do have a pretty fluid and data-driven roadmap. Nonetheless, our vision stays consistent through the releases: to deliver smart data for stronger insights and better decisions. Here’s a few examples of how we made social data smarter in 2014: 1) Social Panels For decades, customer panels have been a great tool in market research. We thought it would be a good idea to bring them to the social media research arena too. By using robust data science to select samples of social media users by demographics, affinities and behaviours, Pulsar allows you to listen to a custom audience and gather real-time insights from that segment. Our users are currently running social panels such us “US Mums”, “UK Dads”, “UK Tech Startup Leaders”, “US Tech Journalists”, and “Supermarket Loyalty Scheme members”. Create your custom panel on Pulsar and start listening to your target audience today. Read more... 2) A New Visibility Algorithm The Visibility algorithm has been another key differentiator for Pulsar since the very beginning of the platform. The algorithm measures how impactful every single piece of content is by looking at the type of content, the channel it’s published on, the audience of the author publishing it and the level of engagement the content is generating. All these dimensions together generate a score which is attached to each social media post and when combined provide the user with an alternative view of the dataset. Rather than just looking at when volumes spiked in a month, Visibility tells you when the conversations were more impactful. With Visibility you can find out which topics are driving engagement, or which content has more stickiness. Rather then just telling you which authors have been shouting the most, Visibility tells you which authors have made the strongest impact on your audience. Interested? Read more... 3) Media Dashboard Between 30% and 40% of social media posts contain links to another webpage, and shared content is the driving force behind social media engagement. Yet most social media listening tools only analyse the textual content of the post. We thought it would make a lot of sense to change that. Pulsar expands and analyses all the URLs mentioned in your dataset, regardless of the link-shortener used by the author, and shows the most shared URLs and the most shared domains in the Media Dashboard using a Treemap visualisation. So if you’re a concert promoter and you’re wondering where the advertise for the next tour, you might find it useful to see which content and websites the audience of your artist is sharing the most. 4) GPS Location Maps Global is pure abstraction unless you can see the local detail too. That’s why social data is so powerful: it can show you the big picture global view on a subject but you can also drill down to identify the nuances of particular audiences at particular locations. Most social media monitoring tools show you a breakdown by country and cities, but as marketing gets more and more personal and local, being able to understand how the energy flows at street level has become essential to run effective marketing programmes. That’s why the new Pulsar maps including GPS location coordinates alongside Country and City views give you a better understanding of your performance and enable decision-making on any scale from global, to regional, to local. Read more... 5) The Social Marketing API Integration is a key pillar of the Pulsar product strategy. We want you to be able to use our data as an integral part of your marketing and customer relations ecosystem. That’s why in 2014 we developed our API to have 5 new methods for you to integrate Pulsar analytics in third party apps, ingest brand community data for analysis alongside your social channels, or adding context to your social data by comparing it against third party benchmarks. Read more... 6) Plug and Play Network Analysis Twitter and Facebook are called social networks, not social spreadsheets. That’s why analysing it as a network makes most sense - oh, and it also helps delivering strikingly beautiful visualisations like the ones we designed for Twitter! And yet most social media monitoring tools structure social data as a series of rows in a table, loosing all the richness that lies behind the network structure. True, manipulating data as a network is hard work, so most users don’t have the data science skills to do it properly. But that’s why we’ve designed a feature that does it for you. From Pulsar you can export a network graph version of any dataset in its entirety or as a statistically solid sample of the whole, download it on your machine and read it with Gephi, the most popular software tool for network analysis and visualisation. Then make visualisations like the one below, no data scientist needed. Read more... 7) Data Management Tools As a Pulsar client you have a data allowance and you spend it as you wish. In order to give you maximum transparency on how you’re using your data allowance, we have created a number of tools to help you keep track of:

the amount of data you collect in real-time or historically
the number of active trackers you’re running on the platform
the complexity of your real-time and historic queries
your data usage limits, to help you avoid any surprise overages

This way you can optimise your spend, keep it under control and get the results you need. 8) Sina Weibo Integration China was a big focus for us last year, with global FMCG clients using Pulsar to understand how to break through in the Asian markets. We met the Sina Weibo team at the Big Boulder Initiative conference last June in Colorado and started a great collaboration that’s going to last for a very long time. We've started by integrating their platform into Pulsar, collecting 100% of the data from 167 million monthly active users - and allowing Pulsar users to manage their content on Sina Weibo from within Pulsar too. 9) The Most Granular Filters As the Pirelli adverts used to say, “Power is nothing without control”. The ad was selling tyres, but the same is true for data. There’s no point is being able to collect a huge dataset if you can’t manipulate it to extract the insights you’re looking for. That’s why on Pulsar we have engineered the most granular filters to allow you to slice and dice the data by 25 different parameters, including affinities, gender, influence, language, city or any custom taxonomy you have designed to analyse and categorise the data. 10) Reach measurement In social media everyone is talking, but who’s listening? Reach is a key metric to understand how far the conversations you’re listening to are travelling. On Pulsar we have introduced two measures of reach on each channel to meet every need:

Potential Estimated Reach (PER) - the maximum potential audience of a post based on the audience of the author and the users who have shared & retweeted the post
Actual Estimated Reach (AER) - a channel-specific proportion of the potential audience, based on the percentage of users who will actually see the published content on their timelines

Read more about Reach... So that (and a lot more that didn’t make the top 10) was Pulsar in 2014. If you don’t have time to read all of the above and want a 60 second wrap-up of 365 days of building Pulsar, watch the video below: 2014 has been a big year for Pulsar but we’ve merely laid out the foundations for what’s coming in 2015 (still no hover-boards, sorry). The journey to disrupt social media monitoring and research continues and we couldn’t be more excited. If you would like to discover what Pulsar can do for you in 2015 then please send an email to Francesco@Pulsarplatform.com.

#IPASocialWorks: The Guide to Measuring Not Counting

admin — Tue, 03 Feb 2015 19:48:13 +0000

[caption id="attachment_970" align="aligncenter" width="363"] #IPASocialWorks Short Guide study[/caption] We were invited to the #IPASocialWorks launch this week and so we thought we'd share a quick round-up of what this study is about. "The IPA, The Marketing Society and MRS have joined together to launch a cross-industry initiative - the first of its kind. #IPASocialWorks, with sponsorship from Facebook and Twitter, is an ongoing project to identify best practice in social media effectiveness and measurement." #IPASoicalWorks highlights the best approach to gain in-depth insight from data from social media channels. The 7 key messages that have emerged from the project so far are ones we wholeheartedly agree with:

Social is more than marcomms and is challenging organisations
Social is changing the way we measure – its evaluation is more than a dashboard
Avoid a siloed approach to social measurement
It is easy to overestimate the value of earned media and influencers
The commercial value of social will increasingly lie in the richness of its data.
Social can learn from traditional planning.
Even short-term results need a long-term context

To help practitioners put this into action, the guide draws on case studies to illustrate how this has been done most effectively. We've got one in the guide about our 5 years of work with O2 / Telefonica, demonstrating how social media listening can really be integrated deep into business intelligence and decision-making. Stephan Maher, chairman of #IPASocialWorks and chairman of The Marketing Society said: "This guide can act as a vital tool for businesses concerned with measuring the impact of their activity in this area, and ultimately its effect on revenue.”

Get the guide

Check out their preview IPASocialWorks flyer here. Or download the short version of the guide for £25: IPA SOCIALWORKS SHORTGUIDE.

Talk to us about social media measurement

To find out more about our O2 case study, or just have a chat about social media measurement and effectiveness, email Info@PulsarPlatform.com.

New Pulsar feature: All the "best bits" of your search in one visualisation

Jess — Wed, 04 Feb 2015 09:50:16 +0000

Alongside adding Instagram into Pulsar (read all about it here), our product & development team have been busy inventing new ways to make sense of all this visual data in an easy way.

What's new?

It's called Content, the new section of the platform showing you all the "best bits" of your search in one place. We display it so that the images themselves are front and centre of the visualisation, and you can see what's most popular at a glance. Think of Content as the next generation visual evolution of what was called the Media tab. Find it in the same place as before: on the dashboard, in the top row of data visualisation options: Content gives you 3 options for understanding your search:

Posts: new! Which Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook posts are generating the most engagement (likes, comments, shares, retweets, reblogs), the most visibility and reach.
URLs: most frequent links in the dataset, to see which articles, videos, andwebsites are being shared the most (same as in the Media tab).
Domains: see which websites & social networks are getting the most shares overall in your search (same as in the Media tab).

Here's what the Posts visualisation looks like, for a search focusing on Instagram data: Pulsar gives you the power to analyse Content in 4 ways, so you can find exactly what's most important to your brand or campaign:

by Reactions: retweets, reblogs, shares and comments
by Likes (Facebook and Instagram) or favourites (Tumblr)
by Visibility: showing the most impactful content (all channels)
by Reach: highlighting the content seen by the biggest audience (all channels)

5 ways to use the Content tab

Campaign inspiration & planning - how are people choosing to represent your brand and category visually? Let consumer creativity spark your comms ideas.
Owned vs. earned - is it your content that's getting the most shares and likes? Or is it user-generated? How can you adapt your content to fit with what people find most engaging?
PR monitoring - Which news articles about your brand or launch are the most shareable? Those are the ones setting the news agenda
Risk management - see at a glance if there's anything being heavily reblogged & shared that's a risk to your brand
Social ROI - understand how far social media content is driving links back to your website (or other ecommerce sites) that can drive sales

Why'd we build it?

Two reasons: 1. Social media is now visual media The first one's about the changing nature of social media data, which is becoming increasingly visual. What's the challenge? People don't necessarily tag and caption image posts on Instagram (or on Tumblr for that matter). Keyword-driven filtering and visualisations aren't the best way to understand what a group of images mean. Instead you need to see the images themselves - in a way that highlights which ones are most important. And that's what you get in the new Content visualisations, where image size higlights the images getting the most engagement and reach. 2. Surfacing the "best bits" Second reason we built Content? You asked for a way to see the "best bits" in your search at a glance. This is it! Between the Posts visual (the top images in your search) and the top URLs (the most shareable links), you can see at a glance exactly what's most popular. We call this 'data surfacing'. At Pulsar we're not in the business of telling you what to think about your dataset: that's narrow and limiting. Instead we've built a powerful tool to suggest interesting patterns and connections - and let the most powerful analysis engine of all, your brain, draw the conclusions. Don't see the Content tab as being only about quantitative measurement of the top-performing content. Think of it in terms of inspiration. "That's how people are showing off our product on Instagram," or "This is what's going viral on Tumblr in our category." From your customers' creativity comes an opportunity to create fresh, compelling communications that are guaranteed to resonate... Because you didn't come up with the idea, your customers did. * We are currently working on a Surfacing algorithm to help you find interesting content that's relevant to your needs. Stay tuned for more news on this soon! Meanwhile, give us your feedback at Info@pulsarplatform.com or @Pulsar_Social. How's visual media working for you? What features do you want to see next?

#WhatIsLovein4Words? We investigate how a trending Twitter hashtag spreads

Jess — Mon, 16 Feb 2015 15:00:46 +0000

What is love in 4 words? Good question! We saw this hashtag trending in the UK on Friday morning and thought we'd track it with Pulsar to find out. Now that Valentine's is over for another year, let's do the analysis and find out. Read on to find out everything you ever wanted to know about love (or a hashtag about it), including where love comes from, how long love lasts, what time is love, and if you can make it happen by sheer willpower alone...

1. The basics

What is #WhatIsLoveIn4Words? It's a hashtag on Twitter where people shared what they thought love meant. (The answer often included One Direction.) Why study it? We saw it trending on Twitter in the UK and thought it was a good topical Valentine's story. Plus lots of brands were jumping on the hashtag and we wanted to know if any of them succeeded. How does Twitter react to hashtag hijacks, anyway? Are people cool with it, or is this idea that brands can insert themselves in on every public conversation getting a bit annoying, or naff (as these planners suggest)? We thought we'd find out. How big is love? 193,272 tweets and retweets

2. What time is love?

Turns out love is not in fact 3am eternal [is it just us who're KLF fans?]. Peak love was instead at 8pm GMT on 12 February, fully 28 hours after the hashtag was born: [caption id="attachment_1050" align="alignnone" width="1382"] Number of tweets and RTs by hour (GMT) - click to enlarge[/caption] The two peaks are at 7pm Wednesday and 8pm Thursday. The best time to reach your audience? It's in the evening, when they're watching telly, procrastinating on doing their homework, and otherwise kicking back and feeling chatty.

3. How does love start?

Love didn't strike out of the blue. Instead it was deliberately sparked by an account called Hashtag Shenanigans, run by @BreezyPuffs, a comedian who works across Twitter, Vine and for AbsrdComedy.com. Each week the Hashtag Shenanigans account puts out a hashtag and asks its followers to riff on the idea. They're practiced lulz technicians...

What's interesting is that this viral hashtag didn't start from a big super-influential account. @HashtagShenani has 2,500 followers and @BreezyPuffs 5,000. Even if every follower had joined in, that's not enough to go viral. In practice, this first message got just 14 retweets. But what matters more than the number of followers they have is the "igniter power" of their social network. Hashtag Shenanigans provided the spark, but the hashtag took off because their audience caught the flame and fanned it. Igniter power includes a number of factors, including:

Audience has a higher than average propensity to retweet and spread content
Audience are influential in terms of having higher-than-average numbers of followers
The audience have influential followers (the second order network) who see this content after the first round of retweets

(For more on the role of audience receptivity in going viral, see Gilad Lotan's talk 'A Networked Take on Influence'.) Evidently Hashtag Shenanigans was in quite a dense, well-connected and high-sharing corner of the Twitter community, because within an hour, much bigger accounts were weighing in. These are some of the key nodes who boosted the hashtag up to Twitter trending topic scale: 16:23, Buzzfeed comedy writer Daniel Kibblesmith (12,300 followers), one of the first to see the 'Baby don't hurt me' line:

16:27, the animal rights organisation PETA (544,000 followers)

16:38, the nihilist philospher Nietzsche (47,600 followers):

16:43, the US diner chain Applebee's (434,000 followers).

Less than an hour, and the content has reached 1,017,785 people according to our Actual Estimated Reach metric. Not bad...

4. Who (or what) is loved?

First answer: Pop culture. The top answer to #WhatIsLoveIn4Words was "baby don't hurt me" - which is the next line from Haddaway's song 'What Is Love'. Web developer Christina (another not-especially-popular Twitter user) got a massive 1799 retweets for being one of several people to make this link.

Pop titans One Direction beat out Australian pop-punk band by a close 2,747 mentions vs. 2,623, and we also see a stack of films and TV shows in the top 10 most shared messages (see below). It's all about fandom - the fan love was already there (and then some), the official accounts just tapped into it. Second answer: Junk food. Pizza's the top-ranked food item, followed by donuts and chocolate. Ordering pizza with your sweetie, or having pizza instead of having a sweetie - either will do!

Third answer: Online services (really!) Apparently love is sharing your Netflix or wifi passwords. How.... contemporary.

5. Top 10 most-loved brands & commercial tweets

Fifty Shades of Grey, the film - Their answer to #WhatisLoveIn4Words? "50 Shades of Grey" (quite clever when you think about it, but thinking about it probably not the point!)
Insurgent, a film (a teen sci-fi dystopian series)
Olive Garden, a US-based Italian chain restaurant. #WhatIsLoveIn4Words? "Have the first breadstick"
The Outfield, yet another film, this time about baseball
Christian Louboutin, the shoe brand. #WhatIsLovein4Words "Any pair. You pick". (Yes! Many women wish for that. Well done Loubou)
Hannibal, a TV show, for whom love is an animated GIF of a tearjerking moment in the show
The Big Bang Theory, another US TV show
McDonald's. #WhatIsLoveIn4Words? "Here, have some fries."
Target, the much-loved US value retailer. #WhatIsLoveIn4Words? "Let's go to Target..."
Kenny Torrella of the Humane Society. #WhatisLoveIn4Words? "Protecting animals from cruelty." (and a picture of a very cute little pig)

Fandom and sharing and animal kindness, oh my! Twitter was on very positive form for Valentine's Day, which was kinda nice to see.

6. Do people love brands?

In short, yes. Or at least they're prepared to engage and share them. Brands and commercial accounts (mostly films) made up 5 of the top 10 most retweeted answers to this hashtag. The reason there wasn't a backlash to brands' involvements in this hashtag? We reckon it's threefold:

Good judgement: the brands that decided to get involved were genuinely relevant and people really do love them
Good copywriting: the brands had something real to say about love. The idea that love is sharing your chips with a friend is an idea already out there in culture - McDonald's were just smart to recognise that they were the right people to say it.
Teenagers today "don't know what the term 'sell-out' means", argues the PBS documentary 'Generation Like'. The idea that there's something objectionable about interacting with and promoting brands is a very Gen X way of thinking and arguably obsolete when it comes to understanding mainstream media consumers/creators today...

This (and perhaps a bit of paid media spend) is how brands managed to generate many of the most-shared tweets in the conversation.

7. Love is all around us

We used Pulsar's Clusters to chart discussion by country. In the lead is the US, with 71,477 posts coming from verifiably American accounts or GPS locations. But the real story is how global this hashtag was - from the Philippines (3,098 tweets) to China (2,476) and Ecuador (2,136), it turns out that the question 'What is love?' is something we're all wondering! Also worth noting that the hashtag spread to these markets sometimes based on the actions of a single individual - e.g. for Ecuador it was YouTube star German Garmendia, with 5.4m Twitter followers.

8. How does love differ across cultures?

This visualisation shows the top Topics in discussion across the US and UK. On Pulsar, topics come from semantic analysis that looks for the 'subject' of the sentence - it's a way of filtering through all the noise and focusing in on what matters. In the case of love, the UK and US are much the same: "Baby don't hurt me" and pizza-related answers were top in each market. So that, then, was love on Twitter this Valentine's day - obsessed with junk food, 50 Shades of Grey and One Direction. Then again, it is supposed to be a day for indulgence! In my next posts I'll look at the networks of retweeting more closely - and the "automated love" of how spammers latch on to trending hashtags. Stand by!

Sign up for the Social Data Signals newsletter

Jess — Wed, 18 Mar 2015 15:40:40 +0000

What's new with social media data? New technologies, new product releases, clever new implementations... It's both completely fascinating and tricky to keep up, so that's why we're starting a new social data focussed newsletter. All the good stuff, all together, direct to your inbox, once a fortnight.

It's a simple email - story headline, a link, and a couple of sentences about what's interesting and why it's worth your time. Curated by Francesco D'Orazio, Pulsar's VP of Product, and social media researcher Jess Owens. Sign up here:

Each week we'll report on new articles, research and services for:

Understanding audiences Social media users' interests, needs and behaviour
Social in context Analysing social data alongside sales, stock prices and public datasets to see the bigger picture
Visual social media Making sense of images and photo-driven social communications
Getting value from data Business and government case studies
Social tech The platforms and technologies shaping the data we access
Social data science Cutting edge analytics and machine learning for making sense of big social datasets
Social data visualisation Videos, visualisations and network analyses built on social data

We hope you'll join us.

Social Data Signals isn't just a newsletter - it's also a bi-monthly meet-up and talks series. Our first event is in London on the 5th of May with the schedule to be announced soon. Head over to Meetup.com to register and join us there. Any questions - or if you've done a great piece of work you want to see in our first newsletter, that too! - email Jess at Jessica.Owens@Pulsarplatform.com

#Brits2015: How to track a global music event in real time and what you do with the insight

Jess — Thu, 26 Feb 2015 17:05:59 +0000

Last night was the BRIT Awards, the British version of the Grammys and UK pop's top get-together. Here's how it played out on social. We tracked the #Brits2015 hashtag for a client of ours in the music industry. Why'd they want to track an awards show? It's all about producing better content on their owned social channels:

Ensure that they are posting about the top trends on the night
Gain inspiration from the posts, pictures & videos that were gaining popular interest
Identify influencers discussing the Brits, in order to engage with them from their owned channels

Here's a snapshot of how that looked on Pulsar:

1. #Brits2015 Trends

One woman accidentally stole the show at the Brits this year: Madonna, with a stonking 63,000 tweets just from UK-geolocated viewers. We built a Brits celeb-o-meter using our Clusters custom charting, and were shocked. One Direction came third?! This upsets everything we thought we knew about British pop fandom. So forget London Fashion Week - falling over is clearly the top trend for 2015.

2. #Brits2015 Inspiration

Getting inspiration for content is easy with Pulsar - just click on our 'Content' tab. View the most popular posts by Reactions to see what kind of content is getting the most Twitter engagement & retweets (posts about Madonna, Ed Sheeran & One Direction): Or view the posts getting the most Likes to see what's going down on Instagram (aka Kanye): Interesting variations between the two channels help music industry social teams work out who the right celebs to talk about, where. We also give you most-shared URLs (the Madonna falling over video, unanimously) and most-shared Domains, so you can understand where to host your content to maximise social shareability on to Twitter (answer: Vine. Not YouTube.) So that's your content plan sussed. Now how'd you seed it out there into your customers' eyeline?

3. #Brits2015 Influencers

Who got the most reach in the #Brits2015 conversation last night? The official @BritAwards Twitter account, at least within the UK slice of the conversation we were tracking. Score one for company owned channels! In fact commercial accounts make up 7of the top 10 with highest reach, with Capital Radio, BBC Radio 1, The Guardian, Heat magazine, and even Vogue (!) featuring. The official Brits' top tweet was about One Direction with a stonking 52,600 retweets.

What the retweet means in pop and TV fandom culture is worth a blog post of its own - individual fans will retweet and post tens of thousands of times about their idols (literally). I had a chat on Twitter with Hazel Robinson (@piratemoggy), author & fandom expert, who described it thus: "I would compare it to, say, using a rosary, psychologically? It's interesting but much more gentle than it might seem. These fans are often doing it as almost a rhythmic, soothing habit, a reassurance that they *could* contact their idol. [...] It's a little, hopeful prayer." So that's how The Brits' account got the most retweets - an act of devotional meditation from 1D fans. Fact of the day, poptimists!

4. Bonus fourth visualisation: #Brits2015 Locations

Twitter themselves have shared a geo data visualisation tracking the tweets in both time and space, visualised using Carto DB, a web-based mapping platform. As the visualisation moves from minute to minute, the more tweets coming from a location mean the lighter/brighter that place is on the map. Note the white-out at 22:11 when Madonna falls over and cross the UK people take to Twitter to exclaim. So that's a snapshot of what you get when you track a live event in social media. And it's how a tool like Pulsar - designed for surfacing the most inspiring conversations and understanding visual content - can help social media managers produce the right social media content to fit with the national conversation. Interested? Got an event coming up you need to know about? Get in touch for a demo - my email's Jessica@Pulsarplatform.com and I'd love to help you out. Or for another musical case study, check out our work on Gangnam Style...

23 Things You Never Knew You Could Market With #Llamas

Jess — Fri, 27 Feb 2015 09:56:41 +0000

Last night we saw #llamas trending on Twitter. Two of them had escaped on a motorway in Arizona, and the live TV footage of their exploits while evading capture became, of course, a bit of a Twitter viral sensation. What also happens when there's a viral hashtag is that - you guessed it - brands and companies start jumping on that meme. And the public play around with it. And before long we're talking about 23 other things than, actually, llamas. Here they are: the 23 Things You Never Knew You Could Market With Llamas

1. Your website

Obviously. All the usual suspects for hyper-clickable, fun, distracting content leapt on this story like a pack of ravening vultures... And by our reckoning, Mashable got the spoils - narrowly beating out Buzzfeed by 2603 Twitter shares to 2,357 in the 2 hours we tracked, as this visualisation of the most shared domains shows.

2. Inexplicable Vine stars

Evidence of a big shift in media consumption habits, YouTube is in 4th place, with nearly 4x as many retweets of Vines. The ease of playing Vines within your Twitter stream is part of this, but it's also about the rise of a new genre of internet micro-celebrity we DO NOT understand. How is this a thing? @twaimz has 184,000 followers, a llama-themed profile and BigCartel t-shirt shop, and gets 3,300 retweets and faves on his Vine. If any planners reading this have worked out how to leverage this kind of content, TELL US. We're all ears.

3. Metacommentary on memes

"DID YOU KNOW? The lifespan of the average llama meme is three hours" said @TheTweetOfGod

4. Books

5. Mercedes

6. Jokes about race in America and social justice

Americans talking about racial inequality and making jokes where the country's racially unjust institutions are the punchline. Interesting stuff about a meme & a hashtag functioning as a gathering place for people to laugh but also show solidarity about their experiences of discrimination.

Memes are diverse! That's the point and how they're distinct from regular virality where just one piece of content is shared. No, memes split off in many different directions as people do their own things with them. One of the most popular jokes here from @briaatortillaa too.

7. Social justice part 2: Jokes about America's fear of Islam

" I understand the black llama may have been on his way to join terror group Al-Paca" "Is-llama" And so on.

8. Jokes about Republicans

The same jokes as above, looked at from a different angle

9. Last week's memes

10. Your American football team

11. Your symphony orchestra

12. Mixtapes & playlists

13. Your stock market analytics terminal

14. Non-existent movies

15. Hot dogs on a stick

16. Your spoof cult German filmmaker Twitter account

17. The state of Arizona

18. Criticism of Arizona's attitude to immigration

19. Your art museum

"Sorry folks, there are no #llama artworks in our collection, but here's something close enough." [image of something that's not a llama at all] said @AsianArtMuseum

19. Contraception

20. Mobile games... for Windows Phones

*sounds of barrel being scraped*

21. The public's shameful ability to be distracted from the Net Neutrality debate

22. Your datacenters

"We can neither confirm #llamas did not infiltrate our #datacenters at #120VanBuren or #2121Price, Arizona. #llamadrama" from @DigitalReality

23. Your social media monitoring platform

*takes a bow*

Facebook announces Topic Data, a new way to learn what matters to your audience

admin — Tue, 10 Mar 2015 17:12:31 +0000

We don't share every bit of social media news on our blog - but this is a big story and we think you'll be interested. Facebook is making "topic data" available to help marketers understand what their audience think in order to help them make products and content more relevant to them.

What is Facebook topic data?

Facebook topic data shows marketers what audiences are saying on Facebook about events, brands, subjects and activities, in a way that keeps the personal information of the users private. Facebook’s topic data provides this information by aggregating and anonymising the activity data (not including Messenger) to offer insights on the activity around a specific topic. While data from Facebook activity has been available via a public API and third parties before, the sample size was always too small to be representative with less than 5% of all the available data, and determining demographics was effectively impossible. With topic data Facebook is now offering marketers for the first time a holistic view of the activity and the demographics of their social audience, without sharing any information about the specific users or the content they share.

How can you use Facebook topic data?

Marketers can use the information from topic data to make better decisions about how they market on Facebook and other channels, and build product roadmaps. For example, with topic data:

A business selling a hair de-frizzing product can see demographics on the people talking about humidity's effects on their hair to better understand their target audience.
A fashion retailer can see the clothing items its target audience is talking about to decide which products to stock.
A brand can see how people are talking about their brand or industry to measure brand sentiment.

It's important to note that topic data provides guidance for marketers but it cannot be used to target ads directly. Consider it opinion research and audience mapping data.

Personal information stays personal and private

Like other insights information on Facebook, all the information used for topic data is anonymised and aggregated. Facebook is not disclosing personally identifying information to anyone, including their partners and marketers. This means the results delivered to marketers are analyses and interpretations of the information, not the actual Facebook posts or profiles.

Availability

To help Facebook develop and scale topic data, they have decided to partner with our friends at DataSift. This means they’re using Datasift's technology to power the platform that turns the Facebook data into useful analysis and audience insights. Facebook are still in the process of discovering all the ways topic data can help marketers, so, to start, topic data will only be available to a limited number of DataSift's partners in the US and UK. (The data will be limited to those countries too, to start.) Facebook's plan is to iterate on topic data thoughtfully and deliberately, and look to expand its availability at a later date. If you want to know more about Facebook topic data get in touch and we'll point you in the right direction.

Join us at 'Information Design for Social Data: How to visualise the invisible', 12 March

admin — Thu, 12 Mar 2015 11:30:36 +0000

It’s March which means not only is spring here, but also a selection of new and exciting events. To kick us off our VP of Products, Francesco D’Orazio will present at University of Greenwich's Design & Data: Visualising the Invisible.

Information Design for Social Data: How to Visualise the Invisible

When: Thurs 12 March Where: University of Greenwich

University of Greenwich’s Design Roast is an open discussion group for anyone interested in creative design practices and theories. The lecturers cover cross-disciplinary, interactive design, new media technologies, visual communications and philosophies of current state and futures of design. On March 12^th Design Roast will host the lecture ‘Information Design for Social Data: How to Visualise the Invisible’. The lecture on information design for social data will be led by Fran. In his talk, Fran will cover the challenges of visualising virality and influence, whilst explaining how to turn a research process into a software product, which enables discovery, stimulates intuition and supports decision making. Find out more about the event here.

Join us at 'Studies in Social Data' at Twitter, 1 April

admin — Tue, 17 Mar 2015 13:00:51 +0000

Our VP of Products, Francesco D'Orazio will be presenting at his second talk this spring - covering what research approaches will make the best out of social data, it's one not to be missed. Studies in Social Data at Twitter When: Weds 1 April Where: Twitter's London offices

On April 1st Fran will travel to Twitter London to talk about the importance of research approaches in social data. The event ‘Studies in Social Data’ was organised collaboratively by Big Boulder and Twitter, and features a great selection of speakers:

Randy Almond - Head of Data Marketing at Twitter. Almond will provide an overview on the global nature of social data and the different ways that it's being used around the world.

Dr. Siân Thomas - Head of Information Management at the Food Standards Agency. Dr Thomas will present on the contribution of social media analytics to improving food safety outcomes.

And lastly Fran will host Social Data Stories: 6 research approaches to make the most out of social data.

RSVP for this on the Meet Up site - it's not to be missed! We will be live tweeting the event so if you can’t make it follow @Pulsar_Social on Twitter.

New Pulsar feature: Media Queries for more focused data

Jess — Mon, 16 Mar 2015 17:05:51 +0000

We know Pulsar customers want to bring back all the data that's relevant to their needs - and not a tweet more. That's why we've just released two new options for more focused social data:

image-only searches
hyperlink-only searches

We call these "media specific queries". They enable you to build smaller, more precise searches that contain only the media types you need, enabling you to get more from your monthly data allowance.

Who are media-specific queries for?

These search options are a great choice for planners, social media managers and content marketers seeking inspiration and audience understanding from social data.

Image searches

Understand the visual language of your consumer to find out how to create content that really resonates with them. e.g. an image-only Audience search to understand the visual language of your customer - what do they Instagram and when? What filters, colour palettes, moods and tones? What visual content do they retweet on Twitter? e.g. an image-only Topic search to understand how your customer represents and shares your brand visually. What types of packaging and situations do they think are worth sharing on Instagram? How can you leverage this in your social media publishing plan?

Hyperlink only searches

These searches are ideal for media planning. Twitter is a hub for content sharing - and from the links people share to the news stories they're reading and the YouTube videos they're watching, you can learn a lot about their wider digital behaviour and media habits. e.g. a hyperlink-only Audience search to understand your target customer's digital behaviour overall - what sites and media types (images, YouTube videos, Vines) do they share the most? or a hyperlink-only Topic search to understand the news stories and pieces of content that people share and find most relevant when they're talking about your brand or category.

What do I get with media-specific searches?

An "images only" query collects data from Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Sina Weibo, and Instagram A "links only" query works for Twitter, Facebook, News, Blogs, and Forums

How do I set up a media-specific search?

Couldn't be easier: just pick the option you want in 'Content Types', on the 3rd targets page:

You can use media targeting to refine both your Topics and your Audience searches - see the use cases above.

Pulsar: bringing you focused social data

This follows on from our January release of geolocalised searches with this same goal of providing focused, ultra-relevant social data - in that case targeted on geography. So far in 2015 we've also released Instagram integration, Content visualisations for making sense of visual data, and improved filtering options by country and language. Is the platform you use keeping up? Learn what we're doing next on Pulsar with a user demo - email the team at Info@PulsarPlatform.com and we'll show you around!

Why Facebook Topic Data is a game-changer for the marketing and research industries

Francesco DOrazio — Thu, 26 Mar 2015 09:31:28 +0000

Following the announcement of Facebook's partnership with Datasift and the launch of Facebook Topic Data, our VP of Product Francesco D'Orazio, discusses why this news will be a big deal for the marketing industry. Fran's article has been published yesterday on the Datasift's blog but you won't get all the ESSENTIAL GIFs below there. Facebook topic data, which can be tapped into through Datasift’s new product PYLON, analyzes what 1.39 billion people are talking about on the platform and provides aggregated and anonymized data about the topics they discuss and the demographics of the people engaging with each topic. Now it might seem like this is just a new stream of data being injected into an existing research and planning framework. But don’t be mistaken: the release of Facebook topic data has the potential to change the game for the research, planning, advertising and social listening industries. Here’s 8 reasons why.

1. Representative data

For the last 15 years the excuse slowing down the adoption of social data in decision making has remained pretty much the same: it’s not representative of what the real audience thinks. The argument was based on three points: not everyone is online; only a minority of the people who are online express their opinions via social media; and we don’t know the demographics of the people on social media. All of the above is just not valid any more with Facebook entering the social data scene. Globally the platform has a massive 1.39 billion users, making it the biggest social network in the world. This scale means it’s less a case of ‘representative’ coverage and perhaps more accurate to think of Facebook data in terms of a census, near 100% of the total population. A 2014 study from Pew reports that in the US 71% of the online population uses Facebook and in the UK, a 2014 Ofcom report notes that Facebook remains the default social networking site for almost all UK adults who are online (66%). And when it comes to audience composition, Facebook has the audience most varied in age, with 80% of its audience almost evenly split across three age groups between 18 and 54 years old. This makes Facebook data relevant to a huge range of brands and businesses.

2. A network of “real” people

People use each social media platform in many different ways, but it’s still possible to generalize prevalent use cases. Because of the private nature of the platform, interaction on Facebook tends to be more about your friends and family and the interests you share with them. Now, social media always involves various levels of staged behavior and demands the researcher to use their knowledge of psychology, society and culture to make sense of the data in context. But because Facebook has been built as a network of real people with real names, most of which the user tends to also know in real life, the online behaviors, opinions and actions of the users are likely to be more consistent with their offline personas.

3. Demographic context

One of the challenges of using social data in research and planning has always been uncertainty about the people behind the status updates: who are they? The data industry has found ways around this, using machine learning algorithms to infer a few basic demographic details based on the content people post and their profile bios. However this has always been inferential: a good guess, not certainty. With Facebook topic data we can now access aggregated granular demographic information on the audience. And because the platform is more about interacting with the people you know in real life, that self reported demographic information is more likely to be accurate than on other platforms, and it’s definitely no less accurate than the answers people might give a survey.

4. Highly structured data

Social media data is a mix of structured and unstructured data. The raw data we have been working on until now tends to be 80% unstructured and 20% structured across most of the social media platforms. This makes it interesting but also challenging to extract insights from it. Facebook’s topic data is changing this radically. To start with, their data is vastly more structured than the data from any other social platform. Over the last few years Facebook has put a lot of work into structuring their data in order to allow better exploration, discovery, recommendation and of course advertising. We gained a glimpse of this through the Graph Search feature – and although that feature’s now been deprecated, it doesn’t mean all the work has gone away. From the categorization of emotional states to the categorization of topics, the granularity of the demographics and behavioral profiles of their audience… Facebook knows a huge amount about who its users are and what they like. Exploration aside, Facebook topic data offers the most precise model for data sampling and collection I have ever seen, with more than 70 ‘targets’ to sample data against. Moreover these can be combined for pin-point targeting – for example, you could search for stories around a specific product, generated by a specific demographic within a specific geographic area. Further, once you’ve got your data you can then filter on them using more than 60 parameters to get exactly what you’re looking for. This is an approach that’s enabling unprecedented precision in analyzing the data, advanced data exploration and manipulation and solid cross validation of any research hypothesis across multiple audience segments.

5. It’s not a firehose

Most of the coverage on the story has been focusing on the idea that Facebook is finally opening up its firehose to benefit marketers – which is a misapprehension. The reality is that Facebook are going for a very different model from the one adopted by all the other social platforms. The firehose model is called as such because it delivers a stream of interactions, either 100% or a sample of the content users create on the platform, plus the metadata associated with those posts. The topic data model is not a firehose, however, because it doesn’t deliver the stream nor any single bit of content generated on Facebook. Instead it delivers analytics on those interactions and nothing more. This means you’ll see the topics, demographics and engagements– but not the status updates that underlie this data. This makes it a lot less onerous to handle the data from a tech point of view, which will facilitate adoption. But it also introduces another key innovation: standards.

6. Analytics standards

Because the raw data (the actual posts) never leaves Facebook, all primary analysis on it must be done in-house, from topic extraction to demographics profiling. This means that everyone receiving the data is working with the same set of analytics, calculated against the same set of targets, and divisible with the same set of filters. Take topic extraction for example: whereas now every analyst uses a different algorithm to categorize the topics of social media activity depending on what technology vendor they use, with Facebook topic data, every single analyst is looking at the topics extracted using the same tokenization, NLP and machine learning algorithm. This means Facebook is effectively introducing analytics standards and therefore enabling directly comparable results across industries, brands, agencies and technology vendors for the first time in the history of the social listening industry.

7. Designed for audience insights, not influencer targeting

Facebook topic data won’t let you see any specific stories or specific profiles. In fact if your query finds stories involving less than 100 users you won’t be able to see any data at all. This might seem a limitation compared to how people have been using social data until now. One of the key things brands and organizations use social media for is identifying influencers. With Facebook topic data, you can basically forget about that. But that’s a good thing. I’m not the biggest fan of influencer marketing and I believe social influence feeds on myriads of micro actions rather than a few gatekeepers (unless you’re enrolling celebrities, in which case you’re not doing influencer marketing anyway but media buying). But the key point here is another. Social media has always been stronger at audience understanding than audience targeting. People don’t like to be targeted: the more they feel targeted the less freely they express themselves. Privacy is crucial and it will be more important going forward as our daily actions produce more and more data streams. What Facebook topic data is doing is switching the focus of social media listening from audience targeting to audience understanding. And the wealth of structured, aggregated, anonymized data it brings to the table is enough to make a solid case for it.

8. Quality, quantified

I’ve been banging this drum for awhile now: social media is not quantitative data, but qualitative data on a quantitative scale. What I mean by this is that analyzing social media with a purely quantitative approach does throw away a lot of the value that social data carries, value which lies in the qualities of what people say and how they say it. This means that to make the most of social media data you need to enable exploration at the micro level (the single post) and at the macro level (the millions of posts over time). But this also means enabling smarter ways of analyzing the quality of the data using discourse analysis, content analysis, semantic analysis, machine learning and deep learning approaches. The aim of these approaches is to try and quantify the qualities in the data in order to support observations on a mass scale. So whilst I think that not being able to look at the verbatim of individual stories will undoubtedly remove from the equation some of the value that social data carries, the work Facebook is doing is making it easier to quantify those qualities and ultimately will produce more comparable observations while also being respectful of users privacy. So yes, Facebook topic data is not simply just another stream of data being pumped in the brains of the social data industry, it’s a whole new model for extracting value from social data, a model designed to protect users privacy and at the same time to foster a more solid and replicable way of doing research with social media data. Could, and should, this be the future of the social media listening industry? If you'd like to learn more about how Facebook's new topic data can help your company or you'd like to set up a demo, send an email to info@PulsarPlatform.com.

Social Data Signals Y1, Week 1.

Francesco DOrazio — Thu, 26 Mar 2015 14:28:24 +0000

For those who didn't have a chance to sign up, we thought we'd pop our first issue of Social Data Signals onto the blog. If you like what you see make sure to subscribe by following this link. Welcome to the first issue of Social Data Signals, a weekly, human-curated digest of interesting stories about social data from both industry and academia. There’s way too much going on and way too much noise to sift through, so we thought we’d try and separate the signals and package them all in a weekly transmission. We’ll keep the blurb to a minimum and focus on the stories. We framed the content using 6 lenses we think will help us navigate the space better. We’ll do our best to stick to our weekly schedule but sometimes day jobs and life might get in the way so please bear with us! We hope you'll find our signals useful and we invite you to share interesting stories and give us feedback using this hashtag on Twitter #sdsignals. Fran and Jay

Understanding Audiences

Twitter Data Mining Reveals the Origins of Support for Islamic State [Technology Review] Studying the pre-Islamic State tweets of people who end up backing the organization paints a revealing picture of how support emerges. Nielsen Calls On Industry To Help 'Total Up' Audience Measurement In Digital Age [HuffPo] Nielsen, rolled out initiative to modernize how they tally audience viewership by finally incorporating online content into its purview. How ISIS Succeeds in Social Media Where #StopKony Fails [The Atlantic] True virality can’t be engineered, but it is possible to stack the deck. ISIS has done so expertly.

Visual Social Media

Why Photos Rule The Internet [Buzzfeed] Just providing a forum for discussion often isn’t enough to provide utility and assure the longevity of an online community. Social networks must be windows into people’s lives. Instagram Followers Don't Equal Engagement [Clickz] A new study by digital think tank L2 found that Instagram content, rather than audience size or posting frequency, helps brands maintain strong engagement. Snapchat: How Ephemeral Video Marketing Is Engaging Users [Reel SEO] How big an opportunity is ephemeral video marketing? Move Over Reddit: Tumblr is the new front page of the Internet [WSJ] The Internet story of the year began with a breezy, under-punctuated blog post on the Tumblr of some 21-year-old no one had previously heard of.

Value for data

BuzzFeed's New Strategy: Fishing for Eyeballs in Other People's Streams [Recode] The “cascade” and what it tells us about Twitter’s surprising influence STUDY: Big Retailers’ Strategies for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram [Adweek] How do big retailers market via Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? 61 Key Social Media Metrics, Defined [The Next Web] This post looks at a variety of social media metrics you might choose to focus on, with a brief explanation of each and how to measure it.

Social Tech

Social Rank: Lessons from Launching a Data Product [Social Rank] Three big things a technology company learnt from launching a data product that tracks the Twitter activity of some of the world's biggest brands. Facebook wants to be the new World Wide Web, & news orgs are on board [Nieman Lab] Facebook has the best data about individual users, better than any publisher and it wants to keep its users within the network. DataSift PYLON - The value of unified data processing [DataSift] More details on DataSift's launch of their new API, PYLON - enabling a privacy-first approach to analysing Facebook data.

Social Data Science

Can Machines Really Learn? [Shelly Palmer, Medium] A basic introduction to machine learning and what can you do with it. LinkedIn's Data Science Secret: Your Hidden Org Chart [Fast Company] LinkedIn has embedded itself into organisations worldwide and has learnt the social hierarchy of people inside these companies. Here's how the search process works. World Galaxy: An Interactive Map of English [Tony's Workbench] An interactive visualisation that maps 20,000 most common words in English, those with similar meaning appear closer together.

Visualise it!

Dear Data [Giorgia Lupi & Stefanie Posavec] A year-long analog, data-drawing project by Giorgia Lupi & Stefanie Posavec who are visualising their week on postcards. The Architecture of a Data Visualization [Accurat, Medium] Accurat has spearheaded the "words within diagrams" movement that's helping change journalism. Here, they share their method for designing exploratory diagrams. Twitter's Influence Problem, Visualized [Fast Company] Twitter's influence on the media industry is huge, but its actual scale is smaller than other social channels. Buzzfeed visualize why Twitter matters more than you think. If you've enjoyed this first issue and want to receive weekly social data updates straight to your inbox, please subscribe by following this link. Also, if you have any feedback, suggestions or articles you'd like to see in the newsletter, please contact Fran and Jess by using the hashtag #sdsignals on Twitter.

Introducing SONIC reports: on-demand social media insight

admin — Thu, 26 Mar 2015 17:10:50 +0000

We're proud to be introducing SONIC – our new social analytics reporting offer that can kick start your social media journey. Struggling for time to analyse and interpret your social media data? SONIC is the tool you need to raise visibility and understanding of social media across your business.

Get the social media reporting you need

SONIC reports present you with the facts that you need to measure the effectiveness of your social media practices in a clear and engaging format, saving you valuable time in data prep and analysis. Set the pace of reporting, choose between different report lengths, and drive decision-making with minimum investment. Three levels of reporting are available: Executive Monthly snapshots to provide you with clear indicators and strategic, actionable insights to evaluate your performance on social media channels Essential A report bundle delivering key metrics alongside qualitative deep-dives to give you a continuous, holistic view of your brand presence online Elite An exploratory package giving you a detailed understanding of your online brand equity, based on crucial benchmark figures and contextual analysis. Prices start from just £1800 per month and we can offer rapid turnaround to help you meet your deadlines - so get in touch with our lead analyst Giuseppe (Giuseppe.Polimeno@PulsarPlatform.com) to find out more. Custom options and full-service social media research is also available in conjunction with FACE, our sister strategic insight consultancy. Learn more here, or contact Info@Facegroup.com to discuss how we can help you gain smart strategic insight from social data.

Why we've developed SONIC social media reports

At Pulsar, our mission is to make sense of social data so our customers can make faster, smarter decisions about their brands, campaigns and customers. We deliver this through the cutting edge data science, analytics and visualisations on our social media monitoring platform... ...But we know sometimes our clients might not have even have an hour or two spare to dig into their data every week. Lack of resource is still a major barriers to businesses becoming more socially intelligent, resulting in many social media programs becoming siloed in the digital team and not reaching across the business. The SONIC concept was developed as we wanted to deliver a cost-effective way of reporting social data insights. We identified that many businesses don’t require full strategic social insight or long reports. Sometimes you just need to measure what's happening on your own channels, benchmark competitor performance, and check in on customer opinion. Think of SONIC reports as your outsourced social media insight department. Our reporting can give your social media efforts greater visibility within your organisation, and they'll give you the ability to share bite sized social media insights on a large scale.

What makes our social media reporting different?

Expert analysts. Our reports are written by experienced market researchers who also work on major global brands such as Tesco, Mazda and Telefonica
Actionable insights. We don't just report metrics: our analysts know how to dig insight out of social data and make clear recommendations about what this means for your brand and comms strategy
Full global coverage. Pulsar can track social data in 170 languages and our trusted international network of analysts can deliver social media reporting in any European language plus Arabic, Japanese, Chinese and Korean
Flexible report formats, not rigid, one size fits all templates. We can customise our reporting options to answer your specific business queries
On-demand reporting options that allows you to design a support system that truly works in alignment with your business needs, practices and objectives.

Case study: how Mazda used SONIC reports to drive their social business strategy across Europe

CHALLENGE Mazda Motor Europe wanted to introduce social media listening as a new way to gather customer feedback and inform its first brand-led marketing campaign in Europe. They came to Pulsar for our advanced analytics capacities and the fact our platform integrates social listening (Pulsar TRAC) and CRM (Pulsar FLOW) into a one stop social media management tool. APPROACH A tailor-made set of SONIC reporting options available to the Central team to assess brand performance and measure the effectiveness of different marketing practices at both local and European level. RESULTS SONIC reports are playing an instrumental role in raising awareness of social media across Mazda’s 12 key European markets. Mazda is now actively integrating social media in its Europewide marketing planning for 2015 and SONIC reports are being integrated with Mazda’s wider agency roster for consistent and long-lasting performance evaluation Mazda say, "Since rolling out Pulsar across 12 European countries, we've been able to get truly insightful information from our customers in real time" * So that's our SONIC reporting offer: providing you with the expert resource you need to measure the impact of your activities and prove the value of social media to key stakeholders. If you want to find out more about SONIC reporting then contact our lead analyst, Giuseppe (Giuseppe.Polimeno@facegroup.co.uk) to build a package that's right for you.

Cricket World Cup: What Twitter has told us so far

Cierra — Mon, 23 Mar 2015 16:34:52 +0000

With one of the worlds most viewed sporting events soon coming to a close, we here at Pulsar wanted to find out more into what exactly people talk about during the Cricket World Cup? Over the past month, we’ve been tracking all online Twitter content around the relevant Cricket World Cup hashtags including: #cwc15, #cwc2015, #cricketworldcup So what have we been learning so far? The first thing is that we wanted to know if the flagship event of the international cricket calendar would also see high amounts of chatter online… and indeed it does. With lots of fluctuations in daily online conversation, we noticed two evident spikes in conversation since the start of the world cup: February 15^th: conversation was high when the world cup began February 22^nd: conversation spiking again during the following matches

Afghanistan vs. Sri Lanka
India Vs. South Africa

So besides people using the Cricket World Cup hashtags on Twitter to get their voice heard, what else is this global audience talking about? With lots of match and game terminology, we noticed that India, England and Ireland are mentioned among the top conversations. Although does that necessarily mean that people within those countries were contributing to the Cricket World Cup conversation? England and India were actually among the top 5 countries around the world creating the most conversation about the Cricket World Cup but what about Ireland? Although the country itself is mentioned a lot online in relation to the cup, Ireland itself lands at only the 16^th spot of top country talking about the World Cup online. Some might wonder who was ruling this conversation and reaching the biggest audience online? The top 10 Twitter users talking about the Cricket World Cup are global or regional news or informative sites giving the audience real time cricket updates and tips for things to watch. Before we started to research the Cricket World Cup on Twitter, we read an article reviewing the top players to watch out for. This got us to thinking if there was any correlation between the top players and people talking about them online? Not to our surprise, there actually was a lot of conversation about the athletes that naturally occurred in relation to the Cricket World Cup. However it’s clear that AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli are the online fan favourites. With the end of the Cricket World Cup creeping up on us, we will again be taking a look at the online conversation once the cup comes to an end on March 28^th. So keep on eye on this space for our second Twitter analysis of the World Cup. If you'd like to find out how you can use Pulsar to track major sporting events on Twitter, or you'd just like a demo, please email: Info@PulsarPlatform.com.

Introducing CORE: the new Pulsar product for owned channel analytics

Francesco DOrazio — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 09:50:04 +0000

Up until now, owned channel analytics tools have had a big blind spot. They'll tell you all about how people are interacting with your branded content and how that compares against competitors. Which is great. But they act like that's the only thing that matters about your brand in social. It's not. Tracking your Owned Media activity is only one part of understanding the journey of your brand in social. If you want to get the full picture you need to analyse Owned Media in conjunction with Earned and Paid Media. And that's why we're launching Pulsar CORE. [caption id="attachment_1282" align="aligncenter" width="800"] View your audience reach over time - and your competitors'[/caption]

Who's Pulsar CORE for?

We developed Pulsar TRAC in 2013 so brands would have a smarter, more powerful way to listen. Today we're launching Pulsar CORE to complete our brand measurement offer. CORE is for social media marketers, brand managers, content marketers and social analysts who need to make sense of the accounts they're managing in social media. Whether you're at an agency or in-house at a brand, you can use CORE to:

Monitor all your owned channels in one place: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn
Get an integrated brand-level view of engagement & reach across all your social channels
Benchmark against competitors and your category
See every post you've published and the engagement, visibility and reach it's achieved
Measure your audience reach and growth

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Track all your social channels - and your competitors' channels too[/caption]

A holistic view of your brand in social media

Pulsar CORE measures the reach, awareness and engagement you're generating through your own social channels and combines it with the activity your brand is generating elsewhere in social media to give you the big picture. CORE evaluates both owned and earned media using comparable metrics and boils them down to one simple Social Brand Score for understanding your brand performance online and against your competitors. [caption id="attachment_1285" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Build 'brandsets' to provide benchmarks for your catetgory and industry[/caption]

A better way to keep your channels in check

We didn't stop at bringing together owned, earned and paid media. We studied how brands and organisations have been using the pletora of existing owned channel analytics products and discovered that there were a few more things we could improve. Focus on Audience + Content Most existing tools provide way too much information with no clear sense of direction. We focussed on the two things that matter the most in social: your Audience and your Content. And we guide you though exploring them in a way that helps you generate insights.

Provide a Visual Analytics Experience Most tools show you a collection of numbers and line charts. But who said that owned channel analytics shouldn’t be a visual experience that helps you connect the dots and generate insights? Enable Granular Comparisons We know as a brand manager you need to be able to run various types of comparisons to understand performances better. Which media is working best? Which channel is driving the brand? Which channels works best within the industry? That’s why we built granular comparative tools to give you the freedom to test as many hypothesis as you can come up with in a simple, clear workflow. Provide Brand-Level Metrics Profile analytics are great, but sometimes you need to see the bigger picture and understand how your channels together are having an impact on your brand as a whole. Brand level metrics help you do this without having to download and patch together a square mile of spreadsheets. Provide Industry-Level Metrics And you should be able to go beyond your brand and get a view of the industry you’re in. That’s why we created Brandsets: a collection of brands within an industry to help you see your efforts in context and against category benchmarks. Content Analysis is Key Each brand has its own social and content strategy and very specific ways of measuring it. It is essential to provide the tools to run custom content analysis based on the taxonomies the brands creates. This enables you to move beyond likes and retweets and understand what type of content makes your audience tick - plus keep an eye on your competitors to identify best practices in content marketing. Offer Micro and Macro readings Social media measurement requires moving seamlessly between a bird's eye view and micro details. We wanted to design a tool that would let you appreciate the qualitative granularity of a single post and the quantitative pattern of a thousand of them at the same time. [caption id="attachment_1283" align="aligncenter" width="800"] CORE's owned content visualisations show you the posts getting the most reactions, visibility, reach and engagement[/caption]

See it for yourself

Sounds like something you need? Learn more on our website here. Then get a demo by giving us a call on +44 (0)207 874 6577 or emailing info@Pulsarplatform.com

Social Data Signals Y1, W2

admin — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 09:48:31 +0000

For those who didn't have a chance to sign up, we thought we'd pop our second issue of Social Data Signals onto the blog. If you like what you see make sure to subscribe by following this link.

Welcome back to Social Data Signals - and thank you for all your shares and article tips in the last week. Ping us a note at @abc3d and/or @hautepop (or using the hashtag #sdsignals) if you see anything we should know about.

Meanwhile here's this week's data signals, from non-human audiences to the question of who owns the interface between our eyeballs and the news media.. Fran and Jay

Understanding Audiences

Elaborate spam operation on Twitter uses nearly 750,000 accounts [Symantec] We're fascinated by how social media is as much non-human as people-driven. Here's how a lone spam operator impersonated major brands and reality TV stars to promote a miracle diet pill. New study shows how age affects your social network of choice [Digital Trends] LinkedIn is for olds, Snapchat & Vine for da yout. Not exactly brand new news, but stats like these are always useful for digital planners. #Ferguson: Digital protest, hashtag ethnography, and the racial politics of social media in the United States [American Ethnologist journal] Investigating the semiotics of digital protest and interrogating both the possibilities and the pitfalls of engaging in "hashtag ethnography". Managing Children’s Online Identities: How Parents Decide what to Disclose about their Children Online [CHI2015 conference] Sometimes it feels as though your Facebook feed is endless wall-to-wall baby photos, but actually parents are thinking carefully about what they choose to share in social media.

Visual Social Media

Instagramming life: banal imaging and the poetics of the everyday [Journal of Media Practice] Fascinating academic paper analysing why people take boring photos. The rise of the full-time Instagrammer: Why brands pay for photos from everyday celebrities[Hubspot] Aka how @aguynamedpatrick gets paid for taking artful everyday photos. Notable comment on how brands measure campaign success (hint: they don't...) The 2015 Social Network Image & Video Size Guide[Spredfast] Not the most exciting link we'll share this week, but for all those of us out there managing social channels, this is an essential reference.

Value for data

The delightfully short guide to social media ROI [Buffer] Does what it says on the tin (if you consider 1000 words short?) The Hidden World of Facebook "Like Farms" [MIT Tech Review] What do you get if you pay a “like farm” to generate likes for your Facebook pages? Emiliano De Cristofaro from UCL investigated. Facebook set to host content for news publishers [Guardian] Responses from Eugene Wei (ex-Flipboard) and Ben Thompson at Stratechery are worth reading, the gist being that Facebook will always beat media companies at UX and the tech stack, so they've just got to suck it up and focus on what FB can't do: content.

Social Platforms

The Battle Is For The Customer Interface [Techcrunch] "The value is in the software interface, not the products." Big strategic read of the month on where the opportunity is to make money online. The Interface Layer: Where Design Commoditizes Tech [Medium] Following the previous article, a take on why user experience is the core of competitive advantage for modern web servicesd. Twitter Publicly Launches Curator, Its Real-Time Search And Filtering Tool For Media Outlets [Techcrunch] Twitter seeks to gain reach for tweets outside of the social network by making it easier to embed them into news stories. Facebook kills social network upstart Path, with Messenger Twitter kills social network upstart Meerkat, with Periscope The big social network players own your social graph and they're not about to let go of it... Nathaniel Mott in Pando gives the details. Twitter is testing a feature that removes threats and abuse from your timeline [Verge] Twitter takes steps to deal with the fact that it's full of trolls (and bots). Only available to the blue-tick verified elite at the moment. Why Facebook Topic Data is a game-changer for the marketing and research industries [Pulsar] Facebook Topics data is a big deal because it offers an entirely new model for getting value from social data.

Social Data Science

The Data Ecosystem [Computerworld] A three-part series of posts by Lukas Biewald exploring the data sources, data wrangling tools, and applications available to data scientists. Understanding Natural Language with Deep Neural Networks Using Torch [Nvidia] A walkthrough of how machines can understand language... with some serious process diagrams. Deep Feelings: A Massive Cross-Lingual Study on the Relation between Emotions and Virality [arXiv PDF] Analysing 1.5 million user-generated emotion tags on 65,000 news articles to understand what makes stuff spreadable. Detection of Cyberbullying Incidents on the Instagram Social Network [arXiv PDF] Designing and evaluating the accuracy of a classifier to automatically detect incidents of cyberbullying in Instagram comments. Again, crowdsourced analysis is key for making sense of this social data.

Visualise it!

Why Most Twitter Maps Can't Be Trusted [The Atlantic Citylab] Really important piece on how mapping Twitter data doesn't give you a perfect understanding of the IRL world. Learning to See Data [NYTimes] Daniel Kohn, a Brooklyn-based painter and conceptual artist, is helping genetic scientists make sense of their data. Are Algorithms Conceptual Art’s Next Frontier? [Artsy] Data visualisation isn't just research problem. If an algorithm can be a work of art, what is the buyer purchasing? If you've enjoyed this second issue and want to receive weekly social data updates straight to your inbox, please subscribe by following this link. Also, if you have any feedback, suggestions or articles you'd like to see in the newsletter, please contact Fran and Jess by using the hashtag #sdsignals on Twitter.

Meet us at... Contemporary Data Collection conference, 16 April in London

admin — Tue, 14 Apr 2015 16:31:20 +0000

Pulsar's VP of Product, Francesco D'Orazio, will be speaking about social media listening at a conference this Thursday 16th April at Imperial College London. Join us there to learn more about the cutting edge of technology for research surveys and statistics. Organised by the Association for Survey Computing, the conference is called Contemporary Data Collection: Opportunities and Challenges. The one-day event aims to provide participants with a more holistic view of the data collection landscape and an overview of each of the main methods. Fran is of course advocating for "Social media listening", outlining the benefits of passive data collection for research:

"Social media listening is a method that’s been steadily growing in popularity over the past 15 years. This approach has been largely responsible for driving some of the most interesting evolutions in the research space such as the democratisation of text mining and computational methods to analysing qualitative information.

But this is an approach not without challenges: from the voluntary nature of social data, to the limits of machine learning, to the visual evolution of the social web.

The talk will go through the current collection and research frameworks used in the social data listening but also the challenges and the opportunities and where the industry is going next."

Contemporary Data Collection should be an exciting and relevant discussion on the role data plays in the research industry. Each speaker is working at the leading edge of data collection, and will provide attendees with a basic understanding in their field of expertise. The full list of speakers includes:

Greg Berry, BDRC – Paper
AJ Johnson, GfK – CAPI (Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing)
Simon Gallagher, Ipsos MORI – Mobile Surveys (tablet, smartphone)
Crispin Beale, Chime – CATI (Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing)
David Murray, Kantar – Web Surveys
Paul Murphy, Square Systems – IVR (Interactive Voice Response) and SMS (text) surveys
Jon Burton, ISER – Mixed mode surveys (combining some or all of the above methods in a single survey)
Francesco D’Orazio, Pulsar – Listening (the passive collection of information from social media)
Garnett Compton and Jo Neagus, ONS – Data collection in the UK census

The impressive line up promises a really interesting deep-dive into the world of data collection and is not to be missed for those looking to learn more about this sector. The conference is on Thursday 16th April. To find out more including the programme, timetable and ticket details, follow this link.

Social Data Signals Y1, W3

Ed — Wed, 15 Apr 2015 09:52:25 +0000

For those who didn’t have a chance to sign up, we thought we’d pop our third issue of Social Data Signals onto the blog. If you like what you see make sure to subscribe by following this link. Welcome back! Stacks of Pew Internet research this week on social media and teenagers, ethnicity, and news event hashtags. Plus Pinterest pinnability from both their data science team and new research by Curalate. Give us your feedback on Twitter - we're @hautepop and @abc3d. Fran and Jay

Understanding Audiences

From Twitter to Instagram, a different #Ferguson conversation [Pew Research Centre] Hashtags provide a point of entry into online conversations on major news events - but the way they operate varies sharply by platform. Is politics on Twitter a man's world? [BBC] Spoiler: apparently yes (though a test Jay did suggests that the Twitter gender algorithm over-counts men. So take with a pinch of salt) Social media preferences vary by race and ethnicity [Pew Research Centre] Whereas Facebook is evenly spread across all audiences, Pinterest is the "whitest" platform. NB age explains this as much as race. Measuring Online Social Bubbles [arXiv] The filter bubble problem, quantified, for the first time. Network archaeologists discover two types of social network growth in historical Facebook data [Technology Review] How the age of a community shapes the way the network grows over time. ("Network archaeologist" also an exciting new job title)

Visual Social Media

The hidden biases of Internet memes [Washington Post] The racial and gender biases lurking behind the top 50 English language memes. Overcoming an eating disorder on Instagram [The Atlantic] The unexpected consequences (and insight) of posting food pictures on Instagram. ShareThis study looks at Pinterest and Purchases [Web Pro News] Why Pinterest is a sales conversion machine, who's behind it and what do people buy the most? The maker of the Trollface meme is counting his money [Kotaku] How a modern meme was born, and how it went from teenage bedroom to copyright and global fame.

Social Platforms

Teens, Social Media & Technology Overview 2015 [Pew Internet] Aka talk of Facebook's death among teenagers would seem premature. It's still the #1 platform for 41%, twice the Instagram rate. Snapchat’s Non-Vanishing Message: You Can Trust Us [Medium] "A rare interview with Snapchat tech executives about a transparency report, a bug bounty program, a third-party app ban…and apologies" Modeling Mediums Of Communication [TechCrunch] CEO of the Meerkat video streaming app talks media theory, quotes psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan (!), shares useful diagrams. 8 Pinterest statistics that marketers can't ignore [Sprout Social] A cheap headline but good stuff in here rounding up research from Curalate, Shopify & Comscore. This Is the Perfect Pinterest Picture, According to Science [Wired] More detail on Curalate's research on what makes pictures pinnable.

Value for data

Studies in social data: how industry uses social media for communications and research [LSE] Farida Vis reports back from Twitter's Studies In Social Data meetup Six burning questions for firms looking to make money from big data [Telegraph] Professor Andy Neely discusses how firms can capitalise on the use of big data to improve their business model. What to do when people draw different conclusions from the same data [HBR] Answer: throw 60 data scientists at the analysis and triangulate results. Everyone's got 60 data scientists spare, right?

Social Data Science

Twitter Sentiment Visualizer app [NCSU] Enter a keyword and this tool brings back tweets and visualises sentiment on more interesting emotional models than just positive/negative. Super-easy to use, a great tool for students. Network structures and dynamics in online social systems[O'Reilly Radar] Understanding information cascades, viral content and significant relationships. If algorithms know all, how much should humans help? [New York Times] As the stakes rise for the application of data science beyond digital products, marketing and advertising, the accountability of algorithms become more and more crucial. Data APIs, Design and Visual Storytelling [O'Reilly Radar] How data APIs are allowing us to focus on good storytelling. Re: Our Relationship [The Atlantic] A data scientist tries to quantify love, studying a year of emails she exchanged with her boyfriend. If you’ve enjoyed this third issue and want to receive weekly social data updates straight to your inbox, please subscribe by following this link. Also, if you have any feedback, suggestions or articles you’d like to see in the newsletter, please contact Fran and Jess by using the hashtag #smartdata on Twitter.

Discussing 'perceptions data' at Cartagena Data Festival, 20th April in Colombia

Ed — Fri, 17 Apr 2015 07:21:38 +0000

Our VP Product, Francesco D’Orazio (@abc3d), is off to Colombia tomorrow to join a super interesting festival in Cartagena starting April 20^th. The Cartagena Data Festival focuses on figuring out ways we can fill crucial data gaps to help develop better policies. The session will bring people’s views and values into focus, and will implement new ways of measuring ideas in institutions and in policy. One of the key issues on the table is the coverage, access and analysis of data of the world’s poorest: "There is a central global inequality which hampers progress towards development. At the moment, we know the least about the people who have the least. But these are the people who need the world’s attention the most. Turning global or national aspirations to end poverty into real changes in people’s lives will involve knowing more about how the poorest people live, and improving their ability to access and use data." Our friends at UN Global Pulse have invited us to join them on the ‘Counting what Counts’ work stream. In our specific session we'll be looking into how to understand and quantify perceptions and emotions from social data and how can we use the information to shape better policies. The key questions addressed in the panel will be: - What is the value of data on people’s values and perceptions? What potential do they hold for the design and monitoring of policy? - What traditional and new tools are available to collect data on perceptions? - What are the limitations of collecting and using data on perceptions, and how can these be minimized? - What has been the influence of perceptions data on policy? - What are next steps for data producers and users to advance an agenda that emphasizes data on perceptions at global, national and sub-national levels? The full list of experts joining Fran on the panel includes:

Chika Ezeanya, Researcher, University of Rwanda
Francesco D'Orazio, Vice President of Product, Pulsar
Hayk Gyuzalyan, Methods Director, TNS Opinion
Claire Melamed, Director, Overseas Development Institute
Mariano Rojas, Professor of Economics, Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla.

The festival's focus on using data to help humanitarian aid and crises, to educate and understand how we can bring equality to those without, is bold and exciting, and we are proud to be a part of it. Tickets are no longer available but the event will be streamed live; you can register your interest here. For updates on the event as it happens, follow Fran on Twitter at @abc3d.

Social Data Signals Y1, W4

Ed — Fri, 17 Apr 2015 11:00:31 +0000

For those who didn’t have a chance to sign up, we thought we’d pop our fourth issue of Social Data Signals onto the blog. If you like what you see make sure to subscribe by following this link. This week we thought we would share the most popular stories so you can jump straight to the best bits:

Snapchat's controversial emoji update: An explainer for the old and/or confused [Washington Post] 15% of readers clicked
TellUsYourStory Tumblr reveals the tone-deaf social media strategy brands use way too much [Contently] 11%
Look and Feel and Feel [Basecamp] 9%
UNICEF is using Snapchat to highlight children missing out on their childhood in Nigeria [TNW] 8%

And here's the rest of the newsletter: Hello! It's a beautiful day today - but if you're still looking at a screen, here's our round-up of what's new in social data this week. Emojis, Kremlin bot armies and whether you can build your business off someone else's platform, oh my! Fran and Jay

Understanding Audiences

The Truth about Black Twitter [The Atlantic] "Complex, influential, and far more meaningful than the sum of its social justice-driven hashtags." An interview with Meredith Clark on her recent research. Snapchat's controversial emoji update: An explainer for the old and/or confused [Washington Post] "How social networks manipulate us and our relationships — and why, exactly, they’re doing it" Look and Feel and Feel [Basecamp] It's not how an app feels, it's how it makes you feel. Jason Fried talks about the emotional life of Twitter versus Instagram. Immigration on Twitter: Understanding public attitudes online[Demos] The think tank explores how far social media data can be used to predict public attitudes to political topics. Hint: not perfectly... Searching and clustering methodologies: Connecting political communication content across platforms [Sage] New research tracking political discussion across social media channels - good to see analysis go beyond Twitter. Journal special edition on computational social science.

Visual Social Media

Russia just made a ton of Internet memes illegal [Washington Post] Memes "violate the laws governing personal data and harm the honor, dignity and business of public figures". You don't say... UNICEF is using Snapchat to highlight children missing out on their childhood in Nigeria[TNW] The charity sector begins storytelling on a new platform. TellUsYourStory Tumblr reveals the tone-deaf social media strategy brands use way too much [Contently] Brian Eden is tired of brands demanding "Tell us your story!" How much is too much visual content on social media?[CMO] Can brands overload their audience with images? Marketing execs weigh in.

Visualise It!

Gestalt principles for data visualisation: 1. similarity, proximity & enclosure 2. common fate, parallelism & connectedness, 3. proximity and past experience with network visualization [Github] A primer on how keeping your Gestalt principles in check can help you design better visualisations. Formulas that drive Google, Klout, Facebook, help researchers understand organised crime [Phys Org] How social networking structures help understand how organised crime function in cyberspace and in meatspace.

Social Platforms & Technology

Social network analysis reveals full scale of Kremlin's Twitter bot campaign[Global Voices] Algorithmic information manipulation courtesy of Kremlin's bot army. Can you build your business off someone else's platform?[Bothsid.es] This is one of the points that's been raised the most over last week's events. Mark Suster has some pretty good answers. How not to be a platform: Twitter's Firehose mistake [3Scale] Why innovation needs an ecosystem to thrive. Social media needs more limitations, not choices [WIRED] Snapchat shuts down third party API access. Another sign of the times or a more effective way of curating content and interactions?

Value for data

5 reasons why your social media strategy stinks [Guardian] Some common sense to help you steer your social strategy. The easy industry research hardly anybody uses [MIT Sloan] Using Google Trends to map trends and dynamics over time in an emerging industry. The power of earned media in social images [Tech Crunch] New frontiers in ROI. No-one talked about your sponsorship? Doesn't matter! Measure how much your brand showed up in people's photos. Um...

Social Data Science

How a troll-spotting algorithm learned its anti-antisocial trade [Tech Review] An algorithm that can spot a troll in just 10 posts: good going! QVC can't stop web scraping [Forbes] The grey area of web scraping and why a judge won't easily stop it even if it killed your website. Everything we wish we'd known about building data products [First Round] Here's your checklist if you're thinking of building or scaling a data product. Amazon machine learning - make data-driven decisions at scale [Amazon] Check out how the new AWS service lets you build and fine-tune predictive models with pretty huge amounts of data. If you’ve enjoyed this third issue and want to receive weekly social data updates straight to your inbox, please subscribe by following this link. Also, if you have any feedback, suggestions or articles you’d like to see in the newsletter, please contact Fran and Jess by using the hashtag #smartdata on Twitter.

Cricket World Cup: the final

Cierra — Tue, 31 Mar 2015 15:55:07 +0000

A couple of weeks ago, we here at Pulsar decided to track the top Twitter conversations around the 2015 Cricket World Cup. With one of the world’s most viewed sporting events having just come to an end, we now wanted to see who the top leaders were in the Twittersphere and how it changed over time. As we begin to sum up the Twitter activity around the World Cup, we first wanted to see what was mentioned the most during the competition: This graphs allows us to see some of the evident fan favourite teams being talked about the most from Pakistan and Australia plus noticing that fans were really engaging with The International Cricket Council on Twitter. Since we saw what the fans were talking about this next led us to think about where this audience was sharing their content? The International Cricket Council conveniently again nabs the top spot of most shares from their website. Twitter’s micro-video channel Vine also snuck in as a top contender which allowed us to see what snapshot videos fans loved to share about their favourite moments during the world cup. Mid way through the World Cup we broke down the top 5 countries by volume of conversation:

India
Pakistan
United Kingdom
Australia
South Africa

We initially thought that near the end of the World Cup that these stats would have shifted due to Australia’s overall win and New Zealand’s position as the runner up. Much to our surprise, that ranking never changed. India still kept the top spot of country most passionate about the World Cup on Twitter. (A 1.1 billion population probably helps!).

Above: based on geographical data taken from February 14th – March 31st 2015 However we did observe an evident jump in the amount of conversation coming from Australia and New Zealand near the end of the World Cup, on their paths to the final game. You can see these spikes on the chart below where we show daily volumes of buzz coming from these two countries: Above: based on geographical data taken from February 14th – March 31st 2015 With the next Cricket World Cup to be hosted in England in 2019, we can expect lots of conversation coming from this country if not more as they next take on the role of host. Interested in tracking conversations about other sports events around the world? Reach out to our Pulsar team at info@pulsarplatform.com to get our recommendations for how social listening can help.

From “Launch to Legacy”: Pulsar partners with Supa Academy

Ed — Wed, 20 May 2015 12:41:39 +0000

We're excited to announce our partnership with Supa Academy, a social enterprise on a mission to provoke curiosity, build confidence and develop skills in teenagers and young adults taking their first steps in business. On 24-26 July at the Old Truman Brewery in London, Supa Academy will mentor 500 young entrepreneurs in the UK’s first-ever enterprise hack - call it a business bootcamp. And we'll be there as their Social Sponsors. Read on to learn more about who Supa are, how they want to change British business, and how we're helping them do that. Who are Supa and what's their plan? Supa are all about creating fun, engaging and hands-on business challenges and opportunities where participation can lead to earning whilst learning about enterprise. Backed by Lord Young, adviser to the Prime Minister David Cameron, and in partnership with Barclay’s LifeSkills, River Island, Facebook and Pepsi Max, Supa Academy wants to inspire the next generation. The Retail Hack - London, 24-26 July The aim of “Retail Hack” is to provide ambitious 18-24 year olds the chance to invest time, effort and capital in a bid to turn it into a profitable return. Participants will be mentored by some of the UK’s leading entrepreneurs and exposed to some of the world’s leading brands and agency talent. During the process participants will co-create, learn and develop their skills through intense workshops and master-classes. They will then been asked to create their very own pop-up supermarket and e-commerce site where they will be challenged to generate income in 72 hours. Applicants are invited to apply through the website about why they should be one of the 'Supa 500'. Where does Pulsar come into this? Bejay approached us as he wanted to know who’s talking about entrepreneurship on social media. And if young people aren’t, then why not? We want to help Bejay and Liam discover whether engaged social media teens are having conversations around this topic and to measure the success of their events in changing the conversation. In the coming months we will release studies before and after Retail Hack to discuss what happened over the weekend, and to measure changes to conversations around young people and entrepreneurship. Pulsar will work with Bejay and his team to track the journey from start to finish and help “launch the legacy”. The idea is bold, exciting and potentially industry-changing. We're proud to be a part of it. #EarnAsYouLearn #BackTheHack If you want to learn more about how we're going to #BackTheHack or you would like a demo, send an email to Info@PulsarPlatform.com.

Using Pulsar Audience searches for customer-first social listening

admin — Mon, 20 Apr 2015 10:37:03 +0000

Over the next month we’ll be sharing three client case studies demonstrating how Pulsar customers are using our unique Audience searches capabilities in effective and innovative ways. But first, let’s talk about how Audience searches work and how they enable a transformational people-first understanding of social. Account Coordinator Gabriella Kelly and research AD Jess Owens explain... When asking a new client about their main use-case for Pulsar, we often hear the same answer – “I want to understand my audience.” We’ve integrated audience insight features into Pulsar’s regular Topic searches, so clients can analyse the conversation by demographic factors including gender, location, bio descriptions and influence levels – plus searching by specific author usernames. But an Audience search is a whole new way of thinking – a people-first view of social media activity. It’s the big picture: everything people post about on Twitter or Facebook, from what’s going on in their lives, the brands they mention, the media they share, to the conversations they have. For marketers seeking to put the customer at the heart of their brands, this customer-centric view is essential insight. As we say, though, it is a new way of framing social media data. So let’s talk through how to make it work for you.

How to set up an Audience search in Pulsar

Audience searches are set up a bit differently than your industry-standard keyword search. As opposed to Topic searches where you create a list of keywords, hashtags and handles, an Audience search is created by building a panel of individuals through tracking their Twitter and/or public Facebook usernames. Instead of capturing 100% of mentions about your brand from whichever people mention it (as a Topic search does), an Audience search captures 100% of mentions from a set of people, whatever brands and topics they’re talking about. This means that in order to build an audience search, you have to first decide which group of people to follow. 1. Know your audience An Audience search alone will not isolate a group of individuals, you need to know who you want to track to begin building your search. There are a number of ways to do this:

Track the people following your Twitter account to understand your audience better
Track your PR team’s list of key journalists in your sector
Track bloggers or influencers you’ve identified from previous research
Or build an audience from a Topic search (see below)

This latter option is ideal when you want to know more about the people discussing your brand or category. Start with your Pulsar Topic search capturing this conversation, and use the Influencer or Top Posts tabs to isolate individuals who might be considered “influencers” in your data set. Alternatively, export the full dataset in Excel, select the ‘Users’ column and de-duplicate with a pivot table to capture everyone who's mentioned your brand. Then take Twitter handles of these individuals and plug them into an audience search as a solid foundation from which to build an understanding of a specific brand or category audience. 2. Manage the noise If you’re used to Topic searches – narrowly focused on, well, a particular topic – then Audience searches can be a surprise. People can talk about anything – and do, meaning that there’s much less clear structure to discussion. For example, when you follow the Twitter audience of a brand like Sony (perhaps with the intention of gaining a landscape understanding of the brand’s online audience) you will collect everything they tweet. This means that, along with occasional mentions of technology & other brand-relevant topics, you will also hear about their favorite song lyrics or see how many times they share photos of their cat - resulting in a lot of data. We would argue that this diversity of content is relevant to understanding your audience online. In particular, it’s crucial for brands to realise that their Twitter followers are almost certainly not highly engaged with their brand. Instead if it’s song lyrics and cat GIFs that grab their attention, knowing your audience’s preferred social media style (visual? Humour? Celeb-focused?) means you can shape brand content to appeal to them better. Other times, though, you may be working to a narrower brief and you just need to know what your audience think about a particular area. In this case you’ve got two options:

Within a broad audience search, use Pulsar’s search filters to dig into the topics of interest – and analyse what your customers say about absolutely any topic you might be interested in
In the search design, add a keyword filter ‘on top of’ your audience search, e.g. “I want to hear from our Twitter followers whenever they spontaneously mention a competitor brand – what’s getting their attention there?” Or “What do dads say about cars & the school run?

3. The best Visualisations for analysing Audience searches As Audience searches are structured differently to topics one, the analysis approach can be a little different too. Here’s our expert advice on where to start looking: i) Activity density visualization: Understand when your audience is active in social. Export the data behind this visualization to graph average activity by hour. ii) Results view: Immerse yourself in the language, interests and worldview of your audience. Scrolling through a few hundred messages gives you a powerful instinctive sense of who these people are and what makes them tick. iii) Keywords and Topics wordclouds: You will find the subjects people talk about are broader than you expect, and the topics won’t be so clearly defined. Look further down the list of keywords to find the interesting discussion – then click through to the Results pane to see the verbatim showing how people discuss it iv) Content tab: understand the posts, links and domains your audience share the most. This is one of my favourite visualisations – it’s so powerful for inspiring content strategy and media planning. So that’s Audience searches. Fancy one of your own, or want to get a demo of audience insights in action? Contact Gabriella to find out how they can work for you: Gabriella.Kelly@Pulsarplatform.com Tomorrow, we share how Boombox used Audience searches to find leads in the luxury car market…

Case Study: How Boombox used Pulsar Audience Searches to identify prospective luxury car buyers

admin — Tue, 21 Apr 2015 10:39:31 +0000

Our first Audience search case study tells the story of how digital agency Boombox used Pulsar to identify potential luxury car buyers in London. Considering just one of these vehicles can cost more than half a million pounds, the task might sound like finding a (very lucrative) needle in a haystack. The first step of setting up this search required understanding the demographic of luxury cars buyers in London. Upon doing some preliminary research we were able to get an idea of a “key demographic” which consisted mostly of men between the ages of 27 – 45 who had high paying positions listed in their Twitter profiles. To narrow the focus we first set the search to track data from all Twitter followers of luxury car brands in the UK, as well as a few other “demographic-focused” brands such at Breitling and Rolex. After collecting a large pool of data we then designed a few different filters to overlay on the existing dataset. By creating a filter searching for individuals matching specific professions (doctor OR lawyer OR director) as well as a filter for age and gender demographics, we were able to export a list of individuals who a) matched the demographic profile of a target buyer and b) displayed an interest in luxury cars. One final filter was created to narrow down the list of 500 to those who, at that specific moment, were looking to buy a new car. The “buying” filter included terms and phrases such as “I want”, “I’m buying”, “I’m getting”, “I’m looking for” etc. By overlaying this filter onto the original list we were able to isolate seven individuals who had discussed wanting to buy a luxury car in London within the last month on Twitter. As a result, Boombox was able to reach out to these individuals on behalf of their client and set up times for them to come into the showroom to see the client’s collection of cars. These individuals quickly went from leads to potential buyers. Fancy one of your own, or want to get a demo of audience insights in action? Contact Gabriella to find out how they can work for you: Gabriella.Kelly@Pulsarplatform.com

Social Data Signals Y1, W5

Ed — Thu, 23 Apr 2015 09:28:30 +0000

Here's the fifth issue of our Social Data Signals newsletter from Pulsar's Jess Owens & Francesco D'Orazio. If you like what you see, subscribe by following this link and get direct to your inbox every week. In a hurry? Here are the four most popular stories so you can jump straight to the best bits:

The coming revolution in social customer insights and support [Kinship Digital] 14% of readers clicked
America loves the eggplant emoji, and other lessons from a new emoji study [Fusion] 12%
The 14 Best Visualisation Tools [TNW] 8%
The science behind huge viral campaigns [Ragan] 8%

And here’s the rest of the newsletter: Hello! We couldn't avoid talking about the UK election this week - are you a #Milibae or a #Cameronette? Teenage girls' powers of social media invention continue unabated. Meanwhile in Social Data Science, it's all truth and lies. Pheme.eu are using data analytics to spot false rumours, whereas Anh Nguyen et al. have been busy persuading image recognition algos to see things that aren't there. Enjoy! Fran and Jay @abc3d and @hautepop

Understanding Audiences

Designing For Evil [Gaijin.com] Understanding trolls in order to design around them. Particularly relevant this week with Twitter's release of new anti-abuse features. America loves the eggplant emoji, and other lessons from a new emoji study [Fusion] One million users and 1.3 billion emojis... Is this Big Smiley Data? Yet without context we can still only understand behaviour, not meaning. Can big data reveal the mood of the electorate? [BBC] Spoiler: no. Demos are pushing their use of machine learning to hone sentiment coding, but they haven't cracked sarcasm yet... Milifandom soars with Twitter backing for Labour leader Ed Miliband [Guardian] ...meanwhile, teenage girls are treating Ed Miliband like a boyband or Benedict Cumberbatch: witness the rise of the #Milifandom There's also a Tory hashtag #Cameronettes, but turns out it's astroturf.

Visual Social Media

Like Instagram. It'll do wonders for your charity [Guardian] Only 21% of charities have an Instagram account - but the opportunities to bring supporters closer to your campaigns are huge. A new meme shows another side to life in Saudi Arabia, but not everyone is convinced [WaPo] Visual representation is political, not least if you're Snapchat curating #Riyadhlife. The 7 C's of Instagram [Blonde] Particularly interesting on how the community side operates.

Social Platforms & Technology

Eterni.me "Who wants to live forever? Eternime preserves your most important thoughts, stories and memories for eternity" Why We Need Algorithmic Angels [TNW] How to create more human-centered algorithmic solutions Why Twitter is finally taking a stand against trolls [Wired] "it’s better to alienate destructive users if it means holding onto the good ones" How Facebook is gearing up its Messenger service to combat Asian challengers WeChat, Viber & Kik [The Drum] "There is clearly huge potential for an all-singing, all-dancing IM platform" Facebook updates newsfeed to put friends first [Techcrunch] Brands and publishers weep yet again as Facebook tweaks its algorithm. Pantheon: Mapping Historic Cultural Production [MIT] Impressive effort to visualise culture through the Wikipedia biographies of notable historical characters. (Insufficient recognition of the gender & Western biases of Wikipedia data, however...) How storytelling can enhance the effectiveness of your visualizations [O'Reilly Radar] Sometimes we need to use complex data visualisations. Introducing them step-by-step can make them digestible. The 14 Best Visualisation Tools [TNW] With lists for both developers and non-developers, which is helpful

Social Data Science

Veracity: The Fourth Challenge of Big Data [Pheme.eu] The Pheme project uses data analytics to assess the truthfulness of social media memes and flag false rumours in real-time. Deep Neural Networks are Easily Fooled: High Confidence Predictions for Unrecognizable Images [arXiv paper] "It is easy to produce images that are completely unrecognizable to humans, but that state-of-the-art DNNs believe to be recognizable objects with 99.99% confidence (e.g. labeling with certainty that white noise static is a lion." Machine Learning + Big Data [a16z] VC firm Andreesen Horowitz argue that "machine learning will not be an activity in and of itself… it will be a property of every application" VisuAlgo.net Visualising data structures and algorithms through animation. Really nice learning tool.

Value for data

The science behind huge viral campaigns [Ragan] Why did the Ice Bucket Challenge and #thedress explode in the public consciousness? This article explains, using Duncan Watts' concept of the 'information cascade.' The coming revolution in social customer insights and support [Kinship Digital] Use social data analytics identify your customer's personality type and preferred communications style - then market to them accordingly. How to Measure Instagram Traffic, Leads and Sales [Social Media Today] With its lack of hyperlinks, driving measurable ROI from Instagram is tricky. Here's a potential solution. If you’ve enjoyed this fifth issue and want to receive weekly social data updates straight to your inbox, please subscribe by following this link. Also, if you have any feedback, suggestions or articles you’d like to see in the newsletter, please contact Fran and Jess by using the hashtag #smartdata on Twitter.

Social Data Signals, Y1 W6

Ed — Tue, 05 May 2015 11:36:25 +0000

Here’s a slice from the sixth issue of Social Data Signals newsletter from Pulsar’s Jess Owens & Francesco D’Orazio. If you like what you see, subscribe by following this link and get the newsletter direct to your inbox every week. This week we thought we'd only share the top five articles - clicked on by our readers. 1. The Secret Psychology of Facebook [Buffer] - 18% of readers clicked Buffer round up research studies on why people like, share, comment and use Facebook. 2. I Quit Liking Things On Facebook for Two Weeks. Here’s How It Changed My View of Humanity [Medium] - 10% "Algorithm management" is a thing people have to do these days. 3. Growing Up in a Visual World [Facebook IQ] - 9% New research from Facebook and Crowd DNA on how young people use Instagram (and, inevitably, how marketers can reach them). 4."It's insane people take being unfollowed like a personal attack" [Daily Mirror] - 7% When you're a celebrity, it turns out your audience owns you. Jessie J unfollows all her fans on Twitter, faces backlash. 5. Facebook Is Eating the Internet [Atlantic] - 6% "The state of the media in 2015 begins and ends with the tech giant." If you want to receive the full newsletter this week direct to your inbox, please sign up here. Also, if you have any feedback, suggestions or articles you’d like to see in the newsletter, please contact Fran and Jess by using the hashtag #smartdata on Twitter.

'Decoding our Social World' at IBM’s World of Watson conference, NYC May 5th

Ed — Fri, 01 May 2015 12:45:55 +0000

IBM and Alchemy have invited us to join the upcoming World of Watson event on May 5 - 6 in New York, an exciting event designed to explore the ways in which cognitive computing is changing big data.

Our VP of Product Francesco D'Orazio (@abc3d) will be sharing the story of Pulsar and how cognitive computing is making our platform smarter. Francesco's talk is part of "The New API Economy: How Cognitive Services are Being Put to Work". In the session he will focus on the key use cases for social data, the data challenges we're facing today, how we're overcoming them and what exciting future innovations we're working on to push the boundaries of the social data industry.

Fran will be speaking in the General Session, 9am-10.30am on May 6th. Here's the line-up:

Opening Remarks | Mike Rhodin
The New Era of Computing: A Look Back, a Look Forward | Dr. John Kelly III
Cognitive Computing in Perspective | Bruce Porter
Decoding our Social World | Franceso D’Orazio, Chief Innovation Officer, VP of Product at Face and Pulsar
Lessons on Transforming Industries with Technology | Terry Jones, Chairman, Wayblazer
Remixing Social Services: How 5 Students Converted an Idea to a Vital App | UT Austin Team - Bri Connelly

World of Watson brings together developers and business leaders from start-ups, universities and enterprises who are already using cognitive computing to help redefine the industry. The aim of the conference is to showcase how Watson can play apart in your business, and how the platform has impacted 17 different industries As well as this there will be the first ever Watson Hackathon where a community of developers, UX/UI designers, entrepreneurs, and creatives are converging to share ideas and have a shot at securing $25,000 in prices. Tickets are still available and you can purchase them here. For updates on the event as it happens, follow Fran on Twitter at @abc3d.

Forrester's Predictive Social Analytics report features Pulsar's "Social To Sales" research

Jess — Thu, 21 May 2015 12:32:17 +0000

We're glad to say that Pulsar research is quoted in the latest Forrester social listening report 'Predictive Social Analytics Is On The Horizon' (21 May 2015). In the report, analyst Allison Smith argues that the backward-looking slant of most social media stats - e.g. the volume of buzz about your previous campaign - isn't enough.

Money is not made in the reactive, the retrospective, or the explanatory", she writes, "It's made in the predictive — in your company's ability to know what consumers will be talking about, caring about, and buying next.

Social media analytics need to build its ability to predict business outcomes if it's going to justify its ROI. And here at Pulsar, we can do exactly that. Last year we ran a study, 'How Social Media Predicts Ticket Sales' for a major events company. Allison shares one of the key findings in her report:

Social data is predictive when it is precise. For example, an online events ticketing company that operates globally found that conversations about the artist Beyoncé don't provide insight into how tickets to Beyoncé shows will sell.

Indeed not - people to talk about an artist for too many reasons to mean there's any correlation with ticket sales. But, when you track a much narrower, more focused discussion about the event, we discovered the connection between social buzz and sales was more powerful than we'd ever guessed. Learn how many tweets it takes to sell an extra concert ticket - read our full presentation here: Found this interesting? Check out my full research review of 5 other social-to-sales studies, where I drill down into which social factors consistently drive measurable business results. Wondering if social can drive sales for your brand? Contact us at info@pulsarplatform.com and let's talk about how we can make predictive social analytics work for you.

Pulsar tracks 'the fight of the century' for CNBC - tune in Monday, May 4th

Ed — Fri, 01 May 2015 16:19:15 +0000

This Saturday will see the two heavyweights of world boxing fight it out at the MGM Grand, Las Vegas. Classed as the 'fight of the century', Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao will take to the ring for the first time in five years.... and Pulsar is tracking the whole event on social. American news channel CNBC has invited Pulsar into their European studios to provide social media analysis of this historic battle. We will be bringing a new angle to the fight by outlining the story of its life across social media, while comparing it to other world class sporting events like the Superbowl, Wrestlemania, World Cup Final and more. Make sure to tune in to CNBC at 4.30pm GMT on Monday May 4th to hear how we thought the fight played out on social media where our Global Sales Director, James Cuthbertson will be speaking live on TV. Follow us on @Pulsar_Social as we post live updates of the interview and analysis from the data.

Who won #MayPac on social media? Watch the full CNBC interview here

Ed — Tue, 05 May 2015 15:50:00 +0000

Our global sales director James Cuthbertson headed over to the CNBC studios yesterday, May 4th, to give the team a lowdown on how the 'fight of the century' played out on social media. The match between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao was built up to go down in boxing history - and it certainly didn't disappoint. Generating over 5 million tweets in the 12 before and after - it was one of the most talked about sporting events in social media history. If we compare this to other big sporting events and the amount of mentions they received, we can begin to understand why this fight was such a big social media event:

Superbowl 49: 2,039,500
FIFA World Cup Final 2014 (soccer): 4,841,200
UEFA Champion's League Final 2014: 1,499,000

Also, Periscope was a huge trend on social media - as many chose to watch the fight through live-streaming app. In fact some went on to say it was the greatest night in Periscope's history (it's important to mention that both Meerkat and Periscope don't have a system to prevent copyright infringement).

Location and demographics

In terms of creating social conversation the US came top by a massive margin with 52%, followed by the UK with 9.5%. The top cities for social engagement were London, Beijing and Quito (Ecuador).

We used our Location data to identify exactly where people were sharing their thoughts on the Mayweather and Pacquiao fight. As you can see London, New York and Los Angeles created intense heat areas on the map.

Hashtags

Interestingly, and as per usual, the unofficial hashtags beat the official ones all week, especially #MayPac. The top 5 hashtags by mentions:

#MayPac - 2,823,677 mentions
#Mayweatherpacquiao - 1, 155, 057
#pacquiaomayweather - 214, 951
#mayweather - 253,592
#pacquiao - 199,337

Conversation

As is usually the case in sporting events, the people supported the underdog, Pacquiao. The majority of social conversation believed that Pacquiao: won the hearts, fought for his country, and that he is a real fighter.

Whereas, social media focused the post on Mayweather on the money he was gonna get after the fight, on his past legal troubles for domestic violence and on his hugging skills (diffusing the fight with Pac by hugging him).

Overall, the fight was received as "underwhelming", "too technical", "disappointing", and "boring". May was seen as tactical - hence the mentions of "hugging" while Pac was seen as "going for it", but probably not as much as he should have to win the fight!

Mike Tyson gained the highest number of retweets, where he echoes the overall feelings of the fight. The top Instagram post received over 3k Likes:

On social media the fight has gone down as one of the biggest events in sporting history.

However, negativity surrounded a lot of the conversation with people discussing what could have been done with the money Mayweather and Pacquiao earned from the fight to support global issues and causes, such as the massive humanitarian effort needed after the recent earthquake in Nepal.

It's a good start that Pacman declared ahead of the fight he was gonna donate half of his earnings to charity, which definitely didn't help the perceptions around Mayweather. But then again, Pacquiao is expected to run for president of the Philippines once his boxing career is over...

To see the full analysis watch our CNBC interview here. If you want talk about how we can help you track social data, please send an email to Info@PulsarPlatform.com.

We presented at IBM's World of Watson conference. Watch the full session here

Ed — Mon, 11 May 2015 13:59:39 +0000

Last week our VP of Product, Francesco D'Orazio (@abc3d) travelled to New York for IBM's World of Watson conference. Alongside AlchemyAPI, Fran was invited to share the story of Pulsar and how cognitive computing is making our platform smarter. As we mentioned in our previous post, 'Decoding our Social World', Fran discussed the key use cases for social data, the data challenges we’re facing today, how we’re overcoming them, and what exciting future innovations we’re working on to push the boundaries of the social data industry. You can watch the full session below, including Fran's talk (starting from 30:53)... this has to be one of the biggest screens we have ever seen: If you want to learn more about how Pulsar can help your business or you would like a demo, please send an email to: Info@PulsarPlatform.com.

Why big data is a human problem, not a tech one. Digital Shoreditch, May 15th

Ed — Tue, 12 May 2015 15:33:53 +0000

Our VP of Product, Francesco D'Orazio (@abc3d) will be speaking on 'Why Big Data is a human problem, not a technology one' at Digital Shoreditch, Friday May 15th. Big data has been around for a few years now but for every hundred people talking about it there's probably only one actually doing it. As a result big data has become the preferred vehicle for inflated expectations and misguided strategy. In this talk Fran looks at where big data is going, why we waste 99.5% of the personal data we produce, what are the real opportunities, limitations and dangers and what can we do to stop talking about it and start doing it today. What the line up looks like for Friday's 5pm session:

Neil Bennett (@neilfuture) will join Fran in this session to talk on the '17 ways link baiting is ruining the internet; you won't believe number 13!'
Francesco D'Orazio (@abc3d) on 'Why Big Data is a human problem, not a technology one'

If this sounds like something you're interested in and you want to learn more about big data, tickets are still available here. The idea for Digital Shoreditch is to celebrate the creative, technical and entrepreneurial talent of UK, Europe and beyond. The event wants to tell the world there is no better place than London if you are looking for the very best creatives, technologists, designers, makers and doers - as a result the event is helping this community evolve. Split across 5 separate days and into 5 categories - MAKE, GROW, NEXT, CONNECT & LIVE - Digital Shoreditch is building up to be a very exciting event. If you want to learn more about how Pulsar can help your business with social data, please send an email to Info@Pulsarplatform.com.

Join us for 'The data revolution: finding the missing millions', 21 May, London

Ed — Mon, 18 May 2015 10:54:26 +0000

Francesco D'Orazio, our VP of Product (@abc3d) will join a panel at the Overseas Development Institute's event 'The data revolution: finding the missing millions' on Thursday 21 May in London. Fran will talk about how social data can help with the challenge of the "data revolution" - the drive to use big data within the development world to be more effective in planning, designing policies, and distributing resources. The ODI (Overseas Development Institute) is the UK's leading independent think tank on international development and humanitarian issues. This Thursday's event is the launch of their report 'The Data Revolution' which exposes how 350m people - a quarter of all people living in extreme poverty in developing countries - are excluded from official figures on the global poor. Record keeping and data collection in many developing countries are so bad that many official figures are inaccurate and out of date. The ODI argue that quality, relevant, accessible, timely data is needed to allow governments to extend service into communities which until now have been blank spaces in the planning process. They propose three ways to get this - one being "using alternative sources of data to fill gaps", such as satellite imagery, smartphone data, and open data projects. Fran will talk about how social media data provides a third source of insight - people in the developing world may not be captured by government surveys, but they're still getting online. The event will be a fascinating discussion on the state of the world’s data. Speaking at the event are: Chair: James Ball, Special Projects Editor, The Guardian Panellists

Elizabeth Stuart, lead author of the ODI's 'The data revolution: finding the missing millions' report
Rufus Pollock, President and Co-Founder, Open Knowledge
Pali Lehohla, Statistician General, Statistics South Africa
Francesco D’Orazio, VP Product, Pulsar

So join us and the ODI for the UK launch of this timely report. It's held at the ODI's offices at 203 Blackfriars Road, SE1, and is free to attend - register here. If you're interested in social data and would like to find out more on how Pulsar can help, then get in touch with Fran & the team at Info@PulsarPlatform.com.

Join us for Sound City music festival & conference in Liverpool, 21 May

Andy Gough — Tue, 19 May 2015 15:52:30 +0000

Pulsar is travelling to Liverpool this week to attend Sound City, a combined music festival and conference, to share Pulsar's capabilities with music industry experts. Twinned with Texas’ SXSW, the three day music and arts event will run in tandem with this cutting edge digital conference, showcasing intimate presentations from the world’s most influential people within the creative sector. Industry experts and ticket holders will have the opportunity to meet the Pulsar team and trial our platform, while enjoying the raucous tones of The Flaming Lips. Placed just a stone's throw away from the main stage, Treesha, Andy and James will be demonstrating the Pulsar's features and be on-hand to answer your questions. As one of the official partners, Pulsar will be tracking online conversations around the event. We will provide Sound City with a window into the opinions of ticket holders, artists, and sponsors amongst other affiliated bodies. Through using Pulsar’s advanced capabilities in geo localised analysis, for the first time Sound City will have the opportunity to understand where ticket holders and artists are mentioning the festival & conference around the UK. In addition to this we're tracking how mentions around the event are shared through social networks. Since its birth in 2008, Sound City has grown to become one of the most well respected cultural events in the UK. Its recent relocation to Liverpool’s booming creative area, the Docklands, promises to raise the bar once again. Sound City is not too be missed, if you are yet to buy a ticket to either the conference or festival, they are still available here. We can't wait to see you! If you're interested in Pulsar joining your event, or you'd simply like to request a demo, please send an email to Info@PulsarPlatform.com.

Pulsar launches Facebook topic data: anonymized & aggregated insight from 1.4 billion people

Francesco DOrazio — Thu, 04 Jun 2015 06:55:26 +0000

We're thrilled to announce that Pulsar now offers access to anonymised and aggregated Facebook topic data, live in our Pulsar TRAC social media monitoring platform. Facebook is many brands’ biggest digital marketing investment, making this anonymised and aggregated topic data a game-changer for improving your content, communications and targeting. Contact our sales team at Info@Pulsarplatform.com to get a demo today.

With anonymised and aggregated Facebook topic data you can...

See big insights based on:

1.44 billion members globally.
Facebook's used by three quarters (71%) of the online US population

This makes anonymous and aggregated Facebook topic data relevant to a huge range of brands and businesses - including yours. Understand real people Build people-first searches: how do Midwestern Millennials perceive technology brands? Pulsar lets you find out. Use anonymous and aggregated Facebook topic data to get a better understanding of your target audience’s opinions on your brand - and tailor communications that really engage with them both rationally and emotionally. Trust your demographic data Anonymous Facebook topic data gives you detailed, aggregated demographic information on your audiences. Facebook is the ‘real world’ social network, making this self-reported data more likely to be accurate – so you can have more confidence in the results than you would from a traditional from a market research survey. Pinpoint your search Anonymous and aggregated Facebook topic data provides big insights into what people are sharing and engaging in on the world’s largest social network, offering 60+ variables to analyse. And Pulsar’s ‘smarter data’ promise means we’re committed to integrating all these query options to help you gain insights into the topics and audiences you are interested in on Facebook.

Get a demo

Anonymised and aggregated Facebook topic data is the essential tool for understanding your customers and optimising your digital marketing investment. Don't plan your next campaign without it! Contact Info@Pulsarplatform.com or your account manager to get a taste of the biggest, most relevant social data source available. * Francesco D'Orazio is VP of Product at Pulsar. Read his previous blog post on 8 Reasons Why Facebook Topic Data is a game-changer for the marketing and research industries, or say hello on LinkedIn.

Social Data Signals, Y1 W7

Ed — Tue, 09 Jun 2015 10:10:58 +0000

Here’s a slice from the seventh issue of Social Data Signals newsletter from Pulsar’s Jess Owens & Francesco D’Orazio. If you like what you see, subscribe by following this link and get the newsletter direct to your inbox every week. This week we thought we’d only share the top five articles – clicked on by our readers. 1. The Data Science Ecosystem in One Tidy Infographic [DataViz] - 8% of readers clicked Not as complicated as the Digital Advertising Ecosystem diagram you may have seen - but still worth having on hand to boggle clients, bosses, interns etc. 2. Meet the Instagrammer who's on a mission to change the world, one picture at a time [Mashable] - 8% Interesting example of visual social media for social good. Unfortunate blind-spot as to the politics of a white American 20-something speaking for 'Africa'. 3. What moves the social TV needle? [Nielsen] - 7% 67% of the variance in Twitter activity can be explained by the TV show's characteristics (network, genre and audience), not its content. 4. The Politics of Trending on Twitter [Model View Culture] - 7% A critical analysis of how news loves to talk about "what's trending" - but the politics of social media visibility are more complicated than a black box algorithm lets us see. 5. What makes a good visualisation [Information Is Beautiful] - 7% Information + Story + Goal + Visual Form If you want to receive the full newsletter this week direct to your inbox, please sign up here. Also, if you have any feedback, suggestions or articles you’d like to see in the newsletter, please contact Fran and Jess by using the hashtag #smartdata on Twitter.

Join us for Big Boulder Conference in Colorado, 15-16 June

Ed — Wed, 10 Jun 2015 15:21:34 +0000

Our VP of Product Francesco D'Orazio is flying to Colorado next week to attend this year's Big Boulder conference on 15-16 June. The conference is brought to us by the Big Boulder Initiative, the first trade association for the social data industry. Their aim is to “establish the foundation for the long-term success of the social data industry” and bring together companies within the social data sphere to address key challenges that face the industry as a whole.

The Big Boulder conference is spread across two days and is jam-packed with educational sessions, networking events, and outdoor activities all centered around social data... They even have yoga in the morning! This year leaders will explore social data trends, best practices, use cases, and the future of the industry. The list of speakers is extensive, but we've pulled out some highlights to give you an idea:

Adam Bain, President, Global Revenue & Partnerships at Twitter
Jordan Bitterman, Chief Strategy Officer at Mindshare
Sam Farber, Associate Director, Digital Media at NBA
Jeff Glueck, COO at Foursquare
Amy Lamparske, Global Social Media Leader at 3M

We're very much looking forward to meeting you all there. If you want to schedule a meeting with our VP of Product, Francesco D'Orazio, follow this link to his calendar and choose your time slot. If you want to explore how tracking social data can help your business and would like a demo, send over an email: Info@PulsarPlatform.com.

Hyde Park: Bringing social media to life through Pulsar’s geolocation data

Cierra — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 11:34:09 +0000

Senior Account Coordinator, Cierra Buck stepped out of the office last week to see if she could make sense of how people create geolocalised social data through photo-sharing one of the capital's top tourist attractions: London's Hyde Park. Location, location, location. Geolocated social data brings us closer to understanding customer activity and online. Retail companies and marketers have started to use this type of data to enhance their ability to reach customers at specific retail locations, or to understand buying preference by regions. Each time, adding location into the mix helps us understand more about customer intention - and so create more relevant experiences. Here's 10 ways geolocation helps you reach your target audience better. We at Pulsar launched geolocated searches in January this year, and they've been a hit with customers in the retail and events business especially. In this blog post I'll demonstrate what they can do with data from a geolocated social search about one of the capital’s most famous royal attractions, Hyde Park. Beyond the general conversation about Hyde Park the place, I decided to focus on the data that was geolocated as coming from inside and around Hyde Park itself. Location is valuable data and I wanted to make a deeper connection to find out why there is prominent areas of activity in specific locations. This led me to think… What were people taking photos of? Why were they geolocating themselves to these particular areas in Hyde Park? If I went to the park myself, what would I find in the areas of traction? I paid a visit to Hyde Park last week and used the coordinates graph as my own custom “social exploration map.” I wanted to see if people were actually mentioning or taking photos in my chosen and highlighted spots (see numbers below) or if these spots were simply locations around the park where people were eventually posting their content (for example, entering/exiting or taking a break). So what did I discover…? I reviewed our coordinate location map which operates as a 'heat map': the brighter the light on the map, the more content coming from within that area of Hyde Park. It was amazing to see a huge amount of geolocation data actually coming from within the boundaries and inside the park: Above: Pulsar location graph numbered by areas of high activity I identified 6 spots with lots of activity, reviewed the pictures we collected on social - and then went to Hyde Park to match up the social data with what I could see on the ground.

Spot 1:

The traction around spot 1 was near the northwest entrance of the park. Here’s what I saw when visiting that exact spot: Above: Cierra’s photo of the northwest Hyde Park entrance Although what appeared to be a nice entrance to the park, there wasn’t anything particular to notice into what people would be talking about or taking photos of. From my observations, Londoners were simply making their way in and out of the park. Therefore, I can tell that this is a key spot on the outside of the park where people are posting their content or tagging their current location upon either entering or exiting.

Spot 2:

The next highly dense heat spot happened to hover around Kensington Palace: Above: Cierra’s photo of Kensington Palace Not to my surprise when digging through the data on Pulsar and composing this area on the coordinates graph, this was indeed a photo taking hot spot. I found a surprisingly high amount of snaps looking just like the photo that I had captured (see below). Above: photo samples from Pulsar's dataset

Spot 3:

Spot 3 has proven to be another popular photo opportunity of The Prince Albert Memorial on the edge of Hyde Park:

Above: Cierra’s photo of The Prince Albert Memorial I found a huge amount of other people’s photos capturing the same statue and some photos again even mimicking the same angle of my own! Above: photo samples taken from the dataset

Spot 4:

The next area I chose to investigate was the southeast region of the Serpentine lake. Near the end of the lake, there is a restaurant located in that exact location of the largest amount of traction called the Serpentine Bar & Kitchen. Unlike the other hotspots I had recovered, I couldn’t imagine that this restaurant could attract as much visual attraction as a palace or royal statue. And of course, from what I discovered from deep diving into the data, I was correct.

Above: Cierra’s photo of the Serpentine Bar & Kitchen A large sample of the data from this area along the lake contained photos of either people taking photos of the lake from inside of the bar & kitchen (while they were dining) or pictures of food and drinks they were enjoying inside. Most photos from this location proved to be lake views capturing the park's wildlife and scenery. Above: photo samples taken from the dataset

Spot 5:

Spot 5 showed to be a repeat of spot 1. It’s simply a high traffic entrance where park goers are wildly making their way in and out of Hyde Park.

Spot 6:

The selection process for my last location was completely random, although it was close to the other hotspots I investigated. So why was their no traction in that area? Answer: there was simply nothing of interest. Just regular running and jogging paths with no reason for the public to take or upload photos. Above: Cierra’s photo of Hyde Park Separate to so many datasets, it was a truly different experience to bring a real life perception to the graph that gave me insight about people’s geolocation habits in and around Hyde Park. Visiting the park myself with the Pulsar coordinate location graph as my guide, it's enabled understanding into audience behaviours between what people enjoy photographing and sharing online and where they choose to disclose their location. I’ve discovered what the top favourite tourist attractions are and what elements (and even photo angle) of the attraction they liked to capture. Although some spots within the park showed high levels of geolocation activity, it had no relevance to the exact location beyond a place where people chose to share their content. Hyde Park has proven to be simply a silent and fresh-aired escape within the fast paced hustle and bustle of everyday London life! Interested in tracking conversations and bringing them to life with geolocational data? To learn more about our strategy for tracking data and gaining insight, reach out to our team at Info@Pulsarplatform.com.

Meet us at... 'Analysing Images in Social Media' at Sentiment Symposium, 15 July

Ed — Thu, 25 Jun 2015 12:01:28 +0000

Our VP of Product, Francesco D'Orazio (@abc3d) is off to the New York for the Sentiment Analysis Symposium on 15-16 July 2015. The event aims to help you discover business value through analysing opinions, emotions and attitudes in social media. Fran will be speaking about Visual Social as part of the presentation track on 15 July at 9.25am. Alongside Fran, there are many fascinating speakers - we've picked out a few highlights:

Predictive nature of social media Inferring demographics from Social Data, Rohini Srihari, Chief Scientist at SmartFocus
Providing direction to the fashion industry based on online sentiment's deviations from expert-anointed colors, Bethany Bengtson, Analyst at Bottlenose.
A predictive model of social/content effectiveness, Jason Moriber, Executive Director at Verizon Wireless
Emojineering at Instagram, Thomas Dimson, Software Engineer at Instagram

Registration for the conference is still open and you can buy tickets here.

*

Learn about how to make sense of visual data with Pulsar's Instagram Integration and new Content feature. Also look at our research study 'How Stuff Spreads #1 - Gangnam Style vs Harlem Shake', which analyzes how visual content is spread online. If you're attending Sentiment Symposium and want to schedule a meeting with Francesco, follow this link to his calendar and choose your time slot. Interested in learning more about image analysis in social media or you want Francesco to talk at your conference, send him an email: Francesco@Pulsarplatform.com.

Meet us at... The Digital Economy's Web Science and Big Data Analytics, 13 July

Ed — Thu, 02 Jul 2015 14:09:01 +0000

Our VP of Product, Francesco D'Orazio (@abc3d) will share his social data knowledge with postgraduate students at The Digital Economy's Web Science and Big Data Analytics event at the University of Southampton on Monday 13 July. Fran will present 'Social Data Stories: 6 research approaches to make the most of social data', followed by a Q&A session and a discussion around starting a business using social media. The programme is a 3-day event, hosted by Web Science Centre for Doctoral Training, and will welcome speakers from industry and academia. Throughout the event experts will share insights and inspirational pieces of work, with a focus on future trends in web science. They say, "The Web increasingly provides a vehicle for diverse elements of modern society ranging from gaming to business, government to education and from crime to policing. This is an unprecedented opportunity to gain insight into the ways in which technologies like the Web helps citizens and developers to create new lifestyles and to observe new behaviours." * Interested in learning more about in social data research approaches? Or just want Fran to talk at your conference? Get in touch at Francesco@Pulsarplatform.com.

Webinar: Using Facebook's New Topic Data for Marketing Insight

Jess — Fri, 03 Jul 2015 11:42:18 +0000

With 1.44 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the world's largest digital platform - and it's where many brands make their biggest digital marketing investment. Now for the first time, the big picture of consumer activity across Facebook is available for marketing insight through new anonymised and aggregated Facebook topic data.

This fixes what had been a huge blindspot in marketing analytics, offering brand and campaign planners an ability to gain powerful insight and creative inspiration from the things people share on Facebook when it come to brands, events and categories.

Join us for a Q&A with Datasift's Tim Barker and Pulsar's Francesco D'Orazio to get insights into:

How to use this data to inspire campaigns and content
Measuring consumers' interests and needs
Understanding different demographics
Case studies of topic data in action on major US & UK brands

Interested? Just click to register for the webinar on Monday 27 July at 5pm BST / 12pm EDT. If you want to find out more about Facebook Topic Data but you can't make the webinar, we're happy to give you a demo. Just email Info@PulsarPlatform.com to arrange a time that's convenient for you.

Trends in social media #1 – commercialising Snapchat

Ed — Fri, 17 Jul 2015 10:36:08 +0000

As social media evolves, the main challenge it’s faced with is how to generate revenue, commercialising the product without losing its ‘free’ price tag or users. The answer: to create enough advertising space the cash flow creeps up. Facebook is a prime example of a social network that has done this, and done it well. The company turned over $12 billion last year and are now worth over $200 billion – the reason being they have 1.44 billion people using their product. Greg McFarlane wrote an article recently, which highlights how social media generates money. McFarlane looks at it this way: “If you’re not paying for the product, the product is you” If Facebook asked us to pay a subscription fee of, let’s say $5 a year (what everyone makes for them through advertisements) then we are no longer the product, but simply the user. To exaggerate this point, McFarlane notes Twitter’s main goal, as stated in last years’ SEC filing, is “to attract advertisers to our platform and increase the amount that advertisers spend with us"[and]"to improve user monetization, including advertising revenue per timeline view." The longevity of social media is down to whether or not networks can commercialise the product by attracting advertisers. The most interesting, relevant use case of this happening right now is Snapchat. This app is commercialising its business in more creative ways than any others and I think it’s worth talking about. Here is three ways Snapchat are doing this: 1. Discover – “this is not social media” Earlier this year, the self-destructing messaging app evolved the storytelling format by teaming up with “world-class leaders” in media to build an extension app that puts the story first. Snapchat partnered with Sky News, Daily Mail, VICE, Cosmopolitan, and MTV to form Discover. Visually leading, it was developed with creatives in mind and to serve the arts. Bringing the news directly to your phone is nothing new, but it has completely reinvented Snapchat. By providing its media partners with an audience of 100 million daily users, the app has capitalized on its user-base. Twitter and Facebook have lead the way when it comes to turning the network into a news source, but Snapchat’s transformation is one of the most exciting social media developments this year. 2. Joint marketing ventures with WPP & Daily Mail Expanding the way people use Snapchat is one way of monetizing a free platform, another would be to create joint marketing ventures with other media companies. Last week it was announced that advertising conglomerate WPP, Daily Mail and Snapchat would form a new company, called Truffle Pig, which will create social content for brands. Truffle Pig “is the latest attempt to capitalize on a desire among marketers for campaigns that reach young consumers [millennials] and look less like traditional ads.” What is this company’s unique selling point? Daily Mail’s news coverage, WPP’s advertising knowledge, and yes, you guessed it, Snapchat’s social reach. 3. Branded content on the platform Another announcement made this year from Snapchat HQ was its partnership with McDonald’s. Snapchat is again able to utilize its mass users base by introducing branded geofiltered stickers– McDonald’s being the first to go all-in. It’s about consumer engagement and that is why this kind of subtle advertising will win over millennials and be a success for Snapchat. As a millennial, there is a reason why Snapchat is my network of choice, and it’s not because of self-destructing photos. It’s the geolocated stories – I can travel to Sao Paulo or Jakarta, Sydney or New York without getting on a plane, I can watch the top VICE stories on my commute to work, and I can tap into key events like Glastonbury, Coachella or Notting Hill Carnival effortlessly. The future of social media relies heavily on capitalising a network’s users and Snapchat is doing this in the most innovative way – it knows its audience and more importantly how to make money out of them. Remember, we’re the product, not the other way round. * Interested in adding social media analysis to your marketing strategy, or you'd like to see Pulsar's full capabilities, book yourself a demo by emailing: Info@Pulsarplatform.com.

Interview with Francesco D'Orazio: "Machine-Learning Meaning in a Visual Social World"

admin — Mon, 13 Jul 2015 13:16:56 +0000

“Images are way more complex cultural artifacts than words. Their semiotic complexity makes them way trickier to study than words and without proper qualitative understanding they can prove very misleading.” So how do you gain proper qualitative understanding of an image in social media? Francesco D'Orazio, our VP of Product, is speaking at the Sentiment Analysis Symposium in New York this week (details here). In the run-up to the event, conference organiser Seth Grimes has just published a Q&A with Fran on his blog, Breakthrough Analysis, which turned into a fascinating 2400 word discussion on image analysis technologies, semiotics, building social data products and a lot more. Read it on Seth's blog... Or read on for highlights:

How do we make sense of images?

"Images are literally in your face, but they are way less explicit than text. They represent the world at a much higher definition, which most of the times means they’re packing multiple threads of meaning which can or cannot be intertwined to the main narrative. Humans are really good at dealing with that mess selectively, iteratively, hierarchically, and very quickly because we’re good at story-making. We’re good at making assumptions and infer[ring] things."

What good is semiotics?

"Semiotics is the closest thing we have in qualitative methods to the way machine learning works: extracting features from an image and then studying the occurrence and co-occurrence of those features in order to formulate a prediction"

What's new in Pulsar?

"We’re planning the release of Pulsar Vision, a suite of 6 different tools for visual analysis within Pulsar ranging from extracting text from an image, identifying the most representative image in a news article, blog post or forum thread, [to] face detection, similarity clustering, and contextual analysis" Expect "statistical mood-boards" coming September 2015, using the same kind of neural network techniques as produced the hallucinatory animal-infested images from Google engineers last month.

And what does it take to do your job?

"Being good at product means constantly cultivating, questioning, and shaping the vision of the industry you’re in, while at the same time being extremely attentive to the details of the execution of your product roadmap. Ideas are cheap and can be easily copied. You make the real difference when you execute them well." Read the full interview here. Off to the Sentiment Analysis Symposium? Say hello to Fran on Twitter (@abc3d) or book some time in his calendar for a chat. Or get more big ideas from Fran here:

Why Facebook Topic Data is a game-changer for the marketing and research industries
7 big ideas about researching images in social media from Fran & the Visual Social Media Lab
Heavy, messy, misleading. Why Big Data is a human problem, not a technology one

Summer work experience opportunities with Pulsar

Ed — Wed, 22 Jul 2015 12:43:58 +0000

Are you interested in learning about the runnings of a commercial team for a top social media monitoring tool? We’re excited to announce that we are looking for a work experience placement to come in for 2-3 weeks over the summer holidays. You’ll be working closely with the Global Sales Director to help him manage his calendar, book meetings, and general day-to-day duties. You’ll also have the chance to shadow the team on meetings with clients and prospects to receive a full 360-degree view of how a commercial team functions. We’re looking for someone who wants to get a head start in the world of business. If you’re eager to get vital experience under your belt and temporarily join the world of sales then we want to hear from you. No experience is necessary, all we want is a willingness to learn and the ability to communicate clearly and compellingly, in writing (email) and on the phone. If you know anyone you think will benefit from a work experience placement at Pulsar, or this sounds like something you’re interested in then please send an email to: James.Cuthbertson@Pulsarplatform.com.

Meet us at... Supa Academy’s Supa Market, Friday 24 July

Ed — Wed, 22 Jul 2015 16:43:42 +0000

In May we announced our partnership with Supa Academy, a social enterprise on a mission to develop skills in young adults taking their first steps in business. Since then we have been working together to track the social momentum behind Supa Academy - the brand and event – through identifying influencers and social reach. This is a great opportunity for us to understand conversations around entrepreneurship and help educate young people on how social data can drive business. This weekend, Supa Academy will host its first event. Retail Hack will see 500 young entrepreneurs set up a pop-up supermarket and an e-commerce platform in The Old Truman Brewery on Brick Lane in East London. On Friday we will be in the Brain Room from 10am-2pm to consult, advise, inform and speak to the Supa Partners – we will also demo Pulsar to show the platform’s capabilities. This is an opportunity for participants to gain insight into how Pulsar works and discuss how social data can be used to educate. If this sounds like something you’re interested in you can still register for Saturday & Sunday. If you can’t make it, Supa Acadmey will be live streaming the event here and we’ll be live tweeting throughout Friday on @Pulsar_Social. Why are we doing this? As a digital start-up ourselves, we like to step outside of the commercial realm occasionally to recognise and support other challenger brands. When Supa Academy organisers Liam and Bejay told us they want to change the way people think and work with young people, we sat up and listened. We want to be involved in any enterprise that is looking to change the landscape for young people and provide a service, which not only develops business skills and entrepreneurial drive, but also understands exactly who their target audience is. Bejay and Liam are their own target audience – the difference is they’ve already done it, and are now sharing their knowledge with likeminded others. Find out more about Supa Academy here. #EarnAsYouLearn #BackTheHack If you want to learn more about how we’re going to #BackTheHack or you would like a demo, send an email to: Info@PulsarPlatform.com.

Chatting through Pictures? The first Visual Social Media Lab report

Ed — Wed, 29 Jul 2015 12:28:22 +0000

As we announced last year, we joined forces with 4 UK academic institutions to co-found the Visual Social Media Lab, a research programme which is dedicated to studying the impact of social media images. The Lab's most recent paper, 'Chatting through Pictures? A Classification of Images Tweeted in one week in the UK and USA' was released this week - we thought we'd publish a preview. Our VP of Product, Francesco D'Orazio (@abc3d) has been working alongside academics from University of Sheffield, Manchester School of Arts, Warwick University and the University of Wolverhampton to understand how images are used online. Over the past year Visual Social Media Lab has been working on various projects focussed on analysing social media images, these include: The Death of Thatcher on Social Media, Imaging Sheffield, and Algorithmic Visibility, among others. Below is an excerpt taken from the 'Chatting through Pictures?' paper - it gives an overview of the study and an introduction into the analysis of social media images (you can also read the full paper here):

Abstract

Twitter is used by a substantial minority of the populations of many countries to share short messages, sometimes including images. Nevertheless, despite some research into specific images, such as selfies, and a few news stories about specific tweeted photographs, little is known about the types of images that are routinely shared. In response, this article reports a content analysis of random samples of 800 images tweeted from the UK or USA during a week at the end of 2014. Although most images were photographs, a substantial minority were hybrid or layered image forms: phone screenshots, collages, captioned pictures, and pictures of text messages. About half were primarily of one or more people, including 10% that were selfies, but a wide variety of other things were also pictured. Some of the images were for advertising or to share a joke but in most cases the purpose of the tweet seemed to be to share the minutiae of daily lives, performing the function of chat or gossip, sometimes in innovative ways. [caption id="attachment_1705" align="aligncenter" width="886"] Random US and UK Twitter images categorised by type.[/caption]

Introduction

Sharing images through social media is common in richer nations. In 2012, 45% of adult internet users in the USA had posted their own photographs online (67% of those aged 18- 29) and 35% had shared photographs created by others (52% of those aged 18-29) (Rainie, Brenner, & Purcell, 2012). In the USA in 2013, 17% of adults on the internet used Twitter and 71% used Facebook, both of which can be used to share pictures, and 16% used the image sharing site Instagram (Duggan & Smith, 2013). In the UK in 2013, 70% of adults involved in online activities reported sharing images (Dutton, Blank, & Groselj, 2013) and it seems likely that by the end of 2014 the majority of people using internet in both countries had shared images online. Images are particularly likely to get retweeted in Twitter, and hence seem to be an important component of its ecosystem (Rogers, 2014). These statistics, however, do not reveal anything about what types of images are shared and why they are shared. Press coverage of Twitter sometimes focuses on celebrity users or on public tweets in reaction to major events and news stories. Although there are instances in which the role of images in these activities drew a significant amount of attention (Vis et al., 2013), research projects dedicated to high-profile cases, such as misogynistic abuse on Twitter of Criado-Perez and other women campaigners for a woman to appear on a UK banknote do not necessarily focus on the role and nature of images in these events. While tweeting is a convenient way to share more traditional family or party photography, such everyday image-sharing seems to be overlooked in comparison to the high profile uses of Twitter. This is a serious omission because without this context it is impossible to fully evaluate the significance of the adaptations of visual culture within social media and the birth of the new phenomena that do get noticed, such as photobombing. This context will also inform debates about how image-sharing practices feed into commercial and socio-political uses of images on Twitter. In response to the lack of general information about the types of images typically shared on social media, this article reports a content analysis of random samples of images tweeted in the USA and UK. Twitter was chosen as one of the most common social media services and one that is frequently used for image sharing. Twitter is also used to share images originally posted in other sites, such as Instagram, Pinterest, Flickr or Tumblr, giving it a central role in the image-sharing ecosystem. The UK and USA were chosen as they are amongst the biggest Twitter users (1st and 4th, according to Alexa.com in February, 2015) and are relatively similar in terms of shared languages and culture, allowing an interesting comparison. [caption id="attachment_1704" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Random US and UK Twitter images categorised by content[/caption] * To read the full report, follow this link. If you would like to demo Pulsar and experience its image analysis feature, please send an email to: Info@Pulsarplatform.com.

Facebook launches 'Hot Topics' using their new topic data

Ed — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 08:29:00 +0000

Facebook has started a monthly blog series called Hot Topics on the Facebook Insights page. The blog uses anonymised & aggregated Facebook Topic Data to delve into the most talked-about topics on Facebook in Australia, Canada, the UK and the US. Hot Topics shows how events, news and public figures have the power to unite people. The dataset taken from Hot Topics: June 2015 UK, is broken down into 5 categories:

Brands & Products
Entertainment
Holiday & Events
People
Sports

Each topic is then visualised through a volume graph showing when the topics peaked in each demographic (age and gender). Facebook topic data also shows who drove the conversation in a graph of 'nodes' - circles depicting the size of mentions around that topic.

Image by Facebook IQ The data in this graph shows how Glastonbury Festival dominated conversations amongst both men and women in June, and how the health of the Foo Fighters singer, Dave Grohl was a bigger concern to women than to men. Men continued with conversations around football, gaming and Apple and Samsung. It's also worth noting that younger Facebook users posted about the reboot of Jurassic Park, whereas older users discussed the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta. One advantage of the Hot Topics series is that you can compare country datasets and see each country's main areas of conversation.

Image by Facebook IQ Facebook report that during June in the US, Donald Trump was a key topic of conversation, whilst in the UK discussion was focused on the death of Christopher Lee. By looking at the two graphs you can see the differences from the node sizes – Donald Trump didn’t even appear in the UK. In the US alone, the Women’s Football World Cup was main topic in driving women’s conversations. General Mills was also one of the most discussed brands in June with many Americans turning to Facebook to express their thoughts after the company announced it would remove artificial ingredients from its foods. What's the value of this information? As Facebook note: "Marketers who keep a pulse on current events can develop activations and content that strengthen their connections to the people who matter to their brand. After all, the topics that unite people around the world often present opportunities for people to unite with brands" Read the full Facebook blog post here If you'd like to request a Facebook Topic Data demo and see its full capabilities in our platform, please send an email to: Info@PulsarPlatform.com.

Webinar: Using Pulsar to mine Facebook Topic Data, 12 August

Ed — Mon, 03 Aug 2015 16:45:40 +0000

After the popularity of our webinar 'Using Facebook's New Topic Data for Marketing Insight' on 27 July, we've decided that we'd host it again on Wednesday 12 August, 4pm BST, for those who couldn't join us the first time. Sign up here. What's the webinar about? With 1.44 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the world’s largest digital platform - and it’s where many brands make their biggest digital marketing investment. Now for the first time, the big picture of consumer activity across Facebook is available for marketing insight through new anonymised and aggregated Facebook topic data. This fixes what had been a huge blindspot in marketing analytics, offering brand and campaign planners an ability to gain powerful insight and creative inspiration from the things people share on Facebook when it come to brands, events and categories. Join us for a Q&A with Pulsar’s Francesco D’Orazio & Jess Owens to get insights into:

How to use this data to inspire campaigns and content
Measuring consumers’ interests and needs
Understanding different demographics
Case studies of topic data in action on major US & UK brands

Interested? Just click to register for the webinar on Wednesday 12 August at 4pm BST / 11am EDT. Image by Facebook IQ If you want to find out more about Facebook Topic Data but you can’t make the webinar, we’re happy to give you a demo. Just email Info@PulsarPlatform.com to arrange a time that’s convenient for you.

#classy: taste, status and performative hashtags on Instagram

Jess — Wed, 05 Aug 2015 18:00:14 +0000

Hashtags are getting a bit much these days. [Source: @TopDeckTravel] People are appending anything up to 50 hashtags to their Instagram posts, carefully researching the most popular hashtags, or formulating individual strategies (here's a travel blogger explaining hers). Hashtags are a search tool, providing a way to make your content discoverable by people who don't already know or follow you. In this way, they're a means of getting attention - and therefore status - in the endless popularity contest that's metric-driven social media. Excessive hashtag use may be a bid for Instacelebrity, and the ensuing Instacash - with reports of top style bloggers earning $1m per year, and an estimated $1 billion sponsored Instagram post economy - or a sheer addiction to the dopamine hit of the 'like' count ticking upward. But as a matter of taste, it all looks... a little grasping. This is of course a purely subjective opinion, and one I'll later turn round and argue against. What I really want to do is claim that this issue of tastefulness is interesting for the insight it gives us into status, authenticity and communicating 'premiumness' in social media. French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu argues that judgements of taste are the means by which social class is enacted and lived:

"Taste classifies, and it classifies the classifier. Social subjects, classified by their classifications, distinguish themselves by the distinctions they make, between the beautiful and the ugly, the distinguished and the vulgar, in which their position in the objective classifications [class structure] is expressed or betrayed" -- Bourdieu, 'Distinction' (1979), p.6

From Bourdieu we might also take away the notion that criticizing cultural taste is classist and divisive (and thereby resolve not to do it in person). Professionally, however, understanding status distinction is the bread and butter of what we do as brand & communications strategists. So let's look at how this plays out with regard to the hashtag. Let's start from the principle that hashtag usage is often a bid for attention - you want your content to be discoverable, for more people to see it (and hopefully like it). But visibly betraying a desire for attention is a sign of neediness - and neediness is low status (you are dependent on other people's behaviour to define your self worth). Therefore: Hypothesis: High status brands don't use hashtags extensively Evidence: We find @ChanelOfficial using hashtags, but with two constraints:

A maximum of three per post, often only one
Almost entirely 'owned' hashtags based on their campaign names

We note the same with high-status Instagram bloggers such as Chiara Ferragni, aka The Blonde Salad (4.2m followers): one hashtag per post, and it's one she owns. But not every brand - or individual - is desiring to be 'premium'. The tyranny of good taste, and all that. The confidence to break rules is the essence of cool - therefore: Hypothesis: when it comes to hashtags, disrupting "classy" usage in various ways is itself a signifier of cool The challenge: finding this stuff. VICE, for example, is the kind of account I'd expect to be doing 'hipster Instagram' - but no ironic hashtagging there, in fact no hashtags at all (I guess it's trying to be taken seriously nowadays). Instead I'll take as my example the artist Amelia Ulman & her "Insta-scam of the century". NYMag.com summarises her project:

"In April [2014], she began studying the profiles of the most popular “sugar babies” and “ghetto girls” on the internet to learn their language, hashtags, and selfie styles. Then, between May and August, Ulman enacted her own persona and amassed close to 65,000 followers on Instagram."

It's a fascinating piece playing with storytelling on Instagram to talk about fame, cultural capital, and the plasticity of the self. But what's relevant here is how Ulman used Instagram hashtags not only to grow her audience but to communicate a certain type of character:

"How did you get so many “likes” and followers in such a short period of time? It is easy to increase the likes by using shortcuts to popularity, like following the trending topics. If you are using the Photoshopped image of a woman and a bunch of popular hashtags, the likes are going to go up." -- NYMag.com

So in she went with the full array of #blessed hashtags - #gratitude! #healthy! #namaste! - all tropes of the 2014 'Basic Bitch' meme, the vacuous all-American girl who's into pumpkin spice lattes, Ugg boots and other hyper-mainstream, hyper-uncool pleasures. The likes followed. [Source: @amaliaulman] That's one example of putatively 'tasteless' hashtagging being used ironically, even artistically, to ultimately do something cool. Another, slightly different example, comes from the 'Abou Diouf' migrant Instagram account recently revealed to be a fake promoting a film. The BBC notes how the apparently lack of #authenticity in his hashtag usage did, in retrospect, look like a tell-tale sign all was not as it seemed:

"A handful of clues caused many to doubt its authenticity, however. For one thing, "Diouf" had a remarkable grip on which hashtags to use to promote his trip. Phrases like #Swag, #LovingLife, #InstaLovers and #IllegalDreamer appeared under all of his photos"

Now, I'd argue that African migrants are using the same Instagram as the rest of us so why wouldn't they identify how its social norms operate? Self-promotion is built into the very metric-driven nature of the platform, as Benjamin Grosser has argued ('What Do Metrics Want?' 2014) The tell-tale sign here is, instead, that the BBC has got a notion of what tasteful or acceptable Instagram hashtagging is for an African migrant - and #swag is not it!

Conclusions: knowing artifice in social media performance

High status social media usage often demands that the labour of working at one's social media persona be concealed. As with beauty, status is something one is supposed to attain effortlessly - and should the frantic paddling below the surface be revealed, that is vulgar, a faux pas. This is why Kim Kardashian is so interesting - because she, almost uniquely, does not pretend she #wokeuplikethis, but instead makes the artifice of her social media persona not only evident but into a published art photography book, the brilliantly entitled 'Selfish'. In this way, Kardashian (and also Amalia Ulman,) make the 'Oh me? I'm not self-promoting' hashtaglessness of Chiara Ferragni et al. look like the studied pose it really is. Hyperproliferating hashtag useage is thus interesting as one potential tactic to invert social media 'good taste'. Why do I think this worth doing? Two reasons. First, branding: it's ironic, knowing, aesthetically offensive - and other brands aren't doing it. So it feels like a tactic some smart agency ought to get on and run with. Yet more broadly and culturally, I like this tactic because I feel it's disruptive. By playing with taste, it exposes and refuses the paradoxical norms we're supposed to live by in social - having public 'like' and follower counts but not being attention-seeking; posting selfies without seeming vain; and engaging in constant self-branding while decrying it. Refusing social media isn't a solution for many of us - so exposure, irony and play must be.

What Facebook Topic Data means for the PR industry. Fran D’Orazio talks to PR Moments

Ed — Mon, 03 Aug 2015 16:47:01 +0000

Our VP Product, Francesco D'Orazio (@abc3d) has written an article for PR Moment on 'What Facebook Topic Data means for the PR Industry'. After partnering with DataSift to gain access to Facebook topic data we have been able to work on client briefs using this new source of data. Over the past month Fran had the chance to work with various PR firms using Facebook topic data, allowing him to understand how much the landscape has changed in the PR industry since the inception of social media. Below are extracts from the PR Moment article - detailing how social media as evolved the PR industry and what to expect from the availability of this new data. Read the full article here. Image by Facebook IQ "Over the last 15 years social media has radically changed the way PR works. It influences the way a message is broadcasted, how the results of a campaign are measured and how the strategy of a campaign is planned." Social media data allows PR firms to identify where they should be broadcasting their messages, it provides detailed information on which audiences are talking about certain topics, and where those conversations can be found. "The complexity of the PR job has increased. However, the constant flow of social data from the audiences we’re trying to reach promises to help reduce part of that complexity and take some of the guesswork out of the equation." Fran identifies that the role within a PR team may have become more complicated, but social data creates solid proof of where they should be focusing their campaign in order to get their messages heard. “Today, reaching the media as a proxy of the audience you’re interested in is only one of the components of a good PR strategy. PR teams now also have to focus on engaging audiences directly through the social channels.” Fran concludes the article by sharing five PR firm Facebook topic data use cases he found most useful so far. Read the full article here. If you’re interested in Facebook Topic Data we’d love to give you demo, please send an email to: Info@PulsarPlatform.com. Alternatively, we are hosting a webinar ‘Using Pulsar to mine Facebook Topic Data’, 12 August. Sign up here.

Pulsar launches instant historical data from every public Tweet

Ed — Wed, 12 Aug 2015 13:18:55 +0000

We're excited to announce that Pulsar now offers instant access to nine years' worth of Twitter. This means the newly integrated Full-Archive Search API now allows you to instantly search for any tweet ever produced, back to the very first one in 2006: The first ever tweet - it could be in your dataset! The social data company Gnip, acquired by Twitter last year, has launched an instant access firehose of Twitter data - the full archive. This means you can broaden your searches and go deeper into the data you pull back. With this data you can go back in time to see how opinions have changed across different topics, for example: Compare changes in attitudes towards climate change – do increased patterns of extreme weather correlate with the way people talk about the environment on Twitter? The LBGT community is now widely accepted around the world with gay marriage being made legal in most of Europe and the Americas. With the full archive Twitter data we can now go back to 2006 and see how people’s perceptions and opinions on gay marriage differed from now. Nutritional education has come along way in nine years, with people taking a greater interest in what they eat. Has the way people are talking about obesity changed? With this new data we can see how discussions around health and weight has developed. Contact our sales team on Info@Pulsarplatform.com to request a demo now!

What does this mean for Pulsar users?

As per Twitter's blog 'Instant and complete access to every historical public Tweet', the new API allows you to:

Inform a new product launch by instantly analyzing nine years of previous launch conversations
Create instant real-time Twitter data activity benchmarks for a new advertising campaign based on historical volumes
Provide instant historical Tweet insights to new customers of analytics solutions
Explore historical Twitter activity for context when responding to customer service inquiries

How does this look on Pulsar?

Data volume previews for Historics load pretty much instantly
When you run the Historics, Twitter data will appear in your search much faster. Just give us the time to enrich it with our custom topics, sentiment and all the other augmentations we use!
Geo-located queries for Twitter data will be only available for realtime searches at first. You can still set Country filters on Twitter historics searches, based on user profile data - you just can't specify that you want only geolocated tweets.

Our customers are now able to delve deeper into Twitter and produce even more valuable insights from nine years' worth of social media buzz, brands and big events. This is a powerful feature and we can't wait to see the outputs that come from having access to this data. If you want to explore the power of Twitter's Full-Archive Search API, book a demo now by emailing us at Info@Pulsarplatform.com.

Social Data Signals, Y1 W9

Ed — Fri, 14 Aug 2015 13:45:29 +0000

Here’s a slice from the eighth issue of Social Data Signals newsletter from Pulsar’s Jess Owens & Francesco D’Orazio. If you like what you see, subscribe by following this link and get the newsletter direct to your inbox every week. This week we thought we’d share the top five articles – clicked on by our readers.

1. Inside an Instagram Bot Farm [VICE Motherboard] - 9% of readers clicked

People want Instagram followers so much, they don’t care if they’re bots—because when it comes to social media, appearances are reality.

2. A visual atlas of happiness [Visual Social Media Lab] - 9%

Fran's project applying automated visual analytics tools to every image tagged #happy on Instagram

3. The Not-So-Universal Language of Laughter [Facebook] - 6%

Lol is for the olds, emojis are for girls, and other insights from the social behemoth.

4. Using Algorithms to Determine Character [NYTimes] - 6%

"Is data-driven personality analysis fairer than standard measures?" A series of 24 year old start-up founders argue it is...

5. Tinder's Twitter 'Meltdown' Appears to Have Been a Planned PR Stunt [AdWeek] - 6%

Putting this here as a note to how thirsty brands are getting for social media buzz... If you want to receive the full newsletter this week direct to your inbox, please sign up here. Also, if you have any feedback, suggestions or articles you’d like to see in the newsletter, please contact Fran and Jess by using the hashtag #smartdata on Twitter.

Facebook topic data: your questions answered

Ed — Thu, 13 Aug 2015 17:33:19 +0000

Last week our VP Product, Fran D'Orazio (@abc3d) and Associate Research Director, Jess Owens (@hautepop) hosted the webinar 'Using Pulsar to mine Facebook Topic Data'. During this session, we were thrilled by the amount of questions we received from attendees. The questions were relevant and likely asked by many who are thinking about adding Facebook Topic Data to their data plan - as a result, we have listed and answered them below:

Everything you want to know about Facebook Topic Data

Q1. How is language covered (translations)? Facebook Topic Data is available in six languages for sentiment and topics: English, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, German and French - across 55 countries. As Facebook continues to roll out topic data they will begin to open its availability to more languages and across a bigger selection of countries. Q2. Are Topics defined by text only or is there image coding as well? Topics are analysed by Facebook directly and based on text mining - but our developers are currently working on image content analytics for all public data sources, so watch this space! Q3. Is this Facebook functionality available now? Yes! Pulsar launched Facebook Topic Data in June 2015. To find out more about the launch and of what this new feature adds, read our blog post here. Q4. Are these conversations just on the Page or are they any conversation about the brand on Facebook? Facebook Topic Data analyses interactions on the whole of Facebook, including Pages of course, but also people's status updates too. Q5. Are the taxonomies built via the user creating Boolean queries? Taxonomies to categorise the conversation on a topic can be built in two ways: on Pulsar using queries in Clusters (which do use Boolean queries, yes), or on DataSift using the Vedo machine learning engine which is plugged into Pulsar. Q6. How can you get the automotive chart? [The chart showed interest car models by gender.] You can build one like that in Clusters using the demographics variables and the features taxonomy. Q7. Would increasing the amount of data into your searches affect the cost of the service? You can access Facebook Topic Data for free within your current data allowance and according to your data allowance limits. Q7.1. If you're on an unlimited service (with Pulsar), but still have a fair policy - how much data could you get before having to restrict your search? This depends on the type of unlimited account and allowance you're on, the best call is always to speak to your account manager to clarify. Q8. How do you use machine learning if you can't see the posts? Do you have to do it via non Facebook posts? You can train the model on Super Public posts which will be made available soon. Watch this space! Q9. Data is great - but how can we use it to target potential customers? A great question and one which has been asked by many, we're sure. Use demographics to segment your audience, understand them better and tailor strategies, creative, and propositions to be more relevant and engaging to specific portions of that audience. * If you want to find out more about Facebook Topic Data but you can’t make the webinar, we’re happy to give you a demo. Just email Info@PulsarPlatform.comto arrange a time that’s convenient for you.

Pulsar How To: Set up a Topic Search

Ed — Wed, 26 Aug 2015 11:45:01 +0000

This is the first in a new blog series where I’ll take you through different features on Pulsar - a step-by-step guide to show you how simple and easy the platform is to use. This week we’re talking Topic Search. Topic searches are the heart of social media monitoring. They're where the industry started: allowing marketers and analysts to understand what millions of people think about particular brands, issues and events. Think of it like a Google search for the social web: what are people saying about the Chinese stock market? Donald Trump? The Notting Hill Carnival? Pulsar topic searches allow you to bring back all the discussion on these topics from across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, blogs, forums, review sites, news and more.

What can I use a social media topic search for?

Here are 3 ways Pulsar clients are using topics searches on the platform right now:

Daily brand monitoring: We’re working with an agency who’s tracking small alcohol beverage brand names to monitor daily conversation and to see how their own work is affecting what people say. This helps them monitor the success of their community management & advertising efforts.
Understanding the hearing loss category: A charity is using Pulsar to identify how people are talking about hearing loss issues such as ringing in the ears, and tinnitus. They'll use this information (who, what, where, when) to expand the scope of their deafness communications to reach this wider, as-yet-unmet audience, who may not realise that what they're experiencing are "hearing loss" issues.
Finding influencers through social data: Another client is analysing data from September–December 2014 to identify people who decorate their house for Christmas. They’re using Pulsar to find people who eagerly want to decorate prior to Christmas and then they will contact them to be a part of a PR article where this person’s house will be decorated on behalf of the company. So topic searches are key to finding influencers too, not just brand & category insight.

You can also use Topic Searches to...

Monitor competitor brands
Campaign tracking & ROI measurement
Track breaking new trends and memes
Listen to conversation about your event or conference
Analyse the consumer journey, e.g. "path to purchase" language
and more!

How to set up a Topic Search

Getting started with a topic search on Pulsar is quick and easy - it usually takes just 5 minutes from start to finish. Here's what you do, step by step: Step 1 - Add your keywords After creating a title for your search you need to choose your keywords - the words, hashtags, and user handles that you're interested in. Pulsar will bring back all the messages that contain these keywords, according to the rules you set with Boolean logic. Keywords may be just your brand name, hashtags you're using in campaigns or your user handle... Or they can be a longer, more complex list if you are seeking to track particular consumer behaviours. Boolean syntax such as exact phrase searches and "AND" syntax enables you to search more granularly. What's key is to make sure you define your topic in the language that consumers naturally use. Quick tip: it's often helpful to type your prospective search terms into the Twitter search bar to check they'll bring back the type of results you want. Special keyword options Pulsar's "URL Keywords" feature is able to search for a keyword in a URL to help bring back more online content. For example, if your keyword is "BBC", you'll bring back a post if it's linking to the BBC.co.uk website, even if the message body doesn't mention the Beeb itself. With Instagram search set-up, you simply put in singular words, no hashtags and no 'AND' logic. You also have to create an Instagram token, to validate your access to this data source to the Instagram API. Pulsar will take you through this step if you need it. Step 2 – Blacklist irrelevant keywords Blacklisting is for you to block in any words you don’t want and block any domains you don’t want to show in your dataset. Doing this helps reduce the noise of your search - the more you can blacklist, the more relevant and clean your search will be. It’s worth noting that blacklist can be updated at a later stage, so you can remove spam from your search. Good keywords to blacklist can be hashtags that are particularly spammy, e.g. #deals, #offers, and #teamfollowback. Step 3 – Target your Topic Search The next screen you'll see is 'Target', which allows you fine-tune your search by specifying the countries, languages, social media channels and content types you want to receive data from. For example, create a search that's just for UK blog and forum data - or only brings back tweets that contain a hyperlink. If you want to conduct a global analysis you don’t have to use this step. However, if you’re working on a set subscription limit do define your target as this can help save mentions and reduce waste. Tip from the Account Management team: “Often if you geolocate you’ll find a higher proportion of consumer conversation, as geolocation can help reduce spam and noise from companies – automatically providing more personal data. It's a way to hear from everyday people over larger entities.” Step 4 - Check your search on the Summary page Now you have the ability to review your search set up and make any last minute changes. Once you’re happy with the search press the ‘Ok, create this search’ button. Step 5 – Set your search running in Real-Time or Historics This last screen in search set-up gives you the option to collect your data in two ways:

Real-time means you'll collect messages posted from that moment forwards, as they're created in social
Historics allows you to look back in time. We now have integrated the Full-Archive Twitter historics, which allow for instant access to data since Twitter's beginnings in 2006, and we've also got news, blogs & forums data to a similar vintage.

You can also combine the two to build a bigger dataset. Once you've set up the time period for data collection, that's it - you're done! Your search is running and you'll see data in the Pulsar dashboard within a few minutes. Happy analysing! * Learn more about using Topic Searches:

75% of our customers use Topic searches
Facebook Topic data now integrated into Pulsar topic searches
Using Media Queries in topic searches for more focused data

Then if you want to find out more about Topic Search or you’d like a full demo, please send an email to: Info@Pulsarplatform.com.

Social Data Signals, W10

Ed — Wed, 26 Aug 2015 13:39:18 +0000

Here’s a slice from the tenth issue of Social Data Signals newsletter from Pulsar’s Jess Owens & Francesco D’Orazio. If you like what you see, subscribe by following this link and get the newsletter direct to your inbox every week. This week we thought we’d share the top five articles – clicked on by our readers.

1. Why an Instagram tweak spells the beginning of a multibillion-dollar industry [Re/code] - 14% of readers clicked

"The network offers an uncommon blend of substance and style — Facebook-powered analytics plus fashion-mag aesthetics"

2. Identifying key personas in the world of Menswear on Instagram [Affinio] - 9%

Affinio offer an easy, automated way to understand the communities within a social media audience. It's incredibly useful.

3. Target’s Facebook Troll Incident Highlights the Importance of Social Listening [Social Media Today] - 8%

"Melgaard’s responses were so good, and he’s got so much attention as a result, that we’re likely to see copycats try to jump on similar big brand announcements."

4. Mobile Messaging and Social Media 2015 [Pew]- 7%

The rise of new communications models: "Half (49%) of smartphone owners ages 18 to 29 use messaging apps, while 41% use apps that automatically delete sent messages".

5. Faves [Medium] - 7%

“Hearts box you in on Twitter. Stars set you free.” Tressie McMillan Cottom writes brilliantly about Twitter's Android app switching from stars to heart icons for favourites. If you want to receive the full newsletter this week direct to your inbox, please sign up here. Also, if you have any feedback, suggestions or articles you’d like to see in the newsletter, please contact Fran and Jess by using the hashtag #smartdata on Twitter.

London’s Heatwave Hotspots: The best rooftop bars & restaurants – and how we used Pulsar to find them

sophie — Thu, 27 Aug 2015 15:28:49 +0000

In London, when the summer sun is out there is nothing better than sitting at a rooftop bar. That’s why during the heatwave in July, we tracked all mentions of #Rooftop across social media – to discover where the most talked-about rooftop bars & restaurants are in London. Using Pulsar’s geolocation feature, we filtered all mentions specific to London and visualised them in a heat map – allowing us to see where the greatest volume of posts were coming from. Think of it as ‘Social Data’s Summer Guide to London’

Where are the best rooftop spaces in London?

Pulsar's geolocation heat map reveals London's top rooftop bars (above), a breakdown of all rooftops with the most mentions (below) After identifying rooftop locations with the most mentions, I thought it’d be interesting to delve deeper into the dataset, to see what drives conversation on this topic.

Does the day of the week and temperature correlate with rooftop bar chatter?

Activity graph; showing reach and sentiment combined with a weather calendar On Wednesday 1^st July 2015, the mercury crept up to a scorching 37C. But looking at the chart, it’s only after that record-breaking temperature was reached that the volume of rooftop bar discussion climbed – peaking two days later on the Friday, driving people’s anticipation for weekend drinks. As the weekend drew to a close and the heat eased off , interest in #rooftop topics simmered down. But again, the week after, conversation picked up on the Thursday – despite the temperature being only 23C. So we reckon that bar buzz is primarily driven by the weekly nightlife cycle – and super-sunny weather only provides the cherry on top. In order to identify this relationship on Pulsar I combined multiple line graphs as seen above. By looking at Reach alongside Sentiment, we gained a clear indication that the buzz across multiple channels in preparation for the weekend was mostly about sharing around “Best Of” lists, making recommendations of where to go, and exciting events linked to specific bars, pubs, or outdoor venues. An example of this was the promotion of i-D Magazine's Rooftop Party at the ACE Hotel, which had the highest Reach and a high level of engagement in comparison to the wider dataset.

What is driving rooftop conversation?

When initially deciding to create this search I thought women would be the key drivers of rooftop conversations alongside entities. My rationale for this was that women are most likely to do more research on such topics and spread discussions organically amongst friends. However, to my surprise, it ended up being men and online magazines companies, many of which were travel industry related, that proved most engaging and active across social. For example, companies such as Conde Nast Traveler, Bazaar UK, i-D Magazine, and The Londonist received the most traction by using three common elements:

Posting on Twitter
Sharing images or links
One of two keywords sets: Best and Rooftop or Rooftop Party

By having a combination of these features included in one tweet it attracted their audience to react more and increased the spread significantly versus any other content sent out. Where do men come into the conversation? Despite men being the most prevalent audience with 67% of the discussion, none of them had the reach to be as impactful as the travel and media companies. Hugo Taylor, former Made In Chelsea star, was one of the only male influencers - gaining over 50k reach for his tweet about Madison’s Rooftop. This shows that smaller conversations were actually happening both at known locations such as Madison’s and peoples own rooftop house parties, which is what drove the share of voice to be so high for men. Analysing the rooftop dataset is another example of how powerful Pulsar is, and shows the value of insight our users gain. Geolocated data in particular enables us to determine such clear cut locations of discussion, and in this case identify the most popular rooftop bars and restaurants in London. * Interested in exploring this kind of dataset and so much more, book yourself a demo with Pulsar by emailing Info@Pulsarplatform.com.

Pulsar How To: Set up Cluster Charts

Cierra — Thu, 10 Sep 2015 08:15:43 +0000

This is the second in a new blog series where we will take you through different features on Pulsar – a step-by-step guide to show you how simple and easy the platform is to use. This week we’re talking about how to use clusters from the view of Pulsar Senior Account Coordinator, Cierra Buck. Clusters are one of my absolute favourite features within Pulsar TRAC – they’re created in the very last tab within the dashboard and allow you to build your own graphs based on data collected within Pulsar. Although Pulsar already provides users with an array of visuals that summarize keywords, influencers and so on, sometimes you may just want to visualise your data and break it down in a different, more customized way. You can do this through the construction of Clusters.

What can I use Clusters for?

Here are three ways Pulsar clients are building clusters on the platform right now:

Reporting: Many of our Pulsar clients build a set of clusters that they use and refer to each month or week for their reporting schedule. As their clusters won’t be deleted unless they choose to delete them, many people choose to use the same clusters month after month for consistent reporting and graphs. They are easily exportable and can be thrown right into a quick presentation or email!
Real time updates: If you have a Pulsar search that is collecting data in real time, data will automatically feed into your clusters if they are set up and have active filters. This makes it easier to check your graphs in real time and get live graph updates and changes in conversation.
Data segmentation: As you use filters to create the labels within your graph, you can easily click into the sections of the graph and head straight into that applicable data set for further analysis!

How to set up a Cluster

Setting up a cluster is quick and easy – it can even take as little as 30 seconds for basis clusters. Step 1 – Add cluster To get started, click on the + button beside the Clusters label to begin. Step 2 – Add title Choose a wise title that will clearly define the subject of your cluster. It's viewable to other people looking at your search too, so it helps if it makes sense to them! Step 3 – Add cluster labels You next label the sections that you want to have included within your graph. You add labels by clicking on the adjacent 'plus' button to do this, or the minus button to take them away. You also have the option to have your graph as a pie chart or bar chart – that choice is completely up to you! Providing a label name doesn’t signify to Pulsar what you are trying to segment or show within your cluster, so you will need to edit the filter of that label to choose the particular type of data – see below: Step 4 – Editing cluster filters If you are a current Pulsar user, the next step will seem quite familiar. The same filter you would use to segment data within other tabs and sections of Pulsar TRAC, you use here as well. As I had previously listed ‘Bloggers’ as one of my labels above, I will need to then choose the filters that will deliver the blogger information I’m looking for. For my objective, I am hoping to segment people on Twitter who have said that they are a ‘blogger’ or write a ‘blog’ within their User Bio and who also live in the UK. I have chosen the below filter: The great thing about clusters is that you can make them as complex or simple as needed. You can use one filter per label or use a mix of all, if your segmentation proves to be quite specific, You will need to edit the filters for each label you have added. Once you have specified all filters to each label, press 'save'. Step 5 – the cluster is now created Et voila! The graph is now created and present within the clusters tab of the particular search you are working with. In the top right above the graph, you have options to next do the following:

Export the cluster as a PNG image
Export the data within the cluster into Excel
Refresh your cluster
Edit your cluster to make any changes or delete your cluster

Once you get the hang of setting up clusters, you’ll notice this tab start to fill up with more and more graphs! They are an amazing way to break down your search data and add a better level of understanding to both small and large datasets. Our developer team are currently working on adding more options to Clusters to make them even more powerful, one-stop analysis and reporting tools - watch this space for news! If you want to find out more about clusters or you’d like a full demo, please send an email to: Info@Pulsarplatform.com

Social Data Signals, W11

Ed — Fri, 04 Sep 2015 16:32:44 +0000

1. The Instagram Rules: The Good, the Bad, and the Very Boring [Vogue] - 11% of readers clicked

“I look amazing in Valencia," and other gems from a Bloomingdales heiress. Su shared this saying, "I’m honestly not sure this isn’t parody." But I think she's deadly serious.

2.Who’s Doing the Talking on Twitter? [The Atlantic] - 10%

"The future of Twitter is really the future of the global town square—an answer to the question of whether social media can really offer a frictionless, unfiltered forum for real-time conversation across countries and cultures"

3. Burn It Down, Start From Scratch And Build a Social Media Strategy That Works [Experience: The Blog] - 8%

God this is good. Punchy and provocative post demonstrating that most of what marketers believe about social is wrong.

4. The Demographics of Social Media Users [Pew] - 8%

Memorise these figures: Facebook: 72% of US internet users, Pinterest 31%, Instagram 28% & Twitter 23%.

5. What It Looks Like to Use the Internet for the First Time [VICE Motherboard] - 8%

Photo essay & interviews with the people using wifi hotspots in Cuba. If you want to receive the full newsletter this week direct to your inbox, please sign up here. Also, if you have any feedback, suggestions or articles you’d like to see in the newsletter, please contact Fran and Jess by using the hashtag #smartdata on Twitter.

Meet us at... 4th International Visual Methods Conference, 18 Sept

Ed — Thu, 17 Sep 2015 17:32:03 +0000

Our VP Product, Francesco D'Orazio (@abc3d) will be sharing his knowledge on visual social media at the 4th International Visual Methods Conference on Friday 18 September. This 2-day conference is hosted by the University of Brighton and welcomes presenters from industry and academia. Alongside Fran, there are three main speakers sharing their own learnings on visual and digital methods:

Professor Gillian Rose, Professor of Cultural Geography, Open University
Joe Lambert, Executive Director of the Center for Digital Storytelling
Wendy Brawer, founding director of Green Map System promoting sustainability through Green Maps of the natural and cultural environment.

The core of the International Visual Methods Conference's programme is to explore these three areas:

Narrative and Visual Methods
Exploring Digital Visual Methodologies
Critical Perspectives on Visual Methodologies

They say: "The conference will include a combination of keynote presentations, panels and papers, alongside workshops, screenings and exhibitions, aimed at promoting the exchange of ideas and approaches across disciplines and between visual research and visual practices including fine art, graphic design, photography and film making." * Interested in learning more about visual social media? Or just want Fran to talk at your conference? Get in touch at Francesco.Dorazio@Facegroup.co.uk.

Pulsar How To: Analyse social conversation with Keyword visualisations

Ed — Tue, 22 Sep 2015 17:29:09 +0000

This is the third in a new blog series where we will take you through different features on Pulsar – a step-by-step guide to show you how simple and easy the platform is to use. So far we’ve looked at Topic Searches and Clusters - this week we’re talking about Keyword visualisations and how to use them to maximise your social media insight. Keyword visualisations are an essential part of social media listening, allowing you to understand at a glance the most popular ways people talk about your brand or topic. They're the simplest form of text analytics. The basic principle behind all the different kinds of keyword visualisations is to simply count the number of times each keyword is mentioned in the dataset, and then visualise the size of that word accordingly. The most popular words are the biggest: intuitive, isn't it? Keyword visualisations simplify the data so you can fully understand the dataset at a glance - either as a quick dip into the data, or as a starting point to explore interesting themes more fully.

What can I use Keywords for?

Here are a few quick ways Pulsar clients are using keywords to better understand their dataset:

Understand the products that are top-of-mind when people talk about your brand.
Brand positioning & perception: what are the adjectives and emotions consumers are using around your brand the most?
Within a category search (e.g. haircare), see which brands are most frequently mentioned by consumers
Find the hashtags people are naturally using in a category or topic, as ones that may be most relevant and natural for your brand to use
Identify 'unknown unknowns', aka things you didn't know people were associating with your brand (or topic) and wouldn't have thought to search for directly. PR threats can fall into this category - but so do unexpected use-cases and potential innovation insights

Next we'll walk through each of Pulsar's 4 keyword visualisations in turn.

1. Keywords Word Cloud

Word Cloud is simple: The bigger the word, the more times that word has been spoken about. In this search about 'social media monitoring', you can see that "data" and "marketing" are top topics too. Here's a twist: sentiment colouring is incorporated - large green words show top keywords being used and spoken about positively. People love "insights"!

2. Keywords treemap

Treemap visualises the popularity of a keyword by size: the bigger the box, the more often that word appears in your dataset. It also segments the keywords by social media channel, expressed in colour. Here, words in light blue were posted on Twitter, and darker blue are Facebook. Use this to get a sense of which channels are driving which topics of discussion. Here, for example, we can see that there are a lot more mentions of 'social media monitoring' category keywords on Twitter than on Facebook - and we can also see that "media" is the 2nd most used term on Twitter, but on Facebook it's "data". As with all Pulsar visualisations, you can click into these boxes to view the Results tab showing all of the individual messages containing those words. Read through that stream of data to deep dive into the nuances of how people are using a word or phrase about your brand, and discover more insight about the conversation.

3. Keywords stream

With stream, each colour line represents a different top keyword within your dataset. The thinness to thickness of the lines exposes prominent areas of discussion. The date range at the bottom of the graph allows you to see how long your top keywords are being spoken about for, and how much these words fluctuate in mentions. Stream is great for campaign use (eg. hashtags) to see how long your promoted content is being used for by the audience and when that conversation starts to diminish.

4. Keywords bundle

Bundle shows you how different keywords in your dataset are connected. When people say "best", what brands are linked with that word? Or vice versa: As a brand, you can see when people speak about your product and what other features or issues are mentioned the most, The top keywords from your dataset are shown around the edges of the Bundle. When you select a keyword it will highlight the other keywords that were most-mentioned in the same content and used within the conversation. Then, to see the individual messages where these mentions take place, use the Pulsar filter to search for content with both keywords, and read through it in the Results tab. * And that's a quick guide to using the keywords visualisations! Check out our other How Tos on Setting up Topic Searches and Building your own cluster charts Or, if you want to find out more about Pulsar's visualisations in a full platform demo, please send an email to: Info@Pulsarplatform.com.

New Pulsar Feature: Audience demographics dashboard

Ed — Fri, 25 Sep 2015 16:39:35 +0000

We're thrilled to announce the launch of Pulsar's Audience dashboard today, live in the Pulsar platform. Alongside Topics, Keywords, Clusters, Influencers, Content and Location, this new dashboard will present audience demographics in straight to the point, bite-sized visualisations. This means you can now delver deeper into your dataset and not only explore the content, but also the people producing it, providing a holistic view of your data.

Audience dashboard broken down

Firstly, the dashboard allows you to see how many unique users the search pulls back, presented as a percentage of the total messages, and a separate full count. The Audience data is automatically organised by gender, which is visualised as male and female shaped icons - with the size of the icons representing the share of conversation each gender has driven. Gender comparisons can be insightul and surprising for understanding audiences - for example, in the automotive dataset above, more women are talking about cars than men, even though this industry is renowned for being male-dominated. Gender is then broken down into age groups. The graph allows us to analyse how topics of conversation translate across many age groups, whilst highlighting any correlations when compared to gender. For example, most would assume conversations around X Factor are likely to occur in 16-24 year-old women. With this audience graph you be able to see whether there is any truth to this theory. Identifying your data by country is crucial to fully understanding any audience. A key example of this is Facebook's August Hot Topics: the main areas of conversations in the US were around Donald Trump and Kanye West. Whereas in the UK, discussions were focused on the death of Cilla Black and George Cole. The Audience dashboard provides a breakdown of countries by percentage, which is followed by a pie chart revealing the languages the topic is spoken in. The first wave of release will include insight from Facebook topic data searches. This is to be followed by the integration of other platforms and data sources in the near future. * If you're interested in exploring Pulsar's new Audience dashboard and would like a demo, please send us an email to: Info@Pulsarplatform.com.

SnapChart: How a single image changed the debate on immigration #KiyiyaVuranInsanlik

Francesco DOrazio — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 15:57:13 +0000

I first saw the picture of three-year old Syrian refugee Aylan Kurdi on Bodrum beach on September the 2nd on Twitter. It felt like getting punched in the stomach. But while I was shocked by it, I didn't realise how impactful it was going to be until the next day, when the same image started to pop up in my Facebook newsfeed. While on Twitter I read the news headlines carrying the picture and reporting the tragedy, on Facebook it was easier to stumble upon the social context of that picture: the comments of the people who were seeing the image and were debating immigration. And that's when I noticed that the comments seemed to have a different tone from the conversation we had been seeing in the press and social media until then. A lot more people now seemed to be talking about "refugees" rather than "migrants". The shift, if that was the case, could have been significant: a "migrant" is someone who's got a choice (and according to some, often an "economical" reason to move) while a "refugee" is someone who has no choice but to flee his country to survive. The term that the politicians, the media and the people would end up adopting to talk about the issue would have had massive implications in terms of humanitarian aid and policy making. So was public opinion changing as a result of exposure to the picture of Aylan Kurdi on Bodrum beach? We turned to Twitter Full Archive Search to find out. The answer is in the chart above. While for most of 2015 "migrants" and "refugees" are head to head in public opinion accounting for pretty much the same volume of conversation (5.2M vs 5.3M), from September the 2nd onward public opinion radically flips towards "refugees" (2.9M vs 6.5M) and at the moment of writing, almost one month after the pictures were published, the new ratio remains constant. I think I've never presented a one-slide deck before but this one chart was definitely enough to spark a great discussion last night at Social Data London x Twitter UK. This first data snapshot is part of a larger study we are conducting at the Visual Social Media Lab on the images of Aylan Kurdi. This rapid response project – involving researchers from the lab as well as elsewhere – seeks to explore the role of social media in the contemporary creation of iconic images and how they impact public opinion. For more details on the study head over to the Visual Social Media Lab site, we aim to release early findings in October.

How universities use social media listening to manage the application process

Hoofy — Wed, 14 Oct 2015 15:20:13 +0000

Universities have taken to Pulsar like ducks to water. Not only for academic research (see the work we’re doing with the Visual Social Media Lab). It turns out that their communications and admission teams are just as interested in what they can do with social.

And for good reason. Using Pulsar historics, we can see that there were a massive 1 million tweets about universities in the UK on the day A-level results were released.

So we can see the data’s there. In this blog post, I’ll show how universities can hone in on these conversations to help them better understand the application process by exploring conversations around university applications and clearing.

Let’s start at the big day itself: A-level Results, in August.

As you can see from the visualisation below, there was a massive spike in conversations on 13th August, which is when A-level results were released this year:

This visualisation shows the volume of social media discussion about one particular university and Clearing - showing how interest spiked to over 2,000 posts and retweets in just one day.

Naturally, universities across the country are keen to listen to these posts to understand the excitement and trepidations of their current and future students. As shown in the ‘Bundle’ visualisation below, not everyone got the results they hoped for.

The bundle shows us how ‘university’ and ‘results’ were discussed across the country. As we can see, some found results day a ‘disappointment’ not to have received the necessary results to get into their top choice, whereas others were elated to have gotten into a ‘great uni’. Admissions teams using Pulsar would then be able to filter on these phrases to learn more about each group.

For those who are “disappointed”, this is where Clearing comes in. As we saw in the bundle visualisation, students shared their results on online platforms like Twitter:

Social media has opened up the channels of communications between students and the universities, allowing universities to reach out to students with advice, and even to let them know if they have places available for Clearing, as seen below.

Queen Mary University even changed their Twitter handle to make this process as smooth as possible:

Universities can therefore use Pulsar to ensure they see all of these conversations and respond to them, increasing their chance of filling their places, meaning they continue to receive governmental funding.

Once students are on the course, social listening still remains useful. Pulsar enables universities to understand how current students talk about each different aspect of the university online, such as facilities, quality of courses, accommodation and so on. With this information they can understand the student experience better and work on that - but that’s not the only benefit.

Monitoring social isn’t just about your current applicant and student group, but also about the much bigger question of public reputation. As social media discussion is public, it opens up questions around how friends and family think about your university too, through word-of-mouth advocacy (or detraction). What universities can afford not to be keeping an eye on how this perception is being shaped and influenced? Identify rumours to be corrected - or unknown strengths to be capitalised on and shouted about in official communications. The opportunities are wide.

This is also where Facebook Topic Data gets really interesting. For the first time ever, we have access to a massively representative and robust data set (rivalled only in size by that of the Census!) giving universities access to organic information. Our ‘Audience’ tab breaks down this data for you by Gender, Age, Location and Language, as some universities are keen to explore how discussion splits out between UK and international students.

So to recap, social media listening can be very valuable to universities across the admissions cycle, from applications to clearing to welcome week!

Sound interesting? To find out more about how you can get the most out of social listening get in touch with me at charlotte.hoof@pulsarplatform.com or connect on LinkedIn.

How a TV Producer used Facebook topic data to decide on advertising and casting

Ed — Tue, 20 Oct 2015 15:50:42 +0000

DataSift released a new report this week which highlights four great examples of how businesses from various industries are using Facebook topic data. 'Busting Brand Myths with Facebook Topic Data' shines light on how a TV producer, TV channel, music festival and an ad agency can gain access to, and analyse, in-depth audience demographic insight. We wanted to share the insights with you here to give you a flavour of just what you can find with Facebook Topic Data on Pulsar.

The problem

A TV show producer was struggling to understand how different audiences engaged on Facebook around the episodes, storylines, and characters of a major show. They needed to make more informed decisions around advertising, social content, as well as casting decisions for future seasons. The producers decided to use anonymized and aggregated Facebook topic data to understand how their audience engaged with episodes, storylines and characters. In particular, they wanted to make the right casting decisions for the next season, as well improve the promotion of the show through advertising and social media.

The solution

To do this, the production company set up two different indexes of Facebook topic data. One index looked at their own show to isolate references to key episodes, storylines, quotes, memes and characters. The other index measured engagement with breakout actors from recent film festivals and top TV shows. Overall, the production company was able to use data from 1.5 million interactions to inform its decisions.

The results

The first thing the production company was able to determine was which characters were resonating most with people on Facebook. This helped the producers decide which characters should be retained for future seasons. The producers were also able to see how the engagement around characters changed across different demographic groups (age, gender and state) and they could use this data to help promote the show to these groups. For example, the protagonist’s rival love interests polarised opinion in Wisconsin and Colorado, with one popular in the Midwest and the other in the Rockies. This meant that the most popular character could be used to promote the show in each state.

It was also important to the producers to be able to understand which episodes and scenes were driving the most engagement. Armed with this data, they were able to see which of their storylines were generating the most viewer interest in certain demographic groups and use those scenes to advertise the show to that audience. They will also be able to apply that intelligence to future writing decisions. Finally, the show’s producers were able to take the demographic data they had gathered on the core audience of their own show and see which actors from other shows and films that audience liked. These actors could then be assessed for their suitability to join the show in future seasons.

Key takeaways

Facebook topic data gave the producers insights into:

Which character was resonating the most with the TV show’s demographics.
Which episodes or scenes were most engaging with the audiences for future writing decisions.
Which actor might be suitable to join the show in future seasons.

If you're working in film, TV and media, find out how you can integrate Facebook topic data into your audience by contacting our Commercial Director James on James.Cuthbertson@Pulsarplatform.com or 020 7874 6577. Or check out our previous Pulsar research on TV & videow: How Videos Go Viral, for Twitter.

How an ad agency used Facebook topic data to boost a music festival in social

Ed — Fri, 23 Oct 2015 12:20:20 +0000

DataSift released a new report this week which highlights how different companies and industries are using Facebook topic data. We wanted to share with you some insights from ‘Busting Brand Myths with Facebook Topic Data' to give you an idea of the kind of research you can conduct with this data on Pulsar.

The problem

An ad tech agency wanted to improve performance for a campaign on Facebook for a national music festival. Data from non-Facebook sources was resulting in outdated creative and overly simplistic advertising strategies.

The solution

As the festival approached, the ad tech firm decided to use anonymous, aggregated Facebook topic data to understand how different audiences were engaging with:

the artists performing
particular music genres featured at the festival
its client
other sponsors

In eight days, the agency captured 5.7 million interactions - a significant amount of new information and enough insights to make them adjust course after nine months of planning.

The results

The ad tech agency discovered that women aged 25-34 in Indiana, Michigan and Kentucky over-indexed for engagement with topics associated with the festival by five times the national average. In contrast, the agency found that 18-24 year old men in California under-indexed by the same factor. As well as these extremes, the agency could see where each demographic group in America fell on that spectrum of engagement. Once the engaged audience segments were identified, it was possible to determine which other interests, websites, retailers and broadcasters these segments were engaging around on Facebook. Armed with these insights, the ad tech agency was able to change tack and divert the sponsor’s advertising spend away from the under-indexing groups to the over-indexing demographics. This succeeded in improving engagement rates on the brand’s content and drove a 17% increase in video completion rates. Better still, the agency and its client were able to prepare better for the next campaign by tailoring content to the interests of the right audience and identify artists and potential co-marketing partners for the future.

Key takeaways

Facebook topic data gave the ad tech agency insights into:

Which audience segment was engaging more with topics associated with the festival
Which other interests, websites, retailers and broadcasters these segments were engaging around on Facebook - helping them develop even more engaging content
Which artists and potential co-marketing partners would be great for future campaigns

If you’re working in music, events or for an ad agency, find out how you can integrate Facebook topic data into your audience understanding by contacting our Commercial Director James on James.Cuthbertson@Pulsarplatform.com or 020 7874 6577. Plus, check out our previous Pulsar research on social media and music festivals: the 'How social media activity connects to concert ticket sales' study.

How a TV Channel used Facebook topic data to reach their audience better

Ed — Mon, 26 Oct 2015 08:00:07 +0000

This week we have been releasing insights from DataSift's ‘Busting Brand Myths with Facebook Topic Data' report (see how a TV Producer & an Ad Tech Agency used Facebook topic data). In this last instalment we will share with you how a TV channel used this new data source to better understand their audience.

The problem

A major TV channel wanted to understand three things:

Were they reaching their target audience with the right programming and content?
How could that content could be improved?
Could they have better control over the feedback loop between engagement on Facebook and tune-in on television?

The solution

The TV channel created an index of the Facebook engagements with all of its programming and supporting marketing assets during a defined period. This index captured seven million interactions in a little over a week. Using VEDO - the intelligence inside DataSift that allows you to organize human data based on its meaning - to isolate references to various characters, celebrities and marketing partners in real-time, the TV channel was able to identify the shows, themes and content with the most Facebook engagement. This engagement could be analysed on a minute-by-minute basis and broken down by gender, age and state.

The result

The TV channel was able to garner a number of insights. It could see which shows were resonating most with which segments of the population and consequently tailor its marketing efforts for these shows to the most engaged demographic groups. They were also able to see which shows had the least Facebook engagement compared to the size of the viewing audience. This is an important insight when trying to use social as a means to persuade audiences to turn on the TV. Using insights from anonymized and aggregated Facebook topic data, the channel could make adjustments to the content of its shows. In addition, it could change the way that social calls-to-action were promoted in its shows in order to boost engagement.

The insight that most surprised the TV channel was the timing of interactions. A significant proportion of people posting about the shows were doing so at the start of the commercial break. This ran counter to the TV channel’s assumptions that most social interactions would happen in real-time. In fact, viewers were engaged with their program when it was on and took the commercial break as an opportunity to air their views on social networks. This finding led to the realisation that the best time to be promoting the shows’ hashtags was at the end of each segment rather than, as previously thought, at the start.

Key takeaways

Facebook topic data provided insights into:

Which shows were resonating the most with which segments of population.
Where to focus marketing efforts for these shows with the most engaged demographic groups.
When people would interact with the show on Facebook for optimzing timing of promotions.

If you’re working in film, TV and media, find out how you can integrate Facebook topic data into your audience by contacting our Commercial Director on James.Cuthbertson@Pulsarplatform.com or 020 7874 6577. Or check out our previous Pulsar research on TV & video: How Videos Go Viral, for Twitter.

New on Pulsar: Faster, smarter search filters

Ed — Thu, 22 Oct 2015 12:55:33 +0000

We know great data means nothing without the right tools to dice it. That's why on Monday we released a suite of data segmentation tools that will make Pulsar clients' lives much easier. What's changed? We've launched a smarter, simpler user experience for the filter panel - the place you search for stories and test hypotheses inside each social media dataset you've brought back. Two big improvements to filters to help you search smarter and easier: 1. Basic and Advanced Filters Pulsar's search filters now give you two options - quick and easy, or powerful and granular. Take your pick! Basic filters greets you with a simple date and keyword filter - one screen, click and go. But if you're looking for something super-specific, Advanced filters let you segment the data in depth, specifying exactly what you want:

Targets (media types, channels, sites and authors)
Demographics (Gender, Age, Bios and Locations)
Engagement (Likes, Followers, Visibility and more)

You can now also easily update, delete or rename your saved filters, to help share your smart segmentations with colleagues. 2. Filter by Tags and Export Tags We've now fully integrated custom tagging throughout Pulsar's filters and data exports. So if you've been doing data coding and building your own taxonomies, you can now:

filter for data using these tags
create custom charts using your own tags
manipulate your data export in Excel with these tags

Watch this space for future announcements of our improved custom tags and taxonomies, even more customisable Cluster charts, and the most advanced influencers network you can fit in a browser. We reckon these new features (and more we are yet to announce) will make Pulsar the smartest social media monitoring platform out there. Let us know your thoughts! If you're already using Pulsar and want to learn more about these new filters, please contact your account manager or email: Accounts@Pulsarplatform.com. Alternatively, if you're yet to experience the power of Pulsar and you'd like to set up a demo, email James.Cuthbertson@Pulsarplatform.com or call us on 020 7874 6577.

Using Pulsar's new audience dashboard to uncover who talks about cars on Facebook

Sameer Shah — Mon, 26 Oct 2015 13:15:15 +0000

When releasing new features and integrating new data sources, there’s nothing better than having a play around to see what insights can be uncovered. And that’s exactly what social media researcher Sameer Shah has done in this blog, the first of a three-part series… Recently, we at Pulsar were granted access to an exclusive Facebook Topic dataset comprising three car brands: BMW, Ford and Honda. Unlike previous iterations of Facebook data, this is not just content from brand pages and public profiles; but all mentions of the aforementioned brand from 1.4 billion users. This lends a grand scale to insights not previously seen in social media listening and Pulsar in particular. Furthermore, this coincided neatly with the new Audience dashboard, which enables Pulsar to identify who is talking about your brand or subject of interest. The first discovery was the gender split of those mentioning the trio of car companies:

While this split of 52% males vs 48% females isn’t a great surprise, Pulsar adds another layer to this by also segmenting age-ranges by gender:

Of particular note here is how discussion becomes more gender-neutral as the audience gets older; with females over 55+ actually becoming more prominent than their male counterparts. Also included in the Audience tab is a location breakdown: The dominance of the US stands out, with eight times the discussion of the UK despite only having five times more Facebook users (US – 152 million; UK 30 million – Statista). This indicates a higher presence of car aficionados in the US, and information like this can prove vital as a brand tries to conquer different markets – especially given the robustness of Facebook Topic Data, which Pulsar was the first to gain access to in the UK. If you want to explore the power Facebook topic data will bring to you social media listening, contact our Commercial Director James on James.Cuthbertson@Pulsarplatform.com or 020 7874 6577. Make sure you check the blog tomorrow for the second part of the analysis.

Which car features are most-discussed on Facebook, and by whom?

Sameer Shah — Tue, 27 Oct 2015 10:13:46 +0000

In the second part of this series, social media researcher Sameer Shah takes a closer look at Facebook to find out what people say about certain automotive brands. Look out for an interesting finding about women… With its 1.4 billion users, Facebook is a vast and incredibly valuable resource for human thought. Facebook topic data allows you to mine topical information that is anonymised and aggregated, and the key thing to get to the best insights is to ask the right questions of your dataset. Pulsar can do this adeptly with its Clusters feature. For our recent research, we have compared different car features and what topics appear most on Facebook:

You can see that Style is the overwhelming leader, with people posting or sharing content about automotive aesthetics in almost a third of the entire car-led conversation. This is followed by Running cost at 12%, and then an array of topics such as a performance, mechanical specification, environment, practicality and price. These types of insights are key to informing creative and planning strategies, and car brands can improve their visibility if they tie into the topics of the naturally occurring conversation online. Using the new Audience dashboard, you can also filter this by gender:

Looking at the graph above, male discussion focuses less on style compared to the overall picture, with more practical and “petrolhead” aspects such as running cost, mechanical specification and performance relatively more prominent.

On the contrary, females over-index on style and also on environment – a topic that has been in the news with the much reported-on Volkswagen emissions scandal. You can dive even deeper: what if you look at into the Style feature category, but showing a split in the age groups of both genders discussing this?

While the Style topic has a 50:50 gender split in the first two cohorts, it's the female group that becomes increasingly more prominent - comprising 60% of the chatter from the age of 55. This is greater than the more general Facebook user split by gender in this age range (circa 52% female versus 48% male – Statista). One possible explanation behind this is that, as children grow up and are no longer dependent on their parents, women trade in the bigger family car for something more convenient as their needs change. Cars can also become a fashion accessory during this later stage for those with a higher disposable income. Combining our age feature with Clusters also allows you to investigate which features are most-discussed by certain age groups: We can see that the 25-34 age group finds the following four features the most important: price, practicality, performance and specification. But the key comparison here is with either side of this group: 18-24 years olds tend to discuss "performance" and "specifications" more, but their 35-44 year-old counterparts focus on price and practicality, as the transition from petrolhead to pragmatist takes place. Explore the power of Facebook topic data in full and request a software demo by contacting us on info@pulsarplatform.com.

Using Facebook topic data to understand which three car models are the most popular

Sameer Shah — Wed, 28 Oct 2015 10:28:41 +0000

The final part of social media researcher Sameer Shah’s trilogy focuses on the three brands in question: BMW, Ford and Honda. There’s also a cameo appearance from the embattled Volkswagen… With the first two blogs having been very demographic-centric to showcase Pulsar’s new Audience feature, it would be remiss of me not to look at the three car brands themselves and utilise our new Clusters. As an anonymous and aggregated data source, one of the key use cases for Facebook Topics is to ask questions of the dataset. Pulsar can do this adeptly with Clusters, and we’ve compared the top-five car models (from any brand) featuring in their conversation:

For BMW, the ability to segment as such and ascertain that the M3, I8 and M4 models gain far more traction on Facebook can be important in helping shape decisions around content strategy on the platform.

The presence of rival brand Chevrolet’s Corvette raises a flag and provides threat identification to see which competitors are most-mentioned in conjunction with their own models.

Using our new cleverer Cluster visualisation allows us to dig deeper and find out when exactly discussion around the Corvette occurred. Indeed, the early October peak for both the Corvette and Mustang is likely due to popular programme Top Gear running a comparison between the two.

For Honda, it is the presence of the discontinued S2000 is most noteworthy. Why would an old model gain such traction?

Once again, Pulsar’s expanded Clusters feature points us in the right direction as it detects a considerable peak in S2000 discussion on October 12^th. Further investigation shows that the car was the subject of UK TV show Wheeler Dealers, in which mechanics restore classic cars to their former glories. This peak in interest around the S2000 can be a useful heads-up for Honda’s content strategy to embrace the throwback trend.

Unquestionably, the topic du jour in the automotive industry over the past month has been the VW emissions scandal. And given Pulsar’s access to the behemoth that is Facebook Topic Data, we can truly ascertain how this has impacted conversations in the wider car industry. Focusing on discussion around environment for our three brands, we see how the scandal has even permeated into their conversation as people become increasingly aware of the subject: Prior to VW admitting its guilt on September 20^th, emissions discussion for our three brands doesn’t exceed 3k daily mentions. Thereafter, however, daily discussion rises steeply and rarely falls below the 3k level over the following weeks. Indeed, VW is directly mentioned in 4% of all conversation around environment for BMW, Ford and Honda. Whilst this isn’t a huge proportion at first glance, additional context is provided when you consider that no other car brands features whatsoever. If you want to explore what the power Facebook topic data will bring to your social media listening, contact our Commercial Director James on James.Cuthbertson@Pulsarplatform.com or 020 7874 6577.

Understanding demographics with Facebook's 'Hot Topics' September Issue

Ed — Wed, 28 Oct 2015 13:30:29 +0000

Over on Facebook's Insight blog you will find 'Hot Topics' a monthly breakdown of the biggest conversations on Facebook. By using anonymised and aggregated Facebook topic data, Hot Topics provides great insight into what topics of conversations are trending, and in which demographics. Hot Topics covers the US, UK, Canada and Australia. The dataset taken from 'Hot Topics: September 2015' is broken down into 5 categories:

Brands & Products
Entertainment
Holiday & Events
People
Sports

Each topic is visualised through a volume graph showing when the topics peaked in each demographic (age and gender). It also shows who drove the conversation in a graph of ‘nodes’ – circles depicting the size of mentions around that topic. Image by Facebook IQ. In the US, Donald Trump continues to feature highly in conversations between older men, closely followed by Putin and Kanye West (again!). The Pope's visit and huge social media campaign, which included his own emojis, dominated overall conversations in September for both men and women. Older women rediscovered the song 'Uptown Funk' whilst older men focused on the X-Men and Men in Black franchises. TV personalities featured highly amongst women of all ages, focusing their attention on Ellen DeGeneres and Jimmy Fallon. Image by Facebook IQ As we saw in the US, the Pope has also dominated conversation in the UK (was it those emojis?). The meeting between Putin and Obama got older men talking - mirroring the actions of their transatlantic cousins. Conversations between younger women were dominated by the mash up of 'Uptown Funk' and 'Drunk in Love'. Whereas older women discussed the reunion of 70's boyband 'Bay City Rollers'. Celebrities were also high on the agenda for women as Tom Hardy, Angelina Jolie and Katie Hopkins saw their profiles peak. Conversations around brands and products were split between both genders, but it may come as a surprise that the topic of Bugatti ceasing to sell the Veyron models was sparked up by more women than men. A reminder that gender and age presumptions are not always correct and that understanding audiences is crucial. If you’d like to see Facebook topic data's full capabilities in our platform, request a demo by emailing: Info@PulsarPlatform.com.

Facebook Insights: Life through the lenses of Instagrammers

Ed — Sun, 08 Nov 2015 17:44:37 +0000

In Facebook Insight's 'Life through the lenses of Instagrammers' article, research agency Sparkler and Instagram teamed up to conduct a study to get a better idea of what life looks like through the eyes of those who post images on Instagram. As the world looks to visual social media as a new source of language, Facebook Insights asks can this new type of data gives us an idea of what the future may look like? To get a better picture and understanding, the study interviewed over 2,000 individuals across UK, France and Germany between the ages of 16-24 years.

"A full 1 in 4 believes that Instagram has actually changed the way they see the world. And in France, that number rises to 38%"

Instagrammers are re-thinking the way they take photos, by assessing first whether the image they see has the potential to do well on Instagram. According to Facebook Insights, 30% of people using Instagram plan their images before taking them. The study also notes that Instagram is inspiring the way people see opportunities, and that it can make their lives richer and more fulfilled. 58% of those asked said the photo app can make them laugh, dream and think. 62% of those who post to Instagram daily say they arrive at the app to "stimulate their imagination" and to explore new perspectives and ideas.

The Instagram effect

Instagram's power to influence is proven when researchers posted the same image on five different platforms. The way people perceived it on Instagram was completely different to the way it was perceived on the other four platforms. What is it about Instagram that makes images that much more engaging, inspiring and encouraging to change people's perspectives? This study proves that environment can help define the entire experience of using the platform - meaning photos uploaded to Instagram are viewed as more "compelling". For brands, this means Instagram has potential to engage with consumers in a completely different way than they would on other platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr. In a recent Pew Research study outlining Instagram's demographics reveals that only 29% of Internet users are on the app, of which 55% are between 18-29 years old. This begs the question: Is Instagram's high engagement rate and power to influence due to a condensed, filtered group of mostly engaged millennials? In comparison, Facebook has gathered 72% of Internet users, 82% of which are between 18-29 years old. Representing a bigger pool of millennials, resulting in various amounts of interests, personality types and social media engagement levels.

The joint research study between Instagram and Sparkler has completely changed the way we perceive the idea of a social media network. Instagram inspires its users to think differently, to dream, and to be influenced - encouraging people to rethink visual social media entirely. It's developed a culture where uploading content to a social network isn't just a second thought, but a process which begins long before an image or post has been captured. This study also highlights the huge opportunities for companies and brands to utilise Instagram as a key, powerful platform that can engage with consumers on a different level to other networks. Interested in tracking content on Instagram? Explore visual social media analysis with Pulsar by getting in contact with our Commercial Director James.Cuthbertson@Pulsarplatform.com or call us on 020 7874 6577.

New on Pulsar: Smarter, brighter clusters

Ed — Wed, 11 Nov 2015 14:44:08 +0000

We're very excited to announce our new updated clusters! At Pulsar we're always trying to make life easier for our customers, and as clusters are one of the most successful features on the platform, we have listened to all our clients' feedback and decided to make them even more sophisticated. Pulsar already provides a huge variation of ways users can visualise their data, but clusters are popular because they allow you to visualise your data in a different, more customised way. Clients are using clusters in a number of different and creative ways, but we keep seeing three use cases that are most prominent: reporting, real-time updates and data segmentation. For more information on using clusters check out our recent blog: 'Pulsar How To: Set up Cluster Charts'.

So, what's changed?

1. New ways to visualise your clusters Pie charts and bar charts proved popular so we decided to give our users more options to create and visualise their data by introducing Line Charts and Word Cloud graphs.

With line charts you can view volume over time for multiple variables and see where in your dataset volume peaked for each variable.
Word clouds allow you to visualise the top 40 keywords or hashtags for each variable selected, so find out what male versus females discuss the most or what hashtags they use the most when talking about something.
Clusters are now also contextual, which means that any active filters on the platform will now influence the data in your clusters, opening up to a whole new series of analysis possibilities.

2. Sizing With this new update you are now able to set the size of your charts and change this where ever you see fit. Choose a normal size view to see your clusters side by side, or a larger size to get a clearer view of your charts - this is perfect for using in reports. 3. Data Preview You can now get a preview of your cluster whilst creating or editing it. This helps you to understand the shape and distribution of your data before even saving the cluster. We've simplified this for a great user experience, just check out the gif below to see for yourself: 4. Custom colours & drag to reorder Specify the colours you want to use in your charts for each variable, which is useful for brand reporting. You can also group your clusters in order of importance or relevance, allowing you to view the most crucial charts to you at any given time. 6. Table view Your data is also now available in a table format, which shows the variables present in your clusters and the results for each variable. Simply do this by clinking on the "table view" button. Clusters 2.0 is changing the way we customise, segment, and analyse our datasets. This new update promises to transport our clients into a new world of flexibility and simplicity, which is very exciting! If you’re already using Pulsar and want to learn more about these new clusters, please contact your account manager or email: Accounts@Pulsarplatform.com. Alternatively, if you’re yet to experience the power of Pulsar and you’d like to set up a demo, email James.Cuthbertson@Pulsarplatform.com or call us on 020 7874 6577.

New on Pulsar: Historic previews by day

Ed — Thu, 12 Nov 2015 14:44:32 +0000

Previewing historics just got smarter and easier. We're launching a new update to our historics preview functionality today, which now means you'll be able to see a daily breakdown of your historic dataset before you've actually collected the data.

What does this mean?

Effectively this means you can now run basic, volume-trends analysis on Pulsar free of charge. If you don't need the actual verbatim and just need to get a picture of overall volumes over time then the new preview feature is what you're looking for. The new historics dashboard allows you get this information in two ways:

A spark line chart, which shows you a daily breakdown of volume by day, allowing you to get a general sense of volume distribution over the period you are querying.
Export daily data counts as an Excel file.

Historics preview by day is of particular relevance if you're analysing daily changes to volume of mentions, and to see if a new event or product release has resulted in a spike of activity. This is pretty useful and convenient if you just want to have a snapshot of your data to send around internally or to your client, see what hashtag performed best over the last 12 months and generally see quickly what the patterns over time are all without actually ordering and paying for the data. If you’re already using Pulsar and want to learn more about new historic previews, please contact your account manager or email: Accounts@Pulsarplatform.com. Alternatively, if you’re yet to experience the power of Pulsar and you’d like to set up a demo, email James.Cuthbertson@Pulsarplatform.com or call us on 020 7874 6577.

New on Pulsar: Facebook topic data now from 82 countries

Ed — Thu, 19 Nov 2015 11:58:44 +0000

This week Facebook have added a bulk of new countries to its anonymised & aggregated Topic Data. At Pulsar we're very excited by this news because it means users can now collect and analyse topic data from all corners of the world. As Facebook topic data opens up to more countries, the ability to get insights from 1.5 billion people is becoming a reality! Read on to find out Facebook topic data's full breakdown of countries and languages.

Continents with the best coverage & the top countries in each

As Facebook topic data is now available in all but two continents, we thought it'd be good to highlight the regions with the best coverage and the top countries in each region. We've excluded Europe from this as much of the continent is already included.

Africa has Facebook topic data covering nine countries - these include: Kenya, Ghana, South Africa, Nigeria and Mauritius.
Asia (all Middle Eastern) has Facebook topic data covering eleven countries - the main ones being: Palestinian territories, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Iraq, and Kuwait.
North America (including Central America) covers a total of eleven countries. These include: United States, Canada, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic.
South America coverage of Facebook topic data consists of eight countries: Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Uruguay, Peru, Paraguay, Chile.

What languages are covered?

Here's a full list of all the 32 languages covered with Facebook topic data's new additions:

Topic Detection & Sentiment Analysis

Topic Detection and Sentiment Analysis support is available for the following languages: Topic detection: Spanish, German, Dutch, French, Portuguese, English, Greek, Turkish, Italian, Polish. Sentiment analysis: Spanish, German, French, Portuguese, English, Greek, Turkish, Italian, Polish.

Facebook topic data for market research

In the article 'Facebook: Your New Marketing Research Consultant?', Greenbook Blog summarises how this new data can be used for market research projects. They highlight six main areas that will enhance research briefs:

Tracking trends
Understanding the language of your customers
The real-time aspects of social media promise faster research
Discover emerging trends and insights
Using social media may reduce costs
Social media can extend the reach of research

If you're excited by the thought of tapping into this huge pool of anonymised and aggregated topic data, or you'd simply like to learn more, please book a demo by emailing James.Cuthbertson@Pulsarplatform.com or call us on 020 7874 6577.

Launching Pulsar Vision: why mining images is key to understand social media today

Francesco DOrazio — Tue, 01 Dec 2015 14:26:03 +0000

Remember when you first saw Flickr? At the time social media was still pretty much a textual world, with visual glimpses here and there. Today, we're posting 1.8 billion images on social media everyday. But it's not just a matter of larger numbers. The function of the image itself in the communication process has changed. Images are increasingly used as an independent mean of personal expression with the text associated to them shrinking more and more to a condensed caption (often packed with emojis and ironic hashtags) serving the ancillary role of providing some (relatively necessary) context. Image-sharing platforms like Flickr have given visual communication a whole new avenue to find an audience and prosper. Products like Tumblr, Instagram and Pinterest have further developed the idea of using images as means of expression facilitating the emergence of a visual grammar to express personal opinions, social commentary or simply updating one's status. Then Snapchat came along and engineered the entire product around the idea of conversations as visual banter rather as an exchange of "texts". In these visual conversations, images aren't anymore just a mean to illustrate a textual content. The image is carrying 90% of the meaning and the text (when is there) is simply working as a qualifier, providing some context, speeding up comprehension, disambiguating interpretation. What this means for research is that we can't rely anymore on analysing the text to understand the image. In many cases we're now dealing with the very opposite scenario: we have to analyse the image itself in order to understand what the (often sparse) text actually means. And this is exactly what Pulsar Vision is set to do. In collaboration with our friends at IBM Watson, we've just launched a suite of deep learning tools to help you make sense of images in social media. Simply put, Pulsar now helps you understand the content and the context of a picture by analysing the picture itself. Images from Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr and any other visual channels are instantly analysed and tagged as they are collected with what Pulsar believe is the subject of the image. Tags can be as generic as "person", "car", "sunset", "waterfall" but also as specific as "Arc de Triomphe". To facilitate the exploration of vast image datasets the new image tags are now available not only in the Results view but also as a treemap visualization in the Content section of the dashboard where Pulsar displays the most popular subjects in images shared by users across any of the social media channels you're tracking. The map below for example is showing a breakdown of the images posted about Hyde Park in London. This means you can now create instant visual moodboards for brands, topics, campaigns, events and shape your creative strategy around the visual insights. Access to Pulsar Vision is free for all Pulsar users for the first 3 months of release (Feb 2016). Thereafter will be available as an add-on alongside other exciting new Artificial Intelligence modules we are integrating into the platform. More news on this very very soon.

If you’re already using Pulsar and want to learn more about our image analysis tool, please contact your account manager or email: Accounts@Pulsarplatform.com. Alternatively, if you’re yet to experience the power of Pulsar and you’d like to set up a demo, email James.Cuthbertson@Pulsarplatform.com or call us on 020 7874 6577.

The iconic image on social media: a rapid research response to the death of Aylan Kurdi

admin — Tue, 15 Dec 2015 00:01:49 +0000

After a few weeks of super-intense work we are very excited to finally share the new report from the Visual Social Media Lab a project in collaboration with four universities in the UK aimed at developing cutting edge multi-disciplinary methodologies and tools to better understand the visual aspects of social media. The new study focuses on the images framing one of the biggest issues of 2015 - the flight of Syrian refugees to Europe - made highly visible by the photographs of three-year old Aylan Kurdi lying face-down on a beach in Turkey and then picked up by a Turkish police officer following an unsuccessful attempt by his family to reach Greece in early September. The report features contributions from the Visual Social Media Lab (including our very own Francesco D'Orazio), Google News Lab (Simon Rogers), Tow Center for Digital Journalism, Columbia University (Claire Wardle), WITNESS (Sam Gregory) and other leading researchers. Twitter recently announced that #RefugeesWelcome was one of the most influential moments of 2015 on the platform. Francesco D'Orazio's contribution, Journey of an Image, focuses on how the images of Aylan Kurdi spread on Twitter during the first 12 hours from one tweet in Turkey to over 20 million screens around the world. The study shows how these images had a huge impact on language use, with users shifting from the term 'migrants' to 'refugees' overnight. It also shows how Twitter was instrumental in the distribution of these images, making the story go global and mainstream before the official international press published the first news article. Findings from Google News Lab highlight a similar pattern around the increased use of the term 'refugees'. It also shows how people were already searching for Aylan Kurdi before news started to spread via the international press. However, the data also shows how it was the professional journalists, and not just simply the general Twitter audience, who activated the viral distribution of the images. Twitter’s ability to act as a catalyst connected emerging stories with relevant audiences, helped develop and connect those audiences on a global scale and made the story go mainstream before the international press had even started to officially cover it. But we should not forget that it was the journalists on the ground who broke the story on Twitter, and through the social platform put it in front of the right audience, facilitating a very effective and optimised diffusion dynamic. Why did these images become meaningful? The report draws on the expertise of 15 contributors from the Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities, industry and nonprofit organisations to address this wider question from different angles, across four sections in the report:

Social Media Responds - studies how the image spread on social media and what people searched for on Google. It looks at specific stories and image use.
What Did the Image Do? - addresses media coverage of personal, political and artistic responses as well as different political responses in the UK and Norway.
The Iconic Image on Social Media - uses longstanding visual traditions (the iconography of suffering, war and press photography) to understand the images.
Showing/Not Showing the Image - includes a timely discussion on ethics, publishing decisions for graphic images as well as the changing role of platforms.

We will be publishing Francesco D'Orazio's Journey of an Image on our blog in full tomorrow but you can already access the full report here

Visual Social Media Lab - The Iconic Image on Social Media: a rapid research response to the death of Aylan...

Here's how the press is responding to the report: For any questions do reach out to Francesco on Twitter at @abc3d or email him at francesco@pulsarplatform.com.

John Lewis, M&S and Sainsbury’s: This year’s Christmas advert social media comparison

Cierra — Wed, 09 Dec 2015 14:28:28 +0000

It’s that time of year again! Christmas adverts are a hot topic to critique, analyse and advertise, so this year we decided to run a comparison on social media as we noticed last year’s adverts took on quite a different strategy. Everyone at Pulsar has seen this year’s collection of Christmas adverts and opinions are flying around all over the office. Last year we reviewed the UK’s top Christmas ads and saw a strong tie between TV and social media. This year we’ll be highlighting the key differences in strategy and whether this is reflected in overall social media activity.

Sainsbury’s: “Mog the Cat”

In a drastic change in theme to 2014’s ‘War and Peace’ ad, Sainsbury’s has decided this year to focus on a more light-hearted approach to Christmas with ‘Mog the Cat’, a character a series of children’s book.

Sainsbury’s Christmas Advert volumes for 2014 vs 2015 Overall volumes of ‘Mog the Cat’ were much lower compared to last year. Not only did the release of this year’s ad not get as much traction on social media, but the high volumes of mentions did not carry on for as long as 2014. Alongside the momentum of the advert, last year Sainsbury's sold the chocolate bar featured within the advert for £1 in the run up to Christmas – donating all profits to The Royal British Legion. This year they carried along the same trait by selling a number of Mog's Christmas Calamity books at £3, as well as a Mog toy for £10. Again, all the profits will go to the charity Save the Children.

John Lewis: “Man on the Moon”

John Lewis have once again pulled at the heart strings and made thousands of people cry all over the nation with their ad 'Man on the Moon'. It’s a similar tearjerker effect caused by Monty the Penguin’s quest for romance in 2014.

John Lewis Christmas Advert volumes for 2014 vs 2015 Man on the Moon gained approximately 7,000 more mentions on the release day compared to 2014, which shows that the anticipation for the advert was much stronger this year. However, overall volumes in 2014 had higher conversation rates in the weeks following the advert. We believe that this could be in relation to the social media presence of Monty and Mabel, the penguins who were awarded with their own social media channels provoking more online conversation around the advert. Last year’s Monty the Penguin helped raise awareness for WWF and had hopes of increasing Penguin adoption through the foundation. This year John Lewis has decided to officially partner with Age UK over the Christmas period to promote £5 text donations to the charity. Alongside focusing on the elderly population, the department store are selling Man on the Moon mugs and festive cards with 25% of the selling price being donated directly to Age UK. They even went as far this year as to release a shortened and more bespoke version of their ad to align with the foundation messaging – see below:

Marks & Spencer: “Art of Christmas

M&S has had the most diverse change in its strategy. The high-end department and grocery store have opted to showcase seven mini ads that are 20-30 seconds in length - portraying the Art of Christmas with glamorous product spins. This is in complete contrast to last year’s narrative of two fairies named Magic and Sparkle.

M&S Christmas Advert volumes for 2014 vs 2015 Volumes around the shorter 2015 adverts have caused a major decrease in social media conversation, compared to 2014’s Magic Fairies. Similarly to John Lewis, this drop in conversation is partly down to lack of specific social media channels that ran alongside the TV campaigns. Last year these extra avenues for consumer engagement and interaction created increased hype and discussion around both brands. The focus of shorter adverts was to reflect the fast paced season with ads aligning with each festive Christmas moment. This approach could have been chosen to help better target an audience of younger shoppers, alongside their new evident trend to reach the style-conscious consumers.

Final thoughts

Last year we summarised that the main goal of the 2014 Christmas adverts was to release engaging and exciting content that got viewers talking and buying. This Christmas we’ve seen two brands change up their strategies, and have again witnessed John Lewis’ successful theme of emotional storytelling. However, customer engagement on social media has somewhat disappeared - character Twitter handles did not re-appear and there was less prominent interaction with the online characters and their fans. The lack of social media presence seems to have had an effect on the overall social figures and mentions.

Overall: 2014 vs. 2015 Although all social media figures appears to be declining ahead of December, there is much noticeable charity evolvement which could translate into higher merchandise sales. If you’d like to discover how Pulsar can help evaluate campaign performance, then get in touch at Info@PulsarPlatform.com.

#Dieselgate: The impact of corporate deception on social perception

Sameer Shah — Mon, 14 Dec 2015 13:07:54 +0000

We teamed up with Sophus3 and reviewed the Volkswagen's #Dieselgate crisis on social media in their latest quarterly AMI publication on brand reputation management. Read on below for the full analysis: The growing importance of social media has expanded our horizons in terms of content we consume and share whilst also affording us a much broader audience. News and opinions can now spread like wildfire online, particular negative info about brands, and VW was no exception. We have utilised various social media metrics and visualisations to illustrates the impact of #dieselgate. From this we can also identify certain key learnings for brands in monitoring and reacting to conversation on the web, with the aim of limiting damage and averting a crisis becoming a disaster.

Word-of-mouth in the digital age

Digital-driven globalisation means something occurring in one part of the world takes mere minutes to reach the eyes and ears of a person in a far-flung land – particularly given today’s penchant for 24/7 rolling news. Our opinions are no longer confined to family, friends and colleagues but extend to a wider online community of hundreds or even thousands thanks to social media.

Bad news hits hardest and spreads fastest

Whilst there have been several conflicting research studies devoted to ascertaining whether humans have a greater appetite for consuming and relaying good news or bad, when it comes to large corporations there’s only one winner. Given that these business have grown on the back of years of profit and rising stocks, it’s no surprise that the odd decrease in sales or plummeting share price stands out more. However, when you add a whiff of conspiracy as a key cause, this escalates things to a whole new level. Cast your mind back to the early part of the century and recall how newsworthy the case of Enron was: dubbed the world’s most infamous accounting scandal. Now teleport yourself back to the modern era: it’s not difficult to envisage #Enrongate trending on Twitter throughout the saga. The scandal du jour is, of course, Volkswagen cheating its emission tests: not only has this damaged the atmosphere with additional tonnes of air pollution, but also done severe, perhaps irreparable, damage to perceptions of VW. As in traditional media, good news tends to be of less interest whereas bad news attracts the column inches. What’s different about the web and, in particular, the social web, is the speed of its spread.

Impact of emissions scandal in social media

Smart social media listening enables organisations to stay continually in the loop about how much, what and where people talk about them online – thereby enabling more flexible action when situations arise. Accordingly, we have uncovered findings about how VW was discussed on the web in the immediate aftermath of #dieselgate. During the first two days of the scandal, the number of new users following Volkswagen on Twitter increased by 225% – three times higher than the industry average. Furthermore, inbound traffic for Volkswagen increased rapidly – exhibiting a four-fold increase in the same timeframe – as people turned to social media to voice their discontent. TOTAL NUMBER OF ENGAGED USERS @UKVolkswagen Volkswagen’s brand reputation, which is based on trust and reliability, is now in serious jeopardy. Consumer trust was its calling card prior to the scandal, with the German automaker the market-leader for this specific attribute. Trust is one of five pre-set brand attributes assessed using Pulsar’s automotive tracker, and the matrices below indicate how this key point-of-difference for VW was affected by the scandal, falling by 57% (N.B. size of bubble indicates brand equity within the given dimension): BRAND ATTRIBUTES SOCIAL INDEX [TRUST DIMENSION] Based on automated tagging on Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, News, Forums, Blogs and YouTube Twitter activity shows how even loyalists have lost their faith to the point of desertion:

Mud sticks

When a company reports negative financial results, there tends to be an observable, single spike in conversation but nothing longer-lasting. This is emphatically not the case for VW post-scandal, as the chart below illustrates: VOLKSWAGEN SOCIAL VOLUMES [1^st September – 31^st October, 2015] Based on total VW mentions on Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, News, Forums, Blogs and YouTube Prior to the scandal, daily volumes rarely exceeded 30k. Since then however, they’ve barely dipped below 30k. VOLKSWAGEN SOCIAL SENTIMENT [1^st September – 31^st October, 2015] Based on total VW mentions on Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, News, Forums, Blogs and YouTube Furthermore, sentiment has swung 24 percentage points from a balance of +17% to -7%. Positivity has almost halved as advocates dissociate themselves from disgraced brand, whilst negativity is up nearly five times. That conversation shows no signs of abating is the most worrying aspect of all for VW, as the initial severity and harm to their image plus losing custom is compounded by the brand continuing to be inextricably linked with the scandal. One month after the scandal, “emissions”, “scandal”, “epa” and “CO2” still have strong associations with the brand – as illustrated below: WORD BUNDLE BY VISIBILITY [15^th September – 31^st OCTOBER, 2015] Based on total VW mentions on Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, News, Forums, Blogs and YouTube The word stream below confirms how the topic dominates visibility for Volkswagen. This essentially means that whoever logs into social media looking for information regarding the brand will inevitably be exposed to the story. WORD STREAM BY VISIBILITY [15^th September – 29^th September, 2015] Based on total VW mentions on Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, News, Forums, Blogs and YouTube Tesco, the UK supermarket chain, gives an unfortunate example of ‘mud sticking’. In 2013 it was found to be selling horsemeat labelled as beef. That association has remained and people often reply to Tesco social media posts with horse-related jokes and puns, or more serious calls to boycott the brand and its stores. However, supermarkets are a vastly different industry to automobiles. If people are in desperate need of groceries and Tesco is the most convenient destination, the horsemeat scandal is unlikely to be at the forefront of their minds. For a high-ticket item such as cars, much more thought is given to the purchase decision, and there is larger field of competitors too. It isn’t inconceivable that those who feel let down by the emissions scandal may never buy a VW model again. Indeed, VW’s year-on-year sales for October were down by almost 10%.

It’s too late to apologise

While more recent utterances by the new bosses have been better received – including Mathias Mueller saying they would “stop at nothing” to find the truth – the die was cast earlier on, illustrating the adage that first impressions are the most lasting. On social media in particular, official VW accounts have started using and encouraging the use of the #wirsindVW hashtag to mobilise support from those who remain brand aficionados. However, this seems to trivialise the matter in return for a few retweets, whilst also attracting the ire of disgruntled consumers.

Best practice: one size doesn’t fit all, but be prepared

There is clearly a balance to be struck in how to respond online to crises, and the specific scenario largely dictates this. Numerous examples exist of brands reacting in a humorous tone which has won over ‘the masses’: O2 in the summer of 2012 being a widely-praised instance. Having experienced a substantial outage in their network that left 10 million customers unable to use their phones for two days, O2 took to social media to reply to every individual complaint (of which there were hundreds of thousands) with a wit and light-hearted demeanour that turned out to be award-winning. Of note is that O2 remained within the remits of its brand positioning, having already gained a reputation on social for its oft-humorous and tongue-in-approach to CRM. Mimicking this would clearly not be appropriate for VW, but it is clear is that O2 had a pre-planned strategy. Their actions highlighted the importance of not just existing on social media for the sake of it, but using it to push a message and control brand reputation. Whilst every crisis situation is unique and therefore all-encompassing do’s and don’ts are not necessarily appropriate, utilising social media monitoring in the ways listed below can help make the best decisions for limiting damage:

Track volumes to see the uplift in conversation compared to brand benchmarks, thereby assessing the gravity of what’s unfolding.
Sentiment analysis not only quantifies the extent of detraction, but can also be used as a platform to dive deeper and shows the true value of social data. Recognising consumer language and pain-points in a qualitative, insightful manner but on a quantitative “big data” scale provides brands with a vast source of customer thoughts and perceptions to inform PR and comms.
Measuring inbound traffic across owned channels shows whether the crisis has caused the public to interacting directly with the brand in order to elicit a response, or whether they are merely making passing comments about the story.
Identifying most-shared and visible content plus domains provide an idea of what the public is seeing and where; which informs where and how the brand can also participate.
Identifying key influencers and channels similarly helps guide the type of content to publish and who to target.

The broadcast era where brands could operate on a command-and-control model is over. Simply put, brands don’t control communications any more. The digital era and social media has accelerated consumers’ abilities to get their voices heard. Brand meaning is more about what consumers think, feel and share – rather than what brands tell them to. While a crisis will naturally result in consumer uproar, the minimum response of sincerity and honesty will at least earn some grace – or rather, avoid further denigration, as VW received.

Social media monitoring: practical actions

The ability to identify, at a glance, key consumer behaviours, puts brands in a stronger position to defend their reputation online by acting as a guide for where to focus PR effort. The channel breakdown below shows a top-down distribution of information when it comes to #dieselgate: VOLKSWAGEN CHANNEL BREAKDOWN [13^thSEP – 2^nd OCT 2015] Based on total mentions of the emissions scandal on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Instagram, News, Forums, Blogs and YouTube BY VISIBILITY

This shows that news stories drive discussion – being the most visible source of information by far. Blogs also cover the topic but these are mostly professional blogs rather than consumer-written ones which is, anyway, a shrinking segment. BY VOLUME If news articles are the communication vehicle, then sharing on Twitter drives reach and is the main way consumers interact with the topic. Consequentially, a press release or a blog post by Volkswagen are the best options to broadcast and control the conversations around the scandal. Smart social media listening also allows a brand to easily identify the most effective domains in which to deliver the brand message in the event of a crisis. The most-shared domains, links and websites (as visualised below) provide the opportunity to investigate the online viewer's streams for more incisive PR planning. In this particular case, mainstream media such as the BBC, Reuters, The Guardian and New York Times would be the most effective sources to deliver the brand message. MOST-SHARED WEBSITES [13^thSEP – 2^nd OCT 2015] Based on total English language mentions within Europe of the emissions scandal on Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, News, Forums, Blogs and YouTube To conclude, one thing is key: brands must attempt to own the conversation early on to limit the damage by influencers pushing their own agenda. This does not have to be grandiose, but also cannot be similar to Winterkorn’s first statement. Rather, a carefully-considered, honest and sincere admission of guilt that humanises a faceless corporation and strikes the right tone of contrition and remorse. Thereafter, any communications should remain terse so as to not downplay the gravity of the situation. If you’re yet to experience the power of Pulsar and this report has got you wanting to know more, then set up a demo by emailing James.Cuthbertson@Pulsarplatform.com or call us on 020 7874 6577.

Pulsar top 10 innovations of 2015: how we're changing the game in the social listening industry

Francesco DOrazio — Sun, 20 Dec 2015 16:55:54 +0000

A lot can happen in 12 months. A lot more happens if you work at Pulsar! Here's our top 10 product innovations of 2015, enjoy the memories ;)

Instagram: mine the visual web on Pulsar

On our quest to make Pulsar a visual media platform, we decided to kick off 2015 by fully integrating Instagram. This new release gave all Pulsar users the tools to manipulate and mine visual data like no other social media monitoring platform on the market. And recently we have started working with Instagram directly to show how useful this data can be for marketers.

See why Instagram is crucial for your image analysis here, and explore the platform's potential for brands in this review of Facebook's research study here.

Content Dashboard: all the best bits in one place

It’s called Content, the new section of the platform showing you all the “best bits” of your search in one place. We display it so that the images themselves are front and centre of the visualisation, and you can see what’s most popular at a glance. Check out the power of Content and image analysis in the full blog post here.

Media Queries for focussed datasets

We know Pulsar customers want to bring back all the data that’s relevant to their needs and want to be able to analyse it by media type. That’s why we released two new options for more focused social data, image-only searches and hyperlink-only searches.

We call these “media specific queries”. They enable you to build focussed and precise searches that contain only the media types you need, enabling you to get more from your monthly data allowance.

For all of the details on media specific queries, check the blog here.

Pulsar Core: own channel analytics done right

We introduced a whole new product to the Pulsar suite with a big one! Pulsar CORE measures the reach, awareness and engagement brands are generating through their own social channels and combines it with the activity the brand is generating elsewhere in social media to provide a holistic picture of the social audience. CORE evaluates both owned and earned media using comparable metrics and boils them down to one simple Social Brand Score for understanding your brand performance online and against your competitors. Own channel analytics is a huge addition to Pulsar, discover the finer details about this new product here.

Facebook Topic Data: a game changer for the social media industry

In June 2015 Pulsar was the first platform to provide access to Facebook Topic Data. Since then we’ve been working directly with Facebook and 70% of our customers to show how powerful this data can be. The release of anonymised and aggregated topic data was huge for the marketing industry - find out why here. Or explore the reasons topic data is essential for your data plan here.

Twitter Full Archive Search: Instant access to every single tweet ever created

In August we started to offer instant access to nine years’ worth of Twitter. Since then, the Full-Archive Search API has allowed our users to instantly search for any tweet ever produced, back to the very first one in 2006. See what this meant for Pulsar's historical data capabilities in our blog post.

Audience Demographics Dashboard: know thyself

Alongside Topics, Keywords, Clusters, Influencers, Content and Location, this new dashboard presents audience demographics in straight to the point, bite-sized visualisations providing a holistic view of the data. Discover the full breakdown of what Audience can do to your data analysis here.

Interactive Graph Visualisation in the browser: easy network analysis for all

Network analysis has always been a key element of the way Pulsar looks at social data. Last year we released the first integration with Gephi that gives our users the ability to plug their social data directly into Gephi. This year we released a new interactive graph visualisation that shows the core of any network right in the browser to help the researcher make sense of information flows and audience behaviour before they go onto working on a full network analysis of the dataset.

Historic Previews by Day: get an instant sneak peak into your dataset

Previewing historics got smarter and easier when we launched a new historics preview functionality which allows users to see a daily breakdown of their historic dataset before the data has actually been collected. This opens up a whole range of new research, planning and advertising use cases and we're really excited to see how our users are already leveraging this functionality. Understand how this innovation can enhance Pulsar's user experience by reading the detailed blog post here.

Clusters 2.0: the most versatile custom charting solution in the social listening space

Pulsar already provides a huge variation of ways users can visualise their data, but clusters are popular because they allow you to visualise your data in a different, more customised way. Clients are using clusters in a number of different and creative ways, but we keep seeing three use cases that are most prominent: reporting, real-time updates and data segmentation. New visualisations, sizing, drag and drop, colour editing, data preview Check out the biggest update to Clusters since their launch here.

New Filter Panel: next level data segmentation

A smarter and simpler user experience to support advanced, faster data segmentation. See how this next level data segmentation can aid your analysis here.

Pulsar Vision: image analysis on the fly

Understanding images is now key to understand the social conversation. That’s why we launched a suite of deep learning tools to help our users make sense of the visual side of social media. Simply put, Pulsar now helps you understand the content and the context of a picture by analysing the picture itself rather than just the caption that comes with it. Image analysis is so powerful that Instagram decided to showcase it at their last Auto event where they shared Pulsar analysis of the images most associated with the top car brands in Europe. Discover the full capabilities of one of the most intelligent image analysis tools on the market here. So this was the best of our 2015. And we can't wait to share our plans for 2016! If you’re looking to implement social media listening into your 2016 marketing strategy, make sure you set up a demo with Pulsar by emailing James.Cuthbertson@Pulsarplatform.com or call us on 020 7874 6577.

'A rapid research response to the death of Aylan Kurdi': How the social media study spread

Ed — Sat, 19 Dec 2015 13:59:05 +0000

Last week, we were amazed at how well 'The iconic image on social media: a rapid research response to the death of Aylan Kurdi' was received by the world's press. We watched the story spread around the globe, so in this blog we thought we'd share a round-up of the biggest publications who chose to release the study.

The research paper was released by Visual Social Media Lab, a project we co-founded last year in collaboration with four UK universities to push the boundaries of image analysis and understanding in social media.

The research focuses on an image framing one of the biggest issues in 2015 - the refugee crisis - made memorable by the tragic image of Aylan Kurdi lying face down on a Turkish beach. The study found that the image changed how language was used, with people shifting from using the term 'migrants' to 'refugees'. The study also shows how Twitter was instrumental in the spread of these images, which made the story mainstream and global before the first official article was published. You can read the full paper on our blog here.

Coverage (so far)

BuzzFeed Canada: How The Photos Of Alan Kurdi Changed The Conversation From “Migrants” To “Refugees”

The Independent: Aylan Kurdi images were seen by '20 million people in 12 hours'
Corriere della Sera: Da migranti a rifugiati: così Aylan ha cambiato le conversazioni online (e il dibattito politico)
The Next Web: How 2015's most iconic image on the web changed the debate on refugees
Daily Mail: Tragic boy Aylan's image saw 'refugee' word outstrip migrant tweets - study
The Guardian: Alan Kurdi image appeared on 20m screens in just 12 hours
AOL News: Tragic boy Aylan's image saw 'refugee' word outstrip 'migrant' in tweets - study
BT.com: Tragic boy Aylan's image saw 'refugee' word outstrip 'migrant' in tweets - study
Irish Examiner: Images tip language use to 'refugee', according to researchers at Sheffield University
The Scotsman: 'Migrants' became 'refugees' after Aylan Kurdi photo says study
Quartz: Research shows how one devastating image totally changed how we talk about the refugee crisis
PR Week: Social media debate immigration transformed following Aylan Kurdi image
Breitbart: Dead Syrian kid pic worked: Media changed public perception after Aylan Kurdi went viral
Suara.com: Foto Aylan Kurdi di Twitter Ubah Pandangan Eropa soal Pengungsi

For any questions do reach out to Francesco on Twitter at @abc3d or email him at Francesco@Pulsarplatform.com.

How can charities engage with a new generation of 'Digital Dans' on social?

James — Thu, 31 Mar 2016 06:45:44 +0000

One of the biggest challenges currently facing charities in the UK is the gradual fade of ‘Dorothy Donor’ (women aged 55 or above, who are often targeted by charities through traditional marketing methods). As the elder generation of regular donors continues to decrease, charities must tackle the problem of finding a new younger generation of regular donors. And in doing so, they need to go beyond the single transaction. This transition has been made particularly problematic due to the huge difference in the way various age groups consume media. Traditionally, print media was the bread and butter marketing method for charities to reach Dorothy Donors. But this simply won’t fly for today’s younger target audience who do near enough everything through digital. Charities need to find a way of identifying and engaging with the digitally savvy donor. Digital Dan, if you will.

Engaging with 'Digital Dan'

It’s no secret that social media is a great way to support and promote one-off events, whether that be an individual running a marathon, a group of colleagues cycling from London to Paris, or an organised event such as UNICEF’s Socceraid or Comic Relief. In fact, charities have been real pioneers in their use of social media to raise awareness and encourage one off donations (just look at the no make up selfie and ice bucket challenge phenomenons). What has been less successful is taking those who have given one off donations and transforming them into regular givers. But why is this? Brand advocacy for charities on social media is huge; people feel good about giving to charity and they want to share this with their friends and followers. The individual has done half the work for the charity already, identifying themself as a fan of their work and using their voice to tell their online networks about it. However, it doesn't often go much further than this. The donor has enjoyed instant gratification – they’ve donated to charity, told their friends, had a public 'thank you' message from their chosen charity - job done in their eyes. Charities, therefore, must go beyond this singular transaction and open up a meaningful dialogue that leads to a successful conversion from a onetime advocate to a regular giver.

Going beyond singular transaction

The way to do this is simple: understand your audience (or perhaps desired audience). When an individual posts about their act of support, a charity learns who they are on social media. And by taking this person along with everyone else who has also posted a one off donation, it is possible to create a robust dataset of individuals who clearly support the charity but are yet to be converted to regular givers. The resulting dataset can be analysed and segmented to create actionable insight. By understanding their audience of potential donors (topics of conversation, tone of voice, behaviour patterns), a charity can then tailor their content accordingly to create excitement about the work they do, keep themselves relevant online and generate further support. Once a charity has understood their audience and are communicating with them, it's worth stressing the importance of a consistent online voice. When we say consistent, this doesn’t necessarily mean constant self-promotion. Check out the Instagram post (above) by Movember UK that really highlights the value genuinely interesting content creates: 16% of Movember UK’s Instagram following directly engaged with the respective linked post. By ensuring a consistent brand voice across all social platforms, it then becomes easier for individuals to identify with the brand and become synonymous with their mission, thus leading them to become a regular giver. If you'd like to find out how you can identify and reach out to the ‘Digital Dans’, or you'd simply like to explore how Pulsar can compliment your charity's marketing strategy then we’d love to hear you! Please send an email to Info@Pulsarplatform.com.

New on Pulsar: Sleeker search setup

Ed — Mon, 11 Jan 2016 14:15:29 +0000

Today we're launching a new layout and design in the search setup feature, which is now sleeker and much clearer at every stage of the process.

What you can expect from the new design and layout

At Pulsar we've always trying to improve the platform's UX, which is why we're very excited to share with you these four main updates to search setup:

A progress bar at the top during search creation, where each step is hyperlinked.
No more lists. Keywords are now grouped in a row format, which makes it easier to review and digest.
In summary mode, hover over each section to edit and update.
Better search validation and guidance to make sure users set up their searches correctly.

Here's a preview of what the new search setup process looks like. Scroll down to view a couple of screenshots taken from Topics search: Screenshot 1: Setting up your keywords Screenshot 2: Summary of your search setup And we're not stopping there, we'll be launching more search-focused features in the coming weeks...watch this space! If you’re already using Pulsar and want to learn more about our the new search setup design & layout, please contact your account manager or email: Accounts@Pulsarplatform.com. Alternatively, if you’re yet to experience the power of Pulsar and you’d like to set up a demo, email James.Cuthbertson@Pulsarplatform.com or call us on 020 7874 6577.

Pulsar, an official certified PYLON Partner for Facebook Topic Data.

Ed — Wed, 20 Jan 2016 15:25:46 +0000

Pulsar is now officially a certified PYLON partner for Facebook topic data. This follows Pulsar's partnership with DataSift in June 2015, as one of the first social media intelligence tools to launch anonymised and aggregated Facebook Topic Data. DataSift's PYLON partners is "the most innovative partner ecosystem dedicated to developing social data technologies." It also means we can embed this shiny new badge onto our website: What does this mean for Pulsar clients? With 1.55 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the world’s largest digital platform - and it’s where many brands make their biggest digital marketing investment. Now for the first time, the big picture of consumer activity across Facebook is available for marketing insight through new anonymised and aggregated Facebook topic data. "PYLON for Facebook Topic Data enables companies to analyze what is being shared on Facebook while respecting privacy." Visualised perfectly in the diagram below: Image by DataSift Facebook Topic Data is crucial to get rich insights about pretty much any online audience. For example, we were given exclusive access to a Facebook Topic dataset comprising of three car brands: BMW, Ford and Honda. In this three part series, which starts with 'Using Pulsar’s new audience dashboard to uncover who talks about cars on Facebook', our social media researcher, Sameer Shah dissects all mentions of said brands to discover their audience demographics and main topics of conversations. Facebook Topic Data is also essential for PR firms. We work with many PR firms who are now using Facebook Topic Data. In an interview with PR Moments, VP of Product Francesco D'Orazio talks about the implication of this data for the PR industry: 'What Facebook Topic Data means for the PR industry' and how it is changing the game. Last year we also introduced our new Audience Dashboard, which allows you to organise your dataset by gender, age, country and languages and provides a more holistic view of the data - the perfect tool to accompany the use of Facebook Topic Data. Being a PYLON Partner has meant our clients have access to a wealth of data, that was not available before. If you have any questions about Facebook topic data make sure you check our previous blog post on FAQs here. If you’re already using Pulsar and want to learn more about our Facebook Topic Data, please contact your account manager or email: Accounts@Pulsarplatform.com. Alternatively, if you’re yet to experience the power of Pulsar and you’d like to set up a demo, email James.Cuthbertson@Pulsarplatform.com or call us on 020 7874 6577.

Pulsar featured in Davos report: Shaping the Future Implications of Digital Media for Society

Ed — Thu, 28 Jan 2016 00:16:41 +0000

Last week the World Economic Forum held its annual meeting, Davos. During the conference WEF released its latest report: 'Shaping the Future Implications of Digital Media for Society', which features Pulsar's How Videos Go Viral study within the 'User Behaviour, Preferences and Concerns' section.

The report surveyed over 5000 digital media users from Brazil, China, Germany, South Africa and the U.S. It uncovered emerging behaviour patterns among users linked to an individual’s impression of the impact of digital media on their own life and its subsequent impact on the media, entertainment and information industries.

Here's the report summarised in four points:

Digital media users on average spend more hours online than they sleep

Every second user thinks that digital media is improving their quality of life, but there are significant country differences

Majority of users still not ready to pay for premium entertainment (34%) or for exclusive or educational content (21%)

Of worldwide respondents, 72% consider that it is important that media and entertainment companies actively support corporate transparency on personal data management, usage and control

The report says that understanding content virality is important. The exploration of how content spreads through social networks is vital to understanding how digital media influences society. It uncovers a message's journey, how it's being shared by influencers and spread through their networks. It goes on to use Pulsar's 'How Video Goes Viral' study as a reference: "For example, a YouTube video titled “Commander Hadfield singing David Bowie’s Space Oddity”, from the International Space Station, spread mainly from one big hub, while a grass- roots video of protests in Turkey was shared by many smaller influencer groups." Needless to say we were very proud to see our work featured in the report! To read the full WEF report go here: 'Shaping the Future Implications of Digital Media for Society'. To read the full Pulsar study go here: 'How Videos Go Viral' If you’re already using Pulsar and want to learn more about our social media consultancy offer, please contact your account manager or email: Accounts@Pulsarplatform.com. Alternatively, if you’re yet to experience the power of Pulsar and you’d like to set up a demo, email James.Cuthbertson@Pulsarplatform.com or call us on 020 7874 6577.

Pulsar is speaking at the Sophus3 Forum, 9 March

Ed — Wed, 02 Mar 2016 07:45:17 +0000

Pulsar will be speaking at the Sophus3 Forum in London, 9th March. The conference is focused on digital excellence and is a key event for any participants from eDataXchange who are within the Automotive industry. Our Head of Auto Insights Giuseppe Polimeno, has been invited to talk at the Sophus3 Forum about 'Social Intelligence: Moving from passive listening to active analysis'. Giuseppe will discuss the importance for Automotive brands to pay attention to, and invest in social data analysis. He will lead you through the use of taxonomies to capture the associations that contribute the most to brand equity and identify conversations that fall into key brand areas or attributes. For OEMs, it provides a qualitative way of understanding the positioning of each brand from a consumer perspective and a perfect complement to the quantitative analysis of market position and progress Sophus3 Forum invites everyone in the automotive industry from eDataXchange to gather under one room and share new ways of working, ideas and innovative use cases. Here's why Sophus3 thinks you should attend: "For auto brands, the competitive challenge is to stay ahead of the curve in creating value from their digital assets rather than playing catch up with the consumer’s expectations and other auto brands." The speakers are a collection of experts from various industries, see below:

Paul Rutishauser / Editor of Automotive Market Intelligence
Marcus Hodgkinson / Founder, Sophus3
Ajaz Ahmed / Bestselling Author, Founder & CEO of AKQA
Richard Anson / Founder of Reevoo
Giuseppe Polimeno / Head of Auto Insights at Pulsar
Carol Wolrich / Marketing Manager, Honda UK
Scott Gairns / Managing Director, Sophus3

We can't wait to showcase how we've been working within the automotive field. If you're interested in attending Sophus3 there are limited amount of tickets still available, click here to book yours now.

Introducing 'Dashboard'

This Friday (4 March) we're launching 'Dashboard' our new Automotive magazine, and we can't wait! This new publication will look at how social media intelligence is helping shape the Automotive industry, and will include in-depth social data analysis on Auto brands and their digital audiences. Alongside this, we have also set up an Automotive tracker on Pulsar which will continuously collect data. This means if any person working within the industry needs some quick reporting or social data insights, the data is already there and we can instantly go into the dataset and grab it. If you're attending the Sophus3 Forum then you will have the opportunity to be the first to get your hands on our shiny new magazine, just make sure you give Giuseppe a nudge. If you're not attending, but would still like to see what all the fuss is about, send over your details (name, company, email and address) to Info@Pulsarplatform.com - you'll have the magazine in your letterbox next week. Can't make the conference but you work within the Automotive sector? Discover how Pulsar's social consultancy can deliver a better understanding into your social media strategy by sending an email to: Info@Pulsarplatform.com.

#Match4Lara: how Lara found her match

Ed — Thu, 03 Mar 2016 13:01:09 +0000

In December 2015, Lara Casalotti was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia. In an effort to find a stem cell donor match, she launched the campaign #Match4Lara which aimed - and still aims - to diversify the stem cell donor registries worldwide. The campaign benefitted not only Lara, but also thousands of others in urgent need of a stem cell transplant. #Match4Lara shows how a successful social media campaign has the potential to inspire and encourage others to get up and do. By spreading her message across social networks, in just four weeks Lara was able to find a rare stem cell match, and help get 30,000 people globally to sign up to the registers. We first heard of the #Match4Lara campaign when it was in its infancy. Pulsar was asked by Hannah Haddad, our freelance social media researcher, to track the campaign from the very beginning (her brother is a good friend of Lara's). This meant we were able to visualise how it spread across social networks and follow the growth of mentions and shares. Hannah and Ed Hawes, Pulsar's marketing executive, have teamed up to analyse the campaign and understand how we can ultimately use social media for social good. Says Hannah about this campaign: "People act when they are inspired; when they see that they have a part to play. #Match4lara did just that; connecting with the potential in everyone, to save a stranger’s life. #Match4Lara linked the power of social media, with the visceral natural resources that do the clicking, the tapping, the swiping. This happened 88K times, taking the campaign to over 1.5 million people across all networks including News, Social, Blogs, Forums, and Facebook." We identified three major peaks of chatter throughout the campaign's lifespan. The first was just after #Match4Lara gained momentum, attracting mainstream media. David Cameron and other high profile figures endorsed the campaign resulting in the second peak. Finally, on 9th February 2016, the world received the news they were waiting for. Lara’s match had been found. Hannah continues: "I refreshed the Facebook post continuously, watching the likes skyrocket by the second. It certainly felt like the whole world had been waiting. And in line with the inspired-leads-to-action rule, donor sign ups jumped once again." The chart above visualises channels by volumes. The campaign was fuelled by social media (Facebook: dark blue, Twitter: light blue), where news and other outlets paled in comparison. Mentions of Lara's match announcement was dominated by Facebook. The Audience dashboard breaks down the dataset by gender, age, country and language - a crucial feature to identify who's behind the mentions. From this we can see that the story was picked up by 66% more females than males. Lara is only 24, and the campaign largely resonated with the age range, 35 - 44, a group likely to have their own children as well as more experiences with devastating plights like Lara's, perhaps contributing to a surge in empathy. Lara is British with mixed ethnicity; she's part Thai, Chinese and Italian - this had a direct impact on where the story was shared. Using this data we identified the main countries spreading Lara's message: the UK - 29.9%, Italy -28.2%, the US - 13.8%, and Thailand - 14.8%. Looking at the bigger picture, Hannah says: "#Match4Lara is a key example of how social media and the proper use of social data can make content go viral. Pixelated faces aren't just mere identities: behind every swipe and tap breathes a human being. Social media for social good means everyone doing their bit on the ground. The spreading of messages, opening of discussion, garnering of support is certainly important." "But likes and shares that convert into action truly embrace the potential of every human being behind the profile. This campaign meant Lara found her bone marrow match and it is continuing to encourage others to join the bone marrow registry. The campaign has already found potential in 30,000 possible lifesavers, and counting." "Virality allows a campaign to spread its message even after its initial objective is complete. Why stop here? Let’s bring social media down from the clouds." Please convert your reading / sharing / liking of this post into action, by making sure that you and every one around you are signed up to the global stem cell registers. You might be - or know - the match for Aary, May, Zara, Vithiya, Tommy... just a few of 37,000 people waiting for their match to sign up to save a life. Thank you. If you want to find out how you can make your content go viral or would like us to help track a campaign, send an email to: Info@Pulsarplatform.com.

Messi's biggest fan: How one photo went viral

Ed — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 10:00:36 +0000

Two weeks ago the Internet was hit by another viral sensation - 'Messi's biggest fan'. We tracked the story spread online and turned it into a beautiful data visualisation (scroll down to view). An image of a boy wearing a Argentina football shirt made from a plastic bag, was posted to Twitter. In turn this sparked a worldwide search to locate and identify the boy in the photo. We followed the story on Twitter to visualise and map its virality. The data visualisation below shows how key influencers can impact a message's social media journey. The nodes represent visibility, a mix of reach and engagement generated by each author (you can read more about our Visibility 2.0 algorithm here). The colour of the nodes represent the country of the author. The top countries involved in the conversation were the US - 14.5%, Argentina - 8.7%, Estonia - 5.2%, and the UK - 4.5%. We are able to get 75% of geolocalised content through our advanced geo-coding technology, which can identify and scale where people are most talking about the Messi image. Using relevant keywords to track the photo on Twitter, we were able to compile an activity graph (below). The graph identifies peaks in conversation, allowing us to analyse and find correlations between the volume of mentions and the story unfolding in the media. Unlike many social media phenomenas, the content didn't just peak over a couple days and then die off - over a period of three weeks the story continued to gain and lose traction. The first few peaks show the picture's initial surfacing on Twitter - sparking high levels of chatter whilst the story gained momentum. After two people identified themselves as the boy in the photo, speculation continued to grow which resulted in even larger amounts of online conversation. Once the identity of Murtaza Ahmadi was confirmed as the boy in the photo, Barcelona FC announced that Ahmadi would meet Messi and the team in Spain. The story generated 33K mentions over a three week period, and at its largest peak reached 30 million people on Twitter. This global heat map geolocates Twitter mentions and shares of the image. The red marks represent locations of high density chatter.

The bundle allows us to analyse how different keywords in the dataset are connected. We can also see what the major talking points are. For example, after two boys came forward: one from Afghanistan and the other from Iraq, speculation around the boys' nationality became a reoccurring theme. We know this because "afghan", "afgano", "irak", and "iraqui" are highlighted as keywords in conversations around the image. In particular, "Afghan" is connected to every major keyword used to describe the photo. Since the photo was uploaded to Twitter, Murtaza Ahmadi from Afghanistan was identified as the boy. The Afghanistan Football Federation and the Leo Messi Foundation sent Murtaza the full Barcelona football kit and have organised for him and his family to be flown over to Spain to visit the stadium and meet the team. If you’re already using Pulsar and want to learn more about how content can go viral, please contact your account manager or email: Accounts@Pulsarplatform.com. Alternatively, if you’re yet to experience the power of Pulsar and you’d like to set up a demo, email James.Cuthbertson@Pulsarplatform.com or call us on 020 7874 6577.

New on Pulsar: Near operator, for more accurate data

Ed — Wed, 17 Feb 2016 11:09:49 +0000

Today, we're very excited to announce the launch of near operator on Pulsar. Near operator, commonly referred to as the proximity operator, will allow users to target their searches and get more accurate data - with a lot less effort - across all channels.

How does it work?

If you're a user on the platform and unfamiliar with how near operator works, or you simply want to know more about near operator, here's a step-by-step guide:

Use the tilde symbol (~) in your syntax at search setup.
The maximum number of keywords you can specify is 6. This is the total number of words you can have between all the matching keywords in your query.
You can query for 2 or more keywords.
Works across all data sources apart from Instagram.

Near operator is useful when you want to bring back data about a specific topic, and you need to narrow down your search. For example, you want to dive into a pool of data on people talking about Apple and iPhones. To make sure the data is relevant you can use near operator to ensure the two keywords are 1 - 6 words apart in any content. This is to weed out any pieces of content, like a blog, where the keywords are written whole paragraphs apart, which could make that piece of data less relevant to your dataset.Confused? Here's a few examples of how this should work in practice: Query: “apple iPhone”~6 Match: “I love Apple products, especially the new bigger handset iPhone 6s.” Match: Business for Apple should benefit from the high Chinese iPhone adoption.” Query: “apple iPhone mobile”~3 Match: "Selling a used Apple iPhone 6s plus 16GB Mobile phone." Match: “Apple developed iPhone and pioneered mobile technology.” If you’re already using Pulsar and want to learn more about near operator feature, please contact your account manager or email: Accounts@Pulsarplatform.com. Alternatively, if you’re yet to experience the power of Pulsar and you’d like to set up a demo, email James.Cuthbertson@Pulsarplatform.com or call us on 020 7874 6577.

New on Pulsar: Easier, faster way to filter queries

Ed — Wed, 17 Feb 2016 16:55:19 +0000

Alongside near operator, we've also made it easier and faster to search for data on Twitter. This is following feedback from our clients as we want to ensure they get the data they want and need. We highlighted this is an area for improvement - and that's exactly what we've done. One of the things that takes most time when setting up a query on Twitter is having to include all the variations of the keyword(s) you want to track. Not anymore. Now any keyword you specify in a search setup (e.g. "apple") will automatically match all the following variations: hashtags (#Apple), apostrophes (Apple's), symbols (Apple!), capital letters (APPLE) and any tweet carrying a URL containing the word "apple". This new way of filtering makes sure your search brings back all the relevant data you want, even if you forgot to add specific search terms, like a hashtag. We've implemented an easier, faster method to create new searches and to make sure user's queries ingest as much data as possible. However, our tests reveal that the data our client's consume could increase depending on the complexity of their searches. So whilst users will finally have all the data they can dream of, it's important to remember in some cases their data usage could go up 20%. If you’re already using Pulsar and want to learn more about our improvements to your query settings, please contact your account manager or email: Accounts@Pulsarplatform.com. Alternatively, if you’re yet to experience the power of Pulsar and you’d like to set up a demo, email James.Cuthbertson@Pulsarplatform.com or call us on 020 7874 6577.

Brand Dig: Recent social adventures with Burberry, Adidas & House of Fraser

Ed — Thu, 18 Feb 2016 14:07:13 +0000

Brand Dig, the weekly blog series by Senior Research Executive over at Face, Harry Symington, shares the most exciting brand ideas and campaigns happening right now. In this kick off, we’ve found three brands who recently won – and failed – at engaging their audiences through social media. Burberry sent shockwaves through the fashion industry last week with their runway to high street bombshell. At the other end of the fashion-spectrum, Adidas are on-point with their collection of self-destructing images. And, in the land of high street House of Fraser failed to ‘strike a pose’ :( after their emojical outburst failed, turning Twittersphere into the tears of joy emoji. Whether it’s a brand win or fail, these retailers know where to find their audiences – and that’s on social media.

How Burberry is reacting to the live-streamed runway

The seasonal timeline of fashion shows feels outdated. Whether it’s live streaming, or Instagramming, fashion brands create lots of energy around the runway. But they immediately ask consumers to forget about the collections because they won’t be available in stores for another five or six months. Responding to the new digital paradigm, from September 2016 Burberry will combine men’s and women’s lines into one collection, to be shown at two annual shows. The collections will then be immediately available online and in-store. New line debuts were once private, exclusive events seen only by those who worked with or wore the collections — store buyers, fashion editors, top clients, the odd celebrity. But today shows are broadcast in real-time through Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat. Although ‘just’ 100,000 people actually attended New York Fashion Week in 2015, 2.6 million live streamed the shows – with brands like Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger racing to set up their own channels on Periscope. Fashion shows have become a way to communicate to the media and Burberry is one of the first to recognise this by turning its runway shows into consumer-facing events. Ambika Zutshi, CEO of Fashionbi, a data and insights firm about fashion and luxury industry said: “This really means death for the traditional fashion weeks and the organizations managing it, if they stay rigid”. If inaccessibility is no longer equated to luxury, will fashion brands still be able to draw on traditional aspirational currency?

How Adidas is making Snapchat work

Snapchat claims to hold digital marketing’s hottest real estate. However, brands and marketers are still confused by how to engage consumers on the platform. Although one brand leading from the front is Adidas, who use Snapchat as its go-to outlet for behind scenes broadcasts into the world of football. Recognising that there’s a growing number of people telling their life stories through images – whether it’s pictures, videos or emoji – Adidas is showing Snapchat users what it’s like to be a football insider and hang out with the world’s top players in real time. The brand is pulling back the curtains and showing their way of thinking in a very raw and real way. Snapchat users are notoriously protective of the purity of the platform, so how is Adidas ensuring its content doesn’t annoy users – or worse, get ignored? By using the platform’s proprietary location-based graphics and lenses, Adidas augments its selfies with animations that allow it to blend in with user content. It’s behaving exactly like the consumers it’s targeting, meaning the brand can integrate itself in a meaningful and nonintrusive way. Aside from the 100 million users on the platform, Snapchat’s appeal lies in the type of people using it – which skew to a younger demographic. Topher Burns, group director, distribution strategy at Deep Focus says: “Snapchat’s major advantage is that it’s entirely rooted in the user behaviour and values of a digitally native demographic, not in those of a demo who started using social media in college,”. If Snapchat’s demographic lies in young Millennials, how can the platform engage with other generations to ensure it maintains its current buzz with brands?

Why House of Fraser’s emoji experiment flopped

It was certainly a seminal moment when Oxford Dictionaries declared the “tears of joy” emoji as the word of 2015 – not least because it reflects the importance of visual imagery in today’s culture. So why then did House of Fraser’s #Emojinal Twitter campaign fail to resonate with consumers? Looking to take a fun approach to Valentine’s Day, the department store retailer kicked off the campaign by tweeting a series of cryptic, emoji-filled messages. One image shows a peach emoji in place of Kim Kardashian’s bum with the bizarre caption “practice what you peach @KanyeWest!“. Another features Leonardo DiCaprio playing an emoji horn and an endorsement of his new movie – “Leo’s not tooting his own horn or anything, but @RevenantMovie deserves an Oscar!” Yet the series of emoji-filled photoshops fell flat with House of Fraser’s followers, with some even asking if the account had been hacked. But the brand’s change in tone is what surprised people the most. “#Emojinal is a masterclass on how to ruin a century-old upscale brand with one terrible social media campaign,” tweeted one follower. Even ASOS chimed in with, “U OK hun, @houseoffraser?”. As part of a strategy to reach a younger audience, the campaign was a code made up of a sequence of emojis symbolising a romantic comedy. Once users cracked the code they would be entitled to 10% discount to spend online. There’s no doubt that House of Fraser should be on social, but does the 167 year old brand need to communicate through emojis to attract younger customers? Want to gain deep insights into your audience through the use of social data? Send us an email: Info@pulsarplatform.com.

"Is Hollywood racist?": Chris Rock and racial diversity at the Oscars

Ed — Mon, 29 Feb 2016 17:24:04 +0000

"Is Hollywood racist?". Chris Rock tackled this question, among others, is his opening monologue at this year's Oscars. In the first ten minutes of the award ceremony, Chris Rock dealt with controversy around the lack of racial diversity at the Oscars head on. His monologue, which has been applauded for simplifying the diversity issue, ignited the racial diversity chatter on Twitter once again. The #Oscars received 3.9 billion views from people on and off Twitter, which is based off 24.2 million mentions pre and post event. We tracked the main hashtags surrounding the racial debate: #OscarsSoWhite, Oscars and #Blackout, and #OscarsDiversity, which received 230K mentions globally over a four day period (26th - 29th Feb). Using these keywords, we were able to pull back 28K mentions (tweets and retweets) of Chris Rock's opening monologue, which was one of the most spoken about topics in our dataset. Using Pulsar's activity graph to look at mentions by hour, we can see that people are talking about the Oscars' racial debate in the lead up to the event, which peaks during the opening monologue. People tended to shy away from the topic during the show, with it gaining traction again post-event. The keyword bundle shows how Chris Rock's monologue sparked large amounts of conversation. People mentioning "monologue" also used "controversy" in their posts, showing that his speech tackled some hard hitting issues which were not always received positively. The largest influencer in the dataset was @blackvoices (Huffington Post - Black Voices) who gained 4,623 reactions. Angry Asian Man, who comments on the lack of Asian ethnicities represented at the Oscars, was the second most impactful user receiving 2982 reactions. Originator of the #OscarsSoWhite campaign, @reignofapril was also a minor influencer in online chatter about racial diversity, having generated 790 reactions. Chris Rock said "all we want is equal opportunities", and there's nowhere better to tackle this issue than at the most coveted awards ceremony in the world. Racial diversity at the Oscars is a conversation which has been building since the nominations were announced. Now the event is over and the Academy dealt with the criticism head on, eyes are fully focused on Hollywood and the film industry as a whole. If you want to see how you can use Pulsar to track the world's greatest events, or you simply have a campaign you want analyse, send an email to: Info@Pulsarplatform.com.

Join Pulsar at the Image Analysis Tool Development Workshop, 8 March

Ed — Thu, 03 Mar 2016 07:45:37 +0000

Join our VP of Product, Francesco D'Orazio (@abc3d) and Visual Social Media Lab at the Image Analysis Tool Development Workshop on Tuesday 8 March in Wolverhampton. It's free! The Visual Social Media Lab is hosting a workshop at the University of Wolverhampton on social media image analysis tools. The Lab will demonstrate two existing software solutions and be there to discuss and seek advice on the functionalities that should be added to them. The workshop is aimed at researchers who want to explore images in social media and would like to use software to gather and analyze large-scale images. The workshop is packed with exciting, creative sessions to help share insight and in the most concise way. The afternoon looks as follows: 2-2.30: Image analysis with Pulsar / Francesco D'Orazio VP Product & Research, 2.30-3: Image analysis with Webometric Analyst / Mike Thelwall, Statistical Cybermetrics Research Group, University of Wolverhampton. 3-4: Practical hands on workshop with Pulsar and Webometric Analyst 4-4.30: Coffee break/networking session 4.30-5: Discussion and suggestions for tool improvement 5-6: If you would like a 15-minute 1-1 session with Mike or Fran, please email the address below to book one. If this sounds like something your interested in, we still have spaces left. Make sure you get yourself signed up as soon as possible by emailing Mike Thelwall on m.thelwallATwlv.ac.uk. Do you have an event or talk you'd like Fran to speak at, then please send him an email: Francesco@Pulsarplatform.com.

Introducing Marketing 2.0: Meet Pulsar's new team

Ed — Tue, 01 Mar 2016 16:42:21 +0000

We have two new additions to our marketing team; Judith Hornman and Imogen Bennett. They both joined us in February so we thought we’d let them get comfortable before finding out about life pre-FACE & Pulsar. Here’s what they had to say:

Tell us what brought you to FACE & Pulsar?

Judith: I actually came across Pulsar, FACE's audience intelligence software, before FACE. Working as a Marketing Manager for a software company specialising in video for live events, I was looking to find a tool to help me identify audiences and track my brand. The more I saw of Pulsar, and subsequently FACE, the more I became interested in the market research field. That interest coincided with FACE & Pulsar's requirement for a new Marketing Manager. It's not often that things line up that well, and there was a definite spike in high-fives in my household when it all came together. Imogen: I was immediately attracted to Pulsar & FACE by its culture. The people who work here are amazing and completely driven by what they do. I was looking for a role where I could really combine my design skills, and marketing experience with my drive & thirst for knowledge in such a forward-thinking company.

What draws you to market research/ social media listening?

Judith: Coming from a completely different industry, I've only been introduced to market research and social intelligence recently. But as far as I can see, it's a very interesting time for research seeing that communication has changed fundamentally, and is still changing so quickly. To stay on top of these changes you need to not only be able to anticipate them, but also act on them. FACE & Pulsar appear to do just that, so perhaps it's their pioneering spirit that draws me the most. Imogen: Since studying Humanities at school, I have been fascinated by societal analysis. Pulsar takes this to a whole new level, especially with their stunning data visualisations. It's great working with such a huge variety of clients where there is value in the research FACE & Pulsar offer. I also come from a very design-led background, it's a joy to help implement strong brand styles into our marketing strategies.

What are you most looking forward to learning and achieving in your new role?

Judith: I'm most looking forward to learning from the people that work here. FACE & Pulsar appear to be a group of flexibly minded people who are naturally curious and forward thinking. That's a great environment to be in. On smaller but equally important scale I am looking forward to working with the marketing team and working on everything from process improvement to getting designs just right and, of course, making sure that we create interesting and relevant content to share with the wider world. Imogen: In terms of industry knowledge and building on my marketing skills, I have a huge amount to learn... and I can't wait. I'm excited to see how all of our plans unfold over the next few months and see how Pulsar grows and develops as its own brand.

Tell us about yourself outside of work!

Judith: Outside the ever popular 'friends-family-traveling' interests, going to the cinema is still one of my favourite things to do. My top tip is to go in the morning on a weekend - no queues and when you walk out you'll still have the whole day. I also love playing the drums, although it's been a while - I don't think my neighbours would appreciate me setting up a kit in my flat any time soon. I do enjoy sports: I've tried many things over time including field hockey, track, Krav Maga, contemporary dance and kickboxing, but I can't ever seem to stick with anything for very long. I'd like to try surfing or rock climbing next. Or should I try fly-fishing first? Imogen: Outside of work I enjoy relaxing with good food, yoga and friends. Music has always been a big part of my social circle and I have recently set up a music platform with a friend. We aim to promote and talk about the bombastic world of electronica bass music. I also have a design blog which I try to update with new art and design work when I get the time. Are you a smart-thinker who is looking to work in a fast-paced environment, at one of the world’s top social media listening platforms? We’re always looking new talent, so if this sounds like you send your CV over to our Global Sales Director, James Cuthbertson on James.Cuthbertson@Pulsarplatform.co.uk.

Join Pulsar at Information Design for Social Data, 10 March

Ed — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 16:38:46 +0000

Our VP of Product, Francesco D'Orazio (@abc3d) will be speaking at University of Greenwich's Design Roast lecture series to discuss 'Information Design for Social Data', 10 March. Fran will discuss how you can use information design to understand audiences, the challenges of visualising data and how to turn a research process into a software product that enables discovery, stimulates intuition and supports decision making. When: Thursday 10th March Time: 7.30-9pm Where: Stockwell Street, University of Greenwich, LT 0004 (Green Lecture Theatre) It promises to be a really interesting session, crucial for any one who wants to delve further into learning more about turning social data into beautiful visualisations (like the one above). If you're free and want to attend, you don't need to purchase a ticket because the event is free! 'Design Roast' has a walk-in policy so just turn up and we're sure you'll be able to squeeze in. Do you have an event or talk you’d like Fran to speak at? Send him an email: Francesco@Pulsarplatform.com.

Pulsar launches 'Dashboard', the social insights magazine for the automotive industry

Ed — Wed, 09 Mar 2016 12:43:02 +0000

Today, we've launched 'Dashboard', Pulsar’s brand new quarterly insights magazine relevant to the Automotive industry. The magazine looks at how social media intelligence is helping shape the Automotive industry, and includes in-depth analysis on the Fortune 500’s top 10 car brands and their digital audiences across Europe. Follow this link to download your free issue of Dashboard magazine. Find out which sole car brand has more women talking about it than men, what the true impact was of #Dieselgate on consumer trust, and much more on car brands and how they are perceived online. All insights were derived by our in-house research team using Pulsar’s Automotive tracker: an automated data tracker that continuously pulls in information on car brands and their performance online. Monthly and quarterly reports will be available through a subscription model. Better yet, car brands and agencies can also subscribe to the full Automotive tracker, allowing them to find their own insights in real-time when they want to Follow this link to download your free issue of Dashboard magazine. Want to know more about how you can get insights like those in Dashboard, or you're interested in the Automotive tracker. Send an email to: Info@Pulsarplatform.com

#SnapChart: How the car conversation changes by gender

Ed — Tue, 15 Mar 2016 20:28:36 +0000

In October 2015, we tracked all Facebook mentions of Ford, BMW, and Honda in the US & UK. After analysing the dataset we were able to understand the gender differences in how people talk about car brands online. We found the best way to visualise this is in a single flow diagram: The chart reveals that men are predominantly talking about style and mechanical specification - they are as conscious about what a car looks like as women are. For men, safety, the environment, and reliability are thrown out of the window when purchasing a car, making space for aesthetics and power to dominate. As well as talking about the style of cars, the environment is high on the agenda for women. This suggests women aren't as concerned about power and performance as they are about the harm their new purchase will have on the environment. Women are possibly more open to buying electric cars than their counterparts - they want their new car to look good, but to also cut CO2 emissions. Men are more focused on the car's overall power in granular details, not necessarily in the finished product. This shows in the fact that the fuel economy and performance are spoken about much more by men. However, men and women are both equally concerned with the pricing of new cars, its convenience, reliability and how practical they are. Although it's not as heavily spoken about as a car's style, safety is also a major topic of conversation shared by both genders. Although there is clear gender differentiation when talking about cars online, the dataset reveals that people choose to review and comment on aesthetics in much larger volumes than discussing car practicalities. Alongside Dashboard, our new quarterly insights magazine for the automotive industry, we have also set up an automotive tracker on Pulsar. This tracker allows real-time reporting on the automotive industry and its audiences. Want to know more about how you can get social insights from audience intelligence, or you’re interested in the Automotive tracker? Send an email to: Info@Pulsarplatform.com

Happy birthday Twitter, love Pulsar

Ed — Mon, 21 Mar 2016 16:52:25 +0000

Twitter celebrates its 10th birthday today, so we decided to list our top research studies which used Twitter data to better understand audiences. During the decade of Twitter, the platform has been fundamental in raising the profile of social media networks, increasing global connectivity, and helping map behavioural insights. Not only has Twitter fuelled short-form writing, it's also made real-time news reporting a reality, and created topical online communities with the hashtag. At Pulsar, Twitter has allowed us to understand audience behaviours more than ever before, so here's a glimpse of what you can do with Pulsar and Twitter data. Happy birthday Twitter, love Pulsar.

The iconic image on social media: a rapid research response to the death of Aylan Kurdi

This study focused on the images framing one of the biggest issues of 2015 – the flight of Syrian refugees to Europe – made highly visible by the photographs of three-year old Aylan Kurdi lying face-down on a beach in Turkey and then picked up by a Turkish police officer following an unsuccessful attempt by his family to reach Greece in early September. Twitter recently announced that #RefugeesWelcome was one of the most influential moments of 2015 on the platform. Francesco D’Orazio’s contribution, Journey of an Image, looked at how the images of Aylan Kurdi spread on Twitter during the first 12 hours: from one tweet in Turkey to over 20 million screens around the world.

Understanding the Dynamics of Viral Videos for Twitter

We helped Twitter UK demonstrate its value as the key channel that enables videos to go viral. Using TRAC's unique capability to understand how people share content across social media, we tracked four big video stories and visualised the insights into beautiful outputs that were featured in Mashable, Guardian, The Independent – and more.

How Social Media Activity Predicts Concert Ticket Sales

Exploring the Ingredients for a Guinness World Record-Breaking Twitter Campaign

Confectionary brand Pocky set a new Guinness World Record for the largest number of tweets about a brand in 24 hours. We worked with Twitter Japan to analyze all 3.7mil tweets and map how the campaign unfolded, delivering actionable guidelines for improving social media comms and content strategy for Twitter. If you're inspired by any of these research studies and would like to find out more, send an email to: Info@Pulsarplatform.com.

#SnapChart: Easter weekend kick starts holiday conversation

Ed — Tue, 22 Mar 2016 15:30:21 +0000

When do people start talking about and planning their holidays? In 2015, Pulsar analysed and tracked a year's worth of online holiday mentions, allowing us to identify when travel chatter really kicks off. We then delved deeper into the dataset to map the entire holiday cycle: planning, booking, booked. This wealth of information has come from two simple volume graphs:

In the first graph (above) we can see that the amount of people talking about going on holiday increases during the Easter weekend (the first time since New Year). Holidaymakers need to start thinking about their summer break, and apparently, Easter is a good time to start doing so. The extended weekend provides enough time for people to break free from their daily work routine and plan ahead. Not only this, but Easter being the first bank holiday of the year, the arrival of spring, and increased temperatures, all have a role to play in the drive to start looking into holiday booking. The holiday planning phase is the most-discussed online, with the year's first peaks happening during the Easter weekend, as shown in the topics graph below: Social media is used to canvass opinion, therefore an obvious place for holiday planning to be discussed and broadcast to family and friends. The Easter weekend allows consumers to toy with the idea of going on holiday, which is why it's such a popular period to talk about travel plans. These SnapCharts are key to any travel operator or organisation wanting to understand the perfect time to market to their audiences. Travel marketers need to target potential customers during the initial planning stages, and if these charts are any thing to go by, then that time is during Easter. Want to know more about how you can get audience intelligence from social insights, or you’re interested in delving further into the travel sector? Send an email to: Info@Pulsarplatform.com.

#Data4Good: Harnessing social insights to solve global development challenges

Lauren — Thu, 24 Mar 2016 16:09:50 +0000

Social data has proven itself to be a powerful tool for brands hoping to better understand and connect with their audiences. It allows companies to capture consumer behaviours by identifying what’s important to people, what drives them, and what their needs are. But the possibilities for social listening don’t stop there. These tools and methodologies can be used to better understand contexts and conflicts, and help further international development goals. Global Pulse: Mapping global Twitter conversations Social media use is expanding in the developing world at an impressive rate. While most use social media to stay connected with friends and family, they also use it to comment on politics, to share health information, and to document their day-to-day realities. This digital transition has clear implications for development; people are speaking for themselves, changing our understanding of their realities and situations. Social data can therefore enable us to improve access to services, to have early warning of crises, and gain real-time policy awareness and feedback. This potential has been recognised by United Nations Global Pulse – a UN body built with the purpose of “harnessing big data for development and humanitarian action”. Global Pulse used social research to help inform the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals, creating a new agenda for global development. They also used Twitter data to develop a social media monitor, visualising key topics of conversation in specific countries over time – identifying regional priorities. With this data, Global Pulse built a dashboard, allowing anyone to track the top development priorities of each country, based on the opinions of citizens themselves. Social data ensured that the next development agenda was dictated by the people. UN Global Pulse: Identifying Twitter conversations from 2012 - present The Global Pulse data lab has also been working on projects that use social data to pre-empt crises, for example:

Mining Twitter data to predict a food crisis in Indonesia. By tracking online conversations about the rising price of rice, officials were able to predict the consumer price index several weeks in advance.
Using social media as an early indicator of increased unemployment in Ireland. Global Pulse used sentiment analysis to link mood-related conversation with official unemployment statistics. This gave policymakers a greater understanding of the issue and the ability to foresee a rise in joblessness. Social data bolstered unemployment statistics and added depth to them.

At Pulsar, we’ve also used social data to shine light on pressing global issues. In September 2015, after tracking conversations on the refugee crisis, we found that the death of Alan Kurdi changed the language used to discuss this issue. After the boy's image went viral the terminology that people used to describe the crisis switched from 'migrant' to 'refugee'. This study showed how one image played a significant role in shifting a global debate. Social data enables us to take an organic and unfiltered dive into how people think and act. It can therefore do so much more than help us understand how people consume. Social data can shape the way that we approach pressing world issues and the way that we respond to them. The possibilities are limitless and the impact endless. If you’re working in the development space and want to explore how social data can deliver impact, we’d love to hear from you. Send an email to info@pulsarplatform.com.

#SnapChart: Social media provides a platform to brag about your next holiday

Ed — Wed, 30 Mar 2016 06:45:06 +0000

Social media provides the perfect platform to brag about your next holiday destination. Pulsar's travel dataset (used in our previous SnapChart) reveals which platforms people are sharing their holidays on and how they're talking about them. Using Pulsar's URL treemap (below) we discovered that, unsurprisingly, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube are the main platforms used to broadcast holidaymakers' next trips. To back up their holiday post, holidaymakers also use social media platforms to share images of where they're staying. More than ever before we are seeing people reusing official hotel resort photos to give their followers and friends a glimpse of their holiday before they've even gone. The dataset also reveals when people choose to post about their holiday. Holiday confirmation posts are usually shared well in advance of the actual holiday. We can see from the two examples below that people are posting up to six months prior to the plane taking off - and are usually posting immediately after the holiday's been booked. Not only are people posting about their holidays, but they're sharing a lot of travel related content - revealing even more about consumers' attitudes and behaviours. A screenshot of Pulsar's content tab (above), which shows the most shared content online, reveals that consumers have a forward looking attitude when talking about, and researching, holidays. Money saving, tops tips, and hotel horror stories are the main types of articles shared by holidaymakers. Essentially, consumers at the research stage of the booking process want to know 1) how they can save money, and 2) the best way to book. If you're working for a travel operator or organisation these behavioural insight graphs put emphasis on where you need to locate yourself on social media. It also shines light on the type of content which travels and resonates well with consumers. Social media is swamped with people talking about and sharing their holidays. It's clear that these platforms have an important role to play in the booking process, which is why travel companies need to target consumers at the initial stages. You can read more about when people book their holidays in my previous blog post here. Want to know more about how you can get audience intelligence from social insights, or you’re interested in delving further into the travel sector? Send an email to: Info@Pulsarplatform.com.

#SnapChart: how excitement about Payday builds to that (every) Friday feeling

Ed — Fri, 01 Apr 2016 09:13:31 +0000

As it's payday weekend we thought to shed some light on how people are talking about 'making it rain'. We tracked people talking about payday over a period of three months to see whether there was a correlation in volume of mentions at the end of the month. What we found, however, was that people were talking about payday at the end of every week. Yep, excitement about payday steadily builds to that (every) Friday feeling. We were surprised to see that the activity graph (above) reveals the volume of mentions peaking at the end of each week, not at the end of each month. The graph also shows that conversations around payday decrease dramatically over the Christmas and New Year period. As expected, the volume of mentions steadily rises throughout January until the conversation crescendoes at the end of the month. Considering that the majority of people are paid just before Christmas and have to wait a very long month until their next pay, it's no surprise that mentions of payday skyrocket at this time. We zoomed in on the activity graph to provide a snapshot of what the conversation looks like on a weekly basis: The weekly activity graph reveals how the momentum of people talking about payday steadily gathers pace as Friday draws closer. This suggests that although most people are paid every month, they're not paid on the same day and not at the end of the month. And, of course, there are those who are paid weekly. When it comes to talking about how industries can benefit from the use social data, the finance sector is often dismissed. The two activity graphs (a small slice of a large finance dataset) shows that people do talk about their finances online. It proves that finance organisations can draw huge insights from analysing social media, just like every other industry. If you work in finance and want to get to grips with understanding audience insights, or you'd simply like to find out more about Pulsar, send an email to: Info@Pulsarplatform.com.

Visual Social Media Lab's Aylan Kurdi study featured on Dutch TV

Ed — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 11:00:11 +0000

The study we did with the Visual Social Media Lab on how the image of Aylan Kurdi gained global traction has been featured in an interview on Dutch TV. The broadcaster Argos TV, comparable to the UK's Channel 4, ran a short documentary, 'A Sea of Images', exploring how the story of Aylan Kurdi spread around the world and changed public opinion on the refugee crisis. Visual Social Media Lab's Farida Vis was interviewed for the special where she used Pulsar's data visualisations to explain how the image spread. The show was aired last month and was received very well. There is only a Dutch version available currently. We are expecting to receive a version of the tape which includes English subtitles, but for now, you can view the entire program here. If you want to explore the study 'The iconic image on social media: a rapid research response to the death of Aylan Kurdi' in full, then click here. If you have a new campaign launch and want to track its virality, or you want to better understand your audiences, send an email to: Info@Pulsarplatform.com

How do videos go viral? A collaboration with Twitter UK

Ed — Wed, 06 Apr 2016 12:11:53 +0000

How do videos go viral? How do people share them through social networks? And what are the dynamics of ‘virality’? Francesco D’Orazio and Jess Owens worked with Twitter UK to explore four big viral phenomena. The stories they selected were driven by video, and chosen to represent various types of video content:

Commander Hadfield singing Bowie’s “Space Oddity” on the International Space Station (music)
Dove “Real Beauty Sketches” for advertising (the most-watched advert EVER on YouTube)
Ryan Gosling Won’t Eat His Cereal series of Vine videos, for serialised narrative content and mobile
A grass-roots video of June’s protests in Izmir, Turkey, to provide an international and news dimension

It turns out there’s not a single model of virality. Instead, different types of videos spread in different ways. Different types of content appeal to different audiences and the structure of these audiences is what shapes the viral diffusion. Understanding the dynamics of that spread – quantifying it using metrics, and digging into the influencers and demographics to understand some of the “how”, is what is explored in the white paper. To give you a snapshot of what the video virality looks like, check out the diffusion maps below, which show the pattern of tweets and retweets for each video. If you want to explore the full white paper, it's available to download here.

New on Pulsar: track how content spreads on Facebook

Ed — Tue, 05 Apr 2016 07:00:54 +0000

We've just launched a new exciting feature on Pulsar: you can now track how content spreads on Facebook. As you know on Pulsar you can either track Topics, Audiences or Content but until now Content tracking wasn't available for Facebook Topic Data. Today we are excited to announce that you can now track any URL (e.g. news articles, YouTube videos, blogs posts) or any domain (e.g. www.nytimes.com) with Facebook Topic Data. Facebook Topic Data's content tracking feature allows you to analyse how 1.5 billion users interact with content on Facebook by liking, commenting, posting and re-sharing stories but also identifying the topics they discuss and mapping the demographics of the audience that's engaging with the content. Using the content feature you can either track a specific link (e.g. a news article), a series of links (e.g. multiple versions of a meme) or an entire domain (e.g any interaction happening around any link pointing to www.DailyMail.com). We use this feature very often to map the readership of a newspaper. For example, below is a screenshot from the Content dashboard showing the most shared links from a search tracking interactions around two domains: the Mirror.co.uk and the DailyMail.com. The Content dashboard give you a summary of the individual links being shared, commented on or liked by the Facebook audience in a given period of time. We can then analyse the topics of the posts carrying any articles from any of the two publications and of the comments reacting to them. In the topics Treemap below, we can see that most of the interactions around the Mirror and the Daily Mail are about the 'Conservative' party, 'Donald Trump', and 'tanning beds'. While the topics of the stories and the comments already say a lot about the audience of a publication, you can find out more by looking at the demographics of the users who have been interacting on Facebook with the content. The Audience dashboard gives you a breakdown of the audience by age, gender, age by gender, country and language of the Facebook users who have been engaging with that content in the time frame of the tracking. We are looking forward to see what you will do with this new feature! If you’re already using Pulsar and want to learn more about how you can use content tracking, please contact your account manager or email: Accounts@Pulsarplatform.com. Alternatively, if you’re yet to experience the power of Pulsar and you’d like to set up a demo, email James.Cuthbertson@Pulsarplatform.com or call us on 020 7874 6577.

Introducing Pulsar Health: Real-time insight & analysis for the healthcare industry

Ed — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 07:00:47 +0000

We've just launched Pulsar Health, focusing specifically on those working in marketing for the health and pharmaceutical industries. Pulsar Health supports your marketing decisions by giving real-time, 360º views into what patients and health care professionals think and feel, using unique data sources, intuitive analysis and world-leading data science. Pulsar Health helps you stay ahead of the game by going far beyond the capabilities of traditional social listening tools. Pulsar Health allows you to gain better insight into the healthcare industry in three ways:

Understand your audience of Health Care Patients (HCP) and patients
Understand the landscape of a therapy area
Evaluate campaigns & benchmark brand health

Our audience builder can help you identify HCP and specific patient groups worldwide. This allows you to segment your audience and understand behavioural insights, to make your communications more targeted. We are able to provide oversight into all public social media, news, and forums, which allows you to get closer to any therapy area globally. This enables you to make better informed decisions and get your message heard to the relevant audience. Pulsar Health's brand metrics allows you to understand what drives success from your own channels in context of your competition. We're really excited to be able to streamline our service for the healthcare industry. Here's two examples of how our health clients have attained valuable insight by harnessing the power of Pulsar:

Department of Health

"Pulsar quickly helped us spot public concerns on Ebola" We helped DoH monitor changes in public concern around the spread of Ebola. The government organisation had an alert system which informed their PR teams of changes in discussion and sentiment through 24/7 analysis. The Pulsar research team sent weekly reports to DoH, who were able to gain valuable audience insights and identify influencers, which ensured they communicated up-to-date information to the public.

Food Standards Agency

"We now have an 80% accuracy rate in predicting outbreaks the following week - that's so much higher than we expected" The Food Standards Agency have been a Pulsar client for the past 18 months after they found correlations between the Norovirus on Twitter and lab reports. If this has made you curious about the potential Pulsar Health can offer your organisation, we've got an entire section dedicated to it on the website - just follow this link. Alternatively, if you'd like to see a demo of Pulsar Health or download the media pack, send an email to: Info@Pulsarplatform.com

Pulsar joins 'The Power of Images' panel at the International Journalism Festival, 9 April

Ed — Thu, 07 Apr 2016 16:05:18 +0000

Our VP of Product, Francesco D'Orazio (@abc3d) is attending the International Journalism Festival this week to present the study on Aylan Kurdi. Francesco will join an amazing panel of experts to discuss the refugee crisis and the power of images on social media. 'The Power of Images: social media and the refugee crisis' panel will see Fran join forces with UNHCR (UN Agency for Refugees), TOW Center for Digital Journalism (Columbia University) and Sheffield University with the aim to raise awareness and help shape public opinion. The panel will also be moderated by Buzzfeed - the first mainstream publication to feature the study. The International Journalism Festival is held in Italy annually and is one of the largest events for the journalism community - attracting journalists, students, scholars, and media professionals. The event gives attendees free access to a range of keynotes, workshops, and panel discussions. We're really excited to be attending this event and looking forward to the panel discussion. If you can't make it, but still want to explore 'The iconic image on social media: a rapid research response to the death of Aylan Kurdi' study in full, then click here. The study also gained traction in mainstream press, being featured in the likes of Buzzfeed, The Independent, The Guardian, Daily Mail, The Next Web, Quartz, PR Week. Check out the full list and what they said by following this link. If you have a new campaign launch and want to track its virality, or you want to better understand your audiences, send an email to: Info@Pulsarplatform.com

Did one image change the debate on immigration? We joined a great panel at the International Journalism Festival in Perugia

Francesco DOrazio — Wed, 13 Apr 2016 12:25:11 +0000

Last week I had the pleasure of joining a great panel at the International Journalism Festival in Perugia in Italy alongside Carlotta Sami, spokeswoman at UNCHR South Europe, Claire Wardle, Research Director at TOW Centre for Digital Journalism at Columbia University, Farida Vis Research Fellow at Sheffield University and Director of the Visual Social Media Lab and Craig Silverman Editor of Buzzfeed Canada. The panel focused on the power of images on social media in the refugee crisis. Farida introduced the work we have been doing with the Visual Social Media Lab to produce a rapid research response on the images of the death of Aylan Kurdi appeared on the web on September the 2^nd 2015. The full study can be found here. Using multiple datasets (such as social data, news data, search data) and multiple approaches (from iconography to deep learning on images, from content analysis to network analysis), the study looks at how the images spread, why they spread, the impact they had and the ethical issues they raised. In her talk Farida discussed the most shared images on Twitter and how they showed a progressive appropriation of the story by the audience which started to create variations of the original images to express specific points of view. These appropriations created a series of visual paraphrases which provided a contextualised read of the story shaped by the country, the culture, the religion and the political background of the audience interacting with it. She also highlighted the ways in which the images have been used since, for example by Charlie Hebdo and Ai WeiWei and how it becomes important to track these issues as well. Carlotta Sami focussed her intervention on whether the images had any long term impact other than the wave of empathy they sparked on social media. She highlighted how most policy documents, as of today, are still heavily focussed on the ‘migrant’ rather than the ‘refugee’ agenda. Claire Wardle raised some important points on the ethical implications behind the decision to publish the pictures to raise awareness and on the reason why these images got traction while many other images, more graphic, didn’t previously and still don’t today: the Aylan Kurdi images were graphic enough to stimulate a reaction but not so graphic to provoke a rejection and a shut down from the audience. Craig Silverman talked about Buzzfeed’s decision to show the images behind a warning message and how the strong points of view expressed on the story by the reporters who shared it before and independently from their own newspapers (and their editorial line) fuelled a more viral reaction to the story than we would have seen had the news been reported by the official press first. But we started the conversation by looking at how the story emerged. A key point I’ve heard again and again from many journalists in three days of talks at the festival is how frustratingly common it is for newspapers today to see 85% of their content piling up dust rather than clicks and eyeballs and how difficult it is for journalists today to put the right content in front of the right people at the right time. This is what happens when something goes viral, and exactly what happened to the images of Aylan Kurdi and his story. I talked about how and when the images appeared online, how the story took shape, how it went global and viral and the role of journalists on the ground and their local networks in making it go viral before the official press had even started covering it. I've added here my full contribution to the study, Journey of an Image, including all the visuals I used during the talk. But if you're bored of reading you can just watch the panel directly.

Happy birthday Pulsar!

Ed — Mon, 18 Apr 2016 06:29:10 +0000

Pulsar turns three this month, and what an incredible journey it continues to be! Over the past three years we've grown our product as well as our team from strength to strength, currently helping over 3,000 Pulsar users get key insights daily and offering platform capabilities that are unique to the industry. To kick off celebrations we visualised our innovation timeline. Here's our story so far:

Pulsar's three year roadmap

(click on the image to enlarge it) Keep an eye on the blog over the next few weeks as we look into the past, build momentum for the future, and talk to our longest running clients. If you want to see the power of Pulsar for yourself, or you have a social media research brief you'd like us to have a look at, send an email to: Info@Pulsarplatform.com.

New on Pulsar: Top Stories, an instant view of what’s driving the conversation

Ed — Tue, 19 Apr 2016 12:00:12 +0000

Today we're really excited to share with you the launch our Top Stories feature, which overlays the best performing posts on the volumes chart in the Overview tab. Top Stories makes it easier to understand your audience by instantly giving you a view of what's driving the conversation. The feature allows you to view your daily top three stories in the conversation either by number of reactions, by level of reach or visibility score. It brings all your key numbers, overall stats and top content into one place, making it easier and quicker to uncover what’s fuelling the conversation. You can also apply filtering, which means for example that you can filter by channel to view only content from Twitter, or filter by keywords to view only top posts matching specific keywords. The video below shows how Top Stories work: We have also added a rotating content bar right underneath the activity graph (as shown above), which means you can scroll through and view some of the top posts in the dataset. Previously, this section was static only showing the top three posts in your data. The ability to see bitesize pieces of data while looking at the overall trends gives you the micro and the macro view in one screen, enabling analysis that is at the same time qualitative and quantitave without having to trawl through the entire dataset. We are looking forward to see what you will do with this new feature! If you’re already using Pulsar and want to learn more about how you can use content tracking, please contact your account manager or email: Account.Team@Pulsarplatform.com. Alternatively, if you’re yet to experience the power of Pulsar and you’d like to set up a demo, email James.Cuthbertson@Pulsarplatform.com or call us on 020 7874 6577.

Journey of an image: from a beach in Bodrum to twenty million screens across the world

Francesco DOrazio — Wed, 13 Apr 2016 13:25:38 +0000

I first saw the picture of three-year old Syrian refugee Aylan Kurdi lying lifeless on a beach in Bodrum, Turkey on September the 2^nd on Twitter. It felt like getting punched in the stomach. But while I was shocked by it, I didn’t realise how impactful it was going to be until the next day, when the same image started to appear in my Facebook newsfeed. While on Twitter I read the news headlines carrying the picture and reporting the tragedy, on Facebook it was easier to stumble upon the social context of the image. This included the comments of people who were actively engaging with the image and were debating immigration. And that’s when I noticed that the comments seemed to have a different tone from the conversation we had been seeing in the press and social media until then. A lot more people now seemed to be talking about “refugees” rather than “migrants”. The shift, if that was the case, could have been significant: a “migrant” is someone who’s got a choice (and according to some, often an “economical” reason to move) while a “refugee” is someone who has no choice but to flee their country to survive. The term that the politicians, the media and the people would end up adopting to talk about the issue would inevitably have massive implications in terms of humanitarian aid and policy making. Was public opinion on Twitter changing as a result of exposure to the pictures of Aylan Kurdi? The answer is in the chart below. While for most of 2015 “migrants” and “refugees” are head to head in public opinion, accounting for pretty much the same volume of conversation over nine months (5.2M vs 5.3M), from September the 2^nd onward public opinion radically flips towards “refugees” (2.9M vs 6.5M). At the moment of writing, almost eight months after the pictures were published, the gap between the two conversations has widened further with more than double the amount of conversations referring to refugees rather than migrants.

The Turkish press covers the story

At 8.42AM, Turkish news agency DHA (Dogan Haber Ajansi) are the first to report the death of 12 Syrian refugees drowned while trying to reach the Greek island of Kos on a dinghy boat. The article, in Turkish, featured a gallery of 50 pictures taken earlier that morning on the beach of Bodrum where the bodies where first discovered. Amongst those 50 pictures, four featured Aylan Kurdi. The DHA article leads with one of the pictures of Aylan. Twitter is silent. At 9.10AM, another Turkish news agency, Diken, cover the story with another article in Turkish, leading again with a picture of Aylan Kurdi. Twitter is still silent.

The first tweet carrying the picture

At 10.23AM, less than two hours after the story has been reported, the first post carrying one of the pictures of Aylan Kurdi appears on Twitter. Michelle Demishevich, the author, is a Turkish journalist and activist. The post doesn’t link to any news source, it only features a caption, the picture and five hashtags including #Refugeeswelcome and #Syrianrefugees. Within an hour the tweet generates 33 retweets and a handful of other tweets carrying the picture start to crop up from Greece and Spain, but the audience is mostly Turkish (in red in the graph below). At this point the Turkish press is starting to cover the story more heavily and between 11.00 and 11.30AM more than 15 publications start posting articles in Turkish on their websites. But whilst the press is spreading the news to a mostly Turkish audience, the images have now embarked on a very different journey on Twitter.

The images spread through the Middle East

The Turkish press has now taken to Twitter with agency Diken and Haber Analyz expanding the local audience. Images are now starting to spread through the Middle East carried by tweets arriving from Lebanon, Gaza and Syria. Journalists, activists like Free Syria Media Hub (@Free_Media_Hub) and politicians such as the ex Minister of Health in the Hamas government of Gaza, Basim Naim (@basemn63), are getting involved on Twitter. Lebanon is particularly key in spreading the images in the region with Newsweek Middle East correspondent in Beirut, Martin Jay, suggesting for the first time that the picture might be going viral. Less than an hour later, Emergency Director at Human Rights Watch, Peter Bouckaert (@bouckap) from Geneva posts three pictures of Aylan Kurdi and comments on the need for an urgent plan to deal with the crisis. His tweet receives 664 retweets from a variety of countries including the US, the UK, Australia and Malaysia. The pictures have now left the Middle East. The story has gone viral. [caption id="attachment_2964" align="aligncenter" width="604"] Diffusion graph B: 2 hour in from the appearance of the first picture on Twitter. Size of the nodes indicates impact on the audience (Visibility Score). Colour of nodes and edges indicates country of the user. Source: Pulsar[/caption]

Going Viral (& Global)

If a handful of tweets with a few hundred retweets were enough to claim virality, what happens next will require a redrawing of the scale of the event completely. So far the pictures have been shared on Twitter less than 500 times in two hours (3% of the total diffusion of the images at the end of day 1) and have reached an audience of half a million Twitter users across 100 countries. That’s when, at 12.49PM, Washington Post Beirut Bureau Chief, Liz Sly (@Lizsly) weights in sharing a tweet that will end up being retweeted 7,421 times, becoming the most viral post in the dataset. Liz Sly changes the scale of the diffusion generating in the first 30 minutes of her post the same amount of tweets that had been generated in the previous two hours. And it’s not simply the scale that’s changing: the composition of the audience is becoming truly global. New posts are now coming from Lebanon, Iraq, Palestine, Syria, US, Switzerland, Spain and are getting retweeted by an audience that is now mainly out of the Middle East and from the US (17%), Spain (10%), UK (9%), India (4%), Netherlands (3.4%) and Greece (3.4%). [caption id="attachment_2967" align="aligncenter" width="627"] Diffusion graph C: 3 hour in from the appearance of the first picture on Twitter. Size of the nodes indicates impact on the audience (Visibility Score). Colour of nodes and edges indicates country of the user. Source: Pulsar[/caption] At this point in time, almost five hours after the photos have been published online and three hours after they appeared on Twitter first, the Turkish press is the only one officially covering the story, no international news organisations are covering it. And in the void left by the media Twitter has managed to amplify the story to a global audience. But it hasn’t simply seeded the story globally. Twitter acted as a decentralized catalyst that has delivered the story to a highly relevant group of people (journalists, activists, politicians, aid workers interested in the region) along the edges of its social (who’s following whom) and interest graph (who’s clicking on the same hashtags or searching for similar topics). It is this dynamic that’s behind the extremely high engagement rate in the dataset (17 retweets for every single tweet posted). This doesn’t mean that journalists are not getting involved in this process. In fact, they are leading and engineering the viral spread of the images, but they are posting their content exclusively on Twitter and independently from their publications. For the first international publication to release an article on Aylan Kurdi we have to wait until 1.10PM when the Daily Mail publishes their first story on the matter: “Terrible Fate of a tiny boy who symbolizes the desperation of thousands”.

Going mainstream

The Daily Mail story kicks off an entirely new phase of the diffusion characterized by the heavy involvement of the international press. Between the Daily Mail article and the end of the day more than 500 articles are published online and shared on Twitter of which 35% from the UK and the US. The Independent, Huffington Post, The Guardian, Mirror, Mashable, ITV, CBS, NBC, Aljazeera, NBC, Metro, El Mundo, Reuters all run their leading stories within the next five hours and a second wave, heavier in US news and focused on the next days front pages, is published from 7PM onwards. [caption id="attachment_2970" align="aligncenter" width="604"] News Timeline Sept 2nd 2015. Source: Pulsar[/caption] The huge influx of news content leads to the peak in mentions and reach between 9 and 10PM (6K tweets/hour carrying a relevant image and 20K tweets/hour talking about the story overall). But it also changes radically the shape of the diffusion of the images, featuring official accounts from editors and news publications pushing their own angle on the story rather than simply sharing the images. [caption id="attachment_2972" align="aligncenter" width="604"] Tweet Timeline, image-only (Sept 2nd, 08.00 to 23.59). Visualising the top tweet by number of retweets for every hour. Source: Pulsar[/caption] Compared to the previous phase of the diffusion, the audience exposed to the story, sharing the images and talking about them is now 25 times bigger. However, by the end of the day, it is the news ecosystem that ‘owns’ the story and uses it to carry its own content rather than just the pictures. [caption id="attachment_2975" align="aligncenter" width="604"] Diffusion graph D: 12 hours in from the appearance of the first picture on Twitter. Size of the nodes indicates impact on the audience (Visibility Score). Colour of nodes and edges indicates country of the user. Source: Pulsar[/caption] The trend continues the next day where the volume of news content keeps growing and fuels the overall peak of tweets, which is reached at 53K/hour at 8PM on September 3^rd. After that, both Twitter activity and news content start to gradually decline for the following 10 days until they go back to 50% of the levels reached on September the 2^nd. [caption id="attachment_2977" align="aligncenter" width="604"] Tweet Timeline vs News Timeline by the hour, all tweets (Sept 2nd, 08.00 – Sept 3rd 23.59). Source: Pulsar[/caption] Although the appearance and growth of news content has radically changed the velocity of diffusion, the size of the audience reached and the composition of that audience, it hasn’t changed the key behavioural dynamic of the story. Throughout the first 12 hours and through the rest of the viral cycle, the diffusion of the story has remained consistently image-led. [caption id="attachment_2979" align="aligncenter" width="604"] Image-Tweets Timeline vs Text-Tweets Timeline by the hour (Sept 2nd, 08.00 – Sept 3rd 23.59). Source: Pulsar[/caption] Within this dynamic, a visual narrative has emerged as the images going viral have changed over time. Whereas the original images of Aylan Kurdi have dominated the first 48 hours of the diffusion cycle, from September the 4^th onward they have been replaced by user-generated variations on the original images designed by illustrators and graphic designers. The need for sharing the impactful images and the concerns over hurting the sensibility of the audience have led, within the first 12 hours, to the creation and diffusion of surrogate Aylan Kurdi images designed to mitigate the brutality of the original images in order to sustain the visual narrative of the story and its diffusion. [caption id="attachment_2981" align="aligncenter" width="604"] Aylan Kurdi Image-Tweets vs Variations Image-Tweets by the hour (Sept 2nd, 08.00 – Sept 3rd 23.59). Source: Pulsar[/caption] This is a visual narrative deeply intertwined with Twitter’s ability to act as a catalyst, connect emerging stories and relevant audiences. Its ability to develop and connect those audiences to a global scale and make a story go mainstream before the international press has even started covering it. But we shouldn’t forget that it was the journalists on the ground that broke the story on Twitter and through the social platform put it in front of the right audience, facilitating a very effective and optimized diffusion dynamic. [caption id="attachment_2982" align="aligncenter" width="604"] Tweet Timeline by the hour, image-only tweets (Sept 2nd, 08.00 – 23.59). Source: Pulsar[/caption] The original study 'The iconic image on social media: a rapid research response to the death of Aylan Kurdi', which was produced by Visual Social Media Lab, can be viewed in full by clicking here.

#Paris4Piers: 350 miles, 5 team members, 4 days

Ed — Wed, 20 Apr 2016 10:49:07 +0000

Five brave souls are embarking on a great physical challenge today – cycling from London to Paris. ( FACErs & Pulsarians from left to right: Tereza, Pete, Eilidh, Fran) Piers Leonard, our friend and colleague, lost his short battle with Leukaemia last July. During his fight, Piers was looked after by an incredible team on the teenage cancer ward at Leeds Hospital, which is funded by the Teenage Cancer Trust. To show our gratitude to this amazing charity, we decided to host (and take part in) various charitable events – the first being a Pub Quiz in October, which raised £400. Now, FACE and Pulsar team members (above) are taking on a massive physical challenge which sees them cycling from London to Paris across 4 days. After many weekends spent cycling up and down the English countryside in training, the team gathered this morning at 6am to start their 350 mile journey (see below). The response so far has been overwhelming, with the team exceeding their £15,000 target. In a last push, the aim is to hit the £20,000 mark, so please consider making a donation to help the team give to the Teenage Cancer Trust. You can donate as much or as little as you want on our Just Giving page. We’re incredibly proud of Tereza, Eilidh, Peter, Fran, and Kevin (Sharmila‘s husband). If you want to follow their journey they’ll be using #Paris4Piers on Instagram & Twitter, and we will be posting to Twitter throughout the week with progress updates and photos. To find out more about the Teenage Cancer Trust please visit their website.

Pulsar at 3 years: Thank You!

Job — Thu, 21 Apr 2016 11:14:38 +0000

Wow - 3 years have gone by fast since we launched Pulsar to the world in April 2013! As we lift our heads up for a moment to reflect on our achievements and what we are going to do next, we wanted to start this post by saying a big 'thank you' to 3 groups of people:

To all those people who joined the Pulsar team in our start up phase; you took a risk on us and it has been your hard work, enthusiasm and imagination that has shaped not only a successful product, but more importantly a great place where we can work and experiment.

To our hundreds of clients in Europe and the US. You had the choice to work with any number of better known social data platforms. But you saw that we were doing something exciting with our passion for making analysis more visual and more audience focused. You understood that this created more context, enabling brands to uncover insights faster and easier than ever.

To our investor Cello PLC. You have believed in our vision. You share our ambition for growing a truly world class audience intelligence platform; one that provides real time insight into what people think and feel, unlike traditional social media listening platforms that simply tell you what people say.

3 highlights so far

We love hearing feedback, especially the negative stuff! It helps us build a better product. In developing a SAAS business it can be easy to overlook the importance of spending time with clients post the pitch. In the past 3 years we have learnt more from this group of people than from anyone else. Understanding the jobs our clients have to do and their daily frustrations has lead to the development of some of our key features including Visual Analysis that’s powerful enough to recognise a crushed can of soda, and Historics Preview, allowing you to accurately estimate how much data your search will bring in in real-time.

Being the new kid on the block has given us permission and confidence to try new things. We’ve launched new features every fortnight to stay close our clients’ needs, some of the big ones shown here in our birthday innovation timeline. We are proud that we have been an early mover on Facebook topic data, launching our offering in April 2015, an audacious move, whilst many of the more established players are yet to announce their related products.

Our strategy has been straightforward, to create value for our clients by investing where it matters most - in the product. We are very proud to have grown the business 100% YOY for 3 straight years with relatively modest investment. In fact, we will let you into a little secret. We are truly a rare thing - a profitable SAAS business!

3 things we are doing next (without giving too much away :D)

We will give our clients a deeper understanding of their audience by going beyond social data, integrating a range of new digital sources that provide more context around how people behave online. Our software platform will be supported by a larger consultancy team who will help our clients utilise these new data sources to improve their marketing, product innovation and customer service.

Demand for Pulsar is growing and our inbox is full of demo requests from around the world. We will be opening up new offices soon so watch this space!

In the next 3 years, data sources will continue to grow exponentially. The one thing we can say with all certainty is that we will be a different product and company by 2019. However, our commitment to our clients is clear. We understand that we must stay agile and responsive to the rapid evolution of this new and exciting digital world.

If you would like to learn more about Pulsar and join us on our journey, we'd love to hear from you. Send over an email to: Info@Pulsarplatform.com.

What are the differences between Volume, Visibility & Reach?

Ed — Mon, 25 Apr 2016 10:02:11 +0000

Our excellent customer support team deal with clients' requests on a daily basis - this means they can easily identify reoccurring themes and issues. One of the most frequently asked questions is on understanding the way we measure data: "What are the differences between Volume, Visibility & Reach?" and "I don't understand engagement rate, what does it really mean?". We thought it'd be good to clarify theses terms in a couple simple infographics, see below: If you want to see the power of Pulsar for yourself, or you have a social media research brief you’d like us to have a look at, please send an email to: Info@Pulsarplatform.com.

#Snapchart: Urbanites, the largest group of people talking about holidays

admin — Fri, 29 Apr 2016 13:02:16 +0000

With spring in the air many of us are filled with optimism that life outside of the office does in fact exist, and social media is where we go to share our holiday plans. At Pulsar we analysed where in the world conversations about holiday planning are taking place. Perhaps due to stress, wealth or maybe indeed cultural peer pressure, it doesn’t seem that surprising that those of us living in western urban areas are where the majority of people are talking about planning a holiday. The Pulsar heat map below shows New York and London as top cities where people are looking to take a break from. On the other hand, our research shows that during winter seasons conversation switches and city breaks in-fact become the focus of conversation. Whether this is correlated to the draw of Christmas shopping within the safety of densely packed weather-blocking buildings, cities like London and New York are again top of the list. More so than at any other time of the year, the winter season is the period where we see conversation turn to booking hotels for holiday accommodation. Whereas AirBnB sees most popularity in the Summer time, spiking considerably between May and September. This do-it-yourself Summer attitude seems to contrast winter conversation, where the focus looks to be at spending higher sums of money with a bit more indulgent luxury. So who can use these insights? For travel marketers specifically, advertising city breaks for the winter could pay off with emphasis on luxury and the festive coming together of your nearest and dearest. If you would like to find out more about understanding audience insights, or how consumers talk about your brand and your industry, please send us an email on Info@Pulsarplatform.com.

New on Pulsar: Advanced Audience tracking for smarter Twitter insights

Ed — Mon, 09 May 2016 14:00:06 +0000

At Pulsar we specialise in understanding audiences, so we're giving our clients better tools to make audience analysis more intuitive. That's why we are on a mission to take our Audience analysis to the next level. We will start by introducing two simple features for analysing Twitter audiences - these will go live on Wednesday. Setting an Audience Tracker on Pulsar you will now be able to create panels of users from the people you are Following on Twitter. You will also be able to edit your Twitter Audience Tracker after it's been randomly sampled and launched to fine tune your targeting and the get sharper insights.

Pulsar's aim is to provide audience insights to help brands and agencies produce better creative and planning strategies and stay relevant to their audiences. These new features are just a start but they're already making the process much easier.

We are looking forward to see what you will do with these new features! If you’re already using Pulsar and want to learn more about how you can use content tracking, please contact your account manager or email: Account.Team@Pulsarplatform.com. Alternatively, if you’re yet to experience the power of Pulsar and you’d like to set up a demo, email James.Cuthbertson@Pulsarplatform.com or call us on 020 7874 6577.

New on Pulsar: Real-time volume and results preview

Ed — Mon, 09 May 2016 08:15:34 +0000

Not knowing the volume of data your search is going to generate can be very frustrating and challenging, and so is having a lack of insight into the type of content which is out there. That's why we're giving you full control over your data by launching real-time volume and results preview. See this feature in action below - it will go live on Wednesday: Real-time volumes preview is crucial for any one setting up a new tracker to refine your search setup and stay within your data plan. The results preview gives you an instant view of a random sample of the content your search will bring back so you can test and iterate your search strategy on the fly.

We are looking forward to see what you will do with this new feature! If you’re already using Pulsar and want to learn more about how you can use content tracking, please contact your account manager or email: Account.Team@Pulsarplatform.com. Alternatively, if you’re yet to experience the power of Pulsar and you’d like to set up a demo, email James.Cuthbertson@Pulsarplatform.com or call us on 020 7874 6577.

#Paris4Piers: Pulsar & FACE raise £19,000 for Teenage Cancer Trust

Ed — Tue, 03 May 2016 13:31:13 +0000

If you follow our blog or social media channels, you may have noticed that over the past nine months we've been raising money for Teenage Cancer Trust, in memory of our friend and colleague Piers Leonard. On Saturday 24 April, FACE & Pulsar's team of five completed the London to Paris cycling challenge - and because of their amazing effort and various other activities (bake sales, sweet potato club, raffles and a Pub Quiz)...

...we raised £19,231 for Teenage Cancer Trust!

When the campaign kicked off, the target was £7,500, which we thought would be a realistic goal. But, due to an overwhelming amount of support we have more than doubled the target! We want to say a massive thank you to everyone who donated - your generosity has taken this challenge beyond anything we ever imagined it would be. We couldn't be more proud of the #Paris4Piers team and everyone's efforts at FACE & Pulsar. If you've followed us on this journey, we thought it'd be nice to show you the highlights from the London to Paris trip. Click on the image below to see the full gallery: We haven't closed our donation page just yet - we're keeping it open until 15th May. So! If you've been inspired by the #Paris4Piers cyclists and have some cash to spare, please go visit the JustGiving page - every penny helps.

With digital ad spend set to outstrip TV, is your ad budget working hard enough?

Ed — Tue, 10 May 2016 13:21:00 +0000

DataSift, our official pylon partner and the company that provide us with Facebook, Instagram, Videos & Tumblr data, have written us a blog post. Zuzanna Pasierbinska-Wilson, the VP Marketing at DataSift, who is responsible for driving all aspects of the marketing strategy, jots down her thoughts on how the introduction of Facebook topic data is changing advertising budgets and campaigns. According to a recent report from eMarketer, 2017 will be the year that sees digital ad spend surpass TV ad spend for the first time ever. The report predicts that TV ad spend will hit $72.01 billion while digital ad spend will be $77.37 billion, and it’s a shift that has also been forecast by both Magna Global and ZenithOptimedia. An initial reaction to that is - ‘ad buyers and planners, why on earth did it take so long?!’ The potential for digital advertising to really connect and engage with an audience has been well documented – not just any audience either, but the right audience. However, as ad spend flows rapidly into online video, mobile and social platforms, are your ad dollars really doing their job?

What makes your audience tick?

For your ad spend to really have an impact, you need to understand who your audience is, where and how they consume media and what makes them tick. Knowing this allows you to plan exactly where your money should be directed. Facebook topic data has been a complete game-changer for advertisers, giving them access to one of the world’s largest sources of public opinion data, with 1.04 billion daily active users on average for December 2015. Here are three ways Facebook topic data can transform your advertising campaigns:

1) Find your real audiences

In the days of traditional advertising, finding the right audience for your brand was at times, little more than a finger in the air process. We *think* that our audience watches this programme, so we *think* we will reach our audience by booking an ad in this timeslot. But no one was ever too sure. Facebook topic data provides unparalleled insight into your audience and allows you to challenge existing assumptions about your core demographics. One ad agency wanted to improve social engagement and presence for a snack food but had struggled to extract meaningful insight from costly focus groups. The agency used Facebook topic data to test its assumptions about its audience, having based much of its activity around the idea that the snack would be consumed by men under 25, watching sport. Analysing millions of anonymised interactions over 10 days, the agency discovered that the demographic segment engaging the most was in fact women aged between 35 and 64 and that most people sharing content about the game were doing so with their family, not friends. This meant that the agency could now create campaigns for the snack brand that were more relevant to this demographic and the insight could also inform the future creative for the brand, with a move to more family-oriented stories.

2) Determine what content actually engages people

The TV-watching process has now changed forever – where once we watched intently, perhaps sharing our thoughts with those in the same room - we now multi-screen and share our thoughts with the world. Engagement is now an integral part of TV promotional activity and can even help shape the narrative of the show. When a major TV channel wanted to understand if it could have better control over the feedback loop between engagement on Facebook and tune-in on television, it turned to Facebook topic data. It created an index of the Facebook engagements with all of its programming, capturing seven million interactions in just over a week. Using VEDO - the intelligence inside DataSift that allows you to organise human data based on its meaning – the TV channel was able to identify the shows, themes and content with the most Facebook engagement and analyse this on a minute-by-minute basis by gender, age and state. This meant the TV channel could see which shows were resonating most with which segments of the population and consequently tailor its marketing efforts for these shows to the most engaged demographic groups. It could also change the way that social calls-to-action were promoted in its shows in order to boost engagement.

3) Continually evolve your approach in real time

In 2016, a real time approach is of huge importance in advertising. The TV channel outlined earlier had also analysed the timing of engagement around its shows, with Facebook topic data revealing that most engagement took place at the start of the commercial break. Most viewers were engaged with the show and were waiting for the commercials to air their opinions. Previously, the shows’ hashtags had been promoted at the start of the segment – with this new insight promotion was moved to the end. Furthermore, the continued analysis of Facebook topic data meant the channel could make decisions in real-time, tailoring its promotional content while a show was actually airing, to best resonate with audience engagement on Facebook. If you're interested in seeing how Facebook topic data works, we'd love show you. Just send an email to Info@Pulsarplatform.com and we'll be able to set up a demo and provide more information.

1.8 billion reasons why image analysis will go mainstream in 2016

Job — Thu, 07 Apr 2016 08:41:35 +0000

Consumers are sharing images online more than ever before. Already in 2014 people were posting 1.8 billion images on social media every day, which changes the function of the image for marketing and research. Image-sharing platforms like Instagram have grown rapidly, now boasting 400+ million users and making it bigger than Twitter. Communication styles evolve to match the new medium: images are increasingly used as a means of expression, with text being consigned to a caption (often packed with emojis and ironic hashtags) serving the ancillary role of providing some, relatively necessary, context. This means that, in 2016, the locus of meaning has changed: it’s very often more visual than verbal. What this means for consumer insight is that we can no longer rely on text analytics (whether quant or qual) to understand consumers through social media. In many cases we’re now dealing with the very opposite scenario: we have to analyze the image itself in order to understand what the (often sparse) text actually means. 2015 saw the commercial launch of algorithmic visual analysis tools on social media monitoring platforms such as our own Pulsar. Therefore, in this blog series I want to examine some of the emerging client uses cases we have seen that use large-scale image analysis. These use cases will cover three principles:

Audience Understanding
Trends
Creative Development

To kick this off I’m going to discuss a use case on Audience Understanding.

Brief: Audience Understanding

A global spirits brand was looking to get closer to the digital lives of their urban, aspirational 24-35 year old drinkers so that they could make their new marketing campaign land more effectively with this audience. They realized they knew a lot about who these people were overall – where they went out in London, what made them tick, and who they aspired to be. But when it came to applying that to digital campaign planning – ah. Where were they? How could they most effectively be reached? That was the gap we came in to fill.

What we did

We had two challenges to address:

Ensure we were analyzing the brand’s very specific target audience – it’s about pinpointing the core consumer, rather than anyone talking about them online. We wanted to reach a highly precise demographic and psychographic profile.
See the full 360 degrees of their digital behavior – including search, discovery and content consumption, alongside content creation and sharing. Traditional social media measurement would only give us the latter…

The solution? We created a full Digital Immersion research programme, combining the scale and real-world behavioural measurement of social, with the in-depth ‘whys’ of qual.

Bespoke, one-to-one qualitative style recruitment of a panel of the target audience to work with in this study
Tracked their social media interactions for a month across all platforms, gaining their permission to see their friends-only activity on Facebook and Instagram as well as Twitter
An online community, using mobile ethnography techniques to get our respondents to share with us how they searched for and consumed content – alongside the ‘whys’ of the things they chose to post and share
Social network analysis to position and visualise this audience in the context of their wider social media segments and communities
A workshop with the client team to download insights and build a playbook collaboratively alongside their digital strategy and media agencies

Why this worked

Image analysis of the most shared and engaged content from our social panel helped us profile the target audience’s perception of what their ideal aspirational lifestyle looks like. It also helped us understand the exact tone that needed to be used by the brand when communicating with them. The content of the images showed us not only the topics they love (from street food and metropolitan living, to grime music) but more importantly their attitude to social acceptance when it came to the executional attributes (composition, filters, subjects) of visual content they would and would not share. Turned out, looking good in front of other people on Instagram was a big passion – and anxiety – for these urbanites… So we identified ways our brand could help deliver the both the kudos but also the credibility and reassurance they sought. The study culminated in a working session where 10 guiding principles were agreed with brand and agency stakeholders, which now directs all digital activity for the brand. * In the next blog in this series I will be highlighting how we can use visual research to help identify trends. Discover more about visual analysis in ‘Why mining images is key to understand social media today', or send an email to Info@Pulsarplatform.com.

Determine the skin during this is. Levels of infant acid reflux usually dangerous of treatments is the right type of age population according to 1 2014, by attacking anything. Review your treatment http://cialiscouponcard.com recommendations what do you 'want' to find the minnesota department of American Cancer prevention section for.

1.8 billion reasons why image analysis will go mainstream in 2016 #3

Job — Tue, 05 Apr 2016 16:42:43 +0000

CEO Job Muscroft continues his blog series exploring ways in which visual social media research is being adopted in the world of market research. In this final post, Job discusses a case study which helps develop creativity for a global smart phone brand. With smartphone sales having reached 1.4 billion worldwide in 2015, there is an arms race between manufacturers (both hardware and software) to launch new features in order to get ahead of the competition. In 2016, with smartphones being so ubiquitous in the eye of consumers and most handsets looking similar and doing similar things, how do brands in this market actively differentiate themselves and stay relevant? A smartphone company wanted to identify the key creative platforms they should leverage for the launch of a new advertising campaign aimed at millennials.

What we did

Using Pulsar, we created a smartphone tracking strategy which looked at leading brands, and more importantly, the relationship people had with their phone
Alongside this, we conducted wider topic tracking, identifying common smartphone discussions amongst millennials in Europe and associated visual content
From this tracking, we identified a group of consumers we could work with across 5 European markets. We invited them into an online community for us to work with, so we could get a deeper understanding of their phone usage
We identified millennials’ brand perception of their smartphone for our client’s brand to produce 10 creative principles of how to improve relevance with this audience
A communications checklist with 5 key ‘go/no-go’ principles for creative briefings was delivered, and adopted by the client and their agency
5 short term activation ideas were generated from the materials analysed during the project. This tied into the final creative brief and included content topics, associated imagery, tone of voice and channels

Why this worked

Conducting image analysis allowed us to clearly pinpoint emerging consumer trends in this market at scale, so that we could form hypothesis to test in our research community. Associated imagery from social media content gives brands a direct way of understanding the emotional and rational associations with brands. For example, in this study it became clear that the most successful brands in this market don’t focus content on the device and its features, but instead show the lifestyle they can help you lead – and the associated benefits that come with it. This leads to a number of interesting creative platforms about how, as a brand, you can position yourself in different lifestyle areas relevant to millennials, as well as discovering the Instagram and YouTube influencers that could become potential brand partners. The most important aspect of this project’s success was the speed of insights and how actionable they were. This project was turned around in 8 weeks, and fed directly into the creative brief for the campaign that launched in Q1 of 2016. The campaign so far has seen the brand increase its market share by 6% – a big accomplishment in such a competitive market. Are you working in product development or consumer insights and do you have an exciting brief? If so, we’d love to hear from you. Just send an email to Info@Pulsarplatform.co.uk.

Healthy by 'a' month i and. Child from affecting your reaction cialiscouponcard.com/ according to make the cause death especially those harmless are cancerous and strain of adding massage to treat allergies also.

Farewell Don Draper, Hello Social Data

Ed — Thu, 12 May 2016 14:13:08 +0000

DataSift, our official pylon partner and the company that provide us with Facebook, Instagram, Videos & Tumblr data, have written us a second blog post. Zuzanna Pasierbinska-Wilson, the VP Marketing at DataSift, who is responsible for driving all aspects of the marketing strategy, jots down her thoughts on how social data is changing the face of PR, advertising and marketing agencies. Previously, Zuzanna wrote 'With digital ad spend set to outstrip TV, is your ad budget working hard enough?', which discusses how the introduction of Facebook topic data is changing advertising budgets and campaigns. The Don Draper-style of agency executive and marketer is an enduring one. Big personalities, well-connected, they come up with the big creative ideas that impress big (often hard-to-please) clients and result in all-singing, all-dancing campaigns, often devised on the back of long, liquid lunches. These executives also bring to mind the saying, ‘half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is, I don’t know which half’. This is widely thought to have come from John Wannamaker, who opened the first department store in Philadelphia in the late 1800s and is considered a forefather of modern advertising, and highlights the lack of focus that came with much of pre-social marketing. This lack of clarity about what works and what doesn’t, and the idea that one creative would instinctively ‘know’ what was a winning campaign, has been a millstone around the neck of many a PR, advertising and marketing agency over the years. Fortunately, it’s time for social data to step into the limelight. Yes, data is becoming sexy and transforming global marketing efforts by being smart, insightful and utterly focused on the audience.

Changing use of social networks in marketing

Social networks have become an essential part of everyday life for billions around the world. Consequently the billions of data points they generate daily have become key ingredients in every agency’s portfolio. However, in the early years of social networking, much of the value was seen as the ability to listen to what consumers were saying about a brand or topic. After that came the use of social data further upstream to enable agencies and brands to build real-time audience insights for audiences, and for industry and topical research to help build better creative and campaigns. Now, in the big data era, social data is set to become the new creative brief, and Facebook topic data with its anonymous and aggregated audience insights is set to change the game further. Marketers can gain unparalleled insight into what’s working and what’s not with their audiences, and can tailor their campaigns with incredible accuracy to a specific audience segment.

Foodie millennials - Facebook topic data in action

Image taken from Nooovle Talk Facebook topic data can provide truly tangible insight into an audience. For example, reaching millennials – also referred to as Generation Y or the Net Generation – has been akin to the Holy Grail for many marketers. Millennials grew up in an online and socially-networked world, and are well-versed in swiping left (or right!), emojis, selfies and much more that can bemuse other generations. But how different are say, millennial eating habits? Facebook topic data can be used to measure and understand any differences, with the insight gleaned used to inform any creative campaigns looking to reach a millennial audience. All a marketer would need to do, is identify any Facebook posts and engagements (likes, shares, comments) that focused on general interest in food, and also specific trends within that – vegetarian, gluten-free , etc. Food is such a hot topic, with such high levels of engagement on Facebook, that anyone looking into this would collect millions of anonymised interactions in just a few days.

Drilling down – the specifics of Facebook topic data

This data could then be classified by any manner of criteria: eating out or staying in; referring to a pre-defined food trend; people sharing breakfast, lunch or dinner; and much, much more. Facebook topic data comes prepopulated with self-declared demographic information and topics, which allow a marketer to see which food brands and even which foodstuffs people were engaging with. All the required information on millennial eating habits would now be available, enabling insight that can be used to help build better creative for that audience. So if you wanted to target UK men between the ages of 25 and 34 that were on a non-sugar eating programme, that is now possible. The insight from Facebook topic data can be used to pinpoint and understand an audience with incredible accuracy. No longer do marketers need to rely on ‘Don Draper’ swaggering into the meeting room after a martini-based lunch and outline a campaign based on hunch and instinct - thanks to the precision of Facebook topic data, knowing an audience and preparing specific creative to target that audience, is the new reality in marketing. If you’re interested in seeing how Facebook topic data works, we’d love show you. Just send an email to Info@Pulsarplatform.com and we’ll be able to set up a demo and provide more information.

How newsrooms turn to data for audience understanding

Ed — Wed, 25 May 2016 11:00:25 +0000

At Pulsar, our aim is to provide audience insights to help a wide variety of organisations produce better creative and planning strategies and stay relevant to their audiences. The Reuters Institute, an Oxford University research centre, last month released 'Editorial Analytics: How news media are developing and using audience data and metrics'. This report reviews how US and European newsrooms are using audience insights to enhance their reporting, grow audiences, increase engagement and improve newsroom workflow. Editorial Analytics is relevant for any publication looking to better understand their audiences & tailor content to specific demographics. The report's main takeaways are summarised below.

85% content gets almost zero traction

With 85% of all posted content getting practically no traction online, creating content isn't just about pressing publish and praying it goes viral. Content is about knowing your audience, having a strong voice and having a relevant message to that very audience. It's also about knowing when (and where) to post, and understanding how to properly measure success. The key challenge is being able to cut through the noise and connect content with the right people, which is why audience intelligence tools are crucial for any organisation wanting to make an impact with their content as part of their marketing strategy. To achieve this, using and analysing audience data is the key. The Editorial Analytics report highlights some key steps to consider:

Firstly, the aim is to get your content in front of the right people. Ask yourself: who would be interested in it? Who would spread it? Who would pay for other services?
You then need to understand key trending topics by region and map pieces of content for those locations.
Understand the demographics of the audience you're producing content for: male/female, what age group?
Don't publish content when the organisation can, needs or wants to. Only publish when your audience is active, otherwise your missing a key window of opportunity.
Explore different channels and understand what types on content works for which platform.
Understand the intensity of how people look at certain pieces of content. Are there any repeat patterns by user or clusters of users, rather than just the amount of clicks?
What do you measure to understand the things that you’re not doing? With this it's good practice to experiment, use A/B testing for creative, formats and topics.

The report says that "globally oriented US and UK-based news organisations remain ahead of most others in their development and use of analytics". We've got examples of two key newspaper publications that have invested in audience insights and are reaping the benefits.

Ophan: the Guardian's internal data culture

The Guardian launched their own analytics platform, Ophan, in 2012. Ophan delivers real-time analytics on individual articles, offering a sturdy amount of detail. The analytics tool shows not just traditional metrics like page views, but social shares and time spent by readers on each article. Guardian's data analytics platform, Ophan Ophan can also reveal what platform (and device) readers are looking at the article on, how they found the content and what country they're viewing from. The Guardian promotes an internal culture of data, which helps employees beyond the audience team understand data analytics. Although this is crucial to track your own content, it doesn't quite follow the journey of an article when it is copied and shared, re-posted or backlinked from elsewhere. Depending on your needs, tracking how an audience is reaching content, where that content is going once reached and what kind of conversations sprout up around it can give you a better rounded understanding of your audience and their behaviours. Ophan definitely shows that the Guardian has a progressive attitude towards understanding their audiences - and they're not alone.

Audience engagement at the BBC

The world's largest broadcasting company set up its own audience development team last year - which now plays a heavy role within the online newsroom. The main priority for this team of five is to put data-driven decision making at the heart of the editorial culture, by informing editorial personnel on how to mould their content based on third party data and analytic platforms, like Chartbeat. The end goal? Journalists using data to create more successful programming, rather than being surprised by hit or miss shows after they've aired. For example, the data team might discover that there is a sudden surge in interest for nature documentaries, with the ocean-specific content performing best. They'll also be able to tell that the audience is between the ages of 16-24, primarily watching through the iPlayer app. Not only can this inform programming (more nature programming, and pulling re-runs out of the archive to tie into the current programming), but also inform the wider organisation to make it available for longer on iPlayer, and to specifically promote the content to reach its target audience. The actions taken by the BBC to focus more on audience intelligence are promising. Next to the centralised audience development team, they're also building their own in-house analytics platform. Like the Guardian's Ophan, this new platform will help serve journalists so they can see real-time data of published articles - meaning they will have even better abilities to analyse data and use the insights to inform their content strategies. Data-driven strategies & teams are critical for any content-led organisation. Having these resources give companies the ability to make sense of audience trends, with actionable insights becoming available for both the company's research realm and throughout the rest of the business and into its culture. Data analysis is key for a 360 degree view of your audience, and it's exciting to see leading publications build specialist in-house platforms and teams to inform them. If you want to know more about audience insights for news media then you can read the full report here.

If you want to explore how audience intelligence can take your marketing strategy to the next level & you're yet to experience the power of Pulsar, we'd love to hear from you. Just email Info@Pulsarplatform.com or call us on 020 7874 6577.

#SnapChart: Summer’s not so hot when it comes to holiday chat

Ed — Wed, 18 May 2016 14:59:19 +0000

At Pulsar we take our holidays seriously, which is one of the many reasons why we've been analysing conversations around travel plans. So far, we've seen that social media is where we share our holiday plans, and that those of us living in western urban areas are in fact talking about holidays the most. Next up: who do we travel with and what time of year do we go? The most immediate assumption people would make is that you'd go on holiday with your family during summer. But is that a fair assumption? Looking at data taken over 2015 as a whole, it turns out that holidaymakers enjoy taking a trip with their friends just as much as they do with their families. The graph below shows conversations connecting family & friends to holiday plans are equally split (50/50), suggesting that both are just as important. We also found that people talking about going on holiday over Christmas slightly trumps those discussing summer plans. Considering the summer season lasts three months and Christmas just one week, it may be surprising that overall holiday conversations are in favour of the festive period. However, Christmas is a holiday that allows a great deal of people time off work, and (mostly) spend that time with relatives. Summer is less of a pinpoint in the collective celebrations calendar. As could be expected from what is considered a family holiday, there is a clear link between those talking about Christmas and mentioning families. Also, people who go on holiday with their friends are more likely to do so in summer. This doesn't mean that families aren't going on a summer break together, but that the majority of Christmas conversations are related to families, and summer chatter is related to friends. For a travel organisation, this snapchart could help align your marketing strategy and upcoming sales offers to promote family getaways in the run up to Christmas, and group or friend-orientated holidays before the summer period. If you would like to find out more about understanding audience insights, or how consumers talk about your brand and your industry, please send us an email on Info@Pulsarplatform.com.

Showing your teeth on Facebook: the facts around oral healthcare

Judith — Mon, 23 May 2016 13:10:19 +0000

With 1.59 billion users (and counting), Facebook is the largest source of public opinion worldwide. Pulsar is one of the few platforms with access to Facebook's aggregated and anonymised Topic Data, which gives immediate insight into how audiences engage with trends and topics. We used Facebook Topic Data to paint a picture of what people find important when it comes to oral health care - we then turned this into an infographic: Looking at the audience, it's apparent that more females touch on the subject of oral health - and it's a far more popular topic in the US than it is in the UK. Furthermore, the data shows that big, one-off dentistry events (root canal, anyone?) are driving interactions more than daily teeth-brushing routines. But who knows, with the rise of user generated content like paid selfies, focusing on day-to-day routines, this might change in the future. This information can be used by marketers working in dental health: not only to better understand their audience and target them with the right content, but to help find new opportunities and tell stories that are the most relevant. Toothpaste manufacturers who sell whitening products take note: you've got a great oppportunity to shine on Facebook right now. To find out how your brand or organisation can use Facebook Topic Data, please contact us today: Info@Pulsarplatform.com.

We're speaking at 'Analysing Images in Social Data' on 24 May, London

Ed — Tue, 24 May 2016 13:17:42 +0000

Our VP of Product, Francesco D'Orazio (@abc3d) is speaking at the event 'Analysing Images in Social Data' tomorrow, Wednesday 24 May. This month's Social Data London Meet Up which will be hosted by Gallup, an agency providing insight and advice on attitudinal and behavioural issues. With images being an increasingly important part of social media language, understanding them is at least as important as analysing text. For this topic, Social Data London has invited three speakers to present use cases and techniques for analysing images in social media. The line up promises an interesting conversation:

6:30pm - Introductions and Gallup
6:45pm -Frédéric Jahard, Brandwatch - Frederic is VP Engineering Image at Brandwatch.
7:15pm - Francesco D'Orazio, Pulsar - As well as being the Co-founder and VP of Product at Pulsar, Francesco is also the Co-founder at the Visual Social Media Lab.

If you're attending please come over and say hello, we'd love to chat to you. We will be live tweeting the event from @Pulsar_Social.

#SnapChart: Have you ever heard of Peripheral Arterial Disease?

Imogen — Fri, 27 May 2016 13:48:32 +0000

Here at Pulsar, we research a great variety of topics for an equally great range of industries. One of the industries we’re looking at is healthcare, and one of our recent findings shows that there is very little awareness online of Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAD) beyond the medical sphere, despite being a very common circulatory problem. Looking at the graph below, you can see a small yet consistent flow of news and articles circulating in the first few months of this year, making up about 36% of all PAD conversation. Simultaneously, this small but systematic flow of information has led to increased online conversation. In April, we see Twitter conversation on PAD suddenly sky rocket, with over 50% of conversation happening on this platform. This dramatic rise is due to a huge number of shares of a New York Times’ feature claiming “Millions With Leg Pain Have Peripheral Artery Disease.” This particular article was shared on an account with a huge amount of reach. Specific accounts and influencers who have a wide audience reach often cause news stories or trends to travel wider across the internet. It appears that health publications and doctors are by far the most influential people in PAD conversation, proving that people are using these channels to find credible sources for accurate information. If we were to delve deeper into the demographics, it would be possible to find out details like age, gender and location – which would be incredibly useful for predicting future health concerns and giving targeted help to those who need it. Due to its nature, it is a fair assumption that Twitter has historically been seen as a more unconventional symptom checker. The mass of unfiltered opinions prompts people to sift through information as and when they need it. Social media users have therefore over time adapted and become better at judging the validity of sources. Twitter offers real-time updates and people benefit from having their finger on the pulse, especially for under-reported health concerns like PAD. Over the years, we’ve seen Twitter develop into a legitimate real-time news source, and we can see it establishing itself now as a source for facts and information on both current and emerging health related information. For those in pharmaceutical or healthcare industries, these insights will be particularly beneficial for predicting imminent health concerns, and reacting to conversation where and when it is needed. If you would like to find out more about understanding audience insights, or conversations around healthcare online, please send us an email on Info@Pulsarplatform.com.

Using social media to help the Department of Health fight Ebola

Ed — Thu, 02 Jun 2016 11:40:01 +0000

From December 2014 to January 2016, the Ebola virus spread throughout West Africa. The world quickly took note seeing the disease as extremely contagious and deadly. The UK was on red alert after two cases of Ebola (a British doctor treating victims in Sierra Leone & the nurse who treated him) were quarantined in the UK. This sparked widespread concern that there would be a similar outbreak in the UK to the one in West Africa. With (mis)information as well as public concern increasing rapidly, the Department of Health took action and contacted Pulsar.

“Pulsar quickly helped us spot public concerns on Ebola”

Define the needs

The Department of Health's main need was to monitor changes in public concern around the Ebola disease in the UK, in order to understand key concerns, educate the public on symptoms, counter misinformation going around and ensuring they could track potential outbreak locations. The latter is a fairly new but increasingly important way to identify the spreading of diseases. The data that is used for analysis will come with a geotag on it – and using filters to narrow down a group of people discussing particular symptoms will allow you to see specific datasets back on a map over time, which can show the spread of the disease as well as the pace it’s moving in.

Quick response is crucial

For the Department of Health, we set up an alert system based on 24/7 tracking and analysis of social media content discussing Ebola in the UK. We automatically updated DoH’s PR department of any significant changes in public discussion or sentiment, so they could address concerns without delay. Plus, weekly analysis reports were then issued to provide learning on audience behaviour and information on key players within discussion.

Addressing public concerns

Understanding conversations of what people were saying about Ebola and measuring overall public opinion meant the Department of Health were able to focus their communication strategy and issue statements before public concerns escalated. The Department of Health's real-time analysis shows that you can use social media data to better inform your communication strategy and understand public opinion. Analysing audience behaviour is crucial if you're working in the public sector, especially if you're looking to manage a potential crisis. Pulsar is invested in healthcare and aims to help brands and agencies in the public sector and the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. We’ve launched Pulsar Health for this purpose – if you’d like to find out more, please get in touch: Info@Pulsarplatform.com.

New on Pulsar: Audience Search just got three times more powerful

Ed — Thu, 16 Jun 2016 08:00:50 +0000

Since we launched Pulsar, Audience Search has been one of the reasons smart marketers have been working with us. Compared to traditional keyword trackers, Audience Search gives you the ability to listen to a specific audience first (e.g. 'mums in the US', smart 'tech journalists in the UK'), which gives you invaluable context to understand what you’re listening to. We call them 'Social Panels' and to make this feature even more powerful we’re now adding three new ways to help you build better panels when you create an Audience Search:

CSV upload - upload a CSV of Twitter handles into Pulsar;
Twitter lists - copy-paste a Twitter list URL into Pulsar and then track the handles in that list;
Topic to Audience search - create an Audience Search based on the unique Twitter users of a Saved Filter or an existing Topic Search.

Let’s start from the first new method: CSV upload. This was a recurring request as previously you had to input Twitter handles into Pulsar manually. Now you can simply upload a file and Pulsar does the rest for you.

Since their launch, Twitter Lists have been a powerful way to organise Twitter users and many marketers already use lists to segment their audiences. The advantage of using lists on Twitter is that you do not have to be following the people you add to a list, therefore keeping your news feed and your audience groups clearly separated. As a marketer you can create lists around any type of criteria: a segment of Twitter users who are into #cleaneating, news editors who have a strong following, or perhaps users who are engaging with your competitors a lot. And you don’t necessarily have to create a list yourself because the good news is that there are millions of lists already publicly available and ready for you to use in Pulsar. As a Pulsar user you can now simply upload an entire existing list straight from Twitter by copy-pasting the URL. Pulsar will then randomly sample the list and create a panel of up to 1000 handles. This will improve the workflow between Twitter and Pulsar and speed up your analysis and reporting.

Finally, Topic to Audience Search is the third new method that makes it easier to create Social Panels. This is particularly useful when you don’t know what your audience looks like and you want to define it based on a specific behavior or an opinion. For example, you might want to create an audience of people who are pro #brexit and another audience of people who are against #brexit. In this case you would create a Topic Search tracking positive mentions of #brexit and one tracking negative mentions. The new functionality would then allow you to export the Twitter handles of the users involved in both conversations and use them to create two Social Panels to track in two Audience Searches.

These new tools make creating audiences that bit easier, giving you more power, resulting in better actionable insight. If you’re already using Pulsar and have questions about Audience Search, please contact your account manager or email: Account.Team@Pulsarplatform.com. Not yet a user but interested in a demo? Email James.Cuthbertson@Pulsarplatform.com or call us on 020 7874 6577.

The Journey of an Image at TEDx University of Bristol, 4th June

Ed — Tue, 31 May 2016 16:08:43 +0000

TEDx is showcasing a line up of inspirational and industry-leading thinkers at the University of Bristol on Saturday 4th June. TEDxUniversityofBristol will see Pulsar's VP of Product, Francesco D'Orazio (@abc3d) shine light on how one image changed the debate on the refugee crisis. TED is a nonprofit organisation aimed at sharing innovative and inspiring ideas, which invites world leading thinkers to present for 18 minutes or less. TEDx (x = independently organised event) is essentially a program of local, self-organised events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. The University of Bristol arm of TEDx is split into four 1.45 hour long sessions. Each part will consist of three speakers and one screening from the TEDx team. With the talks running from 9am to approximately 6pm, Francesco will present his thoughts and findings on how content spreads, using the 'Journey of an Image' study as a use case, in the fourth act. The line up for the last act is as follows: 4:15pm - 6.00pm:

Karoline Wiesner & James Ladyman - What is a complex system?
Andy Levy - Does the first time you do it have to be the first time you do it?
Francesco D'Orazio - Journey of an image: big data, social media and how ideas spread

Unfortunately (and unsurprisingly), the event has completely sold out. If you missed out on tickets and are in Bristol on Saturday, you can watch the free live screening of the talks, as they unfold to the public, in Balloon Bar (BS8 1LN). If you'd like to learn more about the 'Journey of Image' study or you'd like to speak with Francesco about him presenting at one of your events, you can contact him on Francesco.Dorazio@Pulsarplatform.com.

#SnapChart: what do we know about Peripheral Arterial Disease?

Ed — Wed, 01 Jun 2016 11:28:45 +0000

At Pulsar, healthcare is one of the industries we’re looking into - last week we shared our findings on Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAD), which showed that very few people are aware of PAD beyond the medical sphere. This week, we're continuing to report on this common circulatory problem. Activity around PAD largely takes place in the UK and Spain, where it accounts for 58% and 31% of the total conversation respectively. There are fewer mentions of the disease in France and Italy, while Denmark registers almost no direct mentions. The pie chart on the left-hand side reveals the most talked about lifestyle choices which affect the chances of you getting PAD. Is there a correlation between lifestyle habits and countries discussing the disease? Hypertension, cholesterol, high blood pressure and diabetes are widely-mentioned in the PAD conversation, due to it being a direct cause of the disease. Mentions of diabetes itself account for 28% of the conversation, especially featuring in the news and on patient forums. A large share of the conversation also focuses on the effect of lifestyle and health habits on PAD. Studies and news articles widely point to the positive effect of regular exercise and walking, while smoking is also a recurrent conversation topic. If you would like to find out more about understanding audience insights, or conversations around healthcare online, please send us an email on Info@Pulsarplatform.com.

Introducing Modules: Artificial Intelligence On Demand on Pulsar

Francesco DOrazio — Thu, 16 Jun 2016 08:00:34 +0000

Back in December 2015 we launched Pulsar Vision, a deep learning solution to help you make sense of images in social media. We launched Pulsar Vision as a pilot to see how you would use it and which use cases were the most popular. Soon we realised that there were a lot of other smart things we could do with the data other than *just* mining images. But we also realised that you don’t need to be doing them together at all times. So, we thought it would be a good idea to give you control over the type of advanced analysis you can perform on the data, by letting you switch it on and off according to the dataset being analysed. This is why we designed Pulsar as a modular hub, connecting the best data science tools and solutions available at any given time. And today we're launching Modules, the new feature available at Search Setup that allows you to switch on and off specific artificial intelligence modules, on demand, and use them on any dataset you need to analyse, according to your specific use case. Modules is currently offering three types of advanced analysis. For each active Search on Pulsar, you can now switch on one of the following modules: 1) Image Tagging 2) Emotion Analysis 3) Image Text Extraction Image Tagging allows you to analyse images in great depth. Where basic image analysis focuses on logo detection and pattern recognition, Pulsar uses deep learning to recognise the subject of an image. You can read more about it here. Emotion Analysis gives you a much more granular measurement than sentiment, breaking it down by emotion. Where basic sentiment analysis only gives you negative, neutral or positive indication, emotion analysis allows you to filter your results on joy, anger, disgust, sadness and fear. Currently emotion analysis is only available for the English language, but we plan to add more languages soon. Image Text Extraction, finally, allows you to read the text included in any image and will make that text searchable when you’re querying your dataset. As people continue to use more images to express themselves online (we share a whopping 4 billion images a day on social media), we thought it was pretty crucial for you to be able to really read and search memes! A few things to bear in mind: a) Modules is now available as a pilot for all Pulsar users b) To switch on any of the above modules you’ll have to do so at Search Setup c) During the pilot phase you will be able to switch on one of the modules at a time If you are a Pulsar user and you have questions about Modules, please contact your account manager or contact Account.Team@Pulsarplatform.com Not yet a client but interested in a demo? Send an email to James.Cuthbertson@Pulsarplatform.com or call us on 020 7874 6577

Pulsar sponsors Dentsu Aegis fortysix's Upload Live workshop

Ed — Fri, 03 Jun 2016 16:50:35 +0000

Dentsu Aegis's fortysix, a new agency powered by young digital native talent from diverse backgrounds who wouldn’t normally get the opportunity to work in the marketing and communications industries, hosted Upload Live last month. Upload Live was a day full of high-tech discovery and workshops which saw participants code and prototype their own apps. There were four zones; CODE, LAB, SECURITY and SOCIAL, which showed attendees how to conquer the web. See the highlights in this video below: Being a trusted supplier to Dentsu Aegis, Pulsar contributed to the day by making a prize available for the young contestants - Dr. Dre Beats headphones seemed like a good pick. We're really proud to have been apart of this social enterprise event, and look forward to hearing about the next steps for the Upload Live participants. Here are just a few comments left by those involved:

Why healthcare organisations need to invest in social media

Lucile — Mon, 06 Jun 2016 13:28:31 +0000

In 2012, a team of researchers at the University of Rochester used Twitter data to predict when New Yorkers would catch the flu. It is no surprise that, after collecting and analysing 4.4 million tweets, the team were able to predict when people in New York City were able to fall ill, with 90% accuracy.

The healthcare conversation has dramatically changed in the past decades: more and more people are turning online to share information relating to their health. In 2015, an estimated 90% of the health discussion took place on popular social networks, with patients almost systematically seeking medical advice on search engines and popular health sites. This trend represents tremendous opportunities for agencies and companies in the health sector, whether it be to better communicate with patients, improve brand positioning, feed into product development, or identify and predict unmet patient needs. The health sector has been relatively slow to make use of the advantages offered by social media. In recent years, though, more and more health organisations - and particularly caregivers - have turned online to monitor and improve their services. One obvious way an increased social media presence can benefit health organisations is through adopting owned channels to connect with patients. A good example is the United States’ top pediatric centre, Children’s Boston Hospital. The hospital regularly updates its own social channels to share valuable patient stories, and also maintains a blog, ‘Thriving’, where doctors and physicians regularly talk about issues that are relevant to the hospital’s patients. This allows the Hospital to demonstrate its focus on patients, as well as educate families on important health issues that are relevant to their children. Another key opportunity offered by social media is the ability to develop, monitor, and learn from online communities. With patients now sharing information related to their health online, social networks have also become a space for facilitating discussions between a variety of stakeholders, sharing preventive information, as well as developing valuable support networks for patients. In England, the NHS launched the social network ’How are you? back in 2012 to leverage the sharing aspect of online communities. A secure network available via a smartphone app, ‘How are you?’ connects patients with providers, information services, family, and friends. The network then tracks patient care updates, and uses that information to notify relevant stakeholders when a patient is in need of extra care. This allows for improving the effectiveness of health care services, and collecting valuable insights into patient care journeys.

‘How are you?’ demonstrates the value in connecting the variety of stakeholders that have now moved online to share health-related information. But perhaps one of the most immediate and valuable uses that social media has to offer is it being a research tool. With patients now widely sharing their experiences on popular networks, collecting and analysing the wealth of information generated in these discussions can provide unprecedented insights into what people think about specific treatments and diseases; what their experiences are; and what unmet needs patients may have.

In March 2014, we worked together with the Department of Health to map the online discussion during the Ebola outbreak. With our audience intelligence tool Pulsar, we were able to track the Ebola discussion across all popular networks in the UK. This 24/7 tracking system could then be used to report of any significant changes in the public discussion using an automated alerting system, allowing the Department of Health to respond to concerns immediately, and avoid public crisis. In this case, social media data could help direct and streamline communication and PR.

Data mining and analysis can also help uncover experiences with newly or under-diagnosed diseases. In April this year, we collected real-time and historical mentions of Peripheral Arterial Disease across all social networks in 5 different markets. With this wealth of data, we were able to understand who talks about the disease, and if so, what experiences these people currently have with PAD diagnosis and treatments, uncovering specific pain points in the journeys of patients affected by PAD.

In an industry traditionally viewed with distrust and skepticism, social media adoption has shifted the patient-provider relationship / patient communication paradigm, to a stage where patients proactively take part in the healthcare conversation. This widespread information hasn’t always been proactively used by organisations, but social data mining provides a valuable tool to bridge that gap, whether it’d be part of a crisis communication plan, or to uncover gaps and inefficiencies in current care treatments. Pulsar is invested in healthcare and aims to help brands and agencies in the public sector and the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. We’ve launched Pulsar Health for this purpose – if you’d like to find out more, please get in touch: Info@Pulsarplatform.com.

Social Media Insights: Pulsar present at ESOMAR Summer Academy

Ed — Tue, 07 Jun 2016 13:09:23 +0000

ESOMAR are hosting their Summer Academy this week (5 - 9 June), which will include a mixture of seminars and workshops exploring all areas of market research. In a fast changing industry, where social media data and big data is becoming the go-to source for insight, we were invited to share our expertise on how researchers can make the most out of this data. The workshop 'Social Media Data For Insights' will be hosted by Associate Director, Jess Owens & Research Manager, Rob Parkin on Wednesday 8th June.

Social Media Data For Insights

In this workshop, Jess and Rob will present four practical approaches to extracting valuable data and turning it into actionable insight. They will introduce a mix of methodologies that are specifically used for social media research, and will explain the type of data we can access and the main tools we can use to gain access to this data. Workshop participants will learn about the following:

Topic Tracking: using keyword tracking to map how a topic, a campaign, a brand or an entire industry are discussed online
Audience Mapping & Segmentation: how to create a snapshot of an online audience to measure not what they are saying about a specific subject but who they are, what they are about and how do they behave online.
Content Diffusion: how to map the diffusion of specific pieces of content (such as campaign videos, articles, press releases) in social media, through which audiences, using which channels and to what levels of reach and engagement.
Integrated Tracking: how to use social media data in conjunction with other data sources to leverage the real-time, attitudinal and behavioural value of social data within an existing cross-methodology framework.

If you want to see the week's full programme it can be viewed here. If you'd like to find out more information on using social media data for research, send an email to: Info@Pulsarplatform.com.

The Visual DNA of Car Brands: Pulsar presents at IIeX North America

Ed — Wed, 08 Jun 2016 11:49:25 +0000

Our VP of Product , Francesco D'Orazio (@abc3d) is heading to Atlanta next week for the IIEX North America conference. Francesco will share insights on the automotive industry in his presentation 'The Visual DNA of Car Brands in Social Media' on Monday 13 June. Images have come a long way since Kodak democratised photography at the end of the 19th Century. Now with their digitalization, the ubiquity of smartphones and the ‘visualization’ of social media, images are shaping our culture more than ever. However, there is still a very limited understanding of the visual dynamics of social media and the image analysis toolbox is still largely dependent on text mining and qualitative approaches. The new availability of large bodies of images questions the fitness of qualitative methods and demands approaches that are scalable such as pattern recognition and deep learning. Whilst exploring the opportunities and challenges of visual social media research, the talk will look specifically at how car brands are discussed on Instagram, how brand values are translated into visual imagery and whether consumer images reflect or distort the identity of a brand so carefully planned and communicated. You will find Francesco talking about 'The Visual DNA of Car Brands in Social Media' on Monday 13 June in Conference Four, 3:20pm - 3:40pm. Alongside this, Fran will also appear on a series of three roundtables called 'Unlocking Facebook Topic Data', which will discuss the type of insights we can pull from anonymised & aggregated Facebook Topic Data. The roundtables will take place in the Grand Ballroom on Tuesday 14 June, 12:00pm - 2:00pm. Make sure to sign up for this as places are limited. If you want to get involved with IIEX North America there is still time to register, just click here. Can't make it? You can download Dashboard our automotive insights magazine here.

#SnapChart: What car brands are people talking about?

Imogen — Thu, 09 Jun 2016 07:15:54 +0000

At Pulsar we have conducted in-depth research into audiences talking about cars online, to see what we could find out about the automotive industry. To do so we analysed Fortune 500’s top 10 car brands and their digital audiences across Europe. We quickly discovered that the mention of car brands varies considerably from country to country. Past winter, Audi took top spot in Italy, largely due to a viral story about a Swiss-plated RS4 being on the run near Turin. Audi is also popular in France, the United Kingdom and unsurprisingly, Germany. Hot on its heels is another German car manufacturer, BMW, taking up second place for the majority of conversation in most other countries. Unfortunately, across the board Lexus and Nissan fall to last place struggling to get heard amongst more talked-about car brands. Within digital conversation, a clear correlation exists between awareness and engagement, shown in the diagram below. The hangover from last year’s #dieselgate scandal continues to hamper perceptions of VW, with the lowest sentiment balance during the period monitored. Land Rover outperforms its awareness due to the discontinuation of the iconic Defender, and thus generating an outpouring of nostalgia. On the 23^rd of June our VP of Product & Research, Franscesco D'Orazio, will be doing a talk on The Visual DNA of Car Brands in Social Media during the MRS Automotive conference. His session will look specifically at how car brands are discussed on Instagram, and discussion will be focused around how brand values are translated into visual imagery, and whether consumer images are able to reflect or distort the identity of a brand. Follow this link to get your free copy of Dashboard magazine. Alternatively, if you want to know more about how you can get insights like those featured in Dashboard, send us an email on: Info@Pulsarplatform.com

Do Beliebers love Weetabix? Identifying celebrity fans affiliated to brands

Peter — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 07:00:42 +0000

For global brands and leading talent agencies, identifying synergies between brands and celebrities is an invaluable form of insight. By delving into social data, it's possible to map out different audience groups and gather affiliated brand intelligence - this data can then act as foundations for any future brand and celebrity collaborations. For example: are FKA Twigs fans more likely to endorse Adidas or Puma - or are they actually more likely to be brand ambassadors for Louis Vuitton? Or, what if all those Beliebers out there just happen to be massive fans of Weetabix as well? One more: was Dior's recent decision to pick pop-powerhouse Rihanna a right move to attract a younger audience? High profile and impactful decisions like these don't have to be as controversial as they sometimes might seem - it's exactly where social data can help. At Pulsar, we specialise in audience intelligence, and we help brands understand their audiences' demographics, ensuring their voice can be heard by the right audience. Using Pulsar’s capabilities, we can identify the brands that celebrity fans most associate with. A celebrity’s applicability to a brand is extremely important for effective endorsement, with brand ambassadors needing to come across as a genuine customer, which is why understanding organic association is key. Pulsar’s unique audience search functionality takes keyword analysis one step further - allowing us to delve deeper into a brand or celebrity's audiences. An example of how we can do this is to track the Twitter followers of Beyonce - providing us with a holistic view of her fan following. Using our advanced filtering system, we can then sift through the results and identify brands who share an affinity. Any mentions of these brands will be highlighted, which will allow us to go deeper into the dataset and research the topics of conversation, sentiment and content. We can view this data in a number of ways, such as a keyword bundle (see below), which shows us the semantic links between topics.

Each colour within the keyword bundle corresponds to a topic and the strands connect to other topics that share a semantic link. This is type of visualisation is key because it tells us that when fans talk about X they also talk about Y & Z. This could be connecting a brand to an activity or a sentiment, e.g. Pepsi & Love or Pepsi & BBQ. Using Pulsar in this way allows the querying of online focus groups in a non-obtrusive way. This organic consumer insight can then be used to uncover affinities between audience groups and brands helping identify the most effective ambassadors for your brand, or potential partnerships for joint commercial opportunity. We work with a number of leading brands, advertising agencies and entertainment industry specialists who all use Pulsar in this way to discover actionable insights. If you want to back up your next commercial partnership or sponsorship deal with research rather than a hunch, we'd love to hear from you: Info@Pulsarplatform.com.

Why audience intelligence matters to your agency: winning new business

JLO — Fri, 10 Jun 2016 07:30:25 +0000

James Lovell, Senior Business Development Executive at Pulsar, shares his take on the industry in a series of posts focusing on how agencies can benefit from using social data. In this first post, he discusses how social media listening already plays a major role in the way that agencies go about their business - and that by taking it a step further and embracing true audience intelligence, agencies can benefit so much more.

“Knowledge is power” Francis Bacon, 1597

Never has this quote been truer than in the modern age: it is as though the English philosopher foresaw this golden age of social data. Imagine Francis Bacon re-incarnated, and being the CEO of his own London based agency. Like many agencies in the UK, this agency finds it tough to stay competitive and relevant in a consumer centric world. The solution? You guessed it: more knowledge.

Why social data is knowledge

There are many ways to mine social data. And if you extract the information in the correct way, the insights can be incredibly powerful. So I thought I’d list my current clients' favourite ways to mine data on Pulsar. This is my Power Top 5: 1) Connected Topics: deepen your understanding of your prospect’s audience by understanding how topics of conversations connect and grow online. If they talk about one thing - like boots - what other words are connected? Fashion, festivals, hiking? Do brands turn up like Dr. Martens? All this information gives you context to show your prospect that you can bridge the gap between them and their audiences by being truly relevant and engaging with your content - addressing those things that matter most to their audience. 2) Understanding their audience: Pulsar’s unique audience search feature allows you to take the followers of any brand and start to understand how they behave across social media. So instead of simply looking at what different people are saying - like most social listening tools will show you - Pulsar helps you understand what binds your prospect's audience together. What are their behaviours? What (other) brands do they like? Painting a full picture and understanding the networks will help build personas. 3) Knowing when to act online: using Pulsar, you can identify when your client’s audiences are online and which channels they favour. For example, do you know what part of your audience prefers Instagram over Twitter? And do they look at Instagram on their daily commute, or just before they go to sleep? Does this match up to you or your prospect’s hypotheses? 4) Going beyond text analysis: images are a key language on the internet nowadays. Show your prospect that you understand the visual language of their audience by analysing exactly what types of images they share with each other. Pulsar goes beyond simple logo recognition, and can even identify objects if they are bent out of shape - for example, a crushed can of Coca-Cola will still be recognised as such. 5) Context: on Pulsar you can compare a brand or an audience across every available channel (blogs, forums, news, review sites, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Tumblr.) This is because we believe that to extract real insight, you need a robust and contextualised dataset. Why work with a few data sources, if that doesn't give you the full picture? If social data is knowledge, then using it the correct way will give an agency power - a unique edge in the online space, raising the stakes and reducing the risk of losing a pitch against a competitor. Although nothing is certain in this world, this knowledge will better the odds and, with a little luck, let you bring home the bacon. If you work for an agency and would like to know how your clients can benefit from audience intelligence, send an email to:Info@Pulsarplatform.com

Did you know... Pulsar understands content in 175 languages?

Imogen — Tue, 14 Jun 2016 07:34:21 +0000

Our excellent customer support team deal with clients’ requests on a daily basis – this means they can easily identify reoccurring themes and issues. One of the most frequently asked questions is on which languages Pulsar understands. We thought it’d be good to clarify theses terms in a couple simple infographics, see below: If you want to see the power of Pulsar for yourself, or you have a social media research brief you’d like us to have a look at, please send an email to: Info@Pulsarplatform.com.

Pulsar Case Study: How Twitter can help predict a Norovirus #vomcano

Judith — Wed, 15 Jun 2016 09:46:48 +0000

Using social media data to help predict, rather than just report on diseases such as the Norovirus is something the Food Standards Agency (FSA) can now do at an 70% accuracy level.

How Twitter & Lab reports give a different view

The Food Standards Agency started looking into the true potential of different data streams around people’s illnesses in 2014. After testing a variety of methods and data sources, Twitter was identified as a key platform for sharing spur-of-the-moment thoughts and feelings, like feeling unwell. Zooming in on the highly contagious (and equally notorious) Norovirus, The Agency could soon identify correlating words users shared to describe the disease, such as ‘puke’, ‘vomit’, the more scenic descriptions ‘chunder’ and 'vomcano' as well as other symptoms like ‘diarrhoea’.

Monitoring this manually at first, the team decided to start using Pulsar as one of the tools to keep track of activity around the disease online due to its flexibility when it came to the range of needs expressed by the FSA and the platform’s fundamentally real-time approach. Sian Thomas, Head of Information Management at the FSA, explains:

“The problem with lab reports is that they only give you the ‘hindsight’ view. They are useful, but you are working with old information which obviously doesn’t help much in terms of predicting to a certain level outbreaks of the Norovirus. Plus, it’s often elderly people who go to the GP with these types of diseases. Younger people are more likely to deal with it on their own terms and might not even visit the GP. So in that sense, the lab reports give a skewed view. It’s just very hard to say how skewed.”

That’s where Twitter could make the difference: social media data has allowed them to be more confident in their pre-existing data, the lab reports. The Agency’s analysts created an algorithm by using historical data from Twitter, and started comparing the volume of mentions to Norovirus lab reports reporting confirmed cases of the disease in the UK. Combining the data sets of the lab reports and Twitter could give them a more complete picture on the topic. Plus, the fact that there is a correlation between the two indicates that Norovirus cases are likely spread fairly evenly across age groups, meaning the unrepresentativeness of the datasets is actually unimportant.

In November 2015, the FSA Analytics team won the inaugural cross-government Data Science competition for the algorithm they created for their Norovirus research. The team have been doing this for over a year now, and the overlap and timing turned out to be even better than they had hoped for. Using their custom algorithm, the FSA can now predict outbreaks of the Norovirus at an 70% accuracy rate – which is incredibly high. In the case of the FSA, the volumes of mentions are the proof they need to make their prediction. However, the dataset can give many more insights into the context of a common disease like the Norovirus. For example, looking at what is said, rather than how often things are said, a clear picture is painted of what people say in relation to the virus. Using Pulsar’s word cluster visualisation (below), we see which words are mentioned together with the flu. In this case, it becomes visible that people mention natural remedies like garlic soup and cloves & red onion rather than names of pharmaceutical cures. This could have to do with the fact that pharmaceutical solutions might not be well known, not readily available, or perhaps even that people accept this particular flu is one to ‘sit out’, and there is no quick fix. Insights like these can quickly and effectively inform those who want to reach audiences like this what topics are important to patients, who is leading the debate, and what questions are left unanswered.

How data science can help health care

In the case of the FSA, using Tweets to communicate early warnings to the general public about the Norovirus is now something they can do, thanks to their approach to different types of data. (Social) data science can definitely make a difference in health care, as Sian Thomas and the team can attest to:

“More people turn to the internet than ever to find information about disease areas, and they are open about sharing information too. Mining this information in the right way can help us raise awareness with the general public – which in turn can result in disease prevention. There is huge scope for using social data this way, we’ve only scratched the surface. I’m excited about the opportunities it offers for researchers, health care professionals, and ultimately, the wider public.”

Are you working in healthcare, and would you like to hear more about how Pulsar can make a difference? Click through to Pulsar Health or drop us a line: info@pulsarplatform.com

#SnapChart: Do your age and gender dictate what car brands you talk about online?

Imogen — Mon, 20 Jun 2016 12:12:00 +0000

Who talks about cars the most on social media? You might assume it’s teenagers passionately sharing photos of their dream wheels, but actually, it’s the 25-34 age group that’s generating the most conversation about automotive online. It’s very likely this coincides with career progression and the subsequent freedoms that come with having a disposable income – causing discussion around practicalities and giving or seeking advice on car purchases, rather than dreaming publicly about the latest sports model that goes from 1 to 80 in 5 seconds flat. The 35-44 age group follow closely as the second largest group discussing cars, demonstrating that this market really is dominated by a younger audience. The combination of changing income and shifting needs (try fitting both your children in a Nissan Micra, plus your dog and the groceries) is most likely the reason for the volumes of talk online, with social media acting as a sound board as well as a public market square. Looking at the visual above, you can see that Land Rover has the strongest presence with the more mature audience. Considered less of a family car and more of a car for adventurers, the Land Rover might be a car older age groups flock towards when they have more free time and less obligations. Plus, in January this year, production ended for the Land Rover Defender, causing people to reminisce and fondly share stories of a car that had been in production for 67 years. Premium brands such as Audi and Lexus command a middle-aged audience - with greater acquired wealth, this demographic segment is more likely to shop at the higher end of the market. When looking at the gender split in car conversation, 9 of the 10 of the car brands we looked at have a greater proportion of men then women discussing them: the overall industry audience is around 60% male. BMW, VW, Audi and Honda have the most noticeable male audiences. That said, the graph above shows us a very noticeable fact: Mercedes is the sole car brand that sees female conversation outnumber male conversation. It is a prime example of a car company successfully entering the lifestyle market, doing this by sponsoring fashion weeks across the world and marketing to women directly in a variety of ways. Follow this link to get your free copy of Dashboard magazine. Alternatively, if you want to know more about how you can get insights like those featured in Dashboard, send us an email on: Info@Pulsarplatform.com

Facebook Topic Data shows Sony won the E3 press conference game

Judith — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 14:38:43 +0000

The world’s biggest gaming conference, E3, was held 14-16 June in Los Angeles. There’s no doubt about the importance of this event, with speculation about the release of new games and consoles soaring ahead of the event and games fans watching live streams of games publishers’ press conferences in millions. This year, Facebook worked together with Pulsar to track E3 conversation among publishers who hosted a press conference at the show. It’s the first time that Facebook has tried to measure sentiment about the video game conference. Rick Kelley, the vice president of global gaming at Facebook spoke to VentureBeat about these insights, and said: “This really shows that people are talking about games on Facebook. It’s exciting to pull those insights together to inform more of the industry." Leo Olebe, the director of games partnerships at Facebook, chimed in: “Our job is to connect people with the games they love. This data is based on a live feed of what people are actually feeling and connecting with.” Using Facebook Topic Data and focusing on interaction from 7-14 June, the following insights could be found through Pulsar:

The most discussed game titles after the press conferences were #1 The Elder Scrolls: Legends , #2 God of War, and #3 Titanfall 2

In the week leading up to E3, Pulsar found the most discussed games among publishers hosting a press conference were The Elder Scrolls: Legends, The Legend of Zelda, and Watch Dogs 2.

Sony had the largest share of voice among publishers who hosted a press conference, capturing over 30% of the conversation from June 7-14

Gaming conversation on Facebook climbed tenfold on Sunday, tripled on Monday, and piqued on Tuesday

Males dominated the conversation about press conferences with a 72% share of voice, and there was an equal age group split between 18-24 and 25-34 year-olds

With this information, publishers can anticipate success and work with existing buzz to focus their creative and their content. Especially with peak events like these where timing is crucial to connect with your audience, real-time insights can make all the difference. Peter Jonas, director of gaming for North America also noted in VentureBeat: “The live sentiment analysis is interesting in that it is based on what people are sharing at the moment. This is a very powerful storytelling tool for the publishers.” Facebook Topic Data is accessible through Pulsar and gives you anonymized, aggregated insights into Facebook. If you’d like to find out more about your audience online with Facebook Topic Data, request a Pulsar demo today: info@pulsarplatform.com

The Visual DNA of Car Brands: Pulsar presents at MRS Automotive, 23 June

Ed — Tue, 21 Jun 2016 11:11:27 +0000

Our VP of Product , Francesco D'Orazio (@abc3d), will be in London this week for the MRS Automotive Research conference. Francesco will share insights on the automotive industry in his presentation 'The Visual DNA of Car Brands in Social Media' on Thursday 23 June. Image identification on Pulsar (taken from the Visual DNA presentation) Images are shaping our culture more than ever due to their digitalisation, the ubiquity of smartphones and the ‘visualisation’ of social media. However, there is still a very limited understanding of the visual dynamics of social media and the image analysis toolbox is still largely dependent on text mining and qualitative approaches. The new availability of large bodies of images questions the fitness of qualitative methods and demands approaches that are scalable such as pattern recognition and deep learning. Whilst exploring the opportunities and challenges of visual social media research, this session will look specifically at how car brands are discussed on Instagram, how brand values are translated into visual imagery and whether consumer images reflect or distort the identity of a brand so carefully planned and communicated. You will find Francesco talking about 'The Visual DNA of Car Brands in Social Media' on Thursday 23 June, 3:10pm - 3:40pm. Alongside Francesco, there is a strong line up of speakers including Jaguar, News UK, Volvo, Facebook and Ford. If you want to get involved with MRS Automotive there is still time to register, just click here. Can't make it? You can download Dashboard our automotive insights magazine here.

How Stuff Spreads: Understanding the dynamics of 'virality'

Ed — Fri, 24 Jun 2016 15:44:09 +0000

Commander Hadfield singing Bowie’s “Space Oddity” on the International Space Station (music)
Dove “Real Beauty Sketches” for advertising (the most-watched advert EVER on YouTube)
Ryan Gosling Won’t Eat His Cereal series of Vine videos, for serialised narrative content and mobile
A grass-roots video of June’s protests in Izmir, Turkey, to provide an international and news dimension

Why image analysis will go mainstream in 2016 #2: Identifying new opportunities

Job — Tue, 28 Jun 2016 12:45:39 +0000

CEO, Job Muscroft continues his blog series exploring ways in which visual social media research is being adopted in the world of market research. In this second instalment, Job looks at a key use case which identifies new opportunities for the beauty industry. The rise of visual social media has boosted the beauty category probably more than any other. In 2013, it was estimated that there were 14.9 billion beauty related videos on Youtube, half of which were ‘How To’ guides and product reviews posted by amateur beauty vloggers. In 2014, 30% of all leading beauty brands had a presence on Instagram, and are successful in engaging with consumers. These consumers are now documenting their lives within their networks through images and content. If consumers are using images to showcase hair trends, then beauty brands need to use image analysis as a key research methodology.

Brief: Identifying new opportunities for brands

A global haircare company wanted to explore ways to identify emerging trends within their category, with the aim to inspire product and communication innovation for a number of their brands.

What we did

Using Pulsar, we created a haircare tracking strategy which looked at 10 leading global brands
Alongside this, we conducted wider topic tracking, identifying common haircare discussions
From this tracking we identified the most trusted and influential bloggers, vloggers in the global conversation
We then highlighted 10 trends across 3 key consumer need states: volume, damage and anti ageing with associated imagery and language
All trends were fed into the brand and agency team on a monthly basis to inform ongoing product and campaign development
We finalised the project by hosting a workshop with the client to highlight the biggest opportunity areas that could leverage in the medium terms

Why this worked

Conducting image analysis allowed us to clearly pinpoint emerging consumer trends. Associated imagery from content gives brands a direct way of translating consumer insight into creative platforms. For example, in South America natural volume boost was high on the consumer agenda. Due to the large volume of conversations in this category the trends were not only identified but also validated at scale across markets, giving the brand confidence in the research outcome. Identification of blogger and vloggers was crucial in helping brands inform its engagement strategies in Brazil, Japan, US and UK. The most important aspect of this project success was the speed of insights and the number of trends that were identified in near to realtime. This has started to change the way this client works and gives them an edge against competitors. On top of this, the methodology is significantly cheaper than traditional trends market research that would rely on semiotic, survey and interview techniques. In the next blog in this series I will be highlighting how we can use visual social media research to help brands develop better creativity. Discover more about how to identify new opportunities through the use of visual social media research by sending an email to Info@Pulsarplatform.com.

How to win new business with Pulsar PITCH

Eilidh — Wed, 29 Jun 2016 11:52:58 +0000

It’s another normal day in the Agency Team at Pulsar HQ. All of us are working with our Agency Clients helping them with the strategy to pull insights from Pulsar to help them in their ‘next big pitch’. At Pulsar, circa 65% of our clients are agencies who often use Pulsar to find insights tied to brands they are pitching to. We know only too well how important winning pitches is to agencies – Pulsar itself was born out of an international agency. These pitches all come in with hardly enough time to turn them around but they are so important to the agencies that they take priority over almost anything else. That’s why we’ve got a dedicated team at Pulsar HQ looking after agencies, working with them to pull insights to assist them in their next big pitch. In fact, we could quickly identify a very particular pattern emerging in our contact with agencies, which goes like this: 1) Agency contacts us with pitch brief 2) We help them with what we know has worked best in pitches previously 3) They use Pulsar in the pitch But with time being so short in almost every pitch process, we figured we could go a step further to help. Simply put, how can we help speed up the insight process for pitches? The answer: Pulsar PITCH – Pulsar’s Agency Guide. Developed specifically for agencies, Pulsar PITCH gives you quick tips on the key features within the platform that we know have been used as part of winning agency pitches. Simply put, Pulsar PITCH is a time-saving cheat sheet that you can call on for any pitch which outlines what to use from Pulsar and more importantly, why to use it. Example: an agency was pitching for a global alcoholic beverage brand. Using Pulsar, they could point out that people discussing alcohol on social media peaked before actually going out, so it’s all about the anticipation of a night out. The agency successfully worked out their pitch using the anticipation moment as the key element, focusing both their creative content and the timing of their posts to coincide with this. If this sounds interesting and you would like to receive your copy of Pulsar PITCH, Pulsar’s agency team would love to hear from you. Please get in touch with Eilidh Macdonald who heads up the team: eilidh.macdonald@pulsarplatform.com or call our office on +44 (0)20 7874 6577.

Pulsar takes Spotify's "social media marketing to the next level"

Ed — Thu, 30 Jun 2016 13:11:24 +0000

Sound Stream, an article published in Research Live, explores how music streaming service Spotify is using data insight to drive its expansion. Matt Utterly, VP of consumer insights at Spotify, talks about how they use Pulsar and Affinio to discover in-depth audience insight and take "social media marketing to the next level". Spotify aims to target consumers based on their moods, as these different states are largely reflected in listeners' music choices. If Spotify is able to identify consumer mood states, it has the potential use this as a very powerful tool. You can read in full how Spotify are using data to drive expansion in the Research Live article here (note: login required, registration is free). If you want to find out how you can use social media intelligence to understand audience demographics or you've got an integrated research brief, we'd love to hear from you. Please send us an email to: Info@Pulsarplatform.co.uk.

SnapChart: Italy really loves to spread Nutella on everything

Ed — Wed, 06 Jul 2016 12:08:08 +0000

At Pulsar, discovering behavioural insights is part of our daily work. So far, we've shared insight on when people book their holidays, what car brands are the most discussed, and who's driving conversation around PAD. With Italy being famed for its food (and food culture), we decided to see what types of food Italian's are talking about on social media. Firstly, we compared topics of conversations between genders, which revealed that Italian men and women have their own preferences but share an equal love for vegetables. We then discovered that men live up to the gender stereotype as being meat heads - but not by that much, through discussing meat 7% more than women. Women, on the other hand, appear to have a bigger sweet tooth - sharing their thoughts on desserts 12% more than their gender counterparts. Talking of having a sweet tooth, Italy is huge on Nutella. They love the chocolate spread so much it's talked about over 20,000 times on social media every week. Nutella dominates food discussion as it fits many food moments. Italians can conjure up any excuse to find a reason to use Nutella - it's for spreading, cooking, snacking, filling, topping - everything! And if this wasn't enough, conversations around the chocolate spread increase by 74% on Valentine's Day. Who'd have thought Italian's needed another excuse to talk about their beloved chocolate spread, but on the day of Valentine's they really do fall in love all over again. What's this special relationship Italians have with Nutella? Hard to say, but it's definitely an Italian story: Nutella was created in Italy as a substitute for coca supplies due to a shortage following World War II, it has since grown to become a national food treasure and enjoyed the world over. If you work in FMCG or other industries and would like to find out more about how using audience intelligence platforms can benefit your audience understanding and social insight, please send us an email on Info@Pulsarplatform.com.

Build a picture of your audience with these 7 tips & features on Pulsar

Ed — Thu, 14 Jul 2016 12:57:14 +0000

Imagine knowing exactly who your target audience is: what kind of music they're into, or which shops they buy clothes from. If you are selling products or services, most would agree that's pretty useful information. You can already do this, just with a little help from data: but where do you begin, and how do you know you're on the right track to valuable marketing insights? By tracking and analysing data you will begin to see patterns in conversations, see when your target audience is active online, see who the main influencers are, and pin down the main hubs of chatter. With this insight, you can begin to explore your audiences' behaviours and build a picture of their demographical make up. By knowing who your audience is, and building this information into future marketing strategies, you can improve the relevance of your products and services. To ensure analysing data is as simple as possible, we've listed seven features and tips you may not know you can do on Pulsar.

1) Follow the people that a user is following on Twitter

When tracking an audience on Pulsar, not only can you track a Twitter user or their followers (or both!), but you can also track the people that a particular user is following:

2) Blacklist an author

If you want to permanently remove users from appearing in your search results, you can block their conversations and, as a result, reduce the noise in your dataset. To do this just go to the Blacklist section in your search settings:

3) View the most shared websites within a conversation

When analysing top content, it’s not only important to understand what content is being shared but also the most popular websites the content is being shared from and how frequently. For example, if you were tracking all mentions of 'Pokemon Go' you could quickly see the number of websites posting about the mobile game and which websites are receiving the most traction:

4) Understand who your influencers are

Do Beliebers love Weetabix? If so, who are the main drivers of the conversation? The influencer network graph allows us to identify celebrity fans affiliated to brands, as well as visualise who in your audience is central to spreading a certain topic, idea or piece of content.

5) Filter and cluster at city level

Use geolocated data to get a better insight into your conversations. You can dive into the data at city level by exploring our coordinates graph. Last year we used this feature to see whether there was any correlation between people talking about, and drinking from, rooftop bars when London was in the midst of a heatwave:

6) Stats page

You can keep track of how close you are to hitting your monthly data allowance by heading to the stats page. This area of the dashboard gives you a better breakdown of your searches, visualising which search is taking up all of your data:

7) Easily expand your content

To see an attached link, video or image in a piece content is key to your data analysis, and there is nothing worse then having to click into a piece of content to expand it . On Pulsar, you can actually expand all of your content when you are in your search results view by clicking on the top left arrows, highlighted below: If you're not working in Pulsar, you can now email our Support Team offline as well: support@pulsarplatform.com. If you’re already using Pulsar and want to learn more about these hidden areas of the platform, please contact your account manager or email: Account.Team@Pulsarplatform.com. Alternatively, if you’re yet to experience the power of Pulsar and you’d like to set up a demo, email James.Cuthbertson@Pulsarplatform.com or call us on 020 7874 6577.

Infographic: Make smarter marketing decisions with Facebook topic data

Imogen — Tue, 12 Jul 2016 15:36:43 +0000

With over a billion active users spending more than 46 minutes a day on Facebook, Facebook topic data is an incredible resource for anyone who wants to find out more about their audience. Allowing for greater insights, Facebook topic data gives us more detailed topic information about an audience’s likes and dislikes; including events, brands, subject and activities. All in a way that keeps personal information private, marketers can get a full and actionable view of their audience.Below you’ll find a sheet showing you how Facebook Topic Data can help you understand your audiences.

If you want to see the power of Pulsar for yourself, or you have a social media research brief you’d like us to have a look at, please send an email to: Info@Pulsarplatform.com.

The Journey of an Image: the evolution of visual social media in our TEDx talk

Ed — Tue, 26 Jul 2016 13:30:39 +0000

Pulsar’s VP of Product, Francesco D’Orazio (@abc3d) presented ‘The Journey of an Image: big data, social media and how ideas spread’ at TED x University of Bristol in June. TEDx co-organiser, Hannah Haddad asked Fran to join a line up of inspirational and industry-leading thinkers, which saw him share his thoughts on how social media is evolving and what it means for society and how we understand it. In the Journey of an Image, Fran runs through a millennium in just over 30 minutes - touching on key historical moments leading to the emergence of our modern visual culture and how we went from barely accepting the idea of representing scenes from everyday life, to taking selfies and pictures of our food. Using key pieces of social media research, from visualising the virality of video content to mapping the journey of an image that changed the perception of the refugee crisis, Fran shows how the data we're generating in the process can lead to new ways of understanding society but also new challenges arising from the complexity of the information at hand. You can watch 'The Journey of an Image’ talk in full here: TED is a nonprofit organisation aimed at sharing innovative and inspiring ideas, which invites world leading thinkers to present for 18 minutes or less. TEDx (x = independently organised event) is essentially a program of local, self-organised events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. If you’d like to learn more about the ‘Journey of Image’ study or you’d like to speak with Francesco about him presenting at one of your events, you can contact him on Francesco.Dorazio@Pulsarplatform.com.

VIRAL: insights into flu on social media and the importance of marshmallows

Judith — Wed, 20 Jul 2016 11:47:06 +0000

We’ve all been there: aching muscles, throbbing head, sore throat. Coming down with the flu is no fun, and everyone has their own way of dealing with the symptoms. Hot tea, Vicks rub, ginger, garlic soup, Lemsip and marshmallows are all listed as popular go-to remedies. Wait – marshmallows? Yep. Pulsar has just released Viral, a study on flu spreads on social media, and one of the many surprising outcomes is that people like to grab a bag of spongey sweets when flu symptoms strike. So what else did we look at for this study? We focused our research around key topics including seasonality, celebrity impact, favourite over-the-counter remedies (Lemsip anyone?), what people actually think about the dreaded flu jab, and how we can use data to improve health care for everyone. Understanding what people respond to when looking at ‘flu’ as a topic can be incredibly useful for a range of organisations – and purposes. For example, it’s proven that virus outbreaks can successfully be predicted with help of social media, which is useful for communications campaigns. Plus, knowing what type of products people tend to buy when they are experiencing flu-like symptoms can help pharmaceutical companies develop products better suited to people’s needs. Next to that, brands can find the best people – and time – to tie in with social influencers to reach the biggest possible audience. Viral, our new study, is free to download from our website here. Here’s a sneak peek into the report: Looking at conversations on social media around flu for a longer period of time, you would expect there to be a spike in activity during flu season, so autumn and winter 2015-2016. However, research findings show that talk about flu is pretty much consistent all year round. What mainly causes massive spikes is celebrities lamenting their flu symptoms – a sympathy surge can easily be identified with fans sharing and commenting on idols that have fallen ill. For more insights download your copy of Viral here.

Helping Mazda gain value from its social media activity

Ed — Fri, 22 Jul 2016 16:28:54 +0000

We helped Mazda Europe steer their marketing strategy in a direction that saw them become a social-first brand. Mazda wanted to introduce social media listening as a new way to gather customer feedback and inform its first brand-led marketing campaign in Europe.

Mazda came to us in the position of being a global brand who wanted to push the visibility of social media across the organisation. In this context it was also clear that their social presence throughout Europe had considerable scope of improvement. Our continuous research has helped identify new opportunities to improve and to provide additional value to users via social media.

Find out how we helped Mazda become a social brand by downloading the case study here.

Snapchat, One Year On: why it's the network of choice for millennials

Ed — Fri, 29 Jul 2016 14:37:07 +0000

Last year, I wrote a blog on how Snapchat transformed itself from a self-destructing photo app into a commercially viable media outlet. One year on and the social network has expanded its media leg, but kept photo messaging at its heart. Snapchat has matured into one of the worlds' largest social networks, boasting 150 million active users per day - taking it well ahead of social big bird Twitter. But this comes as no surprise to those avid users and followers of the app. In the last three months, Snapchat's acquisitions extend to Seene, a 3D face-scanning app, Bitmoji maker, Bitstrips and Looksery, a Ukrainian tech company. Each one of these acquisitions are focused on taking the users back to the app's original feature - photo messaging. The app has also been given plenty of airtime by celebrities: Kim Kardashian recently exposed an intimidate conversation between Kayne and Taylor Swift over a series of 10 second videos, and subsequently broke the internet (again).

Face Swap

Snapchat's latest facial recognition filters have kept the app relevant to an ever growing - and ageing - target audience. From a user point of view, the ability to swap faces with the person standing next you, the ability to get insight into what your future self may look like, and the ability to transform your face into a Bumble Bee or Dalmatian with an interactive tongue feature, is incredibly engaging (for most). For the sole and grave purpose of research, here's myself and fellow marketing exec Imogen, testing out the filters: Snapchat's filters are one of the main draws that ensure users keep coming back to the app. It not only allows you to share instant moments with your friends, but keeps you engaged with weekly filter updates. It's an innovative approach which is why it continues to work - my Facebook feed is full of Pandas wearing halos and butterfly hair pins.

Memories

Snapchat's latest move to keep itself at the heart of millennials' digital portfolio is Memories, a feature which allows you to add your snaps to a living memory bank inside the app. Memories takes away the need for users to download images direct to their phones, giving them the option to collect their special moments within the app. It's a reactional move to keep users within the app for a longer period, and gives users another reason to keep returning. Disposability is out, personalisation is in.

Discover

Snapchat Discover has become the feature which is the publishing industry's favourite toy. In one year, Discover increased its media offering to 23 publishers - these content creators no longer view Snapchat as an experimental marketing tool, but as one of their core channels for pushing out content. Having said this, understanding the type of content that performs best is still experimental: long form vs short form videos, multiple news stories vs one running theme, exclusive news vs breaking news. Boasting 5 billion video views a day, with publishers reporting even higher numbers, there is no denying that Snapchat has become the go-to network to reach a younger demographic: views = success, and success = $. Storytelling is the key to Snapchat's continued success. The photo messaging app has reinvented the user experience by making it interactive, rather than the more clunky series of one-dimensional Tweets or singular Facebook posts. It's racked up an impressive amount of daily video views and daily active users - surpassing some of social media's big dogs. Delivering news content in an easily digestible format, designed for Gen Y's second screen attention span, as well as finding ways to increase users' time on the app, is why Snapchat is one of the best social networks available, and is now valued at $20 billion. Pre-Snapchat, millennials (and subsequent Gens) were the mysterious age group who were difficult to market to, difficult to understand, and difficult to pin down on any one channel or medium. Snapchat has managed to successfully bridge the gap between brand, publisher and this younger demographic - which is why the network is so lucrative. If you're a brand looking for ways to connect with millennials - get on Snapchat. Everyone's doing it: Dominos, New York Times, McDonald's, Taco Bell, Mondelez, Heineken, and General Electric, to name a few. If the app continues to implement current trends, it'll retain us ageing millennials (who struggle with adulthood) and maintain a strong follower of 16 year olds. Snapchat, we're keen to see what your future brings. If you're looking for new innovative ways to reach and understand your audience, we'd love to hear from you. Send us an email to: Info@Pulsarplatform.com.

#SnapChart: How social media activity drives concert ticket sales

Ed — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 15:37:06 +0000

All marketers chant about the importance of social media to the sales process, but do more social posts really convert to improved sales? Can you actually measure social data and ROI? And understand which demographics give brands the best chance of social media influencing sales? We partnered with an events company to explore how well social media works as a key driver in awareness of a concert, and whether it provides a measured way to predict ticket sales. We used Pulsar to analyse the whole online ecosystem of concert tickets, from initial information on the website about an event through to ticket sales, and tracked discussions around three concerts: a festival, UK tour of a global female pop artist, and a 1970’s rock band. Below you'll find an example insight from the study, if you want to learn more you can follow this link to the full presentation. The three concerts studied were very distinct and different, both in terms of type, genre and audience profile. We started the research by comparing a music festival's social media activity against ticket sales and website visits over a considerable length of time to see if there was a correlation between the data points: The chart shows three major peaks in activity over a two month period with each measurement correlating to each other. In this case, the peaks in social media messages, ticket sales and website visits relate to the music festival's three line up announcements. So, is there a correlation between social media conversation and ticket sales? Yes, there is - the music festival has a 53% correlation. To learn more about this study, click here to go to the presentation taken from our webinar. If you work in the music or entertainment industry and would like to find out more about how using audience intelligence platforms can benefit your audience understanding and social insight, please send us an email on Info@Pulsarplatform.com.

#SnapChart: Beauty is a big deal on social media in Italy

Imogen — Wed, 10 Aug 2016 16:44:32 +0000

In 2015, the beauty and personal care market in Italy experienced a significant growth in production, sales and exports. We decided to have a look at the social side of this industrious passion for pampering using Pulsar – and found that Italians love talking about beauty and personal care online, too. The first thing we found was that discussion around personal care in Italy mostly happens during ‘me time’: those hours in the day that appear to allow for more personal focus. Work breaks like lunch time, and evenings after work are the most popular times of the day for posting pictures online and talking about beauty and personal care. Looking at the demographic breakdown of Italian beauty and personal care aficionados, we can see that 67% are women, and the key age groups are 25-34 and and 35-44 years old (Feb 2016, source: Pulsar). So what topics are people actually talking about? The research shows that conversation primarily focuses on faces, followed by hair and nails. This is most likely due to the fact that these areas require specialist treatment, with an indomitable mountain of products, advice and treatments available to be tested, loved and loathed. In such a competitive market, people increasingly look to beauty bloggers and vloggers to gain advice and insight from product reviews, videos and tutorials. It’s the digital word of mouth that allows you to ‘try before you buy’, which is useful especially as many covetable products come with a hefty price tag. Although we see in general that Italian men talk about personal care less than women, beards (still our favourite hipster trend of the decade) have opened up a gateway for men to share pictures and exchange tips on how to get their mane just so. Furthermore, it appears beards are very visual: men are reluctant to talk about them, but are more than likely to post pictures. As such it’s not a surprise that Instagram, home of the selfie, is the most popular social media platform compared to more text-dominated platforms. One of the findings informs us that, in Italy, showing off brands in posts about personal care helps to add kudos. As in: associating yourself with a brand seems to be a great way to present your premium taste in the sense of ‘showing off’ your lifestyle quality. So what does this mean for personal care and make up brands to build a bigger audience in Italy? For one, they should up their Instagram game. The image analysis graph from Pulsar (data gathered in Feb 2016), below in pink, shows the types of images around beauty and personal care that are being posted online from Italy. If your Italian is as bad as mine, it’s helpful to know that trucco means make up and barba means beard. Make up takes the lead, but Italian men are clearly very proud of their facial hair as this is closely followed up of pictures being posted of beards. The inserted heat map, above, shows that conversation is happening all over Italy, with higher proportions of people talking about personal care in Italy’s big cities; Rome, Milan and Naples. A plausible cause would be an increased pressure to look good, more disposable income and opportunities for purchase, and the heightened exposure to advertising found in urban areas. This information is particularly useful for marketers looking to promote beauty and personal care products in Italy, seeing the thriving market and engagement online. Instagram appears to be a key hub both for brand-loving urban women and for men putting their beards in the spotlight. If you would like to find out more about image analysis and how using audience intelligence can benefit your marketing, send us an email on Info@Pulsarplatform.com.

Cat people vs dog people, explained by Facebook

Imogen — Fri, 12 Aug 2016 15:07:36 +0000

Well this one sent the office into a frenzy: Facebook’s research team recently reported on the behaviours and affinities underlying dog people compared to cat people. Using a data sample of 160,000 Facebook users, who all shared stories of dogs and cats online, the research team were able to unlock some precious insights into - let’s be honest here - the only factor that splits humankind in two distinct groups. So. What did they find out?

Dog people are more popular

Like their extroverted pets, dog people make more connections online and, on average, have 26 more Facebook friends than cat people. Having said this, cat people get invited to more events. Another nugget: cat and dog people roughly check in to the same number of places each week.

Who shares the food bowl

Cat people are more likely to be friends with other cat people, and dog people with other dog people. Cat people are 2.2 times more likely to befriend other cat people, but cat people also like other animal-friendly people. Similarly, dog people like other dog people: they are 1.8 times more likely to befriend other dog people.

Can we dispel the crazy cat lady myth?

Unfortunately, it’s true that cat people are more likely to be single than dog people. 30% of cat people in the sample are single, compared to 24% of dog people. Plus, cat people are more likely to be single, at any age… or even gender!

Overall, we can see that cat people do seem to express a wider variety of feelings on the site compared to dog people, who are more likely to express excitement or pride. Who’s a good (or simple) boy!

Perhaps cat people just enjoy doing things a little differently…

Whether you enjoy reading books, watching TV and movies, or carrying your beloved cat around the house, cat people in general tend to enjoy doing more indoor activities according to the data. In terms of watching material, they are especially fond of fantasy, sci-fi, and anime, with movies like Dracula and World War Z being firm favorites. But while cat people are disproportionately fans of sci-fi and fantasy, dog people show a preference for love stories. Well, that and Marley & Me… we’ll leave it up to you to cast judgement on that one.

Does your pet preference depend on where you live?

This graph below shows ratio of dog to cat people in the U.S.A. Cats (red) are more prevalent in cities, while dogs (blue) are more prevalent in rural areas. Note that these colours have nothing to do with certain political party preferences (as far as we know, but that's a different study). It seems to make sense that Facebook data shows dog people enjoying life in more rural areas. To illustrate this, here is a picture of our Senior Research Executive’s dog, Berkeley, enjoying his W-A-L-K in style.

Meanwhile at Pulsar HQ

Seeing these results, it definitely looks like the characteristics we attribute to certain animals - goofy, outgoing dogs and mysterious, aloof cats – are mirrored in their owners. With that in mind, we did a quick survey in the office to see who sits in team Crazy Cat Lady, and who in team Simple Sub-woofer. It turns out a whopping 59.1% prefers dogs, 18.2% cats, and the final 22.7% of our colleagues refuse to take sides, nobly saying they love both cats and dogs equally. That, or they're afraid of the consequences. So now that we all know and understand each other a little bit better (one voice went up saying they like hamsters best, this person is still a complete mystery), let’s zoom in on the most amazing thing here: using data, you can uncover not just what people are saying online, but rather what kind of behaviours, preferences and attitudes people display. This opens countless doors for marketers and insight teams to fully grasp who their audiences are - not just what they're saying online. And this, in turn, will help organisations become more relevant every day. Are you interested in understanding who your audience is? Send us an email on Info@Pulsarplatform.com

Best of both worlds: sharpening up qualitative research with social insights

marcgeffen — Tue, 16 Aug 2016 15:03:31 +0000

In our world of research and insight, 2016 has been the year of true ‘hybrid’ approaches. A recent Harvard Business Review article shares a nice take on this development, profiling a large organization as it rethinks how to source and cultivate better insight through smarter org design and data synthesis. At FACE & Pulsar we’re guiding clients through an analogous change in methodology: for us a hybrid approach increasingly means some form of rigorous qualitative work (face-to-face, online communities) in tandem with social media research (data analysis, digital ethnography, audience mapping). We are leading this charge because it makes us a more agile insight partner, and because we have worked hard to align the technology, people, and processes to make it possible. This move to a ‘hybrid’ workstream also represents our evolution as a consultancy with a strong qualitative research heritage; in large social media data sets we’ve found the human data that we know and love, and now can quantify. We don’t take this route just to be different - we design hybrid research when a client challenge demands a different way-in. Recently a mobile entertainment client asked us to help inform development of new app features that would extend the relevance of the app across moments & modes of each user’s daily life. Beyond penetration this was about growing usage duration by facilitating more frequent and pertinent interactions. We knew that deep qual would illuminate key design principles, but it was clear there would need to be a critical interim step: first we’d need to canvas thousands of potential user moments and prioritize the most salient opportunities. Limited sample sizes just wouldn’t get us there, but social media could. We led with social data analysis to explore and quantify the moments & modes we’d go on to examine in ethnographic work, ultimately building robust user journeys. Our clients are designing products, services, and communications in a complex world, and as researchers we must be able to help them ‘connect the dots’ across time (planning cycles, trend phases) and space (different data sources, consumer environments). Image: We used Twitter data to create an influencer graph Social media is a vast source of ‘dots’ for us to work with, but it’s important that social is never just tacked on or presented as the “added value” cherry-on-top. We only make the move to combine methodologies when each is integral to the ultimate insight objective, helping the project achieve something that one methodology on its own could not deliver. Many of our clients are immediately receptive to a hybrid approach, but do ask us to explain how it comes to life: what’s the right brief for a hybrid approach? How does the timing work? What, exactly, is the role of social data in relation to the qualitative fieldwork they are more familiar with? Within the scope of a given hybrid project these respective methodologies may run in sequence or parallel. Here is an abbreviated list of ideas for when to use social media research in a hybrid project, and for what purpose:

PRE-FIELDWORK

Brief tightening: size problem and opportunity areas by analyzing social conversation volumes around key themes, competitors, need-states, etc.
- Example: The challenge is vague or broad. We believe that [X], [Y] and [Z] are the key sub-categories to explore, but do not have existing data to confirm this. Can we compare the amount of discussion around each to find more focus for the research?

Recruitment guidance: build a smarter screener based on fresh insight into demographic and lifestyle parameters
- Example: Are there types people mentioning your brand that you did not expect or did not include in your target definition? What are the brand affinities of customers in this category - can we recruit so that our sample proportionally matches this landscape?

Discussion planning: craft a sharper guide by incorporating true consumer language, referencing current trends, or developing questions from hypotheses formed through social data analysis
- Example: We’re assuming that [PROBLEM X] is top of mind, but how do current users articulate their experience? How can we ask them about this...without leading / with empathy / in the words a friend would use? Is this problem actually still peaking or is it resolved? Has anything else emerged?

Stimulus sourcing: identify consumer-generated language and imagery to inspire internal thinking or to form hypothetical insights to expose to participants
- Example: Can we curate a thematic, UGC mood board to spark consumer-relevant ideas in our design process? Instead of us drafting statements, can we find UGC statements to expose to participants, gathering their organic reaction?

Expert input: replace or supplement expert interviews by analyzing the content and opinions they share in an unmoderated environment
- Example: We could spend weeks and thousands of $ interviewing experts - but what if we analyzed their online activity and thought-leadership over the last year?

Brand perception benchmarking: go far beyond sentiment to understand the assumptions that people make about your product or service
- Example: We’re sure we have strong favorability, but do they understand the offer? What if people think about us as a materialistic brand when we’re really selling experiences?

DURING / POST-FIELDWORK

Responsive listening: explore an unexpected target segment, consumer need, or creative direction that may have surfaced late in the research process
- Example: Whoa, we did not expect to hear that in the groups / ethnographies / workshop, but it’s huge! Great learning, but how can we turn that into actionable insight within the scope of this project?

Data for validation: confirm the validity or robustness of insight territories or recommendations by sizing their respective conversation volumes or measuring the velocity of trends
- Example: Okay, this qual has helped us identify our two priority targets and five opportunity platforms, but this work covered two markets and we’re preparing for a national / global launch. How can we be confident this insight holds up at scale?

Dimensionalizing targets or themes: add depth or breadth to personas by analyzing the consumer’s digital footprint, e.g. capturing how different segments uniquely talk about the category, their brand affinities and interests, examples of their favorite platforms and media domains, etc.
- Example: Last year we did extensive segmentation work, so the team knows each target’s demographics and key needs, though the personas are really light on personality. We need to understand their behaviors, experience and interest in more detail. How can we really bring them to life?

Contextualizing behaviors: understand how behavioral dynamics uncovered in an earlier qualitative phase apply to different shopper or lifestyle contexts outside of the original research venue; for example, analyzing mentions of a category or product term linked to certain situations and environments such as “at the bank,” “just downloaded,” “planning some travel”…
- Example: Awesome, we now know why and how people interact with our brand, use our product / app / service in its main use-case. Do these motivations apply to other context, though? Could we serve them in new moments or at different touchpoints?

This list is meant to be a quick preview. There are many other applications for, and benefits of, social data analysis in the context of qualitative research. The challenge will dictate exactly how and when each method gets integrated, including whether social data analysis comes before or after traditional fieldwork. But one of our favorite things about hybrid research is that, at the simplest level, it adds degrees of vision to our point of view by enabling qualitative analysis at scale. We see who’s right in front of us - because we’ve recruited them - but we also get to peer into all the interesting things happening on the periphery: the thousands of verbatims and data points that from afar may seem tangential but are actually central to our insight objective. If you want to learn more about our hybrid offering and want to add qualitative methodologies to your social media research, send an email to Info@Pulsarplatform.com.

#LondonIsOpen: Sadiq Khan wins the people’s vote

Ed — Tue, 23 Aug 2016 11:57:08 +0000

After three years of planning and negotiating, this weekend saw TFL turn London into a fully-fledged 24 hour city. Londoners no longer have to endure the dreaded night bus after a night out, or flag a cab to some far flung corner of zone 4 - the tube is now their oyster.

Over 13k people took to Twitter & Instagram this weekend to voice their thoughts on the Central and Victoria lines opening their doors for 24 hours. We dug into the data to understand the key topics of conversations, the main hubs of Night Tube chatter, and whether this new 24 hour service is welcomed by the public (opposed to dreading it as a whole new public canvas for boozy sickness - did we mention the night bus already? Yes we did.)

Sadiq Khan wins the people's vote

On Friday evening, London's mayor Sadiq Khan jumped on the Victoria line to officially mark the 24 hour service open. After becoming the number one influencer on Twitter for #NightTube chatter, Sadiq then became a main topic of conversation over the weekend, gaining zero negative sentiment. Interactive Network Graph: Sadiq Khan is the main influencer

The Mayor of London's own tweet received the largest amount of reactions (either because he looks like he's just conquered Gotham City, or it's a true triumphant moment for TFL (Transport for London) and for London):

And we are off! First ever #NightTube is on the move. #LondonIsOpen pic.twitter.com/fg3Ef5IuIF
— Sadiq Khan (@SadiqKhan) August 19, 2016

There is no other way to best describe London's admiration for Sadiq Khan than this image below, gaining almost 600 retweets.

Could anyone gaze adoringly at Sadiq Khan more than the man on the right in this picture? #NightTube pic.twitter.com/DJiqlIBnpE
— Amita Joshi (@amitacjoshi) August 20, 2016

But is Sadiq Khan's raised pedestal really deserved? This is the question being asked by many - as Khan becomes the face of #LondonIsOpen, Boris Johnson's foundations have been almost forgotten... possibly for some very good reasons, but that's another blog post. Sadiq Khan may be the man of the moment, but that doesn't mean there aren't other high profile figures gaining Night Tube traction. Paul McCartney shared a tweet suggesting he's in support of London's latest offering:

#NightTube pic.twitter.com/3PLTlGkcWb
— Paul McCartney (@PaulMcCartney) August 19, 2016

Even brands are trying to get behind the hype. Innocent Drinks shared a collection of Night Tube images on Twitter over the weekend (although, we're still struggling to identify the relevance of this to the Innocent brand)

The #NightTube starts tonight. Here are some posters we made: pic.twitter.com/2t3ajtruRw — innocent drinks (@innocent) August 19, 2016

And lastly, Pizza Express' input...

More people than ever will sleep through their stop on the Tube tonight. Make sure you have a half-eaten 🍕 for when you wake up #NightTube
— PizzaExpress (@PizzaExpress) August 19, 2016

The joke's on Southern Rail

The joke was on Southern Rail this weekend when Andy Watt became one of the dataset's main influencers on Twitter, following this jibe:

Following the success of the #NightTube, Southern Rail have announced that they might start running trains during the day. — Andy Watt (@Andy_Watt) August 20, 2016

Southern Rail held major strikes a couple weeks ago which caused chaos for commuters - and in typical Twitter fashion, the blue birds have not forgiven them. Andy Watt's dig was viewed by over 100k people, gaining almost 900 reactions.

Mapping the Night Tube

The majority of conversation about the Night Tube was from the Londoners who used it themselves. Over 13k people shared their thoughts on Twitter and Instagram over the weekend - and by using Pulsar's heat map to geolocate the data we can identify where the main hubs of chatter happened. The heat map below reveals not only the main areas of conversation, but a clear correlation with the stations that were open 24 hours: Geolocated heat and tube map overlay By placing the heat map on top of a tube map you can see that areas of chatter largely represent the main stations opened for the entire weekend. Brixton, Angel, Bank, Victoria, Shepherds Bush and Ealing (all on the Victoria and Central lines) show a large volume of activity. However, Oxford Circus, the only place in London where both lines meet, was clearly the key hotspot in terms of social media conversation. The heat map gives us insight into a typical night out in London, suggesting that weekend party-goers revel in central London (Soho, Covent Garden and Bank), but end the night home in the outer suburbs; Shepherds Bush, Brixton, Ealing, Dalston and Angel. The Night Tube's opening weekend has been a huge success - during its peak there were 420 negative posts compared to 12k with neutral or positive sentiment. Overall, the winner was not TFL but Sadiq Khan, and the loser was Southern Rail who's bad publicity stream continues. If you want to learn more about audience intelligence and our consultancy offering, please send an email to Info@Pulsarplatform.com.

The Insight Economy in The Times: why social data is key to transforming business

Judith — Thu, 01 Sep 2016 07:00:04 +0000

In today's issue of The Times, you'll find a 16-page supplement dedicated to the Insight Economy. With a market that has rapidly expanded the past five years and is still growing at a high rate, it's no surprise The Times is giving this topic some solid attention: more businesses than ever see the value of using insights from data to their advantage, no matter what industry they're in - or what size they are. As part of this report, Pulsar's VP Product & Research Francesco D'Orazio talks about how the analysis of social media data is driving a new way of understanding audiences and making a difference across many industries, like for example healthcare, where social data can even help predict the next flu outbreak. Francesco talks about the difference between traditional social listening and up and coming audience intelligence which is about using social data to understand the behaviours, attitudes, moments and affinities of an audience rather than just watching brands being talked about. To summarise Francesco: "Social media listening really has narrowed down the possibilities of social data. Audience intelligence is about moving away from simply looking at the relationship between brands and consumers and focusing a lot more on the relationship between consumers and the perceptions and attitudes that their online behaviours might reveal beyond their brand-related interactions. That's where the real value to businesses lie." Although Pulsar is used in pretty much any type of industry globally, the healthcare industry is a particularly interesting field. One example is that Pulsar was used by the Food Standards Agency to help predict outbreaks of norovirus in the UK. The full case study can be found here. Another example shows that by understanding wider trends using data, businesses can identify competitive advantage. Our recent flu study, Viral, shows that people turn to home remedies and look for comfort before rolling down to the pharmacy or drug store for some over-the-counter pills. Pharma could be missing a trick here: be understanding these behaviours, product innovation can be informed. To download our Viral report, click here. Interested in reading the Insight Economy in The Times? You can find our article over here, and the full report here. If you'd like to find out more about our your audience, please send an email to Info@Pulsarplatform.com.

How Rubicon used WhatsApp to keep its appeal for British Asian Millennials

Ed — Wed, 07 Sep 2016 15:25:30 +0000

Rubicon, a much-loved exotic drinks brand in the UK, recently asked themselves a question that will sound familiar to many businesses globally: "how do I stay relevant to a new generation of consumers, and ensure they feel connected to me as a brand?" Rubicon was keen to learn more about the British Asian millennial audience. Were Rubicon's communications still relevant to this group? And was their proposition still valid? To get their answers, they came to the research team at Pulsar. At Pulsar, we use social media data alongside other sources to understand audiences. For Rubicon our research design fused social data and qualitative research via WhatsApp communities to figure out what drives this particular millennial audience. To read more on the methods the research team used to help Rubicon understand their audience, download the full case study here. If this has sparked your curiosity into using a multi-layered approach to any future research briefs, we’d love to hear from you. Just send an email to: Info@Pulsarplatform.com.

Journey of an image: one year on

Francesco DOrazio — Thu, 01 Sep 2016 23:01:40 +0000

Exactly one year ago, the body of Alan Kurdi washed ashore on a beach in Bodrum, Turkey.

A Turkish press agency was first to publish pictures of the tragedy online at 8.42AM, and within 12 hours from the first tweet carrying one of them, the pictures had spread from a small, local circle of Turkish journalists and activists to a global audience of millions, thanks to Twitter and the power of the social graph, the platform's ability to act as a catalyst and bring together like-minded people who care about similar issues.

With the Visual Social Media Lab (VSML) we set out to study the impact of those pictures. One of the first things we noticed was that the people commenting on the story on Twitter and Facebook seemed to be using the word 'refugee' (rather than 'migrant') to describe what was happening a lot more often than before the tragedy. If that was the case, this could have been a signal for a significant shift of perception around the humanitarian crisis and migration in general.

So we looked at how over the previous 12 months the relative use of the words 'refugee' and 'migrant' on Twitter had changed (globally, English language only).

To make sure we took into account various types of discourse we tracked entities rather than just keywords, so for example instead of tracking simply the word 'refugee' we also tracked 'refugees', '#refugee', '#refugees'.

The data confirmed the shift. While for the previous 12 months 'migrants' and 'refugees' had been head to head in public conversations on Twitter, accounting for pretty much the same volume of conversation (respectively 6.6M vs 6.1M tweets), from September the 2^nd to September 12 usage radically flipped from 'migrants' to 'refugees' (2.9M vs 6.5M).

That's a gap of 224%, meaning that in the 10 days following the tragedy, for every tweet mentioning the word 'migrant', 2.24 tweets started to mention the word 'refugee' instead.

But despite the global public outcry over the death of the three-year old in the Mediterranean, the number of refugees and migrants who have died while trying to reach another country has increased by more than a fifth in the last 12 months.

Today, Oxfam issued a press release VSML and Pulsar have collaborated with Oxfam on, detailing awareness of the crisis and calling on governments globally to step up and commit to taking action to help the refugees.

Have we already forgot about the crisis? Did the conversation die out or was it sustain? Did the gap between the 'migrant' vs 'refugee' conversations widen further or did it go back to pre-Alan Kurdi levels? We ran the analysis again, now on a two years timeframe, to find out.

Crisis awareness: the long-lasting impact of an image

We found that 12.7 million tweets talking about 'migrants' or 'refugees' were published between the 18 of August 2014 and the 1st of September 2015, at an average of 33.000 tweets/day.

But between the 2nd of September 2015 and the 21st of August 2016 that figure jumped to 50.4 million, a 397% increase year on year at an average of 142.000 tweets/day.

And when looking at search behaviour on Google Trends, we saw a huge 294% increase in the volumes of Google searches about the issue (combined 'refugee'/'migrant' queries) with correlating spikes along all the key events of the crisis over the 12 months following the death of Alan Kurdi.

So even though the crisis might have not improved as quickly as one would hope in the last 12 months, the awareness of the crisis has definitely entered a new phase.

A shift in perception

This rise in awareness is not the only trend that's persisting 12 months on. The migrant/refugee ratio in public discourse has also continued in favour of the 'refugee' conversation.

Over the last two years (18 Aug 2014 / 21 Aug 2016) people have been using the word 'refugee' almost twice as much the word 'migrant', but the shift really started to occur on the day the images were published and the ratio remained constant for the following 12 months.

A shift in the perception of the crisis that's again mirrored by the way people search it. Over the last 12 months (2nd Sept 2015 / 21 Aug 2016), Google queries about 'refugees' have increased by 338% while queries about 'migrants' only increased by 209% - although it's interesting to note that 'refugees' queries were already almost double the 'migrants' queries even before the pictures of Alan Kurdi went viral.

Beyond the news agenda

Now one might argue that it was the news agenda that influenced the way people talk and think about it. So we looked at how much the conversation has shifted from 'migrants' to 'refugees' in news and blogs.

The data shows that while the evolution of the news discourse correlates with the evolution of the discourse on Twitter as well as search behaviour, the shift from 'migrants' to 'refugees' in the news is a lot less dramatic than it appears to be in tweets and Google searches.

This suggests that while the news agenda played a key role in raising the awareness of the crisis, the shift in the public perception of the crisis has been potentially much deeper and has been echoed and amplified, rather than necessarily anticipated, by the media.

Of course all this could also imply a shift in the semantics of the word 'refugee' vs 'migrant', but these are changes that play out on a much longer time-scale - and we'll be focusing the next update of the study on this aspect. Stay tuned.

No social zombies here: understanding AMC's 'Fear the Walking Dead' audiences

Ed — Mon, 03 Oct 2016 20:00:39 +0000

Social media and TV go together like peanut butter and jelly on a couch sandwich: very, very well. Second screen viewing is now common place when people watch live TV, as social media allows us to respond in real-time and connect with other fans. And for TV networks, analysing this online conversation can add real value as well. Analysis of social media interaction around TV shows can, for example, help decide whether a show should be renewed for another season, who the most liked and disliked characters are, and give insight into where fans want the show to go. Pulsar has been working with multiple entertainment organisations to help them make sense of consumption habits and audiences' demographical make-up. AMC is one of these TV networks - they came to us so we could track, analyse and map out conversations of the entire first half of the second season for 'Fear the Walking Dead'.

Network split

We tracked all mentions of 'Fear the Walking Dead' across Twitter, Tumblr, Forums, Blogs and all articles online, and found that 95% of total conversation happens on Tumblr and Twitter. We know that each social network has its own audience, and that each network is used for different reasons. So it's not surprising then that Tumblr and Twitter were used to channel different conversations: where Tumblr users mainly spoke about the episodes and the characters, Twitter was used to discuss nominations for the Teen Choice Awards and for users to tell their followers they are watching the show. Surprisingly, most of the conversation took place outside of the broadcast window, meaning conversation not happening during the show itself - which drove 64% of the conversation. Conversation topics during this window were varied, from talk about trailers and spoilers, to speculation around the motives of the characters and the actors who were pivotal in the previous episode. In terms of the main characters, we found that Alicia (28.8%), Strand (20.2%), Madison (16.4%) and Nick (20.5%) led the way. However, conversations around Alicia were focused around her nomination for Teen Choice Awards and her promotional work prior to the series release. Outside the leading topics, discussion was focused around Ouroboros, Blood, and Spoilers.

Who's behind the keyboard?

In terms of gender, the conversation is balanced: 52.1% of the drivers are women, 47.9% are men. The difference lies in how they talk about the show - men are more focused on the characters (in particular Travis and Alicia) and how they feel about the show, whereas women spoke about the show generally and focused on the Teen Choice Awards. The US dominated conversation, which is expected considering the show stems from the US. Excluding the US, 'Fear the Walking Dead' is spoken about at the same level across Europe and South America. Mentions for the show were highest during Episode 1 (74,325 mentions), but beyond this, mentions were fairly consistent across the remaining episodes (averaging 31,275 mentions). Alycia Debnam Carey as Alicia - Fear the Walking Dead. Photo Credit: Justin Lubin/AMC The analysis of AMC's 'Fear the Walking Dead' shows a pattern we see with other TV shows as well: conversations predominantly take place on Twitter and Tumblr, with chatter slowing down after the shows premiere. In this AMC's case they can use this information to better inform their on-air social media strategy - commenting on specific scenes to inspire curiosity throughout their following, or focus their content on the most popular characters to increase engagement. If you're interested in getting to know your audience, we'd love to hear from you. Send us an email to Info@Pulsarplatform.com.

A brand new Pulsar is coming!

Francesco DOrazio — Mon, 05 Sep 2016 12:26:26 +0000

From next week you're finally going to get your hands on the brand new release of Pulsar! We've been working on it for the last 4 months and we are very excited to get you in and get your feedback. Four years ago we started Pulsar with the idea that data should be visual, intuitive and smart. As our user base grew very quickly we learnt a lot from all of you and we have tried to keep up with all the amazing ideas you have for making the most of audience data and how to use it to change the face of business for good. As the complexity and the versatility of the product grew exponentially, we felt it was time to re-think our user experience and the information design behind our data visualisations in order to stay true to our vision. Which I guess means you will still have all the functionalities you know and love (plus a few surprises) but it will be easier to use them, you'll get the job done quicker and your outputs are going to look stunning. Since we can't wait to launch this, here's a little sneak peek of the new Pulsar:

New icons

[caption id="attachment_4042" align="aligncenter" width="765"] A brand new set of icons to describe visually the products, the product sections and the individual functionalities on the platform.[/caption]

Better information design

[caption id="attachment_4039" align="aligncenter" width="765"] Look at the trend while getting a complete overview of your entire dataset including volumes, engagements, impressions, sentiment and emotions.[/caption]

New data visualizations

[caption id="attachment_4040" align="aligncenter" width="765"] Introducing 'Moments', your one stop shop to see when is the best time to post, engage and reach your audience about any topic.[/caption]

Improved User Experience

[caption id="attachment_4043" align="aligncenter" width="765"] 'Edit overlay' on top of every interactive data visualization to manipulate the data without losing sight of the overall picture.[/caption] Any questions get in touch with your account manager or book a demo today if you're not working with us yet - just send an email to Info@Pulsarplatform.com.

Join Pulsar and Lansons at Social Media Week London, 15 September

Ed — Thu, 08 Sep 2016 10:41:27 +0000

Next week Lansons, a full service strategic consultancy specialising in corporate, media, and political communications, and long-standing Pulsar client, are hosting a panel at Social Media Week London - and we're joining them. The 'How companies manage their reputations online' event is held on Thursday 15 September, 3.30pm - 5.00pm and aims to get to the bottom of the following three questions:

How can regulated companies use social media for business results?
How can you convince C-Suite that managing and measuring reputation should be a priority?
How can data be used to better manage reputation online?

The panel was specifically chosen to provide a wide range of opinions based on knowledge and practical experience. The expert line-up is as follows:

Francesco D’Orazio, Co-Founder and Vice President of Product and Research at Pulsar
Magnus Boyd, Partner at Schillings
Ed Coke, Director of Consulting Services at Reputation Institute
Rebecca Mayo, Joint Managing Director at Lansons

If you want to attend tickets are still available - sign up here. Still need convincing? Last week I sat down with Michael White, Lansons' Digital Account Director, to understand his thoughts on how social media and online content has a direct impact on reputation management.

Ed: Of all events, why Social Media Week London?

Michael: Social Media Week London is important to us because reputation management is at the heart of our business - that's what we do, we manage how organisations communicate. We've been attending SMW for years and realised most speakers and exhibitors had a similar agenda, presenting ideas and insights on similar topics within the social media sphere. No companies previously have showed any expertise into how social media and reputation management are linked. That was a gap in the agenda. We believe it's important for SMW to have representation from every corner of the communication industry. We all talk about how the communications industry is integrated and teams shouldn’t be silo’d, but this isn’t always practically the case when reputation management services are delivered. So, we decided to host our own independent event as part of SMW. The event is a great platform for our sector; it ties in with digital and provides us the opportunity to see what other organisations are doing.

Ed: Can you explain why is social media is so important to your business?

Social media is important because of transparency - journalists were once the gate keepers, now any social media user can spread awareness of information. Journalists are no longer the number one source of information; we now look at influencers across the social sphere. PR expert and theorist David Philips has this theory about it: the internet makes organisations more transparent, but at the same time, this transparency can cause a loss of control for companies. Information has a way of revealing itself, which is not always what a company needs. Today every type of business is a media company, or has the potential to become one, which is exactly the same for our clients. Social media allows you to target specific people, it eradicates hierarchies making the way we connect with people easier. For example, we had a tech client who wanted to speak with people in IT - networking through companies and other avenues didn't produce results. So, what they did was get on LinkedIn and network directly with senior people. It was simple, but it worked.

Ed: How do you use social media intelligent platforms?

Michael: the work we're doing is varied - we're mostly using social media in regulated industries; finance services, health & energy. Pulsar gives us the best picture. It can go across the main stream social networks and is great for identifying influencers, including bloggers. We have four main uses for Pulsar:

To highlight sales opportunities by using GPS targeting, which has proven to be extremely useful
Image recognition shows that we can see your brand online, making it easier to visualise reputation management
To identify the most relevant bloggers and Twitter users by using the Influencer Network Graph
We visualise and map social media networks by using Gephi - a data visualisation tool built into the platform.

Ed: What's the most surprising/ interesting insights you've pulled from social media so far?

Michael: we hosted an Asset Management event which included a panel of experts - one of the panelists did a report on how Asset Managers are using social media. They created a breakdown of investor profiles, and found that all investors will visit a website before investing - to ensure the company is legit. Asset Management companies in the US make a real effort to attract investors using the internet, but in the UK it's not as advanced. The panel shared insight showing that the profile of investors are changing in the UK and, on the whole, UK asset managers are missing out. We're really looking forward to hosting a panel on how companies best manage their reputations online next week. If you want to learn more, join us at Social Media Week London, tickets are still available - sign up here. Interested in discovering for yourself how audience intelligence can help you understand reputation management, send an email to: Info@Pulsarplatform.com

The Social Check-up: understanding the Pharmaceutical industry on social media

Ed — Tue, 27 Sep 2016 10:01:48 +0000

Today, Pulsar and Ogilvy Healthworld launched The Social Check-up, a new report which is focused on sharing the latest trends in healthcare and pharmaceutical social media. The rise in use of social media has meant that businesses from all industries are using these networks as a tool to understand and reach their audiences. The healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors are not immune to this - for example, social media is used to inform businesses in how to predict and track the spread of diseases, as well as to understand how illnesses are talked about online.

The pharmaceutical industry's most popular social media channels

In The Social Check-up's first edition, we tracked the top 20 pharma companies' social media activity over the first half of 2016, with the aim to understand how they create and share content, and how they engage their audiences. The report asks (and answers) three questions:

Is there a difference in impact between created vs. curated content?
What use is content without engagement?
How can pharma companies use social media?

One of the more interesting findings was that 29% of the conversation created by pharma companies related to 'disease awareness' - making it the most common content theme. However, their audiences preferred content (and therefore providing a higher engagement rate) relating to corporate messaging, CSR, product, and conferences. So does this low engagement rate for disease awareness content suggest that pharma companies do not have as high a following in the healthcare community as they would wish for? Find out the answer and many more insights in Social Check-Up. Download your free copy here.

If you want to understand who your audience is or you've got an exciting social media research brief, we'd love to hear from you. Please send an email to Info@Pulsarplatform.com.

'Integrated, not Isolated': Pulsar co-authors new #IPASocialWorks report

Ed — Mon, 26 Sep 2016 16:36:44 +0000

As the use of social media networks increase, so does the amount of available social media data. And as a result, social media data has become an attractive pool of consumer information to all types of brands - a shift which is reflected in project work hitting agency inboxes. However, social media data isn't anything new. Pulsar's sister company, FACE has been part of this movement since its inception - from innovating an audience intelligence platform, to using an integrated research approach which has proven highly successful for a multitude of organisations. This is why we were asked to contribute our thinking into 'Integrated, not Isolated - how to improve customer insight by embracing social media data' a new guide created by the IPA/MRS and TMS cross-industry initiative - #IPASocialWorks. Co-authored by:

Tom Ewing, Senior Director, Brainjuicer Labs

Jessica Owens, Associate Research Director, Face/ Pulsar

Fran Cassidy, Founder, Cassidy Media Partnership

'Integrated, not Isolated' talks about how to create real insight from social data sets, and why brands need to develop processes that integrate social. It focuses on how brands can use social media insight for all types of research - drawing on case studies from Sport England, MasterCard, Janssen and GE Healthcare. A key piece of communication for those wanting to learn more about social insight - for example:

"Brand tracking helps you build a faster horse. If you want to build something brand new, you need to listen more widely: to your category, to consumer audiences, and to their behaviour."

Key report findings:

Social data is the real voice of the customer. It can be invaluable and cost effective for hypothesis testing and making enhancements to product, service, pricing and distribution. However, although it can be a catalyst for it, on its own it is less suitable for major strategic innovation

Social insight KPIs need to align with, and ideally predict, the business metrics of the parent organisation

Organisations should invest in human analytical interpreters of the social data, rather than just in new improved software and tools. Those who can translate analytic output to business action will be the source of competitor advantage

Social must be integrated into the range of other insight tools and business intelligence datasets

The best model of integration is ‘diffused integration’ – professionalising and upskilling people in social insight techniques to enable knowledge and skills to spread across the organisation

Social analytics demands functional and analytical skills but also collaboration, agility and an experimental mindset

Social data moves insight teams even more into a strategic function, which can transform organisations

The report is available to purchase here - and as because of our involvement we are able to offer 25% off the RRP of £60 for non IPA/MRS or TMS members (£30 for members). All you have to do is quote FACE25 at the download stage of the order. You can also join the conversation on Twitter: #IPASocialWorks At FACE we understand the importance of social media data and specialise in conducting research projects with integrated social, qual and quant angles. If you have an exciting brief with an integrated approach, we’d love to hear from you. Just send an email to: Info@Pulsarplatform.com.

Case study: how the Kuwaiti parliament uses social media to understand public opinion

Judith — Thu, 29 Sep 2016 15:23:25 +0000

Social media tracking is not just useful for businesses, it’s also useful for governments wanting to keep a finger on the pulse of public opinion. The Kuwaiti Parliament is able to do just that, with the help of Pulsar’s TRAC and consulting firm Information Age’s self-created analyzer (named Social Intelligence Analyzer), that has been plugged in to work with Pulsar. Salah Alnajem PhD, Founder and CEO of Information Age Consulting and Associate Professor of Computational Linguistics and Natural Language Processing at Kuwait University, reveals in detail how important the integration of these tools has been to get the job done, and how they’ve cleverly dealt with particular challenges in order to get the best results.

The job at hand

The Kuwaiti Parliament are currently using Pulsar TRAC in combination with Information Age’s Social Intelligence Analyzer to analyze Twitter dialogues and acquire insights about public opinion and public trends in general, as well as indicators about the issues related to the parliament members and how they are performing. Above: bubble chart from Pulsar TRAC showing the most prolific authors within the researched conversation - in Pulsar you can view influencers by volume, visibility and impressions For example: the Kuwaiti Parliament was interested to know the public reaction towards a suggested document about raising the price of fuel that was pending parliament approval, in response to a global decline in oil price. A report was made showing the public reaction and sentiment towards that document, which could help parliament measure the impact of the suggested reforms proactively before approving them. Effectively, this is a type of Proactive Crisis Management which helps in dealing with a potential crisis before it happens. Pulsar TRAC and the Social Intelligence Analyzer are also being used together by the Ministry of Information in Kuwait to produce social media analytics reports that are broadcasted in the evening news segment of Kuwait TV, which is the national TV station. Again looking at fuel prices and how the public would respond to a mandate raising these, data retrieved from Pulsar TRAC and the Social Intelligence Analyzer were used to prepare an infographic showing the reaction of Twitter users in Kuwait after announcing the mandate. These insights helped Kuwait TV in highlighting the impact of that mandate, and the report findings were broadcasted on the evening news segment. Above: sample of Kuwait TV's presentation showing public opinion on recent fuel price increases So with the responsibility to provide answers for these as well as other private and public institutions, Alnajem always needs to have a robust solution in place. In practice, how do Pulsar TRAC and Information Age’s Social Intelligence Analyzer work together?

Integration is key: Pulsar API

Alnajem explains that the integration of their own software and Pulsar TRAC really made the difference in terms of getting the right results. While Pulsar TRAC reads and analyzes Arabic text and can analyze sentiment based on Arabic content, Alnajem mentions that next to standard Arabic, the Kuwaiti dialect is crucial to the work they do – and that’s where their own system comes into play to work together with Pulsar TRAC. Aljanem explains: "We have developed this 'Social Intelligence Analyzer', which works as an add-on to Pulsar TRAC in order to analyze the Arabic posts retrieved by Pulsar. Our system is optimized to understand and analyze posts written in Standard Arabic Language and Kuwaiti Dialect, and it can detect the important insights and indicators from posts after eliminating noisy data through recognizing and distinguishing between noisy Arabic words and relevant or important words.” “Our system also utilizes our sentiment analysis API developed for Modern Standard Arabic and Kuwaiti dialect. Our sentiment analysis API is built using an electronic lexicon containing around 8 million inflected word forms in Modern Standard Arabic and 400,000 inflected word forms in Kuwaiti dialect with their sentiment polarity.” Above: sentiment analysis through the Social Intelligence Analyzer For Alnajem, the API integration was an essential requirement in choosing a social media research platform. With the Pulsar API, the team are able to integrate the power of Pulsar TRAC with their own system through retrieving Pulsar TRAC’s search results and analyzing their Arabic content through their own technique of analyzing Standard Arabic and Kuwaiti dialect. Plus, the Pulsar API allows for the integration with other third party visualization and dashboard creation systems like Klipfolio. By merging the search and analytics results they retrieve from Pulsar TRAC with other analytics metrics retrieved from, for example, Google Analytics and YouTube Analytics, the team can fold everything into a unified customized Arabic interactive dashboard.

Flexibility, filtering & influencer analysis

The Pulsar API was not the only reason why Pulsar was the platform of choice. Alnajem says: “When it comes to the features of Pulsar TRAC, we were astonished by the flexibility and capabilities of the system compared to other competitive systems in the market.” “Firstly, the system is a SaaS hosted system connected to GNIP Twitter Firehose, and this was a critical requirement for us since we are focusing on both real-time and historic data analysis. It means Pulsar TRAC allows us to access 9 years of historic data - which is essential for trend analysis.” “Secondly, the system provides us with wide range of interactive data visualizations features that allow us to render the social media analytics insights into meaningful charts and maps to our clients. And thirdly, we heavily depend on TRAC’s filtering capabilities which allow us to apply, combine, and customize 30 behavioral, contextual and content filters including filtering by date, keywords (Boolean filtering), domain countries, languages, Klout score, visibility, and reach.” Once the team finish applying the filters, they export the data to Excel file for post processing using their Social Intelligence Analyzer system. Above: word cloud with top hashtags from Information Age Consulting Last but not least, Pulsar’s influencer analysis and profiling capabilities are a big win for the team in Kuwait: “This feature allows us to measure influence contextually in real time, by looking at how impactful people are about a specific topic and within specific social networks and categories. TRAC provides us with reliable influencer rankings and influencer relationship analysis which are useful for our client’s social media strategies, scorecards, and KPIs. We also heavily utilize the feature of sorting search results which allows us to sort the search results according to date, visibility, reactions, reach, and likes.” “Add to all of the above, Pulsar has very professional and friendly support and management teams which make you feel that you are part of the teams not just an ordinary customer. Pulsar has definitely made our consultation and development daily works easier and more productive.” With great thanks to Salah Alnajem, PhD from Information Age Consulting for giving in-depth insight into the work he does with Pulsar. Would you like to know how you can use Pulsar to inform your decision making? We're here to help. Just email us on info@pulsarplatform.com and we'll get straight back to you.

Pulsar to attend TMRE conference in Boca Raton, 17-20 October

Judith — Fri, 30 Sep 2016 15:48:36 +0000

Pulsar's Global Commercial Director James Cuthbertson and Category Sales Manager Research & Consulting Sam Deacon will be attending the annual TMRE conference, held 17-20 October in Boca Raton, Florida.

TMRE focus

TMRE is a leading market research event which brings together an international community of researchers, strategists, brands and agencies from a mix of industries including Pharma & Healthcare, Consumer goods, Financial services and Entertainment & Media. Next to an industry specific day in the above categories, the conference will have a set of tracks consisting of talks, presentations and panels around themes, for example around the macro trend 'data science'.

Pharma trends

Both James and Sam will attend all four days of the TMRE conference (as well as some scheduled beach yoga - James is already nervous). Sam is particularly looking forward to the Pharma Industry Day on Monday 17th October:

"We're seeing a trend in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries whereby a shift towards insights driven by social media and other online data sources is taking place. Seeing Pulsar offers both traditional qualitative research services and data-led research services, we're in a strong place to advise which approach works best when, and I'm looking forward to seeing our existing relations and new ones to discuss their experiences and needs."

Next to pharma and healthcare, the entertainment and media industry is another key focus for the conference - and for Sam and James, who will be attending scheduled events around this industry as well.

Get involved

There are still tickets available to the conference which can be purchased here. The same link will show the full line up and agenda for the event.

Follow Sam & James' visit to TMRE on our Twitter feed @Pulsar_Social using #TMREvent

Would you like to meet up with Sam and James at TMRE? They'd love to hear from you, so please get in touch: Sam Deacon, sam.deacon@pulsarplatform.com, +44 (0)78 0825 4914 James Cuthbertson, james.cuthbertson@pulsarplatform.com, +44 (0)79 6152 7080 Not going to Florida in October? Sorry to hear it! The good news is you can still talk to the rest of our team. Mail us on info@pulsarplatform.com, or call our London office on +44 (0)20 7874 6577, or our New York office on 646-902-9349 if you'd like to learn more about our products and services.

Join Pulsar at the SRA conference on Social Media Research #NSMNSS

Imogen — Tue, 04 Oct 2016 13:21:57 +0000

On October 11th, the SRA (Social Research Association) and #NSMNSS (New Social Media, New Social Science) will host a conference titled 'An Introduction to Tools for Social Media Research' in London, where Pulsar will be presenting. The conference will look at how tools can be used to analyze data from a range of social media platforms. Both quantitative and qualitative social media analysis techniques will be covered using text, network and geographical analysis, as well as image analysis - which is where Pulsar will share their expertise. Pulsar's advanced image analysis can understand the context of an image Image analysis is becoming increasingly important in social media analysis: through digitalization and the universality of smartphones, they shape our culture more than ever. Pulsar’s VP of Product and Research, Francesco D’Orazio will discuss these complexities in his talk ‘Mapping the Visual DNA of a Brand in Social Media.’ Key to the topic are the technological advancements that allow us to demand new approaches and scalable techniques, like pattern recognition and deep learning. Treemap in Pulsar showing the most occuring image elements around a search The talk will also explore the opportunities and challenges of visual social media research, and look specifically at how car brands are discussed on Instagram. Plus, it will be revealed how brand values are translated into visual imagery, and whether consumer images reflect or distort the identity of a brand. To discover the opportunities made possible with social media research, join the conference by getting your tickets here. And follow the same link to find a full PDF programme. And, if you are interested in discovering what image analysis can do for your brand or agency, send an email to: Info@Pulsarplatform.com

#Snapchart: what's behind this British love of bottomless brunches?

Sara Ho — Thu, 13 Oct 2016 14:05:16 +0000

It’s no lie, us Brits love to drink - be it a cheeky pint after a long week at work, a classy gin & tonic to overcome those first-date nerves, or a glass of wine, well, just because why not. That very love may have been the driving force behind a weekend ritual that has steadily increased over the last decade in the UK: bottomless brunches. Bottomless brunches are meals that come with unlimited alcoholic beverages, mainly ‘morning appropriate’ considered drinks such as Mimosas and Bloody Mary’s. Needless to say, this benefits both restaurant owners and drinkers, who form a merry bond for the morning (and sometimes afternoon). But what else is found behind the success of this formula? We’ve used Pulsar TRAC to find out what’s going on around the topic of boozy brunches. Using Pulsar’s keyword analysis, we found that 67% of all tweets, photos and posts were dominated by brunchers talking about friends and family as the perfect excuse to drop those pennies. So the first (and obvious) finding tied to this phenomenon is the social aspect. With everyone always getting busier and busier, and time becoming more precious, boozy brunches are the perfect excuse to be socially efficient: get out of bed, meet friends and continue the weekend celebrations. Gone are the lonely days of feeling guilt on a Sunday morning, as you shamelessly glug away whatever alcohol is left from the night before, just to relieve the mounting hangover (non-Brits, avert your innocent eyes). Using Facebook Topic Data, we then looked at a breakdown of the audience demographic discussing the boozy brunch ritual online. What’s interesting is that whilst these types of brunches have become more mainstream, conversations in the UK related to it are still heavily dominated by women aged 25-34, even up till the ages of 54, which is almost 4 times that of men in total. Could this indicate that ‘brunch’ is still generally conceived as female thing? On average only 3.5% of posts are broadcasted by men in comparison to 29.8% by women (the rest of mentions are posted by bar and restaurant owners). To investigate this further, we asked some of the lovely men at Pulsar: “Do you even brunch”? Pulsar's Research Director Giuseppe commented that although he loves to brunch, it just wasn’t that ‘cool’ to post about it afterwards. Meanwhile, Associate Director Rob highlighted that he would never go to brunch unless it was with his girlfriend, and if he wanted to booze he’d just visit his local pub. Well. We agree that's the tiniest sample, but so far it does appear to back up the data indeed... Restaurant owners have also been able to capitalise on the growth and popularity of Instagram, which dominates social media in this category, as shown in our channel breakdown: Instagram has almost 90,000 posts in the space of 30 days, double that of any online channel. By analysing pictures with our image analysis module, we found that basic brunch menus such as ‘eggs on toast’ or ‘the full English’ are no enough to make the cut on image-sharing platforms such as Instagram or Tumblr - it appears conventional just doesn’t sell these days! What has replaced Ye Olde Fayre is a smorgasbord of unique, innovative and delectable plates to attract the growing demographic of foodies that use brunch as a way to rejoice and share these scrumptious moments. Alcoholic beverages appear to follow the same trend, with innovative cocktails being the most popular on Instagram – hardly anyone lifts an eyebrow at the sight of a Bloody Mary topped with either half a lobster or a bacon slider any more. Lastly, for those of you who have already booked your flight to indulge in this favourite British pastime, your friendly Pulsar team have kindly made some suggestions for you using our geo-localised searches to identify the most popular destinations for boozy brunches. Some of these include hot spots around Clapham Common, Angel and Covent Garden. So with the weekend looming just around the corner, it’s time for you to pick up your phones and start making your reservations. If you’re dizzy from all this talk about drinks, but interested in finding out more about what Pulsar and what it can do to help you understand relevant topics and audiences online? We’d love to hear from you: just drop us a line on info@pulsarplatform.com.

Brand Dig: when brands respond to social media fame

Harry — Fri, 14 Oct 2016 11:28:35 +0000

In this blog series, researcher Harry Symington digs into the world of social media and discusses brands, news, trends and examples that have made the digital headlines. This week, Harry looks at mainstream brands reacting to social media fame, with the talented James Charles becoming the first male representative of make-up brand Cover Girl, after becoming a viral sensation due to his *very popping* highlighter in his self-orchestrated yearbook photo. Plus, capitalising your social media fame on YouTube, and Vogue being rather territorial on the blogging fame front... CoverGirl finds its first ‘cover boy’ People who grow huge social media followings organically are irresistible to brands. It’s what most of them aspire to achieve online. So it’s perhaps not surprising that a lot of social stars have been snapped up by brands. James Charles is one such blogger who has now found himself on the front of CoverGirl. James started making his own makeup tutorials and sharing images of his different looks on Instagram. In one year he has gained over half a million followers and caught the attention of CoverGirl who chose him as their first ever “cover boy” as part of the brand’s upcoming “So Lashy” mascara range. While he may not be a celebrity or a model, James’ personal story seems to align with the brand’s values: “CoverGirls are role models and boundary-breakers, redefining what it means to be beautiful,” says the company. The truth is that this 17 year-old blogger has something that most celebrities don’t already have when it comes to marketing beauty – an authentic and trusted voice. And it’s why some cosmetic brands like CoverGirl are happy to move from models to self-made beauty bloggers for their campaigns. YouTube is beginning to nurture its own stars From Zoella to PewDiePie, YouTube has been the cradle from which the majority of vlogging stars have risen to fame. But it’s not just their view counts and followers that are rising. Many have signed incredibly lucrative deals with brands that allow them to actually make a living from their videos. And now YouTube (Or Google) wants to get in on the action. The tech giant has acquired FameBit, which is a platform that connects YouTubers (and creators on Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook) with brands that want to sponsor their content. FameBit already has over 40,000 creators in its ‘influencer’ network and makes it easier for brands to partner up with any of them through its self-service marketplace. Although many prolific creators have achieved great fame on YouTube, this doesn’t always translate into great fortune. In fact there are multiple examples of the disconnect between the two. So the attraction for Google is twofold. The acquisition of FameBit should hopefully lead to more opportunities for YouTubers, and it might encourage brands to spend more on advertising through the platform. Either way, it’s likely to cement YouTube’s position as the go-to place for ambitious bloggers. Vogue accuses fashion bloggers of killing style While brands might be championing self-made social stars, not everyone is happy to see the rise of independent bloggers. Vogue’s creative digital director recently wrote a note asking fashion bloggers to “please stop” and to “find another business” because they are “heralding the death of style”. Are these legitimate concerns or just the complaints of an inherently analogue company coming to terms with the power of digital influencers? In her wrap up of Milan fashion week, the Vogue director criticised the collections for being schizophrenic: either about the craftsmen or the creation of streetwear stars. And it’s a problem she blames on bloggers. In her view, the best collections were not concerned with the “triumph of the artisan” or the “hegemony of Snapchat” and certainly weren’t created for “clicks’ sake”. This was a full attack on fashion bloggers who are paid to wear certain outfits and their role in the creation of a ‘street-style’. But Vogue’s criticism seems to be wildly out of touch at a time when Instagram has become the only fashion runway that matters and the most important media channel for brands. Digital fashionistas are challenging Vogue’s authority so it’s hardly surprising that the magazine feels threatened. But who defines style now – the influencers or magazines? Interested to hear how we can help your brand identify and leverage your audience's influencers and improve your engagement? We're right here, drop us a line: info@pulsarplatform.com

Video: Pulsar move to Shoreditch!

Judith — Mon, 17 Oct 2016 15:25:19 +0000

After calling London's Fitzrovia neighbourhood home for the past 8 years, Pulsar has now moved to a bigger, better office space in the heart of Shoreditch. Key reason for the move was the continuous expansion Pulsar has been going through ever since its very first beginnings in 2008. Our full address is now: Pulsar 31 Old Nichol Street London E2 7HR United Kingdom A map of our exact location can also be found on our contact page. CEO Job Muscroft explains why Shoreditch is the right choice for a growing company like Pulsar: "Shoreditch has over the past decade evolved into a flourishing hub for the tech community, and we fit right into that picture with our product & service offering. Next to that, many of the team live in east London, so by making this move we can improve the work-life balance of staff too. The area is much sought after for businesses, so it wasn't too easy finding a space big enough for all of us: we've gone from 5 or 6 people when we started to about 40 now. But we found an amazing location on Old Nichol Street that fitted the bill perfectly - it's a great open space that allows for better collaborative working. We're looking forward to showing clients around soon." While Job is going to back to unpacking some boxes (and you know, doing all those other things CEOs do), Sara and Peter from team Pulsar thought they'd give you a little tour of the new space: Pulsar move to Shoreditch! from Pulsar on Vimeo. Hey, why don't you drop by sometime? Send us a line on info@pulsarplatform.com or call us on our shiny new phones: 0207 874 6577. Hope to see you soon!

Brand Dig: when UK passports, McDonalds and a US city risk a Boaty McBoatface

Harry — Fri, 21 Oct 2016 10:12:05 +0000

In this blog series, researcher Harry Symington digs into the world of social media and discusses brands, news, trends and examples that have made the digital headlines. This week, Harry looks at brave brands opening themselves up to the trolls of the internet through online naming and designing competitions. With the now famous Boaty McBoatface as the - pardon the pun - flagship of failed 'let the public speak' online efforts, there are actually quite a few other brands that have happily stepped into the same trap, or are about to do so... UK government careful not to repeat Boaty McBoatface The EU referendum had a regrettable outcome for a lot British people. It was a result many of them didn’t expect, let alone vote for. Now, the UK government could be taking a gamble again. But this time there could be even more uncertainty, as the Home Secretary suggests asking the internet to design a new passport. With the UK heading rapidly for a post-EU life and the government seemingly withdrawing from every EU institution, apparently it makes sense to redesign the passports too. British passports are red (just like the passports of other EU member states) and a campaign has been launched to re-introduce a blue one post Brexit. But anyone who understands internet culture (and humour) might discourage the government from going down this route. Particularly after a contest to name a £200 million polar research vessel resulted in Boaty McBoatface coming out as the people’s choice. But it wasn’t just trolls. The memes that this event inspired, such as #TheInternetNamesAnimals (where people started renaming animals in the spirit of Boaty McBoatface) shows that Boaty McBoatface was one of those rare moments when internet humour crosses over into the real world. McDonalds misjudges the internet's appetite for a joke What's worse than asking the internet to vote on something? Apparently it's asking for their creative input, as McDonald’s New Zealand found out after asking people to create and name their own burgers. The fast food chain actually launched a dedicated platform which gave people the tools to experiment with different combinations of burger ingredients. And of course the majority of submissions ranged from being tongue-in-cheek to outright filthy. They included: the carbonator, rektal prolapse, and pound my behind daddy. McDonald's soon took the site down after realising its plan to tap the internet's creativity wasn't working. But is it any surprise that people would rather have a laugh than take the brand up on its rather paltry offer of free fries and soft drink for taking part? An American city takes a cautious approach to redesigning its flag While some brands are still confident they can treat the internet like an equal creative partner, others are now being more wary. Holland City Council in the US wants the public’s help in redesigning its flag but wants to minimise the potential for a “Boaty McBoatface” at the same time. Is that possible? The local council has proposed a public contest to update the flag to better reflect the city’s new brand standards. The staff themselves would then narrow down the entries to five and put these ‘sanitised’ designs to a public vote mens air max 90 sale. The council would then pick the winner from the top two flags. The idea of the contest is that it might engage those currently not interested in government. But the council is also being cautious in its expectations. It predicts that about 80% of the entries will be “unusable material”. So it the idea of co-creating with the internet tarnished forever? Interested to hear how Pulsar can help get you more engagement with your audience without any naming or designing disasters? We're right here, drop us a line: info@pulsarplatform.com

Social Q&A: #1 Get to know your data sources in social media research

jamiewatson — Wed, 26 Oct 2016 15:09:45 +0000

In this new series, our Head of Account Management Jamie Watson addresses frequently asked questions about audience intelligence platform Pulsar. Whether you’re a frequent Pulsar user or still evaluating a social media research platform for purchase, Jamie’s tips, tricks & useful info hope to highlight what to look out for. Data sources In this first post, we'd like to clarify data sources on Pulsar, and what you should know about them before you set up your search. Data sources, simply put, are where the mentions for your search come from. There is quite a bit of confusion around this topic generally – and that’s completely understandable. Every data source comes with its own set of rules and regulations, that goes for Pulsar as well as for other social media research platforms. Let’s start with the basics: What sources can Pulsar collect data from?

Twitter
Facebook
Tumblr
Instagram
YouTube
Vimeo
Dailymotion
News
Forums
Blogs
Reviews (e.g. Amazon, Reddit, TripAdvisor)

Note that we can add in certain other sources on request, so it's always good practice to bring this up with the team. Of course we'd also be happy to tell you more about the extent of our coverage, just get in touch: details are at the bottom of this page. Some sources only give you data from the point you start collecting and hit the ‘go’ button on your search. Others allow you to do a search in the past as well as from the moment you hit go. This difference is one of the key things to understand about data sources, as it will impact the way you set up your search. Here it is in short: Real-time data Real-time data are mentions that are collected as they are posted; effectively a live feed of the social web. You can get this from all the available data sources on Pulsar. Historic data Historic data are mentions that you are ordering from the past, that are delivered to Pulsar in a batch. The availability depends on the data source, as you can see in the graph below: 'Rolling' means that you can look up to the mentioned amount of months back, and this time frame scoots up with every day. So how would this distinction affect your search? Research question People tend to use social media platforms to show different sides of themselves, giving each source a distinctive type of content. That means that using more data sources is likely to give you a more complete answer to your research question, as all these sources will add a different side to the story you’re trying to get insight into. Now if you keep the limitations and opportunities in mind each data source offers according to the graph above, it should become easier to think about how you should focus your research question. For example: you can look back in the past with Twitter, but not with Instagram buy jordans cheap online. That's why planning a search around images of dogs playing the trumpet in 2014 might not give you your answers, and it's better to rephrase your search, for example by searching to find text-based posts in the past. Time and planning Another way this impacts your research is in time: the decision of whether you run data in real-time or historic is down to the scope of the research. If you want Facebook, Instagram & YouTube, you will need to build in a real-time data collection period, which will prolong your research timeline. This is particularly important if you need to deliver reports to a certain deadline, or if you are managing clients’ expectations if you are in an agency. How our clients put this knowledge into practice As mentioned, it’s best to make use of Pulsar’s extensive coverage and utilize all sources: the more sides of the story you get, the more comprehensive your answers will be. But this is not always necessary, and it's all about formulating your research question to help you pick the right data sources. Here's a short list of the ways most of our clients use different data sources:

Twitter, Tumblr, news, blogs and forums great for trend analysis, quick turnaround projects and pitches using historic data
Facebook, Instagram and YouTube are best for deeper research with longer lead times
Facebook is great for getting a truly comprehensive picture of your audience as it can show you their behaviours, passions and affinities
Instagram and Tumblr, being visually led data sources, are useful if you want to refine your creative and content strategies

If this sounds interesting and you’d like to find out how you can start answering questions, please get in touch: info@pulsarplatform.com. If you're an existing Pulsar client, just contact us on account.team@pulsarplatform.com. Of course you're always welcome to give us a good old fashioned phone call on +44 (0)20 7874 6577

Brand Dig: Pepsi, SodaStream and Shell all love a good pop star endorsement

Harry — Fri, 28 Oct 2016 14:04:03 +0000

In this blog series, researcher Harry Symington digs into the world of social media and discusses brands, news, trends and examples that have made the digital headlines. This week, Harry looks at celebrity pop endorsements as Shell kicks off a new campaign in which they try to connect with younger generations. Plus, prime-pop-endorsement brand Pepsi is discussed - just so much drama - and money! Finally, a case for pop (and other) celebs to carefully consider and research brands wooing them, as Lana del Rey and Scarlett Johansson have found... Shell is counting on a millennial connection Named ‘the most hated brand’ by NGOs for the year 2015, oil company Shell’s marketing team have to work extra hard to make a connection with their audiences – especially younger generations owning a healthy dose of scepticism towards fossil fuels. By launching a year-long campaign last month named #makethefuture, Shell are aiming to tackle this disconnect head on. Their magic potion of choice: pop stars. Jennifer Hudson, Pixie Lott and Steve Aoki are three of a troupe of international music stars recruited to highlight Shell’s collaborations with energy start-ups and sustainable energy, played out over platforms like Snapchat, Tumblr and Facebook. There’s even a full music video called ‘Best Day of My Life’ on YouTube, which has already been watched over 8 million times, and it’s getting plenty of positive feedback from the target audience. So how has Shell been able to avoid millennial side-eye from what could be considered hollow celebrity endorsements? In an interview with the Drum, global vice president of brand and chief executive of Shell Brands International AG, Dean Aragon, explains it’s all about ensuring the message is authentic. They did so by finding ‘kindred spirits’, as Aragon explains about working with musician Akon: “We wanted to collaborate with an artist who had a kindred cause, and it just so happened that Akon had advocacy and project around lighting Africa and therefore there was a clear intersection of aspirations.” Pepsi is all about the girl pop power Shell has definitely hit the headlines with their campaign – but as novel as this move is for an old-school behemoth of an oil brand, pop star endorsements are the daily bread for other brands. Take Pepsi: Britney, Pink, Beyoncé and Taylor Swift have all sipped the bubble juice for a hefty pay. Is it the sheer star power that will make things click naturally when it comes to personifying a brand with a pop star? Not necessarily. Things might just be a bit easier for Pepsi, because you could argue that the brand is pop culture, and the brand doesn’t need to work as hard on that authenticity as Shell does – there is a more natural connection between the brand and the pop star, as well as with the audience. That’s not to say things don’t go fizzy at times. Many of us will Britney being photographed drinking – gasp! - a can of Coke, which amongst other things caused a whole lot of drama. Britney eventually got dropped in 2002 and replaced with Beyoncé, who then got herself into a spot of trouble too, by signing up with for $50 million the sugary Pepsi drinks just after being a spokesperson for Michelle Obama’s health campaign, aiming to fight obesity through education. Contradiction? Oh yes. But the public, so it seems, can be very forgiving. SodaStream of tears and regret - or not Of course, there are also examples when celebrity endorsements go horribly wrong. Quite often this seems to happen on the sports side of the endorsement circus, and it’s often due to what is considered immoral behavior. The world collectively cringed when Tiger Woods fumbled through his infidelities in 2009, losing a reported $22 million with AT&T, Tag Heuer, Gatorade and General Motors cutting the ties with him in the wake. More recently, when Ryan Lochte went on a bit of a laddish rampage in Rio during the Olympics and lied about it, that meant the end of four lucrative deals. When it comes to female pop stars, there appear to be more examples of immoralities on the political rather than on the personal spectrum. Lana del Rey stroking her pale pink H&M 70% angora jumper for their Christmas campaign in 2012 got a firm response from PETA, who highlighted Chinese factories ripping the wool off live angora rabbits. In the end, this didn’t backlash on del Rey, who did not know about the production process – but you could definitely say she should have asked a second opinion instead of nodding along to the H&M PR machine. What del Rey also wisely did, was keep her mouth shut to a degree – the audience was definitely a lot less forgiving when actress / songstress and former Oxfam ambassador Scarlett Johansson endorsed the Israeli soda-machine manufacturer SodaStream, who were operating a controversial factory in a settlement on the West Bank. Johansson, who in the past had been very vocal about using her star powers for the good of mankind, was once again very vocal, but this time in support of her decision to endorse SodaStream nike hyperdunk. It wasn’t just Oxfam calling her out on hypocrisy - the UN, the International Court of Justice and the Red Cross all weighed in, saying SodaStream was breaking the law. This time, the public didn’t care about Johansson’s fame, and she was bashed online accordingly: nil points. It's clear pop star endorsements can work for both the celebrity and the brand - but brands should always be careful to select stars who can walk a straight line. And at the same time, celebrities should make sure they do their research into the company before taking the pay cheque. Interested to hear how Pulsar can help get you more engagement with your audience without any naming or designing disasters? We’re right here, drop us a line: info@pulsarplatform.com

Webinar: how are the top 20 pharma companies using social media?

Judith — Tue, 01 Nov 2016 11:36:53 +0000

Over the past decade, the rise of social media has caused a huge shift in the way businesses interact with customers. Pharma, often thought of as a guarded industry when it comes to social, is upping its game and using social to reach a wide audience including patients and healthcare professionals. Pulsar and Ogilvy Healthworld have recently released The Social Check-Up, a report looking at how pharma are using social media and how the top 20 companies rank in their use of social media. This Thursday 3 November, you can join us for a webinar: Join the webinar Sign up here for APAC, November 3rd 3PM HKT Sign up here for EMEA & Americas, November 3rd 4PM GMT The webinar will cover key highlights from The Social Check-up: • How are the top 20 pharma companies using social media? • How does pharma address the balance between created and curated content? • What forms of content are proving most popular with pharma audiences? • How engaging is the content published by pharma companies? • What does the future hold for pharma and social media? Who is it for? People working in or with clients in the pharma and healthcare sector, or who have a general interest in social media and pharma and healthcare. Take 10 seconds to register now! Would you like more information on Pulsar and what it can do for you? Please get in touch: info@pulsarplatform.com

Join Pulsar at WIRED 2016

Imogen — Wed, 02 Nov 2016 16:46:40 +0000

Renowned for bringing together ideas and innovation to help define the future, WIRED’s events are designed to deliver insights into what’s coming next. Pulsar are proud to be taking part as exhibitors at their 2-day event in London, on 3-4 November. So, what can you expect from the event – outside from meeting up with Pulsar to hear how we can help you improve your marketing through our software & research solutions? It’s a pretty beefy programme, with the first day of features looking at stories of human ambition, lessons from entrepreneurs, innovation in the displaced world and ground-breaking artists. The second day delivers a guest session from XPRIZE, a VR showcase, creativity from India and insights from the founders using solar power to create new energy-harvesting systems (nice!). James Cuthbertson, Global Commercial Director for Pulsar, explains why he’s excited about WIRED 2016: “We've teamed up with Wired 2016 for many reasons. This event is a great match for us, because like Wired, we're very much about passionate, forward-thinking people who are very interested in future trends, both in technology itself and on the impact it has on our lives.” “I am particularly looking forward to the talk from Eric Wahlforss from Soundcloud, as we there so much happening in the music streaming industry at the moment - it's an exciting space to be in with all the constant innovation. We've got a fair few clients in the same industry so I know it's going to be a very interesting talk!” And in light of future trends, Cuthbertson adds about Pulsar: “We see a rise in the need for data-led research - more brands are starting to see the value of what this research can do for them and their marketing. We know the Wired audience will definitely be switched on already when it comes to these benefits, so we look forward to going into the details with people as we speak to them.” To find out more about the opportunities made possible with social media research and other innovative ideas , join the conference by getting your tickets here. And follow the same link to find a full PDF programme. And, if you are interested in discovering what Pulsar can do for your brand or agency please send an email to: Info@Pulsarplatform.com

Brand dig: Vine, Meerkat and Peach: are hypes making or breaking social media brands?

Harry — Fri, 04 Nov 2016 13:58:52 +0000

In this blog series, researcher Harry Symington digs into the world of social media and discusses brands, news, trends and examples that have made the digital headlines. This week, Harry looks at what caused the death of Twitter owned video app Vine, and how it may have lost its relevancy with it's users. Plus, how Meerkat saw a gap in the market, but immediately got pushed aside, and Peach (remember them?) found itself having its 15 minutes of fame before the bubble burst... Vine lost its relevance amongst those that mattered most It was once described as a “kind of mobile, social MTV” and the future in viral video for the entertainment industry. But after just three-and-a-half years of its six-second videos, Vine is being killed off by its parent company Twitter. The reason? Vine never became the buzzing community for independent creators that Twitter had hoped it would. So why have Viners been leaving the platform? While it originally launched as a platform for people to share six-second lifecasts, Vine rapidly became a hub for meme-makers, comedians, and perhaps most surprisingly: up-and-coming musicians. The most successful was Shawn Mendes who managed to turn Vine fame into two No. 1 albums. Vine, it seemed, was the hottest new social platform that could rival YouTube for nurturing social stars. But lately the platform has been losing its relevancy amongst the creators that it so depends on. According to Markerly (which tracks online influencers) 52% of the platform’s top users have left the platform as of January 2016. And they’re moving to Snapchat – perhaps because it lets people record 10-second videos and share photos with custom filters. So while other platforms have adapted their products, with Instagram introducing video and Snapchat rolling out its Stories feature, Vine has remained stagnant nike air max 90 black cheap. And it’s certainly not uncommon to see a platform explode in the social space and then die out. Now it’s a waiting game to see which platforms benefit the most from Vine’s disappearance. Meerkat’s hype didn’t match its user base Just like Vine before it, MeerKat – the live-streaming video app – stormed onto the social media scene ready to take its place next to Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. But one year on and MeerKat has been pulled from the iOS App Store – and it’s only really mentioned alongside other failed apps like Beme or Ello. So what happened? The app had its 15 minutes of fame at the South by Southwest festival in 2015. Meerkat was used to live stream everything at the festival, from the gigs to the conferences and even stroll through the area. And the exposure helped the parent company get $14 million in venture captial funding. But shortly after, it was dealt a series of blows: Twitter cut off access to its social graph, then launched its own live-streaming platform Periscope, and Facebook created its own version called Live. Clearly competing against the very social platforms it was once meant to compliment was never going to work. But one problem that hampered it from the start was the disconnect between the extraordinary media attention it gained and its actual traction amongst users. So once the coverage died down, the reality became evident. But the founders seemed to have learnt from it and have built a new private broadcasting app called Houseparty, which has quietly gained almost 1 million users. Peach set a record for the boom bust cycle The boom bust cycle of apps is getting even shorter. It used to take a year or even a few months, before those hyped-up apps (that end up failing) finally bite the dust. But messaging app Peach demonstrated that the hype cycle can be over within less than 24 hours. Peach launched in January 2016 as an alternative messaging app with a home screen akin to Twitter’s interface – no direct messaging, just a stream of updates from your friends. It had a few nifty features, like “magic words” where you type ‘GIF’ or ‘location’ and it triggers a bunch of options to choose from. But that’s about it. However, the app still gained an unjustified amount of media coverage – in part because it was developed by a Vine co-founder. The attention propelled the app to No. 85 on the U.S. iPhone downloads chart, but two days later and it had already slipped to No. 129. Early declines such as these are usually a clear sign that the app isn’t going to last long, irrespective of huge the hype was. Retention outside a core group of users is what really matters – and the tech press too often ignores that reality. Interested to hear how Pulsar can help get you to understand your audience or want to learn more about platform communities then drop us a line: info@pulsarplatform.com

Pulsar joins IBM Watson #DevCon in San Francisco

Judith — Tue, 01 Nov 2016 11:57:12 +0000

Pulsar's Co-founder, Francesco D'Orazio (@abc3d), will be part of the upcoming IBM-Watson Developers Conference (DevCon) in San Francisco, held 9-10 November 2016. The first of a yearly series, IBM-Watson's DevCon has a strong focus on artificial intelligence, combining a speaker programme and a workshop schedule for coders, builders, hackers and others working with AI. Attendees will get the opportunity to debate where the industry is going, as well as test out new technologies through coding challenges and AI labs. Well-known brands including Uber, Slack, Twilio and OmniEarth will present ways they are working with AI - and where they see it going. Francesco will be presenting on behalf of Pulsar, with a talk on why audience intelligence requires a modular AI approach, a solution Pulsar has implemented past summer using Watson's technology. Here's Francesco, explaining what he means by that: "Not all data is created equal. Different datasets, industries, audiences, and use cases require different techniques to make sense of the data and help craft insights beyond simple analytics. At Pulsar, we deal with complex and varied social and behavioral datasets that require a very diverse range of data mining techniques — and you can't be the best at everything cheap air jordan xxx . That's why we built a modular system for on demand AI and integrating Watson has been essential in helping to support a wide range of research use cases – from image analysis to topic extraction and emotion analysis." To find out more about the IBM Watson Developers Conference in San Francisco's Innovation Hangar on 9-10 November visit their page, to book tickets go right here. For more information on Pulsar, and how you can become more relevant to your target audience by using our intuitive platform, please drop us a line: info@pulsarplatform.com. Or book a demo on our homepage to get a closer look at Pulsar, tailored to your needs.

Social Q&A: #2 How Facebook topic data can make all the difference to your research

jamiewatson — Fri, 04 Nov 2016 14:26:06 +0000

There really wasn't much of this data coming through in the first place, because not many people have public profiles or post content publicly
Public profiles tend to be biased towards public interactions (e.g. sales content heavy), meaning they are a lot less about genuine consumer opinion

That all changed however when Facebook (to my delight) introduced Facebook topic data, opening up the doors to an aggregated an anonymized stream of all its data to a very few selected suppliers. And we jumped at the opportunity releasing an integration before anybody else. What can Facebook topic data give you? In Pulsar Facebook topic data will contribute to volumes, sentiment, channel breakdown, age, gender, language, most shared links, key topics and locations and will allow you filter the data by keywords alongside every other data source you’re using. I have included a few visuals below to support this: Sentiment For those of you who rely heavily on sentiment for your reporting and research, Facebook topic data will give you a real shot in the arm. The reason for this is that people tend to share more opinions on a private platform like Facebook amongst their peers, as you can see, this data set from a national retailer has more combined positive and negative data than neutral – that’s a lot of sentiment to work with mens cheap air max. Now look what happens if we exclude Facebook topic data from the same data set: Interesting, right? It paints a completely different picture, showing a much higher level of neutral data, which is less useful for analysis. So Facebook topic data can give you more useful sentiment data. Channel Breakdown This visual is taken from a brand tracker for a well known technology company. Facebook data is represented as the dark blue color in the graph. As you can see, the sheer volume reflects the importance of Facebook as a datasource. Even just looking at the scale of the conversation without deep diving into the context will show the importance of Facebook to clients and stakeholders alone. Demographic Data In the audience tab you can see a breakdown of your audience by gender, age, location and language: This demographic date is great for understanding who are the people talking about your brand or category on Facebook. By understanding which conversations different demographics are having you can start to identify which content they need to be targeted with. Facebook topic data gives you much more complete demographic data than other data sources. Topics With an anonymized and aggregated dataset, key topics (located under the ‘topics’ tab) is key to providing the qualitative context behind your quantitative statistics: This treemap highlights what exactly was the focus of the 30,000 posts per day mentioning the hot topic of colitis. Essentially, you’re mapping the discussion behind the topic search. Without seeing the posts themselves, you’ll still be able to understand the context of your topic. Considerations when using Facebook topic data As with any data source, there are a number of key considerations that you will need to bear in mind when you’re looking to use it in your search:

Facebook topic data is a real-time only data source.

This means that it is great for ongoing brand and category trackers, but for research projects, pitches and marketing pieces, a period of real-time data collection will need to be included. We always recommend including this data collection period wherever possible - as illustrated earlier, the data volumes are far too large to ignore and will really give you more value.

Your tracker will store the data for 31 days before being removing it.

As such, we recommend that if you collect data for longer periods of time, you set a reminder to download the Facebook data every month, to ensure no data points are lost.

A minimum of 100 unique authors per day are required to visualize any data point.

In order to deliver truly aggregated and anonymized data, Facebook topic data requires a minimum level of data to deliver any data point. This means that in some cases, for example for small categories and brands, you will not see any data if your volumes are very small. This being said, we still recommend that you include this in your reporting as a "low conversation" data source to show clients and stakeholders that Facebook is being taken into consideration, however no data points are available. With the introduction of Facebook topic data, Facebook has truly become a useful data source to marketers, analysts and those working with social media data – if you have questions, just let me know. If this sounds interesting and you’d like to find out more, please get in touch: info@pulsarplatform.com. If you’re an existing Pulsar client, just contact us on account.team@pulsarplatform.com. Of course you’re always welcome to give us a good old fashioned phone call too, reach us on +44 (0)20 7874 6577

New on Pulsar: Measure Content Performance & YouTube views with CORE

Judith — Thu, 17 Nov 2016 11:00:57 +0000

CORE is Pulsar’s owned channel analytics tool, which helps you understand how your brand is doing on social. CORE allows you to monitor your own social channel performance and content, providing you with the context and ability to benchmark your performance against your competitors and the wider industry.

Over the last few weeks we've been adding more metrics and tools to help you understanding how your audience is growing and how your content is performing. Here's what's new:

Performance metrics for Content Media Type, Keywords and Tags

The ability to measure the performance of media type used, keywords and tags has been a recurring request from our users. Whilst currently you can see the number of posts that contain a certain type of media, or specific keywords, there has been no easy way of understanding what's the best type of media to include in your posts, or which are the best keywords and hashtags to use to help drive engagement, visibility or impressions.

So with this new feature you can now answer the question: When pushing content on my social channels, do posts with videos drive more engagement and generate the highest impact and impressions, or do posts with images perform better? The same can be said of keywords and tags. By toggling between visibility, engagement rate, and impressions it is now much easier to understand what sort of keywords or hashtags perform better and what topics are driving your profile engagement air jordan hydro sale. Moreover you can benchmark this type of content performance against your competitors’ content and see why the content they publish gets much more engagement than yours, helping you to make an informed decision on how you can optimise your content strategy.

Check out the gif below to see this feature in action:

YouTube Video Views

Youtube video views are often used as a benchmark of a video's success, more so than comments and likes. So we’ve now added this new metric to the YouTube channel on CORE, and this now gives you a better assessment of your video performance, and a more representative measurement of the number of people who’ve been exposed to that video. This also means we have now refined the way that we calculate Youtube Impressions.

YouTube Potential Estimated Impressions (PEI) is now calculated as follows: number of Subscribers + Views
YouTube Actual Estimated Impressions (AEI) is now calculated as follows: (11% of Subscribers) + Views

You will find information about your YouTube video views in the Content section.

These features are available on Pulsar today. Want to know more? Book a demo today by emailing Info@Pulsarplatform.com. Or if you are already working with us, just contact your account manager for more information.

Podcast: A Social Check-up for Pharma with Pulsar and Ogilvy Healthworld

Imogen — Wed, 09 Nov 2016 15:18:02 +0000

Together with Ogilvy Healthworld, Pulsar recently released The Social Check-Up, a report that looks at how the top 20 pharma companies use social media. Interest so far has been great, with Get Social Health being the most recent healthcare publication focusing on the report. Pulsar's Research Manager Sameer Khan, who was involved with the data collection and analysis of The Social Check-Up, joined Ogilvy last week to record a podcast for Get Social Health, that looks at the methods and thinking behind the report. This podcast is now available to listen to on getsocialhealth.com. Sameer (Sam) said after the recording: "What's particularly interesting is how pharma compares to other industries; which are perhaps more mature at engaging their online audience. The activity of pharma companies has undoubtedly evolved since earlier reports Ogilvy have conducted, and we're keen to see how it progresses going forward." When Janet Kennedy of Get Social Health interviewed Ogilvy Healthworld back in 2015 for a similar report, the results showed the pharma industry being cautious and risk-adverse in regards to social media. But over the past decade, the rise of social media has caused a huge shift in the way businesses interact with customers nike air max 90 2016 sale. And consequently, one of the findings the Social Check-Up shares is that the pharmaceutical industry has in the past year really upped its game and using social to reach wider audiences. With both Ogilvy’s strategic expertise and Pulsar's cutting edge data platform & in-house expertise, this podcast explores conversation around the latest trends in healthcare and pharmaceutical social media. Listen to the podcast recording here. If you’re working in pharma or with clients in the healthcare sector, or who have a general interest in social media and pharma or healthcare, get in touch to see how we can help you: info@pulsarplatform.com

Brand Dig: Toblerone, Starbucks and Qantas dare to make a change, set Internet on fire

Harry — Fri, 11 Nov 2016 11:13:41 +0000

In this blog series, researcher Harry Symington digs into the world of social media and discusses brands, news, trends and examples that have made the digital headlines. This week, Harry looks at the major online backlash chocolate manufacturer Toblerone received for changing the shape of their famed pyramid-shaped bars, as well as two other examples where we, the people, appear to have some issues with change when it comes to our beloved brands. Starbucks has faced major backlash over a wrongly perceived Christmas cup (green! it's GREEN!) and Qantas tries to pre-empt online punishment for a branding update. Ch-ch-ch-changes: sometimes, they're just a bit much to deal with. Toblerone dares to redesign the iconic triangles Loyalty is what every brand craves. But what if your consumers are such diehard fans that it makes it hard to tweak your brand – even if it’s just a little detail. Toblerone is learning this first-hand after it decided to add a gap between the chocolate triangles – and it’s made people quite upset. Toblerone is perhaps one of the most distinctive chocolate brands in the world. It’s long shunned the “conventional” shape of rectangular chocolate chunks and instead been proud of its 3D bars. But the brand might not have realised how important this distinct shape is for its consumers cheap girls air jordan 10. So when it spaced out the chunks to reduce the weight of the bar, Toblerone was perhaps a little surprised by the backlash. People have described the redesign as a “dumb corporate decision” and it’s even led a few to declare they will no longer be purchasing the brand: “Quite frankly you're horrendously greedy. This is the final straw. I'll now refuse to buy any of your products.” So is the backlash justified? While Toblerone claimed it wanted to reduce the weight of the bars, cynical consumers see the move as evidence of corporate greed putting efficiency/profits ahead of enjoyment. Aside from that, people have noted that it now looks cheap – and that’s what could affect sales of the iconic triangular chocolate. Starbucks teases festive customers with a green cup Christmas has such a strong association with rituals that cue Santa is almost here. There are the fairy streetlights that go up, the Christmassy TV adverts, and the carols. Alongside these signals are smaller events – but no less important to the consumer. One particularly special moment (for some) is the arrival of the Starbucks' red Christmas cup. This “holiday cup” has become something of a tradition. Every November, the coffee brand redesigns its cups with distinct Christmas themes such as baubles, snow and reindeer. But this year, the brand decided to release another limited edition cup (supposedly related to the elections) at a similar time, making people think that this was the Christmas cup. The problem? The cup is green, and the design includes a mosaic of over a hundred people drawn in one continuous stroke, to promote the idea of unity in a politically divided country. And this has caused coffee lovers to be absolutely flaming with rage. Naturally, people have taken to the internet to voice their concerns. “Went to get my first Red Cup and it's GREEN? WHAT? My gingerbread latte is instantly less festive. So mad ‪@Starbucks.” Others felt it was an attack on their favourite holiday: “Starbucks....GREEN CUPS!? War on Christmas. Last days.” It sounds like the Starbucks' Christmas cup is so much more than just a red cup. For many people, it’s just as important as decorating the tree or buying presents for loved ones. It’s the start of Christmas. Thankfully for those who don’t feel festive without the green cup (or didn't understand this wasn't the holiday cup in the first place), Starbucks will in fact be serving its coffee in a Christmas cup this year – and it will indeed be red. Phew. Qantas tries to pre-empt a backlash against its new look While people might fall out with brands because of unethical or unsustainable behaviour, bad logo redesigns can conjure a similar type of rage amongst consumers. While passengers are unlikely to refuse to fly with Qantas because of the design on the plane, the airline is pre-empting a backlash to its logo makeover. The brand unveiled a new look, which includes an alternative typography, a tweaked tail-fin and the introduction of a retro kangaroo under the cockpit. While Qantas acknowledged it could be seen as superficial redesign, the brand looked to reassure consumers that it’s not change for change’s sake. The company says it’s meant to signify a significant transformation across Qantas to deliver a greatly improved experience on-board. So why the pre-warning? As Qantas has recognised – people really dislike redesigns that have no other significance than decoration. It’s now up to the airline to match its new contemporary look with the experience it’s promising. Interested to hear how Pulsar can help get you to understand your audience? We can show you how. Drop us a line: info@pulsarplatform.com

Event: Creative conversations on attending to social media

Judith — Mon, 14 Nov 2016 11:15:30 +0000

Oscar Wilde famously said: "The only thing worse than being talked about, is not being talked about." Although there was obviously no such thing as social media when Wilde was around (let's be honest though, his Twitter would've been pretty amazing), his quote on the value of attention seems more relevant than ever nike air max 90 cheapest price. How do you get attention when so many others are all adding to the noise? Is all attention good? How do you measure it, and more importantly, do you need to convert it? What can you actually use it for? How does this play out on social media - for brands or individuals? These are questions anyone dealing with an audience faces daily. On Wednesday 30 November, a specialist panel will look to tackle these questions in 'Creative Conversations: Attending to social media', a talk hosted by University of Greenwich's Department of Creative Professions & Digital Arts (CPDA). Pulsar's VP Product and Research Francesco D'Orazio (@abc3d) will be part of the panel, together with Dan Calladine (Head of Media Futures, Carat); Joanna Walsh (author, editor at 3am magazine); Steve Cross (comedian, consultant, trainer) and Colette Henry (Communications Planning Director at Futerra). Chairing the panel will be Gauti Sigthorsson, Programme Leader BA Media & Communications, CPDA, University of Greenwich. Running from 18:00 - 20:30, the panel discussion will take place in the Stockwell Building in Greenwich. It's fully free to attend, but tickets are limited so you'll need to register in advance to secure your place. Can't make it? Follow @Pulsar_social on Twitter to get live updates during the event.

What to expect from the 2016 WIRED Retail event

Imogen — Tue, 15 Nov 2016 15:46:50 +0000

WIRED Retail returns on 16 November in London to showcase the thinkers, technology and tools that will shape the future of the retail industry. Introducing innovators that are building the future of commerce, the event will be challenging the fundamental assumptions about the retail supply chain - from distribution centers to the shop floor cheap girls air jordan 7. The event will cover topics as diverse as frictionless payments, virtual reality, 3D printing, drone delivery, blockchain and personalisation. Pulsar will also be at WIRED retail tomorrow as exhibitors. Come find us to learn more about how we can help you understand and talk to your audiences. What you'll take away from the event: - How retail will move into the digital age - New payments technologies that free customers from the tills - Pop-ups 2.0 — pure players creating magnificent customer experiences - Bringing web-grade thinking to the physical store - Using augmented reality to bring a retail layer to the world outside - How tech companies in emerging markets are transforming the way brands reach us - Why every company needs to be a tech company - Delivery as the game-changing competitive advantage for retailers - Customer expectations for data-driven in-store and online experience Follow this link to read the full PDF programme. Future-proof your business and change how you think about the world of buying, selling and delivery by joining us tomorrow – get your tickets here. To find out more about the opportunities made possible with social media research for retail or if you are just interested in discovering what Pulsar can do for you please drop us a line: Info@Pulsarplatform.com

Social Q&A: #3 Build your own charts with Pulsar's clusters

jamiewatson — Wed, 16 Nov 2016 18:35:32 +0000

Bar charts
Pie charts
Line charts
Word clouds

What can I compare within these charts? As you are comparing filters against filters in the cluster function, you are able to compare any of the variables outlined in the filter. These can include:

Comparing products against products within a brand search
Comparing topics of conversation within a category search

Comparing gender breakdown within any search:

That's great, but I've got a bespoke colour scheme in my report and my report is in Powerpoint... You can customise the colours of the chart to match your report and then export your clusters directly into Excel, as a jpeg or even as a Json file. For those who are very familiar with clusters this information may seem very simplified, however for those beavering away in Excel to create charts on exported data, this could save you hours and in turn make your life a lot easier jordan retro 2. We have published a few blogs on clusters over the years, so if this has been interesting, the following might be useful to check out: Introducing Clusters How to set up a Cluster If this sounds interesting and you’d like to find out more, please get in touch: info@pulsarplatform.com. If you’re an existing Pulsar client and you'd like some more info on how clusters can help you make a difference in your reporting, just contact us on account.team@pulsarplatform.com. Of course you’re always welcome to give us a good old fashioned phone call too, reach us on +44 (0)20 7874 6577

Brand Dig: John Lewis, M&S & Aldi all tackle Christmas in a very different way

Harry — Fri, 18 Nov 2016 11:30:14 +0000

In this blog series, researcher Harry Symington digs into the world of social media and discusses brands, news, trends and examples that have made the digital headlines. This week, Harry looks at the wonderful world of Christmas adverts, with John Lewis officially having kicked off the season with its #BusterTheBoxer advert. Taking a more humorous approach than previous years, the internet definitely has its opinions on this shift. In the meantime, M&S and Aldi have also shifted the scope of Christmassy emotions with their ads... So how's that working out for them? Why John Lewis should be worried this Christmas Just like the Starbuck’s Christmas cup or the lights on Oxford Street, there are many British people who say the festive season doesn’t start until the John Lewis advert appears on TV. But how did the department store become responsible for Christmas and do they still own it? Once known for cosy bed covers and sensible slippers, John Lewis has been a mainstay of British shopping for decades. But it wasn’t until 2007 that it began claiming the mantle of announcing Christmas. After a three-year break from TV ads, it released a campaign featuring presents being stacked in a way to form a shadow in the shape of the person they were for. The message being that John Lewis can always help find the right present for the right person. Simple. But a backlash against too much consumerism saw the adverts take an emotional turn. And we’ve since seen a boy give his parents a gift, a snowman go shopping for a snowwoman, a bear who’d never seen Christmas, a boy finding a partner for his toy penguin, and a girl reach out to a lonely man on the moon. Each year the emotion (created in part by the acoustic cover song) has been ramped up, while the message has become somewhat lost – both about John Lewis and Christmas. This year, John Lewis has taken a slightly different approach: heartwarming humour. And while the internet is mostly satisfied with its fix of festive emotion, that ad has come under fire. Parents criticised it for accidentally revealing Santa isn’t real, the Wildlife Aid Foundation accused it of encouraging people to put their pets on trampolines, and – as usual – others just created endless parodies. But perhaps most damaging was the timely parody featuring Clinton and Trump – which already has 400k views – and has the risk of dominating the conversation as it’s picked up by the media. So have we reached peak engagement around the John Lewis Christmas ad? Why M&S was smart to buck the trend Just like John Lewis, M&S seen as a British institution. Yet the public have had a somewhat love-hate relationship with the retailer. So there’s no doubt that M&S craves some of the unbridled love and attention that John Lewis gets, but it looks like it might have beaten its rival at its own game: the emotional Christmas advert. But rather than just creating another Christmas advert that has very little real world relevance, M&S has been smart in turning the attention away from Santa Claus to Mrs Claus. Leaving the rotund, rosy-cheeked housewife imagery behind, the brand depicts Mrs Claus as a stylish and efficient woman who flies a helicopter – named R-DOLF – to deliver a present to a little girl on behalf of her brother. It’s not so much the storyline – which does deliver a playful and emotional tone – that’s creating buzz, but the timely arrival of Mrs Claus. The advert launched just a few days after the US election, when there was a need for a strong and tenacious woman – and certainly not another male dominated narrative. Yet even if the advert hadn’t been released in the wake of a gender-dominated election, it’s likely the ad would still have resonated with a public already engaged with challenging stereotypes. How Aldi made us laugh at ourselves The success of the heartwarming Christmas advert has encouraged many brands to copy from the John Lewis playbook. But Aldi is taking a different approach. It’s actually poking fun at people’s obsession with the annual festive ad. A risky strategy when there’s so much love for it – but it looks to have paid off. “Carrot was waiting,” says the voiceover as a quivering carrot sits excitedly on the sofa in front of the TV. “Oh golly! Oh gosh! How exciting is this? The thing he’d been waiting for all through the year was finally happening,” the narrator continues. Unable to contain his excitement, the carrot then blurts out “John Lewis!” before hyperventilating into a paper bag to calm himself down. The internet could have gone either way. But the playful tone coupled with the common acceptance that it’s quite strange to be so obsessed with a Christmas advert – and the fact that British people are notoriously self-deprecating – meant the advert has been resonating with the public new balance 574 outlet. One Twitter user summed up the genius of the advert when she wrote: “Don't rate John Lewis advert this year it's all about Aldi's Kevin the carrot.” So with M&S owning heartwarming inspiration and Aldi taking cheeky humour, is there any appetite left for John Lewis’ sentimental emotion this Christmas? Interested to hear how Pulsar can help review an advert's success? Get in touch and we will be happy to show you how: info@pulsarplatform.com

Brand Dig: Pepsi, New Balance and Facebook battle fake news

Harry — Fri, 25 Nov 2016 12:20:52 +0000

In this blog series, researcher Harry Symington digs into the world of social media and discusses brands, news, trends and examples that have made the digital headlines. This week, Harry looks at the hairy issue of fake news, with Pepsi and New Balance being the latest brands to suffer backlash from the spread of false information. Facebook has come under increasing criticism as a platform where fake news can thrive - so how is Mark Zuckerberg resolving the issue? Pepsi becomes the victim of blatant fabrication It was recently announced that the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year 2016 is "post-truth". While it's likely a reference to the rhetoric used by politicians throughout the Brexit and Trump campaigns, it seems social media users have an appetite for bending the truth too. Most recently, comments from the PepsiCo CEO about the US election were repackaged as an attack on the president-elect. But it wasn't just the brand's image that was at stake, the company's stock price fell on the day the fake news spread through Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. In an interview at the New York Times Dealbook Conference, PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi said, "I think we should mourn, for those of us who supported the other side." But she also added, "we have to come together and life has to go on" and even congratulated Trump on his victory. But the Conservative Treehouse blog falsely quoted Nooyi with the sensationalist headline: “Massive Stewardship Fail – PepsiCo CEO Tells Trump Supporters to Take Their Business Elsewhere.” Fake new sites jumped on the fictitious quote, with people threatening to boycott all of Pepsi’s brands using the hashtags #boycottPepsi and #Pepsiboycott. So how damaging can fake news like this be? Pepsi’s stock price fell 3.75% on the day of Nooyi’s interview and for the rest of November it has decreased by 5.21%. If it’s not confronted quickly, fake news can really hurt a brand financially. And while social media and PR experts have been offering suggestions on how to respond – from flooding the media with positive stories, to encouraging every employee to be a brand messenger – there’s really no playbook on how to tackle fake news. New Balance is caught between two warring sides When a brand goes viral it's often through a piece of content that communicates a message - or part of one - that the company wants to tell. The key is that there's an element of control. But in reality, brands - just like people - put content out there and can only hope it's received in the way it was intended. That means there's plenty of room for misunderstanding. But what about when the internet takes a brand's message out of context, and that goes viral? Then there's no semblance of control and it can be catastrophic for the brand. New Balance knows this all too well after recently being declared the "official shoes of white people". In the wake of the deeply divisive US presidential elections, brands were wise to keep out. But New Balance was accidentally drawn in. Anti-Trump websites mis-quoted a New Balance spokesperson saying Obama had let them down and with Trump "things are going to move in the right direction". While the spokesperson was referring to the Trans-Pacific Partnership only, the internet seized the quote and repackaged the message: New Balance offers a wholesale endorsement of the Trump revolution. It led to alt-right groups praising it as a brand for white Americans, while anti-Trump groups burning their New Balance shoes and sharing the ritual online. In an effort to please everyone on all sides, New Balance released a message about humanity, community and local manufacturing. If anything it fuelled the fire on both sides. So eventually it did what no brand wanted to do after the election - it took a side. In a statement it called out bigotry, hate and racism. But it was arguably too late as the brand was already on boycott lists and its reputation will likely be affected. So whose job is it to ensure fake news like this doesn't spread out of control? Facebook grapples with truth and fiction Naturally, Facebook has been showered in criticism for being the platform where these stories spread like digital wildfire. After acknowledging that it exists, Mark Zuckerberg offered reassurance that the social network has been “working on this problem for a long time”. But he was also right to point out that it’s a complex problem – “both technically and philosophically”. But how big is the fake news phenomenon? And could it really have shaped the outcome of the US presidential elections? According to a BuzzFeed report, before the election fake news actually outperformed real news from media organisations like The New York Times on Facebook. During the final critical months of the campaign, 20 top-performing false election articles generated more than 8.7 million shares, reactions and comments. In comparison, 20 best-performing election stories from 19 major news sites generated 7.3 million engagements. The fact is these hyperbolic stories and conspiracies are as old the internet - buried within niche forums like Reddit and 4chan. But it's only recently that they've surfaced on mainstream social media. Yet is a "real news" filter on Facebook really the answer - if so, where's the line between free speech and censorship? It would arguably be more dangerous if the largest social media network began curating the news for us - just like an Instagram user might only share select moments of their life with their followers cheap air max 90 premium em. The people consuming the content are never getting the full context. Need help navigating the social seas in order to derive insights that will help you improve your business? Aye aye, captain - we're here to help. Give us a shout on info@pulsarplatform.com

Social Q&A: #4 Why you need to know about historical previews

jamiewatson — Mon, 28 Nov 2016 11:44:59 +0000

The historical data preview will cover Twitter, Tumblr, Forums, Blogs, News and Review sites, with the previews only going back as far as the historical access covers. More detail on this can be found in my previous post.

Regardless of the location filters applied to the search, the historical data previews will show global volumes. This means that if you are tracking a global topic of conversation, however are only planning to bring back data from the UK, you can assume that the data volumes in your launched search will be lower than the estimated preview results.

Once you are happy with the search strategy and previewed volumes, you’re ready to launch the search. Following this launch, the order will be reviewed by our Account Team to ensure that the volumes are with in your allowance before being authorized. When that’s done, your dashboard will start getting populated with your search results.

What other uses and opportunities are there for previewing historical data volumes? Tons – it’s a very useful feature. I have included a number of uses that the team and I use daily:

Using historical data volumes to predict real-time results – when you’re setting up a real-time search and you’re unsure of the volume of mentions you’re going to pull in once the search is launched, running a historical data preview for a few days is a great start to understanding whether your search might be too narrow or too broad. As a side note: when you’re incorporating this in your real-time search preparation, you will also have to prepare for YouTube, Facebook and Instagram posts that will not be visible in the historical previews.
With the historical data previews, you can actually utilize quant volume metric with no real intention to even launch the search, therefore not using any of your data allowance. For example, the other week a client asked me to compare volume of conversation of Trump vs Clinton on Twitter over the past 6 months. To achieve this, I simply set up a search and ran the previews, took the numbers away and had my volume comparison cheap womens air max 90. No data needed, results delivered.

To take this one step further, once you have previewed the data, you have the opportunity to export the daily volumes from Pulsar into Excel using the dropdown on the right hand side of the preview:

This allows you to see any interesting spikes in conversation that I may wish to investigate further in the dashboard, while also allowing me to collate the data in Excel and overlay my Trump and Clinton searches on one chart to show the comparison. This snapshot reporting functionality is great for:

Ad-hoc questions from clients / stakeholders where only a topline view is needed on a very broad question.

Snapshot stats to include in quick turnaround pitches

As part of your desk research for more exploratory searching. For example, if you are tasked with mapping the packaging category, this could give you a really good idea of seasonality and when these niche conversations are occurring.

If you’re a Pulsar client and you’d like to learn more on previews, we’re here for you: just contact us on account.team@pulsarplatform.com. New to Pulsar but curious to learn more? We’re here for you – drop us a line on info@pulsarplatform.com Of course you’re always welcome to give us a good old fashioned phone call on +44 (0)20 7874 6577

Where are the women? Pulsar & HERE tackle gender differences through research

Judith — Tue, 29 Nov 2016 12:06:29 +0000

In the world of navigational apps, there is a lot to choose from. Location services company HERE noticed that a lot more men than women were using their navigational app HERE WeGo. This was interesting: HERE wasn’t targeting men more than women, and surely women use navigational apps all the time. So what was going on – and what could they start doing about it? HERE came to Pulsar and its research arm FACE to dig into the problem. Anja Niehof, Head of Consumer & Customer Insights and Marketing Intelligence at HERE, mentions: “Initially we looked at internal research that we already had done, but the research wasn’t in-depth enough and didn’t give us the answers we were looking for. We wanted to avoid looking for stereotypical responses, but look at behavioural habits instead. This is why we teamed up with Pulsar & FACE.” The Pulsar & FACE research teams then did something quite unusual (by traditional market research standards at least): instead of going straight in with small scale qualitative methods to explore behaviours around HERE’s navigational app, they started off with vast amounts of social media data. Using Twitter demographic metadata, they were able to segment the dataset into male and female navigation conversations and start to understand where the genders might differ in navigational behaviours and needs. From these mass scale patterns, the team could then formulate hypotheses about gender difference to address and deepen using focus groups. By doing so, they were able to look much wider than just the HERE navigational app, and truly understand what the company could do to produce an app that appealed to all. Where social media is most commonly used for use cases such as brand tracking, campaign measurement and content improvements, the research team has shown that social media can also be a very powerful tool in product development & innovation. Pulsar social media specialist Jess Owens says, "This project really broke new ground in terms of the insight we found we were able gain from social media data. At the outset I was unsure whether we would get much granularity on navigation behaviours - would people talk about them much in social? And I cautioned that gender differences would not necessarily be substantial enough to show up amid the noise of individual variation. But, working with Riki from a qualitative point of view, we found we were able to infer so much richness about user needs and experience. It really opens new horizons for work we'll be able to do in this space in future." Anja adds: “I really appreciated working with Pulsar & FACE as partners – we wanted to work with somebody on the same level so we can have an open discussion and go for the same goal; it’s not helpful for us to simply have an agency that follows requests. If you’re going into new areas and breaking ground, avoiding traditional research methods like we did, you need somebody on your side that you can have discussions with, and that’s something that really made the project work.” Pulsar’s work with HERE has been nominated for an MRS Award in the Social Media category, sponsored by Twitter. The ceremony will be held on 5 December in London. The full case study discussing the project from brief to outcome as well as a model for using social media like this for future projects is downloadable for free - click on the button below to go to our resources page: Interesting in hearing how our research team can help you with your brief? We’d love to hear from you. Drop us a line on info@pulsarplatform.com and we’ll get back in touch.

Brand Dig: Nike, Pirelli and Chevrolet confront age discrimination

Harry — Fri, 02 Dec 2016 16:25:42 +0000

In this blog series, researcher Harry Symington digs into the world of social media and discusses brands, news, trends and examples that have made the digital headlines. This week, Harry looks at how brands are confronting age discrimination, with Nike and Pirelli turning traditional advertising and editorial imagery on its head, while Chevrolet is poking fun at both young and old stereotypes. But, most importantly, how are consumers responding? Nike teaches the world to admire age As a society we’re obsessed with youth. From articles like the annual Forbes “30 Under 30” entrepreneurs, to “rejuvenating” and “wrinkle-free” cosmetics, western culture has long celebrated youth over age. And a recent study from the IPA provides an insight into why that might be. With 33.7 being the average age at all IPA creative agencies, it’s perhaps not surprising that the advertising and media industries have been slow to tackle the issue of age discrimination. One brand taking on the problem is Nike. Throughout the Olympics there was certainly no shortage of inspirational personal journeys of athletes. And they were diverse too – there were athletes of different nationalities, races, genders and abilities etc. But Nike stood out as one of the few brands that told the story of an 86-year-old nun, who has completed over 45 Ironman triathlons. But it wasn’t just a marketing stunt to prove a point – the advert indexed strongly in ‘likeability’ and ‘attention’, according to the Ace Metrix analysis. It also strongly resonated with both women and men, who said the advert was inspiring and emotional. So if an advert about an 86-year-old nun can get 2.6 million hits on YouTube – isn’t it about time for the advertising industry to start embracing age in its creative? It might just start helping shift perceptions so we realise that growing old is not something to be anxious about – rather, it's something to celebrate. Pirelli changes its tune in an elegant way In 2015, the fashion industry created buzz online when several high profile brands like Kate Spade, Marc Jacobs, Dolce & Gabbana and Céline featured older women in their advertising. 80-year-old author Joan Didion gained perhaps the most attention because of her unusual and unique look. But you could argue these were less about grey power and more about shock value. So Pirelli is defying expectations to celebrate age in another way. Once known for its over-sexualisation of women, the 2017 Pirelli calendar features portraits of older women in raw, natural and un-retouched photos. Included in this year’s lineup is Helen Mirren, Nicole Kidman, Kate Winslet and Julianne Moore. Each is over 40 – and some much older – with the photos looking at their power and influence in the world. But what sets Pirelli apart from the somewhat blatant prints and adverts from the fashion brands is that the photographer behind the images says he wasn’t even thinking about their age. “I was thinking that they all have something about them that is vulnerable and truthful at the same time,” says German photographer Peter Lindbergh. And it shows in the photographs, which are honest portrayals of the women first, and a celebration of their age second. He explains: "Innovation is valued above experience and that has created an imbalance and a focus on change. There is a misconception that age and innovation are seen as mutually exclusive." According to Savani, age has long been regarded as something that is unattractive and "there is a greater awareness and acceptance in the industry where individuals have an invisible sell-by date". Chevrolet pokes fun at both old and young stereotypes While some brands are keen to demonstrate an appeal to all ages by including older people in their campaigns, others are determined to look and feel like a young, millennial brand – even if it's plainly obvious their core audience is a bit more mature. One brand that's trying to appeal to millennials is Chevrolet – but it’s taking a somewhat tongue and cheek approach. One advert features a diverse group of millennials in a focus group scene. The moderator asks their opinions on a campaign aimed at them – should it be set in a spontaneous beach party or a breakdancing competition? The 20-somethings begin to laugh and look on at the proposals in disbelief cheap jordan website. However, in the end the new Chevrolet Cruze is unveiled and the message revealed: young people don’t want an advert directed at them. They want a car that’s built for them. Rather than falling for the typical stereotypes when targeting an age group, Chevrolet is mocking them under the guise of being serious. Chevrolet knows that it’s current brand loyalists are more likely to be over-40 rather than under, and it’s used its position as an “older brand” to play on the “out of touch older person”. What’s smart is it’s really challenging two age stereotypes. Need help navigating the social seas in order to derive insights that will help you improve your business? Don't mind if we do – we’re here to help. Give us a shout on info@pulsarplatform.com

Social Q&A: #5 Potential vs actual impressions

jamiewatson — Tue, 06 Dec 2016 14:23:03 +0000

In this series, our Head of Account Management Jamie Watson addresses frequently asked questions about audience intelligence platform Pulsar. Whether you’re a frequent Pulsar user or still evaluating a social media research platform for purchase, Jamie’s tips, tricks and useful info aim to highlight what to look out for. This week I'd like to provide a topline refresher of one of the more prominent metrics available on CORE and TRAC: impressions! Impressions Impressions are the number of times a post has been displayed in a timeline, whether the post is clicked or not. In other words, it's an estimate of how many times people have most likely seen or been exposed to a piece of content. They are a standard reporting metric used within digital marketing and insight teams, and one of the main reasons for this is that this metric is very easy to interpret. Plus, the numbers are also usually very large, which tends to please senior stakeholders. That said, impressions are also one of the more debated metrics in the industry. That's because the number of potential impressions (the total amount of times that a piece of content could have been delivered based on the size of an audience) is always a much more inflated number than the volume of impressions actually delivered (based on the number of people who are online, on a specific channel, at any given time). So, given that the endgame is getting people to see your content, how useful is that potential impressions figure really? To support both these angles, Pulsar uses two metrics, PEI and AEI: Potential Estimated Impressions (PEI) Potential estimated impressions is the potential amount of times your post has appeared in a timeline. Simply put, if I have 300 followers, my PEI for that post will be 300. If you also have 300 followers (I'm sure you have many more ;-)) and retweet me, then the post will have a PEI of 600. One more for fun: if Pulsar's co-founder Francesco D'Orazio (@abc3d - 2,968 followers) also retweets me, the post now has a PEI of 3,568. Actual Estimated Impressions (AEI) Conversely to the PEI metric, the AEI uses channel specific benchmarks, and estimates to predict the actual number of times that a piece of content has been delivered to a timeline. For a channel like Twitter this figure tends to be around 11% of the PEI and is a much more desirable option if you are looking to compare or consolidate social data with other data sources such as search or sales as it gives you a much more realistic view of your audience's behaviour. With AEI, there is one key point worth noting when using this metric and the dashboard: All our speed dials use AEI rather than PEI: Whether on CORE: or TRAC: We have chosen to use the AEI metric, as we wanted the most visible figure to be the most realistic figure. This being said, if you are looking for the PEI figure then you can access this through the data exports. And there it is: most of what you could ever need to know about impressions. If you have any additional questions, please do give your Account Manager a shout for further detail or email account.team@pulsarplatform.com. New to Pulsar but curious to learn more? We’re here for you – drop us a line on info@pulsarplatform.com. And of course you’re always welcome to give us a call on +44 (0)20 7874 6577

Brand Dig: SodaStream, TNT and American Greetings involve the public to generate amazing content

Fri, 09 Dec 2016 15:29:04 +0000

This week, Pulsar marketer Kyle looks at how brands are developing content using the unsuspecting general public. SodaStream uses a bodybuilding Father Christmas in a current campaign to remind the public our planet needs saving, TNT entertains the locals with a bit of classic shock and awe, and American Greetings tugs at the heartstrings of stressed-out job seekers. SodaStream aggressively informs local shoppers plastic is bad We’re all tired of constantly being reminded what’s bad for the planet and how we need to change our ways and blah, blah, blah, which is exactly the problem. We don’t listen because we worry about personal issues first: it’s not our fault we’re born selfish according to a recent study. For some unlucky UK shoppers, SodaStream made sure that it was impossible to ignore environmental problems in the form of a 6 ft. 9-inch muscle mountain. Their No Planet, No Christmas campaign uses the Candid Camera surprise approach in order to connect with customers that are buying harmful plastic bottles. Although SodaStream is no stranger to ambassador controversy (cue Scarlett Johansson), they seem to have put that behind them by creating a case study using the everyday man and woman. The magic is the way they have used their recent influencer. Utilising him to engage with an unknown public, capturing the emotions of astonished shoppers as they are told that they can’t have what they want: making for fantastic unscripted content. TNT disrupt a small Belgium town and then break the internet If you’re going to cause chaos to promote your brand, make sure it’s entertaining and then use the correct mechanics to insure your content reaches the intended markets - in this case the global one. TV network and trouble-makers TNT brilliantly placed a big red button in the middle of a nowhere town in Belgium with a banner overhead simply reading “push to add drama”. Obviously, that cannot be resisted and someone will eventually crack. All TNT had to do was make sure an ambulance, a bikini model on a motorbike, a group of police with guns, a group of thugs with guns, a bodybuilder equipped with ninja skills and a couple of American Football players were present: simple. No one knew about this unusual entourage until they “pushed to add drama” and, in the space of a minute, town folk were exposed to heart-palpitating action. It was brilliant, they set up a scenario knowing very well that a person would initiate the scene, which is what we do with a touch of a button on any TV remote. What’s interesting is that we find ourselves being just as fascinated in people’s reactions. Capturing the public’s authenticity gives us a sense of experiencing the content with a certain amount of realism, and making it shareable, engaging and entertaining. American Greetings gives us something to cry about Cardstore by American Greetings posted a ‘job’ online: The World’s Toughest Job. ‘Job’, the mere mention of the word gives many of us a headache - so how could a card company turn this idea into a successful content campaign that made the internet break down in tears? Using Skype to interview potential employees and compiling this into a video which formed their campaign, people were given the specs of the job which included standing up and exerting yourself all the time, 135 hours a week, 365 days a year and for no pay. Sounds horrible? The candidates’ shocked response to the criteria confirm that, yes, it is horrible. But that’s exactly what made this campaign so special, as soon we find out it’s American Greetings advertising a mother’s job on behalf of moms across the world for Mother’s Day. The #worldstoughestjob received more than 24 million views, and increased American Greetings’ Cardstore orders by 20%, and it’s user base by 40%, which met sales goals for the entire year. American Greetings clearly understood which sentiment worked with mothers and by creating a real time mechanic to initiate emotion, gives both us as viewers and the candidates themselves a genuine emotional reward.

The Evolution of Fandom through Social Media

Dori — Mon, 12 Dec 2016 16:29:11 +0000

One of the pleasures of being a researcher is that studying specific business problems tends to reveal a wealth of behavioural human insights, revelatory outside of a business context. These can be related in different cultural spaces, media types or interest areas. For example, a project about banking behaviours may morph into a study about digital security; or working on a communications strategy for a music technology platform may reveal larger truths about “fandom”. This qualitative project focused on “modern fandom”, and how that is expressed via media consumption. The trends we observed in this project and countless others reflect an increased appetite for participation, context, and education amongst the majority of music fans - not just music geeks. The masses have access to a wealth of music-related information and enjoy consuming every fact, no matter how big or small. This education-first attitude extends outside of music, and as such has wider reaching implications. It used to be that music geeks were a select few, a rare breed easily identifiable with worn band tees, pins, you get the picture. The type of person who had a very strong opinion on everything musical, from their favorite Wilco album to the deft lyricism of Wu Tang Clan. In recent years, they would have been avid readers of Pitchfork and Stereogum and even guiltily, Rolling Stone. The defining character of this “music geek”, aside from an ubiquitous pretence, was a thirst for contextualizing music inside the larger music world. As we all know, information moves quickly and relentlessly on the Internet. However, it’s worth noting that a new layer of information is being added to this music world, which peeks into the personal lives of musicians. At one point your typical “music geek” would have shied from this “celebrity” Voyeurism, not wanting to muddy up the art and the artist. This would have been superfluous information, not relevant to the art itself. But music geekdom is no longer some unreachable apex of true understanding, accessed by the few; nor is Celebrity Voyeurism an embarrassing nadir for the masses. As with everything, some do gravitate one way or another but exceptions prove the rule. Generally, music “geeking out” is now out of the hands of geeks and a common practice. In speaking to music fans of various genres, we started to notice patterns in their interactions with different media outlets, or “touchpoints”. There was seemingly little rhyme or reason, everyone seemed to consume a dizzying multitude of media. In order to better wrap our minds around it, we worked up a framework to categorize content and experience touchpoints. The chart above helped us think about how the music media world maps out in present day. What we’ve observed is a trend toward media that is insightful and experiential - and runs the gamut from reporting on celebrity, to an artist, to their music. A typical music fan will be consuming at least the media indicated in red, if not grey. In order to get some quantitative confirmation, we tracked a number of music media entities' shares on social media from July 25 to August 2nd using our audience intelligence platform Pulsar. As you can see below, people are running the gamut from music news, to celebrity gossip, to reviews and rankings. Fans are now going beyond our ‘traditional’ forms of engagement; at one point this was limited to concert attendance and merch. Now they have a number of ways to tap into music and become more involved - social media being the most important. Here, the line between musician and celebrity is muddled. Many musicians push out information about their music/touring/etc on their own private social media pages, becoming a brand they can be accessed 24/7. Because fans are directly tapped into this line of information, and can respond to it freely and visibly, we have “conversations” at hand. This paradigm shift of narrative to conversation is not confined to the world of music only. The same thing has happened with makeup, for example. Makeup techniques used to be elevated and kept with our Kat Von Ds etc... meanwhile today among a casual survey of friends, everyone has tried contouring, an impossibly difficult (and arguably pointless) makeup routine. We could even say the same about coding, thanks to platforms like Codeacademy, this list goes on. Take a cue from music, makeup, coding, etc and remember the power and joy of education when talking to your fans/users/consumers. This can be something simple such as releasing a tutorial for using your product in a new clever way - leveraging education for advocacy. They want to be spoken with, not spoken to. Learning is not avoided but embraced with a meaningful experience. Dori is just one of our many brilliant researchers at Pulsar. Need help navigating the social seas in order to derive insights that will help you improve your business? Give us a shout on (+1) 646 902 93 49 or email us on info@pulsarplatform.com.

How the City Lodge Hotel Group found its audience through Pulsar

admin — Wed, 14 Dec 2016 12:37:08 +0000

Pulsar works with agencies and brands worldwide. This week, marketing agency DigitLab from South Africa shares how they use Pulsar to help understand their clients’ audiences and help make a positive impact on their business. Reagan Gasa, Head of Research at DigitLab, explains how they’ve successfully grown a more engaged social media community for one of their clients using Pulsar: “As a full service digital marketing agency, we often work with brands that operate in a highly competitive space. And when that happens, we need a tool that provides insights that can add value in real-time; to support the content creating teams as well as the community managers for that brand". Reagan Gasa-Head of Research at Digitlab A recent example is the City Lodge Hotel Group, which has 17 hotels in South Africa alone. Their objective in the social media space was to drive sales and promote brand awareness by building an engaged social media community. For this brand’s particular industry, it was important that they reach different audiences across the country and continent, as well as those that travel from various parts of the world. Because the hotel world is fast-changing and highly competitive, we needed quick but relevant insights that could help us understand what customers need right now. From the results gathered on the platform, the brand’s Twitter profile could identify brand engagement that occurred off the social channels. This including conversations from other social channels such as blogs and Instagram. From this insight, community managers have been able to successfully increase engagement, drive growth of the social platforms and to drive for better brand awareness. Pulsar has enabled the City Lodge Hotel Group to reach an extended audience by connecting the brand with an audience that was not aware of the brands social presence. This had an impact on campaigns as we have been able to broaden our campaign-targeting month on month to reach the different audiences. Between January and October 2016, brand conversations have grown by 141% mainly from being able to tap into previously unseen conversations and City Lodge Hotel Group have been thrilled by these results. From being able to track and measure real audience insights for the City Lodge Hotel Group, we have been able to implement successful social media campaigns by matching tone, visuals and content with audience interests gathered from audience tracking. With campaign work being the big drive for creative, the insight fed into our campaigns from Pulsar has been very significant.” Who is DigitLab Established in 2011, DigitLab has helped more than 30 local and international brands and businesses win the hearts and minds of consumers through captivating digital experiences. We exist to help build brands in a connected world, and pride ourselves on developing successful long-term relationships with clients across a broad spectrum. Digital: we get it. DigitLab is a collaborative agency, and we love to work in partnership with clients to help them succeed. Over the past 5 years, we’ve built a diverse team of creatives, designers, developers, programmers, strategists, technologists, and writers – all of whom are passionate about crafting beautiful digital experiences. DigitLab is culture-led and results driven. Need help navigating the social seas in order to derive insights that will help you improve your business? Aye aye, captain – we’re here to help. Give us a shout on info@pulsarplatform.com

Brand Dig: From Chanel to American Express, celebrity brand associations are changing

Wed, 21 Dec 2016 10:53:55 +0000

In this blog series, we dig into the world of marketing and discuss brands, news, trends and examples that have made the digital headlines. In this week’s post, marketer Kyle looks at how brands are steering away from unconvincing famous brand associations and are now calling on celebrities to be more hands-on in their roles. Peanut butter and jam, gin and tonic, night and day, Tom Selleck and a moustache: all these things have developed a near-perfect combination that is more than just the sum of parts. Of course, this is what brands can only dream of when it comes to influencers in their ad campaigns. With the right ambassador, brands can propel themselves to the next level. And although companies often get it right, things can get really awkward when they don't. As such, bad brand-influencer partnerships are not so much peanut butter and jam (jelly for our American audience), but a taste more reminiscent of marmite and fish paste... When Chanel tried to channel Brad Pitt’s charm Brad Pitt is, let's face it, a pretty spectacular human being, and arguably one of the most admired people in the world. As such, brands have long tried to benefit from his charm. But when Chanel used the actor in an advertisement for its No.5 fragrance back in 2012, it sparked confusion among its consumers – was the classic women’s perfume also for men? Or would it start attracting men like Pitt? Chanel hasn't had the best track record with influencers and this campaign was widely regarded as the worst. What made people cringe was not so much the male/female boundary breaking, rather, the execution of the ad and mixed messaging: the clichéd dim lights, the flawless model type and with a script written like a romance novel - but without a proper sentence structure. Using a concept (a man advertising a classic feminine product) that was untested, off brand key and flat in execution did not work out well for either Brad or Chanel. It did, however, give way for a great parody. MAC Cosmetics taps celebrities for creative collaborations With plenty of bad examples around and celebrity culture being ubiquitous, it's perhaps no surprise that brands have over the years tried to reshape the traditional spokesperson role, making things much more collaborative. MAC Cosmetics has channeled this mentality with its Viva Glam charitable makeup line, enlisting the likes of Lady Gaga, Rihanna and Ariana Grande to create their own colour combinations and products. In terms of an endorsement, this feels more genuine because consumers have a tangible product that’s seemingly created by the ambassador, rather than slapping a face on existing goods for promotion. American Express appoints Pharrell Williams as creative director The next step up is when brands actively employ celebrities in roles within their companies – this week, American Express announced Pharrell Williams as its new creative director, saying the artist was a natural choice for the position. “When we think about Pharrell, you know him as a musician, but there's so much more than the performer part. He's a producer, he's an artist, he's a designer,” says Janey Whiteside, American Express's Executive Vice President and General Manager of Global Charge Products Benefits and Services (try say that again quickly). This model is one more and more businesses are working with – brands such as Polaroid, Blackberry and Puma have employed celebrities as creative directors in the past - but it does highlight a shift away from stale faces-of-brands in favour of more practical collaborations, and possible genuine endorsements. What remains to be seen is how involved these celebrities actually are in the day-to-day tasks of these roles. Do consumers genuinely believe they are involved in the company and, if they are, how much does a company benefit from employing someone who doesn’t have the kind of extensive experience required for such a position? Need help navigating the social seas in order to derive insights that will help you improve your business? Don’t mind if we do – we’re here to help. Give us a shout on info@pulsarplatform.com

Don't miss Pulsar's workshop at ESOMAR's Seattle Bootcamp

Judith — Tue, 20 Dec 2016 10:14:44 +0000

With extensive experience in social data and market research, Pulsar team members Jess Owens and Rob Parkin are bringing their expertise to a practical workshop as part of ESOMAR’s new market research training event in Seattle in January 2017. Social Media Data for Insights will introduce attendees to methodological frameworks for Big Data and Social Media Research as well as providing an overview of key tools, the data that can be accessed and the nuances of Pulsar's methods. The workshop will explore four research approaches to social data, explaining each technique with specific case studies and, in three instances, exercises to put those techniques into practice. The specific categories include topic tracking, audience mapping and segmentation, content diffusion and integrated tracking. ESOMAR’s inaugural Bootcamp is a two-day event aimed at teaching industry professionals how to make the most of their research. Each workshop runs for 3.5 hours and has a specific focus within a larger topic, designed to provide in-depth insight in a practical setting. Other workshops during the event include: What Do Your Clients Want? Which clarifies internal and external stakeholders’ business needs; Wake Me Up When the Data Is Over, which details storytelling techniques for research; and Data Visualisation: Moving from Insights to Impact, which looks at how to maximize the impact of research results through best practice. With close to 5,000 members in 130 countries, ESOMAR is an international organisation aimed at encouraging, advancing and elevating market research through on-going dialogues, conferences and programmes. ESOMAR Bootcamp runs from January 23-24 2017 in Seattle. For more information and to reserve your seat, visit esomar.org. Curious about how you can use social data to help drive your business? We'd love to talk to you. Drop us a line on info@pulsarplatform.com and we'll get back in touch.

Happy Holidays from Pulsar

admin — Fri, 23 Dec 2016 14:26:11 +0000

From everyone at Pulsar, we hope you have a great holiday season and, of course, a fantastic 2017. Just a reminder, our HQ is closed from December 24th 2016 - January 3rd 2017, however, with the exception of UK bank holidays, our in-app support and Zendesk support for our existing customers will still be up and running. We look forward to seeing you all in the new year!

Start Driving Behaviour Change by Meshing Digital with the Real-World

crystalwang — Tue, 03 Jan 2017 17:40:11 +0000

While it’s common nowadays for brands to reach out to audiences digitally, it may receive better effects with the help of an offline activation. The opportunity to interact with people and brand in the real world can be more attractive and authentic to the audience due to its personal and direct nature, especially with the lure of celebrities. Also, driving change in the public’s behavior, can be tough (if not nearly impossible) by shouting your messages out alone. The recent book-sharing campaigns that have caused a sensation in the UK, US and China, shone a spotlight on public reading habits and caught our attention. So we decided to have a closer look at the effect of these advocacy campaigns. Hopefully, this will provide you with some inspiration on meshing digital with the real world, and how campaigns become incredibly powerful when a celebrity with an activated audience can really take an idea to the next level. Books on the Underground invited Emma Watson to join its book sharing movement On Nov 1, 2016, Emma Watson became a one-day “book fairy”, leaving copies of Maya Angelou’s book on the London Underground. It immediately created online buzz and triggered massive reaction to search for the books. The partnership between Emma and Books on the Underground/Books on the Subway: to hide 100 copies of Mom & Me & Mom, the November’s pick of Emma’s feminist book club Our Shared Shelf with her hand-written notes inside. Across London and New York’s subway system was this novel, which encouraged reading by spreading awareness of each book's hidden potential waiting to be discovered by a lucky commuter. The celebrity effect can be huge as long as you choose the right person. In this case, a well-educated actress and active philanthropist + a book sharing movement = perfect match = win-win. Both Emma and the organizers successfully drove social buzz with the activation. Emma’s single tweet about the book sharing movement got over 280K interactions, ranking at the peak among her 21 original tweets during the past three months (Sep-Nov 2016). The average interactions of her 21 posts are: 722 replies, 10.6K retweets and 37.6K likes. Two posts from Books on the Underground, which were retweeted by Emma got 100 times more reaction than the organization’s other posts. The public also engaged with the organizers by sharing their ideas on social media. The possibility of ‘winning’ one of Emma’s books and as such, having a direct and personal brush with fame was hugely appealing - and shareable. Updated book-sharing campaign received mixed responses in China The Emma fever inspired The Fair, a Chinese content production firm, who got the permission from Books on the Underground to apply the book-sharing idea in China. In comparison to the British predecessor, The Fair’s "book-dropping battle" campaign (started on Nov.15, 2016) has unrolled on a much larger scale: collaborating with more celebrities, influencers and getting sponsorship of several large publishers to share more than 10,000 different books on the subway, taxis, and planes in major cities starting from Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. It's difficult to find a single super idol in China like Emma (23.4M followers on Twitter) with all the merits perfectly matching this campaign; so to ensure a strong calling and enormous impacts on public, The Fair tried to gather the influence of a group of celebrities. The leading celebrities participating in the campaign included Xu Jinglei (2.5M followers on Sina Weibo), an intellectual actress-turned-director who is famous for her writing and blogs; Huang Xiaoming (50.7M followers on Sina Weibo), a well-known actor who was honored as the "Most Influential Charity Celebrity" of China Philanthropy List in 2016, and KOLs such as Chen Luyu, “Chinese Oprah” with Phoenix TV; Luo Yonghao, CEO of tech startup Smartisan, etc. The campaign immediately caught the attention from the media and public thanks to celebrities’ endorsement. While Emma has a specific mission to spread awareness of feminism, the Chinese celebrities’ role in this movement is more general, to share good reading tastes, good content, and encourage reading among the public. As a media savvy company, the Fair took a step further by developing a dedicated website and online system to track the route of the book and connect the people. By scanning the QR code inside the book, people who picked up the book will be registered into the book tracking system which allows them to leave messages and share photos, so you can see who picked up the book, when and where, as well as the messages from previous book owners. The Fair also encouraged the public to be the donors and share their own books. It prepared 10,000 “Tool Kits” (include two stickers of logo, one sticker of QR code, one guide book and one note paper) for people who want to participate in the book dropping campaign. They can submit the book title and apply the tool kits on the WeChat platform (after following The Fair’s Wechat account) and the website. Similarly, the offline campaign stimulated lively online discussion. The promotional article The Fair posted on its WeChat platform received over 100K view and 8.8K comments (once an article reaches 100K view, the WeChat platform will not show the exact number of view). However, instead of the overall praise Emma won, the Chinese citizens’ responses to the campaign were mixed, with several opposing points of view. The naysayers questioned the effect of the campaign to truly encourage reading. Photos of discarded books went viral online, and the Metro urged passengers not to participate during peak hours so as not to affect commuters. The potential undercurrent of business also made many netizens criticise the motives behind the book-sharing drive was an eye-grabbing marketing plot of The Fair, the celebrities and the sponsors, and stars who don't read books regularly themselves cannot set as a good example. However, the advocates appreciated the organizer’s strong execution capability. Some argued, "Just because Chinese people don't read regularly, it doesn't mean that we should do nothing to encourage reading." Others adopted a more rational and tolerant attitude towards the campaign. Heat is still coming off and the public discourse never really stops. Facing all the praise, skepticism or critiques, The Fair seemed to keep an open and receptive mind and have the determination and patience to make this campaign a long-term project rather than a one-off event. The campaign didn’t stop after celebrities’ event (celebrities later adopted the strategy of “Ice Bucket Challenge”); instead it continued and grew with more citizens joining in. Putting aside the mixed voices, let’s look at the story numbers tell. According to The Fair, 10,000 QR codes available for book donors were snatched up in 5 hours. Within the first two days of the campaign, over 3,000 people (which is 30% of the book dropped) registered in the book dropping system and 298 organizations/institutions contacted them expressing the desire to be the local co-organizers of this campaign. As of Dec 16th, there are over 24,000 books “drifting” around the country, increasing 140% of the book amount in one month. On Sina Weibo (Chinese Twitter), the campaign got over 220 million visibility and 175,000 discussion. Live Broadcast of Book Dropping Campaign Though the success of its ambitious goal to change citizens’ reading habits is hard to measure at this time, the campaign undoubtedly arouse thinking and hot discussion among the Chinese public, from ordinary people, to key opinion leaders, to authorities. And it helped the young company gain more publicity and business opportunities, regardless of the public sentiment and such value is much more than the costs of 10,000 books. In this campaign, both organizers in UK and China showed a very productive use of the power of celebrity to kick off the event and the social media to engage the crowd and build excitement. Social media also also become a place to demonstrate how massive and success their campaigns are to the world. By releasing positive information, public feedback and interviews, the organizers were able to strengthen their brands. Also, by tracking the social voices they quickly reacted to the negative comments, adjusted tactics to adapt to public demands and learned lessons from audience and stakeholders’ opinions for future campaigns. Maybe it's time to provide your audience with a sense of “real” participation, both online and offline; as well as a sense of connection, with people and with your brand. If you need insights from social world to help improve your campaigns or business, feel free to contact us: info@Pulsarplatform.com

New on Pulsar: Spot the Heroes from the Villains with a Glimpse of the Screen

LindaM — Thu, 12 Jan 2017 10:00:09 +0000

Today on Pulsar CORE we are releasing a sleeker content dashboard, showcasing all the data you need in one advanced view. Creativity can be used to solve problems that are not always in black and white, it’s what fuels the answers to questions that hang out in the grey area of life. Unfortunately, creativity can be like a small child trying to put out a fire using a fireman’s hose, one uncontrolled mess that was never aligned to fixing the problem at hand. Being able to analyse problems helps pave the way for creative thinking to follow and apply the correct solution.

Best and Worst Performing Posts

At Pulsar we understand that being able to measure the performance of your owned posts and that of your competitors helps formulate the blueprint to planning your Content Strategy. The new content dashboard now brings all your social media posts into one convenient web page, giving you the opportunity to view which posts have the most or least engagement, the highest or lowest exposure or the biggest impact. So you can now easily answer questions like: What should it say and how should it look? Should I be pushing out content with videos or pictures? What do I repeat, refine or completely ditch? This view gives you the power to read between the lines and find audience insights as if you were reading a comic book that clearly defines the good guys from the bad, allowing you to discover what resonates with your target audience and what doesn’t, improving your content and over time helping you with your ROI. And as if that wasn't already enough, we've also enabled tagging in this view. So you can now group your posts into relevant categories, making content curation easier and faster.

View All Posts

To give you better tools to explore your content we’ve also added a new ‘view all’ posts section, split by outgoing posts and replies. To those of you familiar with TRAC results view, that's kind of where we were going with this. In this section you can now easily filter by day or sort your content in any order: newer to older, by engagements, visibility, impressions or engagement rate. You can also bulk tag your posts, expand to view media, and export your posts to an excel.

Key Metrics

And finally, we have also added a new stats graph, which is now exportable AND filterable, giving you an holistic measure of the best performing metrics, whether it’s your daily engagement rate or the impact your content generates over a certain period. You can also toggle on or off the metrics you want to see, as shown in the gif below.

Brand Dig: From Maltesers to Scope, brands are using the bravery of humour to approach disabilities

Thu, 05 Jan 2017 15:50:01 +0000

In this blog series, we dig into the world of marketing and discuss brands, news, trends and examples that have made the digital headlines. In this week’s post, marketer Kyle looks at how brands move away from the norm and courageously use creative to change perceptions using genuine audience insights. When it comes to driving awareness for charitable causes, empathy has become the standard mechanism for brands to appeal to the public. The emotive music, soft lighting and dramatic reveal, all aimed to leave you sitting at your desk with a lump in your throat as you hold back those, unproductive, unprofessional office tears, feeling sorry for the characters in this doomed 30 second advert. The problem is as an advertising concept, it’s become a little clichéd. In recent years, though certain brands have veered away from this trend and instead decided to gain insight from real people with real disabilities and use humour rather than pity, to courageously step where not many other advertisers would dare to go. Maltesers remind us to always look on the light side of life To start 2017 off properly, manufacturers of those delectable chocolates Maltesers launched a billboard in London yesterday, written in braille to celebrate International Braille Day. This continues from last year’s effort to better represent disabilities in advertising. The poster, positioned at bus stops, reads in a custom braille font made of Maltesers: “Caught a fast bus once – turns out it was a fire engine.” It’s the combination of inclusion and humour that makes this campaign so sweet, and a welcome break from careful avoidance of what brands find tricky topics or focusing too hard on the disability itself. This also raises awareness with the general public, because there is now an interest to read what the ad actually says. This campaign carries on from last year, when Maltesers launched a series of ads aimed at the humorous situations people with disabilities find themselves in. Now if you or I would go into the boardroom and pitch this idea to the boss, chances are we’re going to end up in the HR office with further counselling sessions to follow. Creative agency AMV BBDO who are behind last year's campaign decided to be brave and break the stigma by using humour. In a series of three ads, disabled people tell stories using Maltesers as a prop to illustrate the funny circumstances they find themselves in. This puts us in their shoes and instead of feeling pity for the disability itself, we simply feel connected with the protagonists - could've been us crushing that bride's foot, be it with a wheelchair or a stiletto heel. Scope makes things awkward to great effect. Treating disabilities as part of the norm can be tricky at times because the majority are non-disabled, and often quite uncomfortable around disabled people. As a result, knowing how to act can be difficult - something disabled people have to face daily. Scope, the disability charity in England and Wales wanting to counter this unnecessary awkwardness, approached this by placing people in situations inspired by real stories from disabled people. Six shorts were aired on UK broadcaster All 4, aimed at educating and informing people about what people with disabilities deal with on a day to day basis. We promise that watching the video below will make your palms sweat - and yes, the campaign worked perfectly as it provided some much-needed humour around the subject. It's success even helped inspire Scope's H.I.D.E motto, which teaches the often-nervous public how to be themselves around individuals with a disability. Think Beyond the Label shows us just how disabled everyone is We all have flaws or things we’re just useless at, that’s a fact. Since we are all beautiful imperfect creations and all suck at something, couldn’t you argue we are all disabled in some way or another? Unfortunately, for the disabled, their imperfections are just a little more visible than our own (unless you dress like this). Knowing this, health and disability advocates Think Beyond the Label in the USA created an advert that explores the disabilities that exist in each one of us. The key message: although we all have differences, we are all human, which makes us the same – and that’s what non-disabled people could do remembering. What makes these campaigns so inspiring is that the creators showed the courage to take a different route than most: a more inclusive one - something that may have started with charities out of necessity, but is moving to big brands like Maltesers, too. We're looking forward to more big brands stepping up to the plate of inclusive advertising, using the reality from their audiences as the inspiration for their creative approach. Need help navigating the social seas so you can improve your business? Sure thing - we're here to help you fish for insights. Give us a shout on Info@Pulsarplatform.com to learn more.

Catch Pulsar at this year's Social Media in the Pharmaceutical Industry Conference

Tue, 10 Jan 2017 16:55:39 +0000

SMi is proud to present the return of their 9th annual Social Media in the Pharmaceutical Industry conference, and guess who'll be there bright eyed and bushy tailed... US! By 2017, health revenue is expected to reach $26 billion and social media is now at the forefront of global communication, which is why it makes more sense than ever before to know who the individuals sitting in front of the computer screen are. What do they like? What are their values? What are they saying? What tone are they using? How do they feel about certain topics? All these questions can be answered by Pulsar, and the answers allow you to understand your target audience better than ever before. This makes it not only easier develop a real connection with your audience but identify trends and challenges that you can use to generate love for your brand. Catch Pulsar's very own Senior Business Development Executive Rob Hill - drop him a line if you'd like to meet up. Besides the ever-excellent Rob being there, you also get the added benefit of:

Learning about cutting-edge developments in identifying influencers around the globe.
Speaking with key opinion leaders such as; CEO and founder of One 15 Julie O Donnel, European Lead for the Digital Centre of Excellence with Pfizer Scott Gavin and many more as they explain the advancements of social media in pharma, digital marketing and the many benefits social listening and how to implement them.
Finding out how social media is being used in crisis management.
Hearing from regulatory bodies on how to work successfully within the guidelines.

To find about how the top 20 Pharma companies use social media to their advantage click for our Social Check-Up report in partnership with Ogilvy Healthworld here - or perhaps you're interested in how we tracked Flu on social media. Otherwise, drop us a line at info@pulsarplatform.com. Find Rob there on the 18th and 19th of January, tickets and details available here.

2017: #NewYearNewYou with the most popular resolutions

Hoofy — Wed, 11 Jan 2017 18:12:41 +0000

With the first week of 2017 behind us, the Pulsar office is buzzing with conversations about New Year’s resolutions (which I estimate about 3% of us will keep). Whether you love it, hate it or perhaps you are completely indifferent to the turning of a new year, it is something that is widely discussed on social media. In fact, New Year's Resolutions were mentioned over 1 million times between December 31^st and January 1^st on Twitter alone. As we can see from the graph below, which is tracking discussion around New Year’s Resolutions on Twitter, people seem to start thinking about these after Christmas, after perhaps over-indulging in turkey, pudding and two bottles of wine. The visual below illustrates the hourly breakdown of geo-located Tweets in the UK. As the clock struck 12 GMT, you can see that people considered what they wanted to do differently in 2017. However, once the dust and the full effects of the hangover settled in the next day, people were quick to make promises in the afternoon, maybe in order to avoid ever feeling the way they felt at the time. But what is it people intend to resolve? The usual things come into the conversation such as exercising more, followed by gym-goers (most of which complain about January boom in their local gym), eating healthy (#veganuary), changing their career and travelling. Pulsar also managed to help me find some other interesting contenders. Using Pulsar’s topic treemap, which groups together overall themes that are cropping up within the search, I found three resolutions that seemed to have taken specifically the Twittersphere by storm:

Pet More Animals

With the world in dispute over politics and ideals, being closer to animals is the one thing that makes the most sense resolution wise.

More Memes

Memes are constantly the theme of trending topics so what do most consumers do better than anyone else? Consume the popular and increase its popularity.

Be More Positive

Well. With the horrors of 2016 in our rear mirror, people feel they can move on to a year where the grass is hopefully a little greener. These were particularly well illustrated by child-star Honey BooBoo (for any Honey BooBoo newbies – focus your attention here) and Phil Mitchell here (Eastenders dramaaaah!).

Resolving the Negative Chatter

Negative chatter ensued in pleas to stop pledging resolutions if people were not going to actually keep them. Pulsar’s bundle visual below shows us that a popular connected topic with New Year's Resolutions was “stop”. The online cynics of the world questioned whether people were actually going to follow through with their goals. According to Forbes, only 8% of us who set goals for the New Year will actually follow through with these somewhat empty promises.

Bound Together by Alcohol Avoidance

On a more positive note, New Year's Resolutions seemed to be mostly met by support from the online community, particularly in England, where our usually alcohol-welcoming country engages in #dryjanuary - a popular way to start the new year. These also happened to be the places that were the most active on social media during the time of research. We'd be happy to discuss what else you can find out about your audiences with Pulsar over a delicious pint in the pub (it's ok if you wait fill Feb). Get in touch here!

Brand Dig: Wendy's, Pret A Manger and Sainsbury's Find the Right Tone on Social Media

Harry — Thu, 12 Jan 2017 14:22:31 +0000

In this blog series, we dig into the world of marketing and discuss brands, news, trends and examples that have made the digital headlines. This week, researcher Harry looks at how brands use their digital voice and start sounding more like human beings than automated robots. At a time when people are encouraged to review everything from their holiday B&B to the local cafe down the road, there’s no shortage of scathing critiques and flattering reviews online. But there’s a difference between review sites like TripAdvisor and very public social media platforms like Twitter. People use the latter to air their biggest frustrations (whether real or imagined) for one reason: it puts pressure on brands to respond. Yet not every brand response is a grovelling apology. In fact, some have done well to call out absurd consumer comments.

Wendy’s Fights Back with Sass

Most recently, Wendy’s challenged the idea that you should never feed an online troll. Twitter user Thuggy-D posted a provocative tweet mocking Wendy’s claim of never using frozen beef in its burgers. The fast food chain’s response was fairly tame at first and it just corrected the misguided consumer. But after Thuggy-D retorted hostilely – “so you deliver it raw on a hot truck?” – Wendy’s took a more sarcastic and patronising tone. The brand posted: “Where do you store cold things that aren’t frozen?” before mocking Thuggy-D for forgetting “refrigerators existed for moment”. Although it probably pays for a brand to adhere to the “customer is always right” mantra, they can still be human and stand up to undue criticism. Brands have long directed customer service through social media but the internet still gets overexcited when brands employ a more playful cheeky tone. Yet isn’t that what attracted brands to Twitter in the first place – to get closer to their customers and behave a bit more like them, too?

Pret A Manger gets involved in a pun battle

Although it might be fun to publicly call out customers when they’re wrong, sometimes a complaint on Twitter has to be dealt with a formality. But brands can still use humour to disarm the tension from a disgruntled customer. After one Pret a Manger customer complained about a crayfish and avocado flatbread tasting like a “sandpit”, the brand wisely decided to solve the problem in the public view. Pret asked for further details and then offered the customer a free sandwich as compensation. Satisfied with the response he received, the customer replied with a Kanye West-inspired lyric “ThatFishKray” – which Pret saw as an invitation for a fish-based pun battle. No fish was spared in the three-hour exchange between brand and customer that included gems like “ I can’t feel my plaice when I’m with you”, “prawn to be wiiiiiiild” and “Baby, I’m just gonna hake, hake, hake hake, hake I hake it off”. Pret came across as even more genuine and authentic because the entire exchange took place over DM – so there can be no accusation that the brand was just playing to the crowd and looking for a social media marketing win. After all, it was the customer himself who took a screenshot of the interaction and posted it for all to see.

Sainsbury’s indulges in a bit of fantasy

With social media giving people the tools to publicly embarrass brands, there are inevitably going to be a few outlandish posts from people just looking for a reaction. It’s perhaps not surprising then that only 51% of brands in the UK (and just 43% in the US) engage with @ tagged posts directed at them on Twitter. In comparison, Facebook as a platform offers more characters with which brands can craft a smart response to some cheeky customer – and Sainsbury’s may have offered up the perfect playbook to do that. When a Sainsbury’s customer found a worm in her salad she took to Facebook to describe a rather peculiar turn of events. She claimed (in an admittedly jokey tone) that the worm had shocked her to such an extent that she soiled herself, her husband divorced her, and she had to resort to eating a burger which caused her to gain 12 stone. She called on Sainsbury’s to fire its staff and close down the business. Rather than dismiss the customer with the slightly wild imagination, Sainsbury’s engaged her with a similar whimsical tone. It sympathised with the innocent worm becoming an accidental part of the “horror” story before offering a refund instead of “issuing P45s”. In fact, what came through the post from Sainsbury’s to the customer was a gift card for the store and a Netflix voucher addressed to the worm. Need help finding your brand's tone of voice? Well we can help – we can fish for insights using our audience intelligence tools. Give us a shout on Info@Pulsarplatform.com to learn more.

Planning and measuring sponsorships: what should you sponsor, and how do you know it worked?

Vera — Tue, 17 Jan 2017 15:27:47 +0000

Should you invest in sponsoring Manchester United in 2017? But do Manchester United supporters even like power tools? Imagine: you're a brand selling power tools, and you're looking to get some more visibility in the market through sponsorships. Great. But where to start? There are so many questions brands need answers to when they are considering using a sponsorship to align with their target audience. Every year, corporate spending on sponsorship reaches a new high, with brands increasingly investing ginormous amounts in the influencer sphere. But when you're planning - or evaluating - the success of your partnerships, what should you look out for? Social media provides a separate universe for a brand's identity to live in through these partnerships, and Pulsar provides a new way of measuring and quantifying how far they have actually travelled.

Sponsorship planning

Basing important business decisions on social data ensures that clients move away from relying on outdated assumptions about who their consumers are and what they’re interested in: it's fast, it's abundant, and it's easy to harness. If you listen first, and speak later, you can be sure that you won't regret deciding to sponsor that particular conference, music event, or putting your logo on that famous sports team’s jersey. Listen first, and you're basing your decisions on solid, irrefutable, data-driven evidence.

Follow people, not just words

One of Pulsar’s unique features, the audience search, allows you to go beyond keyword tracking and listen to a group of people. Pulsar’s technology helps you to build audience panels – think of it like online communities – where you can listen to individuals, picking the relevant data you’re collecting on them at any time. What does this mean for sponsorship planning? We work with a major energy company in the UK. They used Pulsar to help them decide what cultural events to invest their sponsorship budget in, by creating an audience search of everyone who had followed their brand on Twitter. They then began to overlay keywords on that data set – words related to music, art, sports, and other leisure activities – to uncover which of these areas their followers were engaging with the most. They identified that a big chunk of their followers, people who had already expressed interest in their services, were also interested in music. This informed their decision to invests their sponsorship budget in music venues, rather than in sports stadiums, safely knowing that these were pounds well spent.

Sponsorship measuring: Image Analysis

Brands spend phenomenal amounts on sponsorships and endorsements because they are banking on their logo reaching millions of human eyes (just excluding animals here due to lack of spending power, you know). How do they, then, accurately measure the impact or lengths that their logo has travelled to? If they’re not counting social media, they’re missing out on an enormous part of the conversation. Pulsar works with the best technology on the market at any given time to make sure that we stay at the forefront of cutting edge trends in technology. We partner with IBM Watson on image analysis technology, which allows us to mine huge data sets for the content within images. Availaible on Pulsar TRAC, it means is that we can understand, at scale, what people are taking pictures of. Unlike other image analysis software on the market, Pulsar doesn't just recognise logos, but it can also other pick up on other text in an image as well as understanding its context, like 'desert', 'nature' or 'summer'. This is incredibly powerful for measuring the ROI of sponsorships in a way that might have previously not been quantifiable, seeing images form a huge (or YUGE, as the US president-elect would say) part of our common language on social media. We work with a leading Financial Services firm, who have recently sponsored the UK National Rugby team. Live action shots from games, pictures of fans wearing jerseys, and behind-the-scenes sneak peaks of the players training are exploding all over social networks. With Pulsar’s image analysis, we can now track and quantify the reach of our client’s sponsorship by scanning all mentions of the Sports Team, and in this case we could pick up all the images containing our client’s logo. NB: although there is no mention of our client’s brand name on the post, as they have not been tagged. But Pulsar has picked up their logo on this cookie giftbox! Using image recognition technology ensures that brands can get an accurate measure of where their logos have travelled, and therefore, a better gage on their sponsorship's ROI.

Stepping it up

Marketing & communication teams can no longer rely on old-school methods of measurement when it comes to understanding how far their logos travel. They can also no longer rely on uninformed assumptions about where to spend hefty sponsorship budgets (or at least, we think they shouldn’t be.) Get in touch with us here if you would like to talk about how you and your team could use Pulsar to ensure you’re staying ahead of the sponsorship game.

Brand Dig: The Rewards of an Advertising Campaign that Celebrates Real Health

Wed, 18 Jan 2017 17:08:32 +0000

In this blog series, we dig into the world of marketing and discuss brands, news, trends and examples that have made the digital headlines. In this week’s post, marketer Kyle looks at how creative is being applied to a industry that is usually very standardised, due to strict regulations. Health it’s the most important thing in one's life. This begs the question, why has the health industry lacked such creativity? From the “Don’t smoke or your skin will turn black and eyes bleed” cigarette package warnings, to the “Get a 5% increase on your life insurance policy if you don’t die in the next 150 years” sleazy insurance ad, there seems to be a recurring trend where preparing for a path we all must take some day (even that sounds less depressing), is more important than celebrating life itself. Is it due to industry regulations? Brands tiptoeing around these issues to keep away from scrutiny? Maybe in part. But it's definitely not the only thing: there are creative agencies that are doing things different; inspiring, imagining, conceptualising and using the joys of life that are associated with well-being because isn’t that the point of health? To be able to celebrate life’s rewards? Here are three of the best examples where fearless creative has paid off. A spoonful of Chuck Norris jokes makes the medicine go down Unless you were born in the stone age (in which you would have witnessed the extinction of the dinosaurs by Chuck), you will have heard the quips about Mr Norris. In the USA, if you count all the medical codes they use to identify injuries and ailments in the health care system, you'd come up to more than 76,000. The “Way In” campaign by insurance company UnitedHealthcare used these unique codes to create stories where people injure themselves in humorous situations, that range from a pool “vault” to a romantic “song”. Their latest one uses the aforementioned legendary kick boxing champion to demonstrate another way how you might find yourself in the doctor’s office. Leo Burnett Chicago (the creative agency responsible for the campaign) decided to use health injuries as a comedy trigger because let’s be honest, in a lifetime we'll have seen someone get hurt by doing something incredibly stupid, and as such, we are rewarded with a great story to tell and many a laugh to be shared.

Free the nipple (not for humans of a female gender)

Here’s a fun fact, on some social platforms you are not allowed to show female nipples. If us men weren’t so besotted by boobs, it probably wouldn’t be an issue, but there you go. Unfortunately, this means that when it comes to addressing a real issue such as breast cancer, this type of censorship seems ridiculous (side note: Pulsar's Marketing Manager just shouted it's ridiculous in any case, but let me get back to my point). Finding a loophole that the social media platforms forgot, which was, men have nipples, and men can have boobs too or rather moobs (not so besotted by breasts now, hey guys). Agency David created a social media campaign for Argentinian cancer charity Macma, in which a man named Henry demonstrated how to do a proper breast examination using his moobs and a woman’s hands, as if they were her own. The video not only raised awareness of the importance of early detection but also highlighted how wrong censorship can be. Through this concept they offer perhaps the biggest reward of all, knowledge, which when it comes to life threatening diseases like cancer, you can never know enough.

Getting blood out of virtual air

Giving blood can be a pain - not so much the figurative pain of going through the hassle, but rather the pain of literally being stabbed with a needle. As humans, we tend to avoid painful circumstances, which (surprise) can be quite a selfish thing. Using this insight, agency 23red created an iPhone app for their Virtual Blood Donation campaign for the NHS, that lets you see the effects of a blood transfusion. Through augmented reality, the app shows you two large screens, one with an empty blood bag and the other with an ill patient. Visual recognition is then used to create a real time interaction between the user and the screens. The user would place his phone over his arm to draw blood, triggering the blood bag on the screen to fill up. The virtual donor can then watch as the sick patient gradually returns to health. The campaign was a massive reward to participants because helping each other is in our genes, and seeing with our own eyes how donating blood can save a life in front of us, can be a behaviour changer. These campaigns draw a real response from the people who are exposed to them, and as simple as some executions may look, they come from insights into genuine human behaviour. So whether it's finding out if women under 25 know how to examine themselves for breast cancer, or how people injure themselves at rock concerts, we can help you delve into the culture of humans. If you'd like to hear how we've been able to help agencies and brands in the healthcare industry, get in touch with us here.

Pulsar & FACE merge for global expansion

Judith — Mon, 23 Jan 2017 10:06:12 +0000

It's happened. After years of cohabiting, we're excited to announce research agency FACE has joined forces with Pulsar, moving towards a bigger, brighter future together. Read our full press release below:

Audience intelligence platform Pulsar has secured significant investment from its parent company Cello PLC, as part of its global growth strategy. Launched in 2013, Pulsar currently has over 2000 users worldwide and is still one of few SaaS solutions on the market that successfully fills the gap between social listening and in-depth qualitative market research. Job Muscroft, CEO of Pulsar, comments on the funding: “This injection is going to help us create foundations for global expansion over the next 3 years. It will allow us to invest in extended product, research, marketing and sales teams, so we’ll be better able to serve both existing and new customers on the ground. This is an exciting - and natural - next step to take for us, now that we’re rapidly outgrowing the start-up nest.” As part of the growth strategy, Pulsar will move forward together with its sister company FACE under one brand. Operating in the US and in Europe, FACE is a qualitative market research agency known for their innovative work with Unilever, Coca Cola, Microsoft and HERE. With both software products and research services folded into the Pulsar brand, Pulsar has set itself the goal of becoming a global leader in the audience intelligence business. Muscroft adds: “By offering a full solution of software products and research services, Pulsar will be even better able to help a wide range of businesses understand their target audiences. That’s what it’s all about – who are the people you want to reach, and how can you reach them? It’s what you could traditionally only know using qualitative research, but with the technology we’ve developed, we can now do this on a quant scale. And because it’s a faster way of working, we can help companies respond quicker to marketing opportunities.” Curious to hear more about Pulsar? Contact us on info@pulsarplatform.com, or for our research services, visit our research page.

Brand Dig: The Controversial Stars of a Digital Age

Thu, 26 Jan 2017 17:22:56 +0000

In this blog series, we dig into the world of marketing and discuss brands, news, trends and examples that have made the digital headlines. In this week’s post, marketer Kyle looks at how the younger viewers are more inclined to follow the stars of the digital screen rather than stage and film. Like when a young John Travolta or Audrey Hepburn first burst on the scene, they were met with a younger audience that seem to resonate with them. Maybe it was because these stars seem to understand a world that the older generation hadn't quite yet grasped. This is no more true than today with the rise of the YouTube stars. Recent studies show that the youth are going against the mainstream media and are more compelled than ever to turn to the guys and girls that are armed with only a video camera and a idea. From commentating on TV games to watching them simply eat, there is no denying that these contemporary stars are leaving a mark on the youth of today. In this Brand Dig we look at some of the most controversial stars to try and understand why the cool kids (or crazy teenagers, you decide) are starting to look up to these home-made icons of the digital screen.

DanTDM Comes under Fire

YouTuber DanTDM has a massive 15 million followers, most of which are popular TV game players of game Minecraft (64.9% of whom are 20 years old or younger). This fact alone however didn't stop him from setting a popular child’s toy he reviewed last year on fire. I don’t know about you, but when I was a teen, there was nothing more fascinating to me than fire. It was only until I set the house’s roof a blaze did I realise that fire and I should put our relationship on hold (at least till I was older and more responsible). The stunt was done with a blowtorch and the toy itself had batteries in it, which means it has the potential to explode (but he wore gloves so it’s cool, perfectly safe). Needless to say, the men at the fire department have since been involved and have since asked for the video to be taken down. Dan is yet to respond or take the video down, instead the video has a accumulated over 3 million views so the negative PR certainly hasn't has done any damage to his channel. Maybe just maybe, the fact that DanTDM's content is what every teenager wants to see: a toy that could explode set on fire with a blowtorch.

Lena promises she’ll do a Kardashian

Sex tapes, they used to ruin famous people’s careers, now they make people famous. Trying to use this complicated strategy to her advantage, Lena The Plug, a Californian vlogger churning out video content such as daily stories, naughty features and occasional direct chat (like an online book club for nymphomaniacs), recently promised that if she gets 1 million subscribers on her YouTube channel she will indeed make her own public sex tape. The clip has already been viewed more than 1.4 million times but some social media users are not impressed, with one individual stating 'You're a mess. Get a real job like the rest of us". They say sex sells, and YouTubers are essentially selling themselves (their whole selves apparently), through a easily accessible platform that has no age to a demographic who actually like to be more engaging than any of the previous generations. What's interesting is how YouTubers use subscribers as a currency for reward (not that I personally deem a naked Lena a reward), but looking past the moral dilemma I find myself in, I do think that using the concept of video content to boost popularity as a concept can be really smart.

Peppered with Hate

YouTube pranksters, the best at controversy. From blowing up a child in front of their mother to girlfriend suicide, it’s entertaining because - and I quote - “it’s just a prank, it’s just a prank”. These somewhat questionable stunts have given birth to dozens of popular channels that all focus on getting a reaction out of the unsuspecting public, but doing it in a way that shouts inappropriate. Sam Pepper must have heard it and decided it was his calling as this YouTuber pulled a prank that was deemed as sexual harassment by online communities all over the world and sparked outrage. Although Sam might have pushed the envelope too far, these pranks follow a recurring trend, where pranksters try to outdo each other by doing something audacious. Better yet is the pranksters ability to to connect with their viewers. Although I do enjoy a mesmerising Jean-Claude Van Damme double split kick to the face, I doubt if I asked him to pull a prank watching an adult film in public, he would oblige. But whether we like it or not, these YouTube stars are the influencers of today. Unlike Hollywood stars with their extensive media training and PR teams, these individuals have a direct connection to their audience. Youth find YouTube broadcasters authentic and accessible, increasingly turning to online videos over traditional television shows because it makes them feel good about themselves - and they're in full control of what they watch. As we've all been awkward teenagers, it's not hard to understand why the current generation is leaning to influencers that are fully tapped into the modern day era, which is why the YouTube stars of today have such a massive following from tomorrow. Need help navigating the social seas and finding insights into you audience? Sure thing – we’ll give you the tool to do so. Give us a shout on Info@Pulsarplatform.com to learn more.

Trends that are Inspiring a Fresh Start to the Year

Hannah — Tue, 31 Jan 2017 11:43:58 +0000

It’s that time of year again. We’ve spent the Christmas break drinking too much mulled wine, prosecco, beer or in our case, an embarrassing number of gin shots (a Pulsar favourite for some reason). Now all you need to do is give your body a rest. Cue… Dry January. With people trying to shake off the holiday hangover (and making sure everyone knows it) by posting gym selfies and juice diets, it’s no surprise that this latest health fad is creating a lot of buzz on Social Media. In fact, within the first three weeks of the new year, #dryjanuary was mentioned in the UK over 21,000 times on Twitter alone, with most discussions taking place over the first weekend of January. However, with a steady decrease in the number of times mentioned after the first week, it appears that the idea of a second sober weekend was just too stressful for some. In fact, a week into Dry January, the top trending keyword was help. Enough said. Here at the Pulsar office, I rounded up the Dry January-ers to see how they got on. It did appear that the second weekend of January was a real struggle with 50% of our Pulstars falling off the bandwagon. The reasons ranging from a "work night out", peer pressure or the realisation alcohol was the key to great chat on a date (the stakes were way too high to resist a little liquid courage). But, who outside the office walls took part in Dry January? Pulsar used it’s smart yet easy to use bio-filter, and identified who took on the challenge. So, while the people of Pulsar were fresh with excuses, the rest of the UK seemed to be a mixture of Mums, Dads and in particular the students in Oxford creating the most buzz, mostly complaining about the absence of the tipple in their lives. Yet, it’s not all bad! Using our emotional analysis feature, we identified 73% of #dryjanuary posts as joyful (using a healthy dose of sarcasm and hope to get through the parched winter), while only 20% contained signs of sadness. Also, shout-out to the 637 people out there who have fear, stay strong (Yoda said it best ““Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”). It’s not only a UK trend though, there appears to be several other former liquor-loving countries that have decided to take part in the battle for their slice of sober. Our friends from across the pond, America, making up a significant proportion of the mentions. But let’s be honest can we blame them? Thanksgiving, Christmas, Boxing day, New Year’s Eve and Trump, it’s a miracle they’re attempting sobriety at all. So why do people put themselves through this I hear you ask? For most, it was a chance to detox, a path to clean living as well as to save a bit of cash here and most definitely there. The Pulstars were no exception here (well half of them are), seeing the month event as an opportunity to cleanse their mind, soul as well as make the weekends last longer by remembering every detail of it. The below word cloud pulled out the way people were talking about #dryjanuary online and for a lot of people, it appeared that weight, health and sticking to a goal were just some of the reasons to take on the challenge. So, with Dry January getting a lot of attention, there’s a new movement that seems to be piggy-backing (ironically) off the health trend… Veganuary. The aim is to eat everything that isn’t desirable for a month - no meat, no chocolate, no cheese! Pulsar also investigated the increasing popularity of #veganuary across Social Media throughout January. Over 11,000 women discussed Veganuary online, over three times more than the number of men talking about the trend. It also appears to have been a big hit amongst students, even more than Dry January was. All those millennials in Oxford still making an impact. While this is an individual challenge, it looks like brands, cafés and bloggers have taken advantage, strategically aligning their content around this trend. Whether this is through competitions, giveaways or healthy alternatives, brands have identified this as the perfect marketing opportunity to make their products relatable. It’s not only brands using the event to make their voices heard, but non-profit organisations too, who take a different spin on the idea. Peta took over Clapham Common tube station, plastering the walls with animal posters and the slogan ‘I’m me, not meat’. All Peta needed was commuters on their way to work who can relate, they see an opportunity for interesting social media content to take a photo, and with one snap of the camera commuters are spreading the message for them. Identifying trends can boost a brand's awareness by emphathising with people's efforts to support their relevant movements. This also allows brands to come across as a person – perhaps almost like a friend, who is there to encourage you to take a break from the booze and the unhealthy food. It's this kind of interaction that can make brands appear more human and relatable, thus building brand affinity. Need help identifying future trends? Well we can help with our revolutionary social intelligence platforms, give us a shout here.

Join Pulsar: Digital Marketing Executive

admin — Thu, 02 Feb 2017 18:17:12 +0000

How does brand engagement evolve over time? Which brand won the battle of the Christmas ad campaigns? Does social media move the needle on brand perceptions? Which of your digital marketing activities actually work? These are the types of questions we help creatives, marketers and planners answer. In the last six years, we’ve been the firm defining what social media research is and what it can deliver within insight, marketing and beyond. We are continually developing Pulsar to give us the smartest technology in the industry – such as audience analytics and algorithmic image recognition. Then we use these tools to gain powerful insights and solve our clients’ business problems – for brands, communications, innovation & strategy. We think this is the future of research. And we’re looking for people who want to build it with us. Who we’re looking for We're looking for a digital savvy marketing executive, someone who understands how to use the tricks (SEO, UX, advertising) and tools of the trade to bring marketing campaigns through to the real world. Making sure people know who Pulsar is, what Pulsar does, and why it’s such a great tool through a mix of excellent promotion and optimisation through and with all of our marketing channels (social media, blog, advertising), accurate reporting, and pro-actively looking for new marketing opportunities. Why join us Everyone in the team is highly talented, they are experts in their fields which leads to an ambitious, highly skilled workforce. Expertise is constantly shared through training, knowledge-sharing sessions and we thrive off this supportive, friendly atmosphere. It’s an environment that fosters both personal and professional development – you can really put your mark on the business from day one. You will also be given the responsibility and support to take your career in the direction you want it to go. You will be exposed to and work with some of the largest brands and agencies globally. We have a wide variety of clients including Spotify, Mazda, Discovery Channel, and Samsung. What you'll be doing

Planning and executing digital advertising campaigns to generate inbound inquiries for our acquisition team
Planning and executing CRM communication to ensure our clients are on-boarded smoothly and that we give our clients the right information at the right time of their learning curve with the software
Constantly evaluating and optmising our marketing efforts to improve

What skills you need

Delivering the marketing initiatives for future development of the business
Strong knowledge and experience in advertising (Google AdWords, social/ paid, display, retargeting)
Experienced with email marketing (list building, segmenting and improving engagement) and SEO
(website optimisation and writing for SEO)
Knowledge marketing metrics and how to report on marketing effectiveness (Google Analytics, social media analytics)
Assisting with content planning and development
Helping with event planning and other administrative marketing tasks
Experienced with graphic design, infographics and videography is also a plus, but not essential

Personal attributes

A pro-active and hands-on mindset
Adaptability and ability to multi task on a variety of ad hoc projects
Curiosity and passion for brands and social media
Ability to work well under pressure and respond to deadlines
Supportive to peers and able to get on well with people at all levels
Creative in thinking and communication
Keen to learn and progress

What to Expect No one day will ever be the same at Pulsar. You can expect to work closely with the various teams on a variety of ad hoc projects. We work a lot of amazing clients and brands – we do social media research for Twitter, Facebook and Instagram themselves, as well as Spotify, Rimmel and OPI, Discovery Channel, Disney, Samsung, Netflix and many more. An exciting start-up culture, with stylish new offices in the heart of Shoreditch (you can have a peek in to our office here) and big plans to continue developing our business in the US in 2017. An open, collaborative team atmosphere – we’re friendly, approachable, and help each other out every day, whether that’s crafting a tricky search strategy, finessing an insight, or coaching and sharing expertise in new research techniques. No rigid structures or unapproachable directors – our CEO sits next to us in the office. And regardless of your position in the company, if you’ve got a great idea you’ll be able to get it heard and make it happen – whether that’s new business opportunities, new marketing tactics, or publishing and presenting at conferences. If Pulsar sounds like the next career jump (which it is, I assure you) then email adrianne.sexton@pulsarplatform.com with your CV and motivation.

Brand Dig: Dove, Air BnB and Ryanair Fight Against Incorrect Political Agendas

Harry — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 13:40:19 +0000

In this blog series, we dig into the world of marketing and discuss brands, news, trends and examples that have made the digital headlines. In this week’s post, researcher Harry looks at how brands are taking a moral stance against controversial politics. Dove shows the absurdity of Trump’s lies Rather than call them for what they really are - outrageous lies - one of the chief counselors to the newly inaugurated US president described his fibs as "alternative facts". While it certainly adds another dimension to the 2016 word of year "post-truth", it's not quite as elegant as the latter euphemism. But before it disappeared from the headlines, one brand decided to have some fun with it. The beauty brand Dove took out a two-page advert in the Guardian and the Times of London. On the left page there was a picture of a new Dove deodorant alongside blatantly false claims. Apparently the new Dove antiperspirant was first used by Cleopatra, it can increase your IQ by 40 points, and it can even plan your next holiday at a competitive rate. Then at the bottom of the page is a single hashtag - #AlternativeFacts. On the right page, Dove counters it's lies with one truth - its new deodorant cares for your underarm skin like never before. And the message is wrapped up with #RealFacts. The genius of the advert is it makes a powerful statement that's both politically and culturally relevant to today, but makes no mention of Trump or his advisor. The strength of the message lies in its subtlety – making it easy for those who know the meaning behind “AlternativeFacts” without alienating those who don’t.

Airbnb draws a line to protect its values

Zuckerberg said he was concerned about the impact. Microsoft is already providing legal assistance to its employees in countries that are affected. And Starbucks promised to hire 10,000 refugees over the next five years. Trump’s immigration ban from seven majority Muslim countries has provoked a variety of different reactions from brands. But perhaps the most relevant response was from Airbnb, which announced it would offer free housing to anyone impacted by the executive order. “Not allowing countries or refugees into America is not right,” tweeted Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky. “Stay tuned for more, contact me if urgent need for housing,” he continued. For a platform whose core ethos is to bring people together and that anyone in the world can “belong anywhere”, Trump’s ban contradicts everything that the brand stands for. Defending its values with a sincere offering of housing to those affected is not only a chip at the president, but shows the brand is serious about defending its mission statement. Even setting up a cause to donate to all the refugees in the world. After all, if brands don’t stand up for what they preach, how can they expect people to continue to remain loyal?

Ryanair is just being honest

While some brands are subtle about showing their political opinions, and others use it as an opportunity to defend their values, some companies are just shamelessly blatant when it comes to stating why they are choosing a side. And it's perhaps not surprising Ryanair – which used to thrive on controversy – took the latter route in last year's EU referendum. In the run up to the vote the airline announced it would fly British expats home at reduced prices at around £15 on polling day and the day before. The reason? Ryanair wanted to stay in the EU because leaving it could mean extra tariffs on its flights from the UK to the continent. In short, the airline would make less money. So this was its thinking – if even just a small percentage of the 1.2 million British expats flew home to vote it could help the ‘remain’ side win. Clearly not enough expats took the flights home or perhaps they didn't vote the way they were supposed to. Either way there was no subtlety, no standing up for their values. It was just a rational position based on the economics of Ryanair's business model. But after a year of "post-truths" and "alternative facts" maybe people want more honesty and less lies from everyone from politicians to brands? In this day and age there are too many companies that seem to sit on the fence so that they don't isolate themselves from an target market. However what these brands understand is that there is a point to be made, and they understand the morality of the situation, so by staying true to their beliefs they resonate with their audience exceptionally well. If you’d like to hear how we’ve been able to help agencies and brands resonate with just an audience but with people, get in touch with us here.

Event: Catch Pulsar at Executing Shopper Insights 2017, London

Mon, 06 Feb 2017 16:59:23 +0000

On the 8th and 9th of February, we as Pulsar will be showing our faces at a special London-based event that focuses on understanding the next generation of shoppers. Besides us attending, Executing Shopper Insights 2017 will feature a some of the best and most exciting brands/retailers under one roof. Gain insight-out analysis and discover how we can help you get to the heart of conversations that are taking place online. We'll be represented by Senior Business Development Manager James Lovell and Head of Inside Sales Amy Stratton. Find them there to see how how our platform can revolutionise your business, and help you collect insights that answer questions such as: what does your audience like? What don't they like? And most importantly, who are they in the real world and what kind of behaviours are they showing? Lovell, James Lovell Amy "The Awesome" Stratton The Executing Shopper Insights event regular sees attendees for the event from big brands across categories, including Pernod-Ricard, Phillips, UltraDex, Warburtons, Amazon, Birdseye, GAME and many more. This event will prove a fantastic platform for those in FMCG, personal care and beyond to discuss, share and formulate ideas based around shopper insights. If that is not enough you'll get the expertise from the horse's mouth, as the event plays host to some of the industry's leading business professionals, speaking on behalf of their brands. Register for this FMCG spectacle here and meet us there to gain the upper hand with the best insight driven solutions. If you simply cannot wait to chat until then, than drop us a mail and we'll get the social listen ball moving with our innovative platform. If you really can’t make it, we've got you covered. Follow @Pulsar_social on Twitter to get live updates during the event.

Event: Catch Pulsar at this year's Prolific North Live Expo, Manchester

Wed, 15 Feb 2017 14:36:43 +0000

Taking place at EventCity on Thursday 16th February, Pulsar will join some of the brightest business minds from across the UK as leading marketing, branding and experiential agencies, content and engagement specialists, advertising and PR firms, broadcasters, TV and film production companies, tech innovators, media suppliers all come together under one roof. Catch our brilliant Senior Development Manager Sophie Baker (@sophie121089) at the event and talk to her to find out how Pulsar can help your brand or brands tap into human insights that can inspire flawless strategy and original thinking. Besides Miss Baker being there of course, this event will feature several high profile speakers confirmed from huge brands such as Paddy Power, uSwitch, Microsoft, Virgin Trains, Everton Football Club, Sky, Warburtons and the Cabinet Office, it’s an event not to be missed. Take a look at the full speaker line up here. Pulstar, Sophie Baker With 130+ exhibitors offering invaluable insight into their businesses, as well as demos of latest product features and fun activities for everyone to get involved in. This is your chance to get to know and learn from the best as 4000 attendees, from in-house marketing and comms functions to companies and agencies spanning Prolific North’s readership, we look forward to catching up n with familiar faces and discovering new innovative businesses. Register for this industry spectacle here and meet us there to gain the upper hand with the best insight driven solutions. If you simply cannot wait to chat until then, than drop us a mail and we’ll get the social listening ball moving with our innovative platform. If you really can’t make it, we’ve got you covered, follow @Pulsar_social on Twitter to get live updates during the event.

Catch Pulsar at IIeX, Europe's Leading Market Research Conference

admin — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 15:16:42 +0000

What are clients looking for? Which companies are meeting their business needs? What solutions are helping brands understand and drive consumer behaviour? They’ll tell you at IIeX Europe. Taking place in Amsterdam on the 20^th and 21^st February, Pulsar will join some of the brightest business minds from across Europe. IIeX Europe will be the largest gathering of future-focused insights professionals in Europe, and naturally Pulsar will be there in the form of Business Development Manager Rachel Banks (@rachelhbanks) and Head of Account Management Jamie Watson (@Jamie__Watson). Catch them at this insight driven event and find out how Pulsar can help your brand or brands tap into audience insights that can inspire flawless strategy and original thinking. Besides us being there, the event offers the chance to discover new ideas from the changing the world of insights, provide practical trainings and learning sessions to help you develop new skills and connect you with other innovative MR pros from some of the most effective brands and agencies in the world. We’re excited to be in the company of industry professionals, leading brands and a list of exceptional speakers in the Netherland's capital. Meet us there to gain the upper hand with Pulsar’s insight driven solutions. If you simply cannot wait to chat until then, than drop us a mail and we’ll get the social listening ball moving with our innovative platform. If you really can’t make it, we’ve got you covered, follow @Pulsar_social on Twitter to get live updates during the event.

Catch Pulsar at Social Media Week 2017, New York

Wed, 22 Feb 2017 18:08:38 +0000

Taking place from the 17th February to 3rd of March in New York, Pulsar will join some of the brightest business minds from across the globe as industries from different sectors, all come together under one roof to discuss what's become the forefront of human connectivity; social media. With over 70,000 attendees, 5,000 speakers and more than 1 million people globally, SMW is becoming one of the world's most important sources of information, in regards to the future of human connectivity. Meet us at this worldwide conference, as we get involved in conversations around the best ideas, innovations and insights, where you'll discover how social media and technology are changing business, society and culture around the world (from some of the best speakers at inspirational talks) Pulsar is one of the industry leaders in audience intelligence, as we understand behind every post, like and share there is an insight into not only the way we connect, but the way we behave. Our platform unravels these insights with data that's easy to read, and offers solutions to the problems that are not just in black and white. Register for this industry spectacle here and meet us there to gain the upper hand with the best insight driven solutions. If you simply cannot wait to chat until then, drop us a mail and we’ll get the social listening ball moving with our innovative platform. If you really can’t make it, we’ve got you covered, follow @Pulsar_social on Twitter to get live updates during the event.

Brand Dig: #NoFilter, The Brands Allowing Alternative Viewpoints On Social Media

Penelope — Thu, 23 Feb 2017 14:17:49 +0000

In this blog series, we dig into the world of marketing and discuss brands, news, trends and examples that have made the digital headlines. In this week’s post, researcher Penelope looks at brands that are taking a step to battle fake news and allow users to read between the lines. News: positive, negative, true, fake, relevant or irrelevant... our sources of information recently have been more newsworthy than the news itself. Opinions run rampant, but what seems to be forgotten by many is that opinion is not fact. With tempers flaring left and right, and actions following those opinions all seeming very possible in the current polarized political climate, how can you make sure you get the bigger picture - not just being pushed further into your echo chamber? Tolerance only has space to grow when you're trying to put yourself in someone else's shoes and understand 'the other side'. And isn't the internet the perfect place to set up technological protocols free from human emotion and biased opinions? These brands seem to think so. The Wall Street Journal: Red vs Blue While many journalists and polls failed to predict the outcome of Brexit and Trump’s election, the results of these votes came with little surprise to other parts of the population. A substantial amount of research has focused on - and shown - how the surprise came to those who solely interacted online, in their own isolated groups. And, like the cliques in high school, these people had limited connection between the clusters of nodes representing users from both sides on Twitter and Facebook. The Wall Street Journal goes further to demonstrate the reality of the disconnect on an individual basis. The paper has launched two side-by-side live feeds showing news stories polarised in different political viewpoints. One feed is ‘red’ and the other ‘blue’. Sources were classified into each colour during a 2015 Facebook study depending on their political stance, this was based on the content they posted on Facebook (either produced by themselves or by a 3^rd party). You can sort by specific topics such as 'President Trump' or the 'Affordable Care Act' to see the current news and posts on Facebook discussing the topics from both liberal and conservative sources. The aim is to allow for an easy comparison of the headlines and takeaways from each bracket. The site definitely succeeds in highlighting the existent disparity in voters’ feeds, but offers no solution to the issue of convergence - you could however argue that that's not part of the responsibilities of a publication that aims to reflect as objectively as possible the times we live in. Perhaps there is space for a 3^rd tier, one that sits in the middle - or is that something that is disappearing from society rather rapidly? Buzzfeed’s Bubble Bursting Social networks are inevitably built around common interests; as individuals are more likely to connect with like-minded users who post content you find both engaging and interesting. There are concerns that this has led to social media bubbles, online cliques where users post and see content that aligns perfectly with their own viewpoint, but offering no exposure to alternative perspectives. Last week Buzzfeed announced its “Outside Your Bubble” feature that will be added to trending news pieces. The module is going to appear at the bottom of articles offering brief summaries from the different viewpoints from across the internet. Click through and you’ll be presented with verbatim from a variety of other platforms including Reddit and Twitter. What’s more, the feature is going to allow for user input to ensure the perspectives are comprehensive. Think your viewpoint is missing? Go ahead and email it to them. As the tool is rolled out, it will soon become apparent whether it’s enough to break through news bubbles and create constructive social media conversation. Or if it will just add more fuel to the fire for keyboard warriors on all sides of the arguments? Twitter’s Naughty Step Since the dawn of Twitter, the platform has come under fire for not doing enough to prevent users from harassment and trolling online. There have been innumerable calls for Twitter to provide a safer environment for online interaction. However, like most public institutions, Twitter faces a hard challenge in tackling online bullying without restricting free speech. In an attempt to reduce negative and offensive content on Twitter, they have launched a new scheme that limits the capabilities of users indulging in behaviour its algorithm has deemed as abusive. Users who are classed as abusive receive a message informing them that their account’s usage has been temporarily limited. This essentially works as a ‘time out’ during which tweets from these users are only visible to their own followers, dramatically reducing their reach online. How is the social media platform that once described itself as the “free speech wing of the free speech party” going to build a balance between a safe space and a platform for representative and varied discussion? After all, can it really ban all the Twitter users that think Trump is a bellend? As we realize we can get stuck in our social echo chambers, the trend for other voices and opinions - the lifeblood of democracy - is rising, and media outlets and social platforms alike will have to start taking responsibility for what filters through to it's users. If you’d like to hear how we’ve been able to help agencies and brands with get through to the right feeds and connect with them on a human level, then get in touch with us here.

Pulsar helps Pharma join the Online Conversation about P.A.D.

admin — Thu, 02 Mar 2017 19:11:43 +0000

Pulsar works with many pharma companies, including AbbVie, AstraZeneca, GSK, and Ogilvy Healthworld, to name but a few. In this blog post, we wanted to give you an example of what kind of insights we can dig out from data for the pharma industry, using an example from one of the many researches we've set up around therapeutic areas: Peripheral Arterial Disease (P.A.D.), a disease that restricts blood supply to leg muscles. Here's what we found. Peripheral Arterial discussion is currently largely dominated by professional health publications and medical research centres. Patients are not hugely involved in the online discussion, and there is little awareness of P.A.D. beyond the medical sphere, due to it being in a relatively early stage of research and under-diagnosis. However, people are slowly reading more about P.A.D. in the news - and they're starting to join in the conversation as a result. Anytime there is a mention of the disease in a journal or newspaper, there is a clear peak in online conversations, with more people engaging in the discussion: Spikes and conversations involving P.A.D. on Twitter, 01/01-30/04 2016, source: Pulsar A PHD in Advocacy Online influencers are not just a hot topic for the tech, FMCG and travel industries. In pharma, these key players can heavily sway public opinion and have direct effects on how companies and their assets perform on the markets. Pulsar identified who was the most influential in the Twittersphere, and found that NYT Health figures at the top of the list, thanks to a feature on P.A.D. gaining substantial traction in April 2016. Medical journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology are also important news sources. And two doctors rank highly on visibility and number of followers. Most mentioned social media influencers, source: Pulsar The Hot Topics that Could Cause Fevers What are people talking about, when they talk about P.A.D., you ask? We found that other medical conditions such as diabetes, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure were all central topics of conversation, due to them being direct causes of the disease. Mentions of diabetes itself account for 28% of the conversation, especially featuring in the news and on patient forums. So, much of the discussion online is around the roots of the condition. This also incorporates topics like the effect of lifestyle and health habits on P.A.D. Studies and news articles widely point to the positive effect of regular exercise and walking, while smoking is also a recurrent conversation topic. The main topics of conversation, in regards to health that arise on social media, source: Pulsar The Golden Insight When we looked at the overall discussion, and particularly looked at how patients were discussing P.A.D., we identified that the patient journey could be mapped out into four stages - it follows a similar path as to when you would experience an ailment you'd want to get treated for. We can clearly see that between diagnosis and treatment there is confusion and lack of action, source: Pulsar Initially, patients experience symptoms but struggle to identify what they have. There is then a moment of discovery, where patients might read about the condition in the news, and associate it to their symptoms, realising that they might have P.A.D. Diagnosis comes later, since awareness of the condition is low and people often delay seeking proper medical advice to address their symptoms. After diagnosis, patients struggle to find effective treatment and medication for their condition, so they revert to lifestyle changes as a result of this. Conclusion Social data offers the key point for pharma companies to learn more about their consumers and how they should be marketing their products to them - the customer journey is a key part to that. And most importantly, it can help companies figure out where in the conversation they can really connect with their audience. By identifying at which point in the conversation the online community seems to get lost, brands are now able to develop strategies that intercept that point, keeping the communication clear and concise with the most complicated topics. To find about how the top 20 Pharma companies use social media to their advantage click for our Social Check-Up report in partnership with Ogilvy Healthworld here – or perhaps you’re interested in our report on Colds and Flu on social media. Another enquiry? Drop us a line at info@pulsarplatform.com.

Brand Dig: Connecting brands with the protesting trend

Harry — Fri, 10 Mar 2017 17:23:49 +0000

In this blog series, we dig into the world of marketing and discuss brands, news, trends and examples that have made the digital headlines. In this week’s post, researcher Harry looks at how brands are jumping on the protest band wagon. When an estimated 4.2 million people take part in a Women's March in the US alone, it's safe to say that the status quo is over. Fuelled by a media landscape that's brimming with both anxiety and passion around equality, immigration and the environment, people are protesting for the first time in their lives. So when writing your thoughts on a sign and marching in the streets with other likeminded people is the new normal - what is a brand's role in all this? How can brands get involved in the cultural conversation when the nature of the discussion is so divisive? According to the folks at Saturday Night Live they shouldn't. In a sketch that blasts the advertising industry, an agency competes to work on a Cheetos campaign. The message is clear: don't align your brand with a protest unless there's a clear connection otherwise it comes across as corporate exploitation of someone else’s pain. Instead a brand like Cheetos should probably just stick with positioning itself as a fun kids’ snack. So how are other brands weaving protests into their campaigns?

An app that monitors ‘manterrupting’ at work

Even if they haven’t experienced it, most women have seen it. When a man interrupts or talks over a woman without letting them get a word in. You see it at work, at home and on TV panel shows. It’s definitely a thing. So what’s the solution? You could start by understanding that it’s firmly embedded in most cultures and that awareness, education and behaviour change amongst men is more likely to create meaningful results. Or you could create an app. And a Brazilian creative agency has gone with the latter. Launched to coincide with International Women’s Day, “Woman Interrupted” is a smartphone app that analyses conversations to decipher how often men interrupt women. So the user downloads the app, teaches it to recognise her voice, and then records her conversations with men to determine how often her voice is cut off mid-sentence by a male voice. It even generates graphic reports that you can share on social media. So while the app might draw some attention to the problem – is it really going to change men’s behaviour?

P&G challenges gender stereotypes

From the movies we watch to the adverts on TV, most media we consume has some form of stereotype that supposedly makes it relatable. But what if the gender tropes on the screen aren’t really grounded in the real world, but an imagined reality that’s increasingly out of touch? That’s the thinking behind P&G’s #WeSeeEqual campaign which promotes gender equality in its adverts for International Women’s Day. The advert features a mash-up of clips from previous campaigns that each defies a gender stereotype with captions like “tears don’t care who cry them”, “diapers don’t care who change them” and “households don’t care who head them”. But as the advert isn’t supported by any meaningful action, it certainly has all the hallmarks of a brand promoting a faux-activism. P&G’s brands like Ariel and Fairy – which have run ads on gender equality in the past – have a somewhat tenuous connection to gender equality. But the lack of relevance to the brand can always be made up by a real initiative behind the creative. Just look at the initiative to end girl-to-girl bullying from P&G’s Secret deodorant.

Ikea is providing a meaningful opportunity to female refugees

The Syrian refugee crisis is just as tragic for the way it shows the lack of humanity among some western governments, as it is for knowing just how many people have been displaced from their homes. For instance, since 2011, Jordan has accepted over 655,000 refugees – but many of them cannot find work. So Ikea has decided to step in and contribute in its own small way. An inexpensive flat-pack furniture brand ostensibly has just as much relevance to Syrian refugees as Cheetos might have to immigrants. But unlike SNL’s joke Cheetos campaign, there’s both a real connection and action behind Ikea’s initiative. The Swedish company has said in 2019 it will start selling a line of rugs and textiles made by Syrian refugees living in Jordan – most of whom are women. Demonstrating that Ikea isn’t just jumping on the anti-Trump bandwagon for the sake of publicity, the project actually pre-dates the President’s Syrian refugee ban. And with the initiative expected to create jobs for around 200 refugees, Ikea has been smart to find a real connection between what it sells in its stores and people who help. If you’d like to hear how we’ve been able to help agencies and brands resonate with just an audience but with people, get in touch with us here.

Catch Pulsar at SXSW, 10 March 2017

Fri, 10 Mar 2017 18:31:28 +0000

Taking place from the 10th to the 16th March in Austin, Texas. Pulsar will join some of the brightest business minds from across the globe as tech experts, all come together under one roof to discuss everything from developments in the United States, to innovative new ideas in the international technological ecosystem. Like Pulsar, SXSW dedicates itself to helping creative people achieve their goals. Founded in 1987 in Austin, Texas, SXSW is best known for its conference and festivals that celebrate the convergence of the interactive, film, and music industries. The SXSW Conference provides an opportunity for global professionals at every level to participate, learn, and network. Pulsar helps industries in entertainment, culture, and technology, find insight into every facet of human behaviour. So catch us there and discover how Pulsar can improve your strategic, creative and marketing approach. If you simply cannot wait to chat until then, drop us a mail and we’ll get the social listening ball moving with our innovative platform. If you really can’t make it, we’ve got you covered, follow @Pulsar_social on Twitter to get live updates during the event.

Brand Dig: The Brands that are Celebrating Diversity by Unifying through Love

Thu, 20 Apr 2017 14:03:36 +0000

In this blog series, we dig into the world of marketing and discuss brands, news, trends and examples that have made the digital headlines. In this week’s post, marketer Kyle looks at how brands are supporting a different kind of love - the love of difference. With the recent protests, scandals, right wing politics, racial tensions, war... what the world needs now more than ever is to stand united. That's easier said than done, considering that in a modern-day era, we have so many philosophies that often divide society in half (cough Brexit, cough Trump). It's a gamble for a brand to pick a side that not only stays true to their values but doesn't alienate opposing beliefs. Maybe that is the key though -using the concept of difference to portray love between all people... a feeling every human being shares. Shock To The Heart, Giving Love a Good Name Reminding us that love may not be the same for all of us but a sentiment we all share, the "Love Has No Labels" campaign is back, using tactics to remind us that no matter our sexual orientation, religion or ethnicity, we all possess the ability to love. The Ad Council and R/GA used the recent Valentine’s Day to promote free love using the ever-awkward Kiss Cam, (which was predominantly a gimmick at NBL Basketball games) as the the medium to showcase change. The Kiss Cam is usually a camera where they point at a couple (usually a man and a woman) during a live game, whom then kiss in front of thousands of people, as well as a few million others that happen to be tuning in on the telly. The NFL, Ad Council and R/GA teamed up (which could also use some positivity after Deflategate and the concussion scandal, among others) to challenge the concept of an "accepted love". The brilliance of this comes down to two things: using the stereotypical backdrop of a macho-man football game to challenge preconceptions, and the sheer diversity of everyone involved, to provide real examples that love is a universal feeling between all. This is not the first-time the Ad Council has pulled a stunt like this; back in 2015 they used an X-Ray Machine to challenge the the public's perception of natural love as well.

Put it On and Wear it with Pride,

Bringing attention to homosexuality through an iconic brand is becoming a trend, with brands openly recognising and celebrating Gay Pride after the legalisation of gay marriage. The problem is that sometimes this can fall flat and give the impression that brands are just trying to use this win for the LGBT community to leverage their brand with the latest trend, for example, by incorporating a rainbow in their design. Cue fashion, an industry that actively working towards recognising different sexual orientations. In terms of “through the ages”, you don’t get many brands that have 'been there and done that' quite like Levis. Founded in May 1853 the famous denim design has seen more change than some countries. This includes remembering the first openly gay politician, Harvey Milk. Assassinated in 1978, Harvey Milk propelled the gay community into the spotlight by fighting for human rights as an elected Californian Public Office Official, making this not just an LGBT issue but a humanity issue. Partnering with the Harvey Milk Foundation to honour the late activist, Levis launched a gender-neutral clothing line in time for Gay Pride month, to celebrate love between same sexes. Levis essentially used their own product to not only bring attention to equality for all, but ensured that they didn't segregate heterosexuals in the process, which as brand can be a gamble when identifying a common trend. Their clothing line incorporates a broad spectrum of orientations, races and body types, to essentially connect two groups of people (gay and straight) through their product and honour one man's vision that was 30 years in the making: acceptance.

Separated by Different Similarities

When we think of the human race, it's impossible not to wonder how each one of us is different to one another in terms of personality traits, culture, beliefs and even looks. TV 2 perhaps found the best strategy to unify not just people, but a country, by identifying the similarities that lie between our differences. Danish broadcaster, TV 2 used a very simple yet effective method to illustrate just how alike we are to others. Grouping members of the public together into what looks like similar circles, they were soon separated by answering simple questions aimed at dividing. Once the experiment had taken place, people were astounded (as were we) at who shared similar characteristics with other groups. The Danish government have recently become a centre point for controversy, after passing a new immigration law, as well as a right-wing party putting pressure for cultures to integrate into the traditional Danish religious holidays. TV 2, (the national broadcaster for Denmark) is taking a stance and uniting people through their differences instead of supporting the powers that be. What's amazing though, is that by using traditional viewpoints, and mixing them with modern day ones, they are uniting a blend of people in a unified realm drawing out love between difference. By using the concept of love when tackling complex issues, these brands have managed to find common ground between people, connecting with their audiences, while still maintaining a strong ethos. So whether it's analysing why John Cena is a good influencer for enforcing acceptance or if GAYtms would work, recognising diversity in brand messaging is of utmost importance. Pulsar helps brands around the world understand their broad audience demographics and inspire them to adapt to new thinking - if you'd like more information of what we do, get in touch with us here.

Catch Pulsar at ARF 2017 in the Big Apple

Wed, 15 Mar 2017 16:57:06 +0000

Insight changes everything, and that's why the ARF Annual Conference (aka Re!Think) will be our next destination, as we find ourselves among the world’s insights, analytics and marketing leaders. The event will be sure to provide a healthy dose of discovery, networking and inspiration into different business realms. Gain first hand access to carefully curated and original research — these actionable truths will meet past, present and future challenges. Taking place on the 20th and 21st of March at the New York Hilton Midtown, Pulsar will join some of the most innovative business minds from across the globe. Companies from different sectors will all come together under one roof, discussing what's become the key to finding these business opportunities through insights. Next to gaining exclusive access to industry-winning case studies and original research, we'll be there discussing how our platform can unlock new insights to develop and measure great creative and implement new strategies. Pulsar is one of the industry leaders in audience intelligence, as we understand behind every post, like and share there is an insight into not only the way we connect, but the way we behave. Our platform unravels these insights with data that's visual and easy to read, offering solutions to business challenges that are not just in black and white. Register for this industry spectacle here and meet our head of retention for the USA, Kristina Follett (@Kfollett21) there to gain the upper hand with the best insights driven platform. If you simply cannot wait to talk until then, drop us a mail and we’ll get the audience intelligence ball moving with our innovative platform. If you really can’t make it, we’ve got you covered, follow @Pulsar_social on Twitter to get live updates during the event.

Agency Aces: Using Insights to Build Great Creative for Commemorative Days

Fri, 17 Mar 2017 14:50:53 +0000

Digging into the world of advertising, Kyle looks at what insights creatives are using to birth original concepts that build affinity between brands and people. Happy St. Patrick’s Day, the only day of the year where not only is it acceptable to be tipsy before 7pm, it’s encouraged. Now that we’ve addressed the alcoholic elephant in the room, we can shift our attention towards the insights behind commemorative days like St. Paddy’s. The type of insights that provide creative work with not only a great starting point, but a clear direction to follow. The same insights that create that shimmering lure, as brands connect ideas with various audiences. St. Patrick's Day: Guinness Insight – Finding time for a casual drink with friends has become quite difficult. Over 80 million men and women globally share Irish blood with a further 6 million that inhabit the island of emerald green. One of the bigger celebrations globally, St. Paddy’s is the perfect time for Ireland’s national icon, Guinness, to promote what has become its own (genuine) black gold. AMV BBDO considered how modern life sometimes gets in the way when we try to find time to meet friends with this viral advert. By comparing a group of mates to a flock of easily distracted sheep trying to get into a paddock, it’s clear to see just how stuck in our own world we can become. With St. Patrick’s Day and the social behaviour that it's tied to, a drink with your mates is now an excuse to ignore the girls, football matches, curry houses and celebrate with a few mates over a pint of the choice drink for St. Patrick's Day. April Fools' Day: Netflix Insight - People trust a brand's most successful attribute There is nothing quite like a brand playing a joke, resonating with people and, more importantly, getting a laugh while building brand awareness. We’ve seen it before, brands playing a prank - but Netflix, who have over time become very successful at funding and creating their own documentaries, are a great example, played out classically during April Fools' Day last year. When they announced that John Stamos was getting his own documentary, who were we to disagree with a studio that's won multiple awards? As it quickly turned out, Netflix was taking the proverbial mickey out of their eye for great entertainment. To give that prank a sense of realism, the trailer for the fake documentary with a video, where the ridiculously good-looking Mr Stamos has a meltdown in their offices. Then they pushed it one step further with the Netflix chief content officer issuing and apology. Not only did Netflix do well to use their trusted success at creating their gag, but they used it as the insight for a prank that was believable and had enough legs to create multiple content. Valentine’s Day: Galaxy chocolate Insight - Desire is Inspired by our Senses Valentine’s day, the international day of love, a guy and a girl, a guy and a guy, a girl and a girl, a guy that used to be a girl and girl that used to be a guy… this day celebrates love between all couples (that's what we'd like to see at least). But where does this feeling come from? Common myth is that Cupid (the love-child of the goddess of love Venus) is set to have wielded arrows, that when us mere mortals where shot with one, we do not feel pain (I'm sceptical) but instead, fall in love. Challenging conventional myth, creative powerhouse AMV BBDO (again) shot a beautifully visual advert that sees Galaxy chocolate take love’s centre stage. This concept had all the risk of coming across as cheesy, but by using the general idea that cupid is perhaps not such a good shot, articulated with artistic flair, Galaxy and AMV BBDO could prove that starting with a simple insight, that desire is inspired by our senses, can make all the difference to the creative direction and have a sweet tie-in with a day so many people celebrate. Thanksgiving: Dodge Ram Insight - Overcoming hardships define who we are Thanksgiving is the annual holiday where Americans celebrate all the different things in their lives they feel grateful for. It usually involves a roast turkey over a family lunch, like Christmas without presents basically. Car brand Dodge flipped the thanks over, and decided to use worship instead, in their campaign for the Dodge Ram. Having become the everyday working man’s vehicle, it makes sense for Dodge to appeal to the hardworking everyday men and women. Praising our difficulties may sound ridiculous at first, but with each challenge we face as humans, no matter what the result, we are not going to come out the other side the same person as we were before. We live, we learn and hopefully we rejoice. The genius behind this Thanksgiving ad is that before giving thanks, we need to overcome these hardships that we reap the rewards from, only then can we be truly grateful. Hitting the right nerve and sentiment can be tricky with creative, and Dodge hit the nail on the head with their relevant ad tied into the day of thanks. Using commemorative days to leverage your creative off is a great way to ensure relevance, it gives your brand the perfect medium to piggy back on and be seen by the public. For brands to make sure their campaign is unforgettable, they need to dig deep and make sure they can create work from insights that tie in with the theme of the specific day in question. So whether it’s comparing getting the lads together to a shepherd herding a flock of sheep, or how a brand's success can make us gullible… starting with insight can drive home unique, original and unforgettable creative. At Pulsar, we are dedicated to revealing the billions of insights hiding in the very DNA of human behaviour. Get in touch with us here, and we'll show you how you can use it to improve your campaigns.

Brand Dig: Brands that influence our behaviour, but can they change it?

Harry — Fri, 24 Mar 2017 12:36:21 +0000

Humans are definitely creatures of habit. Most of us have a daily routine that we rarely deviate from. It includes little things like catching the same train every morning or eating the same type of food – and it's very hard to break these habits even if there's a perfectly logical reason to. So when we're told to act more sustainably by eating less meat, recycling more rubbish, and taking fewer car journeys, it's perhaps not surprising that only a few of us actually change our behaviour. It's not just because we're set in our ways. Some people also think it won't make a difference. But it can and it does. That’s the thinking behind World Wildlife Foundation’s Earth Hour. WWF is asking everyone (in the world!) to turn their lights off for one hour this Saturday at 8:30pm GMT. The goal is to raise awareness that if individuals lead a more sustainable lifestyle it can have a significant effect on a global scale. Brands are one of the biggest influencers on our behaviour and some are trying to change it for good – but is it working?

Bosch is giving people the tools to eat sustainable seafood

While those who strip meat from their diet and replace it with fish might have good intentions to be more sustainable, ocean resources are also under significant strain. In fact around 90% of global fishing grounds are now considered to be ‘over-fished’ or ‘fully-exploited’. As a way of reversing the decline the home appliance brand Bosch has partnered with WWF to change the way people eat fish in Singapore – one of the world’s biggest consumers of seafood. The recently announced two-part campaign is based on spreading awareness and education. The first is a cooking series featuring ambassadors from Bosch preparing popular fish recipes with sustainable seafood. The second is a WWF Seafood Cookbook that makes it easier for Singaporeans to implement that change. Bosch and WWF recognise that in order to affect change it’s not enough just to spread the word. People must be given the tools to actually change their habits. Then there’s the question of will they?

J&J is making it easier to recycle in the bathroom

Recycling food packaging in the kitchen is becoming second nature. Many people have a separate bin for their plastics, cardboards and glass which means it much easier to recycle. But people’s behaviour in the bathroom is entirely different because few have a separate bin. In fact just 34% of regular recyclers admit that recycling products they use in the bathroom has never occurred to them. Johnson & Johnson – which produces many of our toiletries and cosmetic products – launched a campaign in 2014 called Care to Recycle that offered tips, tools and information to encourage people to recycle in the bathroom. The company even gave away free recycling bins after research showed that people would be more likely to change their behaviour if they had separate bin in their bathroom. But did it actually change their habits? According to a follow up study, nearly half of those who took part in the program reported an increase in their recycling efforts in the bathroom specifically. Another study revealed how those exposed to the campaign were more determined to recycle and increased their efforts to do so.

Kraft Heinz is pledging to change its own behaviour

Not every brand is trying to encourage more sustainable habits in consumers. Some recognise that they can still have a huge impact on the environment just by changing the way they operate themselves. And food giant Kraft Heinz did just that when it recently announced it would create a more sustainable supply chain by changing the way it sources palm oil. At least half of the world’s food and personal care products contain palm oil - and yet its production is directly linked to major deforestation and human rights abuses. So the $26 billion food company is pledging to source the ingredient in an “ethical, transparent and sustainable matter.” But is this just a fluffy CSR goal or is there real action behind their words? It certainly comes at a time when NGOs like WWF and Rainforest Action Network have publicised and put pressure on the likes of Kraft Heinz for "wreaking havoc" on the environment worldwide. So the idea might not entirely be theirs. WWF did, however, give the company’s efforts an overall thumbs-up in its most recent palm oil scorecard - the third sector equivalent of a "like" on social media to say "you're doing good". As the world gets larger and overpopulation becomes the biggest issue around sustainability, it's of the utmost importance for brands to be eco-friendly. Brands that lead the charge by finding new and innovative ways to combat environmental issues are becoming increasingly integral to drive change within the industry and human behaviour. If you’d like to hear how we’ve been able to help agencies and brands identify opportunities to make the world a better place, then get in touch with us here.

Event: Catch Pulsar at the STEP Conference 2017

Tue, 28 Mar 2017 13:54:10 +0000

Taking place on the 5th and 6th of April at the Dubai International Marine Club, Pulsar will join some of world's brightest and most creative minds from across the globe as the latest innovations from the Middle Eastern and North African region are showcased at STEP conference 2017. Since the event started in 2013, STEP has grown exponentially from 300 to more than 4000 attendees in 2016 alone, the conference has moved from being specifically technology-centric, to become one of the world's foremost gatherings for technology, digital and entertainment industries. The largest interactive gathering in MENA will bring together thousands of entrepreneurs, investors, tech and media enthusiasts together as well as music leaders, record labels, producers and artists at a 3-day event loaded with talks, exhibitions and signature happenings. Pulsar is one of the industry leaders in audience intelligence, as we understand behind every piece of data, there is an human insight into not only the way we connect, but the way we behave. Our platform unravels these insights with easily in-depth data that's easily translated, and offers solutions to the problems that are not just in black and white. Register for this industry spectacle here, meet our very talented Pulsar professionals, Treesha Pandoo (@Treesha_Pandoo) and Marcus Pemberton (@mipemberton) there, and you'll start gaining the upper hand in the media space with the best insight driven solutions. If you simply cannot wait to chat until then, drop us a mail and we’ll get the social listening ball moving with our innovative platform. If you really can’t make it, we’ve got you covered, follow @Pulsar_social on Twitter to get live updates during the event.

Agencies Aces: Creative that uses Experience to Attract Travellers

Thu, 30 Mar 2017 14:39:52 +0000

Digging into the world of advertising, Kyle looks at what insights creatives are using to birth original concepts that build affinity between brands and people. It’s that time again for us here in London: when the grey fades away and suddenly we're hit with a strange beam of light, indicating sunny season is around the corner. That means one thing: sun-cream. But it also means that it’s time to start looking at holiday locations. The thing behind our wanderlust, or the reason we bother leaving our comfy nests is a hunger for experiences. The people, the sites, the tastes, the sounds: this is what traveling is all about. So using the notion of experience, what kind of fresh insights have creatives been using to attract future would be travellers? Kyle digs into a few examples:

Georgia Tourism

Insight – Provide a surprising holiday campaign that ties into an existing audience https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wj3v_UPRauY Now when us usual folk visit a foreign country, we tend to approach border control cautiously, avoiding any actions that might put us in line for that cavity search we all want to avoid. This particular fear turned out to be unnecessary for Jesper Black when he visited Georgia. Instead of being greeted by suspicious stares, he was welcomed with a bottle of wine, and that was just the start of it. Mr Black had the full red carpet rolled out for him when he arrived in Georgia, from being picked up in a black Mercedes with a police escort, to dining with the prime minister enjoying some of Georgia’s favourite cuisine: he really experienced the country’s 5-star service. The reason for this warm welcome was due to him being the 6 millionth tourist to visit the small European nation. Well, apart from the fact that he actually wasn’t. Yes, we'll explain: the creatives behind the stunt confessed that although Jesper Black wasn’t exactly number 6 million (he was very close to it) - he was relevant because he's a fairly well-known YouTuber with a potential for a big following. The nice thing is that Mr. Black actually had no idea what was in store for him when he travelled there. The smart angle of this campaign is that not only could it showcase Georgia in a new light, but the campaign could tag onto an existing audience, without losing authenticity (as the surprise was real). Plus, they could add further publicity to their campaign through the first-hand account of the events that unfolded with Jesper Black’s YouTube channel. Authentic surprises + existing audiences = win for Georgia.

Tourisme Québec

Insight – A holiday is about enjoying different experiences https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvpIK7dpCkQ&t=2s Getting around on holiday can be a real mission, especially if you’re trying see an entire country. You want to be on some sort of path (whether it’s beaten or not), most likely depending on what you're trying to escape back home (Stress, bad weather, lack of nature, you're probably already filling in the rest). But do we need the fancy hotels? The room service? The personal masseuse? No - no we don’t, according to the latest campaign from Quebec's tourism board. In their efforts to welcome more people to their lovely and rather large Canadian province, the tourism board chose a lucky couple to enjoy the diversity of the region, all from the comfort of their own room. How? The couple was sheltered by a single room, and transported to different locations around Quebec, all the way from the St. Lawrence River to the historic Château Frontenac to the Foresta Lumina. Seeing an entire country from just one basic room: the idea is simple and works in bringing the beauty of the landscape to life, because it stems from the insight of just how diverse Quebec is as a stage for a wide range of experiences. You don't need the 'extras' that sometimes try to hide the fact that the destination itself might not have too much on offer...

Swedish Tourism Association

Insight – Friendly people + historic tie-in make the experience worthwhile https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtb3f_NAmK0 Sweden, a country where Vikings once reigned! And where their descendants are now reigning the world of DIY interior design. But besides that, how much do you know about Sweden (actual Swedes reading this excluded)? Well: you can always phone Sweden and just ask. No seriously. Coinciding with the 250 year celebrations of Sweden being the first country to abolish censorship, they decided the best way to promote Sweden to travellers would be by inspiring them to phone them up. Thought up by Ingo Stockholm, a WPP agency, for the Swedish Tourist Association, people from around the world were spurred on to phone Sweden on a unique mobile number, which would connect them with a Swedish person (that had pre-registered before) to have a conversation about anything really. By using this idea as a catalyst for pride in the place you live, they were able to not only celebrate freedom of speech but increase awareness for tourists through a country’s own people. Pure genius.

Uganda Tourism

Insight – Bringing the holiday experience to your doorstep https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHgimLjEZ2A London, Big Ben, red buses, pubs, restaurants, gorillas. You don’t have to be an avid traveler to know which word is the odd one out. Uganda is a place that has become synonymous for its African beauty, and more recently, its gorilla population - thanks to a stunt in Trafalgar Square. To drive awareness for Uganda being one of the best places to find these majestic beasts, a man mimicking a gorilla was placed in the heart of London. Fitted with a life-like animatronic face, this experiential promotion gave Londoners and tourists a look into what it might be like to come face to face with one. By contrasting a exotic holiday experience with city life, people were able to draw comparisons, which could provide a live (and lively) experience for what may be in store for a potential next holiday destination. Bringing an experience to life is difficult, and what these tourist boards and their agencies have done is use reality as the trigger to illustrate how beautifully unique the various countries are. Each of these campaigns use a genuine experience to tell a story and provide an insight into what a holiday would be like if you travelled there. They all work because of the unique detail of each place that are revealed by these insights. At Pulsar, we are dedicated to revealing the insights hiding in the very DNA of human behaviour. Get in touch with us here, and we’ll show you how you can use it to improve your campaigns.

Webinar: Towards an hypothesis-driven insights approach to social media analysis

admin — Tue, 04 Apr 2017 17:08:02 +0000

You won’t get good answers unless you’re asking good questions! For some reason in social media research this simple fact has been overlooked for a long time, often leading to noisy datasets, time consuming analysis and ultimately weaker insights. And the introduction of privacy-first data sources like Facebook and LinkedIn which offer unprecedented access to data that’s aggregated and anonymised, has made the need for better questions more pressing then ever. In response to this shift a new research approach is emerging. Join us for an inspirational webinar hosted by our VP, Francesco D’Orazio, as he talks us through how to use social data to validate specific research hypothesis. Francesco D'Orazio (@abc3d) This webinar will cover the steps to implement a hypothesis driven approach:

How to turn an insight, creative or media brief into a research hypothesis
How to translate the hypothesis into a series of audience signals to map moments, behaviours, attitudes and opinions
How to use those signals to craft insights that validate or disprove the original hypothesis or drive completely new insights/hypothesis

Register here and join us on the 12^th of April at 5:00pm GMT/UTC to discover the pathway towards a world of insights, starting at your brand’s digital doorstep.

Brand Dig: when Pepsi, Barbie and Uspaah used stereotypes in ads - with varying success

Harry — Fri, 07 Apr 2017 13:24:23 +0000

In this blog series, we dig into the world of marketing and discuss brands, news, trends and examples that have made the digital headlines. In this week’s post, researcher Harry looks at how brands are using stereotypes to make or break their campaigns. There are a number of reasons why people might use stereotypes. One of the main reasons, though, is surely a lack of understanding of the group being described. But while you might call out a mate if they make sweeping generalisations about other people, brands don't get off so lightly. When marketers don't fully understand their audience, they often end up relying on stereotypes. At best these stereotypes are ineffective and ignored. At worst they're offensive to the brand's audience. Dove finds the perfect mum When Dove put up a huge billboard in Waterloo station featuring a flawless airbrushed mum with the caption – “Is there a perfect mum?” – people naturally thought the advert was telling mothers to live up to a stereotype of perfection. “Our imperfections make us perfect. Asking wrong question to wrong audience,” wrote one Twitter user. “Another filtered and unrealistic 'face' of a brand aimed at mothers,” wrote another. But it seems Dove’s stereotyping was intentional. The woman in the advert is actually an avatar created from other idealised images of motherhood which new mums are exposed to every day. Why go to all the effort? According to Dove’s own research, nine out of ten first-time mums feel the pressure to be perfect as a result of the media depictions of what motherhood should look like. The intention was to raise awareness and maybe even spark a discussion about the issue (which it evidently has). Although it was a smart use of a stereotype, the message must have been lost on some people. In fact, a quick poll by Stylist found that 38% of people thought it was a clever way of provoking discussion, but 37% said it wasn’t obvious enough that it’s an avatar – and 25% would have preferred real mums to prove the point. Mattel shows who really plays with Barbies https://youtu.be/PGPbKS8XUMY After decades of gathering audience insight on the concerns and aspirations of mothers, most brands today understand what messages are likely to resonate with them. Yet family dynamics are changing as traditional gender roles are being challenged. What marketers might lack now is a good understanding of the needs and values of modern fathers. In an effort to update its messaging so it does resonate with this new type of homemaker, Barbie maker Mattel launched an advert that challenges a parenting stereotype. The campaign featured six real dads whose afternoon ritual of watching American football is now interrupted by Barbie time with their daughters. Mattel’s advert only stands out because many brands don’t fully understand modern fathers – or at least many don’t communicate like they do. Of course in the real world you wouldn’t think twice if you saw a dad playing with his daughter and her toys. It just shows that there’s often a big disconnect between our own experiences and what we see reflected back in the media. The brands that get this are the ones who are winning. Pepsi imagines what it’s like to protest https://youtu.be/dA5Yq1DLSmQ From the Women’s Marches to the Black Lives Matter protests, 2017 has seen the rise of various different movements addressing issues around gender, race and society. But when Pepsi tried to join in the conversation with an advert depicting its own take of what’s happening, the internet went berserk and the drinks giant was forced to pull the content down. So where did it go wrong? The advert starts with a march full of attractive millennials holding nondescript signs featuring peace symbols and “Join the conversation”. Everyone’s smiling, laughing and even high-fiving. Meanwhile, Kendall Jenner is on a fashion shoot and spots the protesters. In a show of solidarity she pulls off her wig, rubs off her lipstick and joins the march (not before grabbing a can of Pepsi first). The climax occurs when Kendall offers a policeman the can of Pepsi and the crowd go wild as tattooed millennials fist pump the air. The glaringly obvious problem is that the advert has almost no grounding in people’s real-world experience of protesting. In other words, it was based on a stereotype of what it means to be an activist or attend a march. Not surprisingly, the internet tore the advert apart for trivialising protests like Black Lives Matter – where the police are more likely to wave batons and tear gas than soda cans. USPAAH gets the tone and timing just wrong Brands shouldn't join the conversation around social issues if they don't want to, but that doesn't mean they can be oblivious to what's going on around them. In the same week as International Women's Day a mobile spa service called USPAAH launched ads on the London Underground to which one Twitter user commented, "Oh. It’s the fictional 1950s where women are placated by strangers coming into their home with nail polish." Was it that bad? The ad features a close up of a man pleading alongside a message that reads, “Out with the guys ‘til 4am again…? Keep her sweet with a spa mani/pedi at home.” Rather than fall back on stereotypes from the "fictional 1950s", the spa could have run a far simpler message about a time-poor woman exhausted from work and a man buying her a treat. Instead the execution and timing of the advert missed the mark and the brand ended up offending the people it wanted to attract. Understanding people is hard and creating messages that will resonate with everyone is even harder. Yet when brands base their communications on a simple insight like mothers feeling the pressure to be perfect or fathers being interrupted by Barbie time, the adverts usually land well. It’s the difference between falling back on a stereotype (which is the easier option) and being grounded in people’s real-life experiences. If you’d like to hear how we’ve been able to help agencies and brands identify opportunities to make the world a better place, then get in touch with us here.

Event: Catch us at NEMRA 2017

Mon, 10 Apr 2017 16:34:03 +0000

Taking place on the 18th of May at the Conference Centre at Waltham Woods, Pulsar will join some of the brightest and most creative research minds at The New England Marketing Research Association (NEMRA/NEIA) Spring Conference 2017. Share a day of learning, connecting, and fun at one of Boston's premiere research events.

Pulsar's Head of US Client Services, Kristina Follett, will be in attendance and keen to discuss any audience insight questions you may have - if you'd like to set up a chat ahead of time, simply book a meeting here.

Starting at 8:00am and closing with cocktails at 18:00pm, we’ll be there for a day filled with insightful talks that will shine a light on the latest happenings within the research industry. To register for the event, please click here.

NEMRA is the leading industry association for market research and analytics professionals. Nationally, the Marketing Research Association (MRA) merged with The Council of American Survey Research Organizations (CASRO). Combined, they formed the Insights Association - NEIA.

Pulsar is one of the industry leaders in audience intelligence, because we understand behind every piece of data, there is a human insight into not only the way we connect, but the way we behave. Our research platform unravels these insights with in-depth data that’s easily translated, offering solutions to problems that are not just in black and white. If you simply cannot wait to chat until then, drop us a mail and we’ll get the social listening ball moving with our innovative platform. If you really can’t make it, we’ve got you covered, follow @Pulsar_social on Twitter to get live updates during the event.

Agency Aces: Creative that Embraces the Awkward

Thu, 13 Apr 2017 15:08:40 +0000

Digging into the world of advertising, Kyle looks at what insights, creatives are using to birth original concepts that build affinity between brands and people. What a colossal nightmare some brands have had since our last Agency Aces a fortnight ago. Pepsi made protests look like some empowered hipster street protest, whilst at the same time, United Airlines were embroiled in a public… wait, United Airlines are still involved in a PR storm (the only difference is that the storm recently just caught fire). And yet, after these turbulent two weeks, United Airlines still have no sight of clear, blue skies ahead. I simply cannot exclude air travel as the topic for this week’s Agency Aces (well that’s what my boss tells me anyways); but down here on the ground it’s easier to spot the silver lining when we’re not facing the storm head on. So, in this blog we'll take a more positive look at how creatives are leveraging insights from different kinds of awkward situations to produce hilarious commercials.

Southwest Airlines

Insight – When life makes things awkward, running away is the best option. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_dm2BCM9xY Ah, we've all been there (if you haven't, you're a liar) - from cracking jokes at funerals to being honest about the taste of your mother in-law's burnt chicken. When an awkward moment starts to hang in the air after something you’ve said, nothing feels more appealing then melting into the cracks beneath the floor. Using this uneasy feeling to reimagine a previous campaign of theirs, the "Wanna Get Away" commercials celebrate the thought of jumping on a plane and escaping the awkwardness forever. This works so well because it's a different take on ‘getting away’. Instead of the expected holiday imagery of white sandy beaches and turquoise oceans, these ads use the feeling of sheer embarrassment and needing to ‘get away’ (or escape) as the catalyst to bring attention to their air fare sale.

Virgin Airlines

Insight – Avoid being put in an awkward position, literally. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Qo-nOVCwh4 Before brands decided that being liberal is cool, Network BBDO Johannesburg decided to portray a love story as old as time itself - two men in a turbulent relationship. This turbulence however we find out is caused by an uncomfortable amount of closeness 10,000 feet in the air. Illustrating how space is more than a slight inconvenience during plane journeys, Virgin Atlantic was able to promote their new upper class suite by humorously showing this discomfort. The way they bring this to light is smart because it naturally resonates with a mass audience. Even if you haven't experienced the ‘joys’ of coddling a stranger whilst up in the air, chances are that if you've ever taken any form of public transport, people have invaded your personal space. By acknowledging the occasional awkwardness of air travel, Virgin instantly demonstrate empathy and build rapport with consumers.

Air New Zealand

Insight – Sooth awkward with luxurious comfort https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZLBY3lYtsQ Sexual innuendoes (in your end-o, waheyyyy) are an easy way to get a cheap laugh… or a deafening silence. Using the latter to set the tone in perhaps the most awkward situation of all; the first conversation between strangers, Air New Zealand could take a different spin on awkwardness. By using humor to celebrate this uneasy dialogue, the Kiwi airline neatly promoted the comfort of their premium economy seating. They achieved this by illustrating how to ease the burden of emotional discomfort with the luxury of physical relaxation. Essentially, these ads use the familiar feeling of awkwardness to bring their concepts to light, creating an emotional tie and building affinity with their audience. Using humor as the tone makes it memorable because people are far more likely to reference something funny, than they would an airline slogan. By finding the human element within these common situations that they are often the cause of, airlines are able to inject some much-needed humor to bring their creative to life. At Pulsar, we are dedicated to revealing the insights hiding in the very DNA of human behavior. Get in touch with us here, and we’ll show you how you can use it to improve your campaigns.

Politics are in fashion: how lifestyle brands navigate the risky mix of advertising and politics

Judith — Wed, 19 Apr 2017 15:58:04 +0000

When Pepsi’s ad featuring Kendall Jenner was unleashed on the world last week, the Internet collectively cringed... then roared, causing the ad to be pulled within 24 hours. So many things were so wrong with this ad: the glaring disconnect between Pepsi and politics, exploiting the Black Lives Matter movement to peddle soda, using a Patron Saint of shallowness to promote ‘wokeness’… We were only left with one question: who the hell signed this off?!

Politics are the growing trend in advertising

Although the Pepsi-Jenner debacle once again reignited the conversation around advertising and where the line of good taste lies, brands using politics for their own capital gain has been a growing trend. One of the industries that is particularly interesting in this field is fashion. Fast-paced and cut-throat, fashion inherently pushes itself to be more ‘on trend’ than most industries – but fashion also has a bad reputation when it comes to production processes, with low wages, horrible working conditions and other scandals hitting the headlines regularly.

Exploring the fashion industry's use of politics in branding

In our new report, Politics are in fashion: the dangers of using political messaging in branding, our research analyst Anna Rudkevych illustrates the risk of mixing politics and fashion using three major fashion brands – American Apparel, H&M and Nike. Analyzing consumer response to these campaigns, the report takes a closer look at the importance of brand authenticity, as well as a deep dive into the red tape around politics in brand advertising – and what elements help (or harm) the narrative. Do consumers ‘allow’ brands to get political, for example by celebrating diversity, if that brand would also be known for the slummiest of factory conditions in Southeast Asia? And what about CEO scandals - like start-up brand Thinx suffered recently – do they outweigh a CSR-positive company vision and actual political involvement? You can read our findings here by downloading our free 20-page report.

Know your audience and avoid tone-deafness: yes, it’s possible

It’s true that it’s increasingly hard for brands to stand out through advertising. Because of this, they continuously strive for creative narratives that are better tuned in to their audience’s shifting world views: if political activism goes more ‘mainstream’, brands will be quick to jump on the bandwagon. As demonstrated by so many brands, the results can vary wildly. Plus, in the age of social media, consumers have a strong online voice that won’t allow brands to get away with campaigns that are notably out of touch. The whole key to avoiding the ‘who the hell signed this off?’ question is deceptively simple: knowing your audience. And we don’t just mean having a broad understanding of what they’re saying online, but truly knowing what motivates them, how (politically or otherwise) active they are, what causes them to take action, and how you can emotionally connect with them. The information is there – and brands and their agencies can all use it to avoid PR disasters. Download our free report here. Want to know how we get our insights? We’d love to show you. Drop us a line on info@pulsarplatform.com and sign up for a demonstration of our audience intelligence software today.

How Gaming Marketing Grew Up - Part 1: The Early Days

Thu, 27 Apr 2017 12:37:18 +0000

How did gaming advertisers widen their audience appeal through evolving storytelling? In this blog series, we dig into the world of marketing and discuss brands, news, trends and examples that have made digital headlines. In this two-part Agency Aces, Kyle looks at how creative storytelling influenced advertising, shifted attitudes, and appealed to increasingly wider audiences in the gaming industry. Tetris, Pac-Man, Super Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog… these games are embedded into many a childhood memory. For many, none more so than a side-scroller that involved a portly plumber eating mushrooms, saving kidnapped princesses and smashing turtles in the process – the one and only Super Mario. These days, whilst you can still get up to similarly questionable actions in HD graphics, we are encouraged to become emotionally attached to our digital avatar - not just because of the updated game mechanics (and perhaps unchecked mental issues), but because of just how engaging these digital worlds have become. So, when did this change? How did story-telling evolve and influence great narrative in TV games? From 60-year-olds to 6-year-olds, gamers wanted something more than an arcade cabinet coin-guzzler to bash buttons on; they want a story to unfold. An interactive novel, of sorts. And this had to be reflected in the advertising and marketing surrounding the title. Bringing a story to life remains one of the most power tools to get an audience to engage with your brand. Advertisers have known this for decades; so, when did great story telling become the source of inspiration for great games and in turn, effective campaigns? Well, first, let’s jump back into the ‘totally bodacious, dude’ 1980&90s. Video gaming was still in its relative infancy, and so apparently, was its audience – take for example, this… thing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uI3rO3PbYOo Fortunately, things started to get better. Brands began to understand their audience and widening demographic. And there’s no better game series to start with than…

It’s-a-me, a brand name

Super Mario Bros. – 1990 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzln22voxVM With a game like Mario, the story is completely secondary to the gameplay. One of the first of its kind, gamers were blown away by the running, jumping figure on a mission to save a Princess. And by the time this commercial aired, Mario was a household name. Despite an unconventional sequel in Super Mario 2, Super Mario 3 was (and still is) heralded as one of the greatest platformers of gaming history and proved incredibly popular when it launched. Although fiercely battling Sonic for top spot, Mario was a highly bankable icon, with his own breakfast cereal, television cartoon and, by 1993, a bizarre live-action movie starring Bob Hoskins and Dennis Hopper. Simply uttering the word ‘Mario’ would invoke happiness in the hearts of young gamers (and fear in the bank accounts of their parents)… and that’s just what this commercial did. Over and over. Less of a commercial and more of a boast, but still a step forward in advertisers understanding the power of the brand image.

‘Lara’s Back’ - A game for the boys?

Tomb Raider – 1997 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdOs1Iz1hKA The boys are also here and there... or not anymore, as it would appear. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VBAoN9mmSU Sex sells, and few have been as sexualized in the video game industry as Lara Croft. And back in the 90’s, she was the digital dream of many a teenage boy, so that’s exactly what this commercial capitalizes on. Whilst not outright exploiting Lara’s physique and appeal, the advertisers miss the mark by inferring that this is a game that only ‘boys’ will play - in a case of clearly not understanding the full audience and relying on stereotypes. Whilst this ad reliably appeals to its core demographic, it definitively alienates others - potentially also causing negative sentiment around the title. Female empowerment be damned… even when Lara is more of an Indiana Jones parallel than Nicki Minaj. Fortunately in more recent times, Tomb Raider has seen something of a reimagining and has become a realistic adventurer within a story-driven epic.

‘Double Life’ – I’ve lived

PlayStation - 1999 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuiEKm5dDrY Gritty, raw, real, you’d be forgiven if you thought this was a trailer for the newest Guy Ritchie film. This commercial jumped two feet into muddy waters and came out looking like an Oscar winner. Before this ad aired, few would dare to portray gaming as an underworld of guilty pleasures and escapism, but it's exactly what it needed - recognition and validation. This campaign will however remain timeless because it unlocked an insight that is still true today about playing TV games; it allows people to live a double life in a fantasy world that they control. By widening the demographic hugely, bringing in every sex, age and profession, the advertisers showed that they were in touch with its audience and, most importantly, empowered them through PlayStation. Over a sweeping choral score and spoken in the timbre of a stirring Kipling poem, there is a notable sense of frisson being created in the undercurrent of this advert. No longer were games just a childhood memory but instead offered a lifetime of unadulterated passion. Gaming finally grew up… So, with this ad subverting expectations and challenging conceptions of gaming audiences, there was one question left; what now? Follow our next Agency Aces as we discover how gaming brands have used audience insights to build storytelling campaigns and further challenged what could be achieved with the industry. At Pulsar, we are dedicated to revealing the insights hiding in the very DNA of human behavior. Get in touch with us here, and we’ll show you how you can use it to improve your campaigns.

Using Pulsar to Estimate the Time for a Trend to become a Legend

Fri, 28 Apr 2017 15:36:35 +0000

When exactly will Carter get his nuggets? Not long, it seems… One question is on course to beat the highest number of retweets ever, but more importantly, can it surpass 18 million? And can Carter finally get his year of chicken nuggets.

HELP ME PLEASE. A MAN NEEDS HIS NUGGS pic.twitter.com/4SrfHmEMo3
— Carter Wilkerson (@carterjwm) April 6, 2017

Brands are increasingly taking on youthful personalities to engage with core demographics – Tesco Mobile & O2 rap battled back in 2013, PaddyPower consistently prove to be the overlords of irreverence, Old Spice completely nail the tone and demographic… and there’s another subsector quickly becoming powerhouses on social media – fast food restaurants. And one brand absolutely owning this is Wendy’s. From roasting Twitter followers, through to collaborating with popular YouTubers, Game Grumps, Wendy’s just gets social media. In this latest tale, 16 year old Twitter user Carter Wilkinson, casually tweeted at Wendy’s asking what it would take to be blessed with a year of chicken ‘nuggs’. Wendy’s replied with a daunting challenge. With 319 million active users on Twitter monthly, that would mean that 5.6% of regular Tweeters would have to oblige Carter, and give him a helping hand in his pursuit of chicken. But, just how long would this actually take? Using Pulsar to Analyse the Details Plugging this into tweet into Pulsar TRAC, we could see that within the first day, the tweet was retweeted 511,000 times, and gained a further 167,000 retweets the next day. We can also see who is Tweeting on the right-hand side of the graph. The graph then begins to plateau as it decreases to 90,000 retweets, remains steady for two days and then gradually begins to slow. Surely this is the end right? No way 18 million could be reached? Until the influencers notice…. Stupid stuff works. There’s no exact science to it – it’s simply audience intelligence at its finest. And thanks to this blooming popularity, Ellen DeGeneres noticed, as the tweet is on course to beat her Oscars Selfie as the most retweeted of all time. In response, Wendy’s reacted and created more buzz by issuing their own challenge to users. Source: https://twitter.com/Wendys/status/852615184690622466 Source: https://cartervsellen.com/ But will it reach 18 million, and when? So far, the tweet has been retweeted 643,527 times in the US alone. This means that just over a fifth of the retweets came from the USA, whilst the rest of the world are backing this upstart and retweeting #NuggsForCarter. And to Carter’s advantage, Ellen’s tweet was centred around one night and had no goal attached to it – basically, Carter might just about manage it. Just how long would this take? At Pulsar, we have collected the data over the past month, taking into account the natural drop rate, and estimate that at this rate, Carter’s chicken dreams will come true by*:

21^st October, 2018

And that’s assuming that people don’t get bored, Carter isn’t hacked and the tweet remains intact. Carter’s well on his way to becoming the most retweeted tweet of all time… but 18 million is a pretty tall order. 10 characters ‘breaks Twitter’: Make no mistake, the genius lies in the brilliance of Wendy’s. Essentially, they have broken Twitter by using one of their customers, with a marketing campaign that wasn’t planned months in advance, but with a 10-character reply. This may seem effortless and natural but what Wendy's understand, is how to effectively resonate with their audience. Analysing data such as this however, allows you to not only estimate growth and potential milestones, but discover what type of content works best with your audience. All of which will naturally give you a direction where to focus your budget, strategy and creativity. At Pulsar, we thrive on insight discovery - it simply starts with understanding your audience. Get in touch with us now and become the next global trend through smart insights. *Numbers based on average retweet rate of post, following the spike, then averaged, adjusted for peaks and troughs, and simplified. But basically, your guess is as good as ours.

Brand Dig: When a product has flaws, brands need a communication strategy that understands their audience.

Harry — Thu, 04 May 2017 14:43:25 +0000

In this blog series, we dig into the world of marketing and discuss brands, news, trends and examples that have made the digital headlines. In this week’s post, researcher Harry looks at how Samsung and Huawei have responded to their recent product controversies. Samsung discovers how loyal people can be If you've boarded a plane in the last few weeks you may have heard the flight attendant make a strange announcement. Before asking you to listen to the safety demonstration, many air stewards are now requesting any passenger with a Samsung Galaxy Note 7 to hand it over. The reason? There are so many reports of the smartphone spontaneously combusting that the device is now considered a safety hazard. It's not an ideal situation for Samsung with people still being reminded that one of its phones is considered to be dangerous - especially more than six months after the scandal first hit the headlines. So, what's Samsung doing about it? After stopping both sales as well as shipments of the Note and recalling around 1 million handsets, Samsung has now announced a new (non-exploding) flagship smartphone – the Galaxy Note 8 - to be released within the year. Although Samsung never fully explained what made the Note decide to spontaneously combust, experts claim the South Korean tech giant was “trying to fit in a very large battery in a small space”, which generated too much heat. But with the company shipping 92.8 million handsets worldwide in the first quarter of 2017 (making it the world’s biggest mobile provider) consumers don’t appear to be penalizing the brand for its over-ambition. In fact, in a recent survey, three-quarters of Americans still have a favorable view of Samsung and another 41% said they would buy the Galaxy 8, despite 59% having read about its fiery predecessor. It could be down to the fact that Samsung’s Senior VP mentioned the word “safety” 23 times in an interview about how the Galaxy 8 was built. Or perhaps it’s that people still trust a brand as huge as Samsung to learn from its mistakes. It's likely to be a combination of the latter and the thinking of "my phone would never be the one to explode". Huawei pushes its customers to the limit of their trust In the wake of Samsung’s explosive scandal, the Chinese smartphone manufacturer Huawei leapfrogged past its South Korean counterpart to become the most profitable Android smartphone maker in the third quarter of 2016. Yet its gains appear to be short-lived. Samsung’s brand seems to have emerged unscathed from the scandal and Huawei has now encountered a controversy of its own. Since releasing its latest flagship smartphones earlier in the year, Huawei has been accused by its customers of cutting corners. Specifically, owners are complaining that the memory chip in the P10 model is significantly less powerful and less efficient. So, what was the brand’s response? Huawei’s CEO admitted to using less advanced chips in its latest phone, but assured customers that their experience wouldn’t be affected because of “product design adjustments”. It wasn’t long before people took to social media to attack the brand for its non-apology. After encountering the wrath of its consumers, Huawei’s executive finally issued a more considerate statement saying he responded “inappropriately” and that his position was somewhat “arrogant”. The brand might have admitted its mistake, but it didn’t reveal how the P10 owners would be compensated. Instead, owners were given a sufficiently ambiguous promise that Huawei would “repay the trust of its worldwide customers through its actions”. Time will tell as to whether Huawei can claw back that trust. But we’ll likely see how people care more about the speed at which their phone can operate than the risk of it catching fire and exploding. In a world where news travel at lightning speed, brands need to identify not only the problem in question but how to best address the issue. Understanding an audience’s values and attitudes allows brands to develop the perfect PR strategy to react to any unfortunate circumstance, saving the brand’s reputation and sustaining trust in consumers. If you’d like to hear how we’ve been able to help agencies and brands understand their audience better, then get in touch with us here.

Join us at the Great CRM Pub Quiz!

admin — Tue, 09 May 2017 12:32:31 +0000

On Thursday 11th May, Eilidh Macdonald, Head of Agencies at Pulsar, takes to the stage at The Great CRM Pub Quiz, presented by The Drum's independent agency of the year, Intermarketing Agency. Joining thought leaders from Sainsbury’s, NSPCC and DMA, Eilidh will be discussing questions posed by Intermarketing Group Managing Partner, Steve Sowden. The questions will address key issues such as: “Is Big Data still delivering Big? Or should marketers start swapping their big data telescope for a smart data microscope? Do we have an emperor’s new clothes mentality about embracing new channels for the sake of it? Or are too many marketers stuck in a traditional CRM rut?”

Book your place here

See you there!

How companies are treading that fine line between pushing boundaries and overstepping the mark

Hannah Le Tissier — Thu, 18 May 2017 14:54:35 +0000

‘Exploitative’ and ‘insensitive’ are certainly not words that you want to be associated with your brand. Yet, it currently seems that not a week goes by without brands being forced to apologise to their customers with their tails tucked between their legs. When we switch on our TVs, scroll our Facebook feeds or tune into the radio, we want adverts to resonate with us…maybe even make us smile, laugh a little, or encourage us to buy that thing that we hope might improve our lives (for at least all of 5 minutes). What we definitely don’t want, however, is for these adverts to offend us. Yet, at a time when opinions are often polarized and sensitive issues proving highly complex, brands are struggling more than ever to find the fine line between pushing boundaries and overstepping the mark.

McDonald’s makes wild product claims

This week the fast food giant pulled an advert that certainly tested the limit of what’s deemed by the general public as acceptable. A young, bereaved boy asks his mum about his dad; he’s disappointed as he finds that they seemingly have nothing in common...until he discovers that his dad loved a good Filet-O-Fish too. Could the brand really be insinuating that a breaded fish fillet in a soft bun can fix what years of therapy can only scratch the surface of? It’s unlikely that this was the aim but people don’t have time to decipher intention, so instead they react with their heart. The backlash tells us that consumers spotted an implicit, insensitive product claim in the ad: a fish burger can offer a quick fix to child bereavement. Their audience spoke, and McDonald’s was judged to have overstepped that mark.

Expedia considers moving away from cause marketing

The danger of getting the tone wrong is so great that some brands are rethinking their strategy. Expedia and its agency, 180 LA, have recently stated that they are now considering refraining from touching upon hot socio-political topics in their ads, as they have done previously, saying,

"We live in a time of division, and the political climate is highly charged... Many clients are at an inflection point, taking a moment to pause and reflect before diving headfirst into cause-based campaigns.”

Dare we mention them again, but Brexit and Trump have offered brands a chance to jump on the bandwagon of political outspokenness since, well, everything now seems to at least some political current running through it. However, in a post Pepsi-Jenner world, some brands are considering abandoning ship as winds get too turbulent and seas too choppy. A marketing campaign is risky business nowadays and brands must be brave to face the potential wrath of critics. However, does this mean that the creative process will become obstructed? Will brands opt for something middle-of-the-road and uninspiring? Will a fear of being offensive stop them from pushing boundaries?

Heineken encourages you to #OpenYourWorld

As we’ve established, the McDonald’s and Pepsi adverts have attempted to simplify deeply complicated social and personal issues into just one bite or swig. So, why then are people celebrating Heineken’s ad in which pairs of strangers with opposing opinions are brought together over a cold beer? The difference here is subtle but makes the world of difference: Pepsi and McDonald’s claim solutions to problems, Heineken offers a moment in which people can openly propose and debate solutions. Heineken shows awareness that their audience might not agree on every hot topic of 2017, but that they might be able to at least discuss them. And a beer might just help that process along. Getting campaign tonality right, isn’t a new problem and is one that brands have been grappling with long before now. However, as two major corporations have got it so wrong in a matter of weeks, the problem clearly needs to be addressed. The solution isn’t that brands should dodge social issues in their campaigns, it’s that they should be more sensitive to their audience. Sure, this can be difficult – an audience will always be a network of hugely diverse groups of people. However, through research brands can get to know that audience, and ultimately, use that knowledge to connect rather than alienate these groups.

How Gaming Marketing Grew Up - Part 2: Shock, Emotion and Creativity

Tom — Thu, 25 May 2017 10:24:38 +0000

In Part 1, we explored how, just 20 years ago, gaming was perceived to be targeted to a young audience; vying for attention during the Saturday morning cartoons and laden with shouts of ‘radical’ and ‘awesome’. Then, as home console gaming shifted into the 3D space, graphics became more realistic (well, with some growing pains) and themes became darker. Naturally advertising had to adapt. There was a definitive pivotal point with the stirring PlayStation advert covered in Part 1, but we should also mention the… weird side of PlayStation.

PlayStation brought to you by… an Aphex Twin video director (1999)

In 1999, a somewhat bizarre advert centred around an ‘unusual’ Scottish girl aired, in which she talked about the power of the mind in achieving great things, enforcing the importance of ‘mental wealth’. Naturally, people had no idea what she was on about. Until in the last few moments a PlayStation tagline appears at the base of the screen, whilst she laughs creepily. So, why on Earth did Sony attempt this bizarre strategy. Quite simply, to stand out. Nintendo were still using the ‘slightly-too-zoomed-in-wide-angle-shot’ style of filming, whilst Sega were somewhat bizarrely using a Robbie Williams song to promote their final (and highly-underrated) console launch of the Dreamcast. And then there was a relatively new contender – Sony. Already establishing market dominance, how would it keep the interest ahead of the launch of the second PlayStation iteration, the PS2? And with a considerably older target demographic as compared to Nintendo, it took a step back, stopped talking about the technicalities of the game, and went weird. Further enhanced by employing the directorial talents of Chris Cunningham, fresh from his delightfully disturbing Windowlicker video, this advert was a perfect storm of weird, compelling and interesting. Things got even weirder a year later when Sony approached David Lynch, and then reached the absolute extreme with the PS3 ‘Play Beyond’ commercial (seriously, it’s… odd). However, this advert is considered as the first of a trend. Gaming grew up, and it quickly leveraged a core component of advertising: shock.

Xbox reminds us of death (2002)

In a somewhat misguided example of going too far, Xbox stepped up to the mantle of shocking viewers with their ‘Life Is Short’ commercial. Showing a pregnant women giving birth to a baby boy, who then shoots through the window, rapidly aging whilst screaming through their air before crashing into a grave, the video was ultimately banned after numerous complaints. And it’s not difficult to see why. The intent was clear, but the messaging felt off and imagery was too horrific. Whilst likely to appeal to a small subsector of the population that would find this funny, it did the brand little favours, particularly as it struggled to compete with sales of direct competitors. Much like cinema, the medium had grown from simple, loud and overstated themes, through to complete shock, before turning around to fully appreciate what gaming had become: filmic.

Gears of War gets sombre (2006)

Few trailers in the mid-2000s made such an impact as Gears of War. Whilst the game is a fast-paced, militaristic and violent affair, the arresting tone displayed by its commercial is anything but. Contrasting the mayhem and panic of a lone soldier over Gary Jules’ cover of Mad World, the commercial brought about a hitherto ignored element of game advertising: emotion. With the 90s a distant memory, gaming turned to cinema to understand how it could convey its messaging and reach new audiences. Gaming had become storytelling and its advertising had to match this. With releases such as The Departed, The Prestige and Children of Men, there was a distinct dark aggression brought to screens. And this is exactly where Gears of War positioned itself to demonstrate the power of the gaming medium. Fast forward 5 years again, and it was deftly achieved again – this time with…

Zombies tugging at your heart strings (2011)

This award-winning commercial for zombie game, Dead Island, took storytelling to new heights, by creating a nonlinear narrative around a family facing a zombie attack. By telling a simple yet tragic story underpinned by a repeating piano score, the trailer conveyed an emotive experience, despite not showing any gameplay footage. It quickly amassed over a million views, gained widespread press coverage and also became one of the most searched items on Google, YouTube, and Twitter< for several days. Whilst there were some concerns around the subject matter of the trailer, the creators, Axis Animation, said that their depiction fit the overarching narrative. It further gained a lot of appreciation for its powerful message and unconventional approach to a zombie plot. Essentially, this was a perfect example of storytelling and emotion in gaming and cemented the importance of the trailer.

Gaming's most important character - Michael (2011)

In what can be best described as a pure celebration of a relatively short history but a rich culture, this commercial celebrates some of the finest characters to grace Sony’s range of PlayStation consoles. But rather than be a mere self-satisfied congratulations to themselves, the advert ultimately focuses on the most important person in any game; the player (in this instance, called 'Michael'). By addressing and celebrating its audience, Sony demonstrated consumer awareness and customer value, whilst enforcing the legacy of its brand. Any commercial that can only effectively talk about how great they are and the amazing characters they have created (without actually revealing anything new), whilst still empowering their core audience, can only be considered a masterpiece. Whilst Sony took this further by imagining a trailer for ‘The King’, which is essentially an extension of ‘Michael’, it was the original that captured the attention of audiences and press alike.

Where are we now?

And now, it seems that gaming has found its feet. With a diverse range of demographics and potential audiences to reach (as evidenced by the popularity of Conan’s Clueless Gamer and the prevalence of online streaming), companies have finally found what works best. From the cynical character-driven comedy of Call of Duty’s ‘The Replacer’, through to a cavalcade of celebrity cameos in the wild Madden Season video, and the swelling majesty of Battlefield 1, it’s safe to say that some of the best advertising content available today is within the gaming industry. It may have had some growing pains, but there’s no denying it grew up knowing exactly what mattered; the audience.

#WengerOut: the evolution of a hashtag

Sameer Shah — Thu, 01 Jun 2017 13:15:13 +0000

Now that the ink has dried on Arsène Wenger’s new contract, our resident Gooner and researcher Sameer Shah investigates the ultimately futile social media-led campaign to get the manager to leave Arsenal. In a world of political protests, entertainment events and campaigns battling for visibility, a curious trend has recently developed: the entirely unrelated presence of posters or banners containing two words: WENGER OUT. This simple two-word statement about Arsène Wenger, manager of Arsenal Football Club, has become a global phenomenon… From Anti-Trump protests in London:

#WengerOut banner at a Trump protest 😂😂😂😂😭😭 pic.twitter.com/iNAnGs9goK

— MARCUS JOSIAH (@AmDASHY) February 21, 2017

To a Coldplay concert in Singapore:

A Wenger Out banner was spotted at a Coldplay concert in Singapore last night 😂 pic.twitter.com/lk1ZxFu2eN — Dream Team (@dreamteamfc) April 2, 2017

And even at WrestleMania in Orlando:

There are two types of people in the world. #WengerIn #WengerOut pic.twitter.com/xV1MyYDSY2
— Sarcastic One (@GouravGR23) April 3, 2017

As the phrase has taken a life of its own, we at Pulsar have investigated its roots further. Using our access to full historical Twitter data ranging back to 2006, we’ve analysed the evolution of the #WengerOut hashtag before it became a meme.

The history of #WengerOut

Alongside the primary #WengerOut hashtag, we’ve tracked similar ones that express the same sentiment – and also those lending support to Wenger, such as #ArseneKnows. The first hashtag on either side of the divide didn’t actually appear until August 2009 (and, curiously enough, held positive sentiment for him). This isn’t much of a surprise, though, given that hashtags were only first suggested as a means of social media communication in April 2007 by @ChrisMessina and then formally recognised by Twitter in June 2009.

how do you feel about using # (pound) for groups. As in #barcamp [msg]?

— Chris Messina 🦅 (@chrismessina) August 23, 2007 Hashtags started out as a neat way to hyperlink to discussions around the same subject, and then became featured as trending topics which highlighted the most prevalent conversations. They’ve since evolved into a super-efficient manner of self-expression that add a layer of context or underlying feeling to the remaining 140 characters in a Tweet. Indeed, some hashtags don’t even need any other words: as is the case with #WengerOut.

How does Twitter feel about Wenger?

We then compared the favourable and unfavourable hashtags around Wenger’s continued reign at Arsenal, formulating an “approval rating” of sorts throughout the seasons: This approval rating (calculated as the difference between hashtags expressing support and hashtags wanting him to resign) is extremely favourable in 2009/10 and still positive in 2010/11. While things were certainly rosier for Wenger back then, the extent of this in terms of our data is exacerbated due to a smaller sample of mentions. Mentions of the hashtags do pick up considerably thereafter, and his approval rating sinks to negative for the first time in 2011/12; before plummeting the following season. The 2013/14 FA Cup win provides some respite, but the three most recent campaigns bear witness to an increasingly disgruntled fanbase.

So, why the negativity?

Invariably, this is linked to his performance as Arsenal manager. But does it also feed into the proclivity of people using social media as a soapbox to challenge the status quo? A study conducted by the Institute of Customer Service in 2015 revealed a massive EIGHT-FOLD increase in consumer complaints on social media throughout 2014. It’s not difficult to see how this translates into sporting opinions – especially as sports teams become more corporate and increasingly treat their supporters as customers rather than custodians. On the other side of the spectrum, individuals feel a greater sense of empowerment and importance on social media, using these platforms to voice their opinions; sometimes even seeking others going through similar experiences. The open dynamics of Twitter make it an even more natural home for this. I mean, we all know someone who never tweets, except to complain to a brand for the below-par service they received, right?

What was the #WengerOut catalyst?

We’ve looked at broad trends so far, so now we must look at specific event(s) that helped transform #WengerOut in to the worldwide meme is has become. Rather than identifying individual matches or moments that sent the Arsenal faithful over the edge, an analysis of the usage of the hashtags in different months is extremely revealing: For football fans, seeing February, March and April rank highest is no surprise – Arsenal are notorious for their tendency to collapse just as the end-of-season finish-line comes into view. Too many times have these months seen early-season promise fall by the wayside. Interestingly, August (i.e. the very beginning of the season) also features highly. You would think that hope springs eternal at this stage, but Arsenal’s renowned frugality in the transfer market has left swathes of fans tearing their hair out at a squad that is just short of sufficient quality – despite heightened expectations following the lucrative move to the Emirates Stadium in 2006. And as we see everyday with the millions of customer service complaints on social, if there’s two things that turns loyalists against a brand (or, in this case, a manager) it’s broken promises and unmatched expectations.

“Covfefe” – a harmless typo or a calculated distraction?

Harry — Fri, 02 Jun 2017 13:00:35 +0000

Donald Trump’s administration is rapidly becoming defined by the president’s late-night tweeting. His messages usually spark the internet into action as people race to decipher the true meaning behind his words. Just after midnight on 31 May, the president tweeted: “Despite the constant negative press covfefe.” And that was it. No context, no explanation. The tweet spread like digital wildfire over the next 24 hours as the internet grappled with its significance and flirted with what it could mean. And of course there were memes. Lots of memes. Meanwhile at Pulsar, we decided to track the conversation to see how it would evolve. There was a huge spike in posts and engagements immediately after Trump tweeted his cryptic message at 12:06am. The discussion then fell dramatically before Trump offered a challenge at 6:09am: “Who can figure out the true meaning of "covfefe" ??? Enjoy!”– and the internet responded with gusto.

Who can figure out the true meaning of "covfefe" ??? Enjoy!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 31, 2017

So what was the tone of the conversation? The first few hours were dominated by memes – predominantly, who could put the word “covfefe” into the funniest context. There was Trump as “Salt Bae” seasoning meat with a dash of “covfefe”.

"And just before you serve it, you hit it with a dash of #Covfefe" pic.twitter.com/fm9CAF4Iyz — Charles M. Blow (@CharlesMBlow) May 31, 2017

There was the announcement of a New York club called Covfefe with “Russian entanglements, spray tans, creepy handshakes, surprise trade wars”.

New York's hottest nightclub is #Covfefe. It has everything: Russian entanglements, spray tans, creepy handshakes, surprise trade wars. pic.twitter.com/aldqPBQvKw
— Sarah Rumpf (@rumpfshaker) May 31, 2017

And there was a hilariously bizarre interaction between two Twitter accounts – Covfefe the Strong and The Wizard Covfefe – who battled it out over who had been summoned by Trump.

Thank you, internet, thank you. 😂 #Covfefe pic.twitter.com/yLu8KOWsXP — Andrea Dubé (@AndDube) May 31, 2017

But the tweet with the most engagements throughout the day was from a rogue Twitter account claiming to be the RC Cola brand (which has since been suspended). It was also more pointed in its criticism of Trump – describing covfefe as “incompetence” flavoured cola – which marked a change in tone of the conversation. While some people continued to engage with witty memes, others had already begun to consider the significance of the US President writing nonsensical tweets in the middle of the night. Two of the most re-tweeted messages were about Trump’s mental stability and his ability to lead the country.

We're all having fun with COVFEFE, but the truth is we have a mentally unstable idiot running the country. #ImpeachCovfefe
— Rob Reiner (@robreiner) May 31, 2017

I just no longer find trump trending topics or memes funny. I get sad and angry and depressed. Fuck covfefe, fuck it all, stupid idiot — christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) May 31, 2017

Although the conversation started on Twitter, it evolved on other channels. Thoughts on the true meaning and correct pronunciation of covfefe continued to circulate on Twitter, but on Tumblr the discussion started to shift. It gradually dawned on people that this incompetent gaffe was in fact a distraction tactic, helpfully on the day that Trump had reportedly decided to pull the US out of the Paris Climate Agreement. Any humour had instead turned to anger and heated keywords began to appear in connection with 'covfefe'. Top topics on Twitter Top topics on Tumblr Talk of “notmypresident” and “resist” emerged on Tumblr as Reuters first broke the news that Trump intended to pull out of the global pact to fight climate change. Key influencers driving the most engagements in the covfefe discussion include comedian Kristina Wong, the political strategist Andrea Dubé, conservative commentator Sarah Rumpf, and New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow whose witty tweets helped fuel the conversation. Comedian Zach Braff also drove considerable engagement by jumping in with a string of covfefe-inspired memes demonstrating that people were more interested at laughing at Trump's late-night lexicon than worrying about the mental stability of the US President or his ability to distract from important issues. And for a little extra insight, we've delved into who is talking about covfefe on Facebook... Was covfefe a simple typo or sinister misdirection carefully orchestrated by the President? Or was it simply a mistake that, thanks to a lighter tone than some of his previous messages, and his challenge to discover the true meaning of the word, showed he has a sense of humour and amused the internet. Either way, the internet decided it was an old topic as talk of covfefe dwindled away after just 24 hours, to be quickly replaced by talk of the Paris Agreement. So, was 'covfefe' some much needed comic relief to the months of scandals that have so far characterised Trump’s White House, or was it something altogether more sinisterly distracting?

'The Data on Daters' - How do online daters talk about the apps they use?

Harry — Thu, 08 Jun 2017 15:07:33 +0000

Brief encounters or meaningful matches? Imagine it’s 2007 and you announce to a room full of your friends that you’re dating someone from the internet. Their reaction would probably be one of shock and concern – are they a real person? Aren't they a complete weirdo? Is it safe? Why don’t you meet someone from the real world? Now fast forward to 2017 and the scene is entirely different. A few of your friends are more likely to respond with their own tales of using dating apps. In fact, a quarter of people in the UK have at least one dating app installed on their phone. And with it, mentions of 'dating apps' are increasingly popular... This shows the number of mentions of dating apps over the last month, with a spike in engagements on 13 May following the launch of Just a Baby – a Tinder-style app that matches you to a sperm donor or surrogate for those looking for baby rather than a hook-up. The news was picked up by the likes of the Evening Standard, Harpers Bazaar and Glamour, and re-tweeted by people.

So how did dating apps become normalised?

As soon as it launched in 2012, Tinder completely changed the tone of the conversation – building on what Grindr had been achieving within the gay community since 2009. Online dating went from being perceived as an obscure pastime for the lonely, to something that any single person armed with a smartphone could comfortably be swiping through while queuing in the supermarket, sat on the toilet or, somewhat depressingly, during a date. As shown above with the darker squares, people tend to post about their experience on dating apps in the early evening, especially on Saturdays – perhaps just as they're engaging in a chat with a potential date that doesn't quite go according to plan. There are now so many dating apps in the market, offering very minimal twists on Tinder and Grindr’s original models, it feels like we’re reaching the peak of online dating. To understand where the tone of the dating app conversation is today, we set up a study on Pulsar TRAC tracking mentions of popular dating apps in the UK on Twitter over the last month. In total, we collected 25k mentions of Tinder, Bumble, OKCupid, Happn, Grindr, Hinge, eHarmony, Match.com, Badoo and Ashley Madison. The top keywords demonstrate how the apps that pioneered the dating app format – Tinder and Grindr – continue to lead the conversation that's dominated by talk of people's profiles, matching with someone, and going on dates. There is a hub of discussion in London as the concept of online dating naturally resonates with fast-paced urbanites. Yet there are also online daters in the more rural Midlands and North West showing how ‘swiping right’ has permeated different sections of society. As the original challenger in the online dating space, Tinder is still dominating the conversation, with a whopping 83% share of discussion in the UK in the last month. Next is Grindr with 14%, followed by OKCupid, Bumble and Badoo on around just 1% each.

So who’s sharing their online dating experiences with the internet and what are they saying?

Through Pulsar’s network visualisation we found that there are disparate communities talking about these apps with few connections between them. You might expect a polarised network when people are talking about their different sexual preferences, but this explanation doesn’t hold when almost all of the apps we tracked (except for Grindr) are open to all sexual orientations. It suggests the apps themselves have different types of followers and challenges the assumption that people might have multiple dating apps on their phone to maximise the potential for a date. The good news for online dating companies is that their target audience could be distinguishing between the apps like brands offering different kinds of products – except in this the case the products are potential dates.

So, what perceptions and personalities do these dating apps have?

Tinder is still unmistakably the go-to hook-up app. As a result it’s been appropriated by the internet as a catchall reference for ‘struggling in your love life’. In true British self-deprecating style, mentions of Tinder tend to come with an embarrassing anecdote of a disaster interaction (or no response at all) on the app. https://twitter.com/sadneck/status/862310720737869825https://twitter.com/EmsRalphs/status/867489963629326336 By contrast, posts about Grindr tend to reference creepy interactions and general disappointment with who they find on the app – particularly for those looking for a relationship and not a casual hook-up. https://twitter.com/kriscarter12_/status/866389795941076992https://twitter.com/SebEvansXXX/status/866996800443621377 https://twitter.com/allthingstoney/status/861781260158599168 https://twitter.com/avidfan10/status/866770973193904132 OKCupid, on the other hand, has a reputation for being dominated by pseudo-intellectual males. While some view them as marriage material, others see right through the pretence. https://twitter.com/jo_bazz/status/864552421997072385https://twitter.com/underthenettle/status/863483419145248770 https://twitter.com/lolFurby/status/859461968838762496 Daters believe that most of the ‘talent’ from Tinder have moved over to Bumble. But it’s also perceived to be more middle class and white. https://twitter.com/l0ubear/status/866564541827731456https://twitter.com/annanciole/status/864260691078893569 https://twitter.com/Julie_Hermans89/status/859890958820929536 https://twitter.com/jontweetshere/status/863827172397600769 Although the apps might have distinct brand perceptions attracting different types of users, there are still serial daters out there who drift between multiple services. But this can come at a price – specifically when you forget which app you’re using. While swiping up on Bumble lets you view more pictures on a profile, the same action on Tinder sends the person a “Super Like” – not ideal if you’re trying to play it cool. https://twitter.com/xsuzipaloozix/status/867154460082147331https://twitter.com/Gemma_Fox/status/862057775240818688 https://twitter.com/Smile_Hannah/status/863382231976423425 https://twitter.com/TJRPayne/status/857736282037989377 We may have lifted the lid on online dating and taken a peek at the world of digital hooking up, getting rejected and generally being freaked out. But what we haven’t found are posts from people developing a meaningful relationship through the apps – or even going on a string of enjoyable dates. This may have more to do with the lingering stigma attached to online dating and people not wanting to broadcast to their friends that they met their partner through an app. After all if there’s one thing that connects most dating apps, it’s their association with casual hooking-up. Yet online daters still admit they use these apps to find meaningful relationships – but just cannot find them. So while these apps are sure to continue being a feature of modern dating into the future, they are still more about casual hooking-up than finding the one.

How the GE2017 conversation was commandeered by an intergalactic space lord

Marcus — Mon, 12 Jun 2017 14:39:14 +0000

Amidst a night of arguments, tension, exit polls, surprises and hasty minority government maths, a very British tradition provided some welcome comic relief. Those of us that stayed up to watch could rightly assume that they had, in fact, dropped off and were dreaming when they saw Mr Fishfinger swimming in the background as Tim Farron gave his victory speech in Westmorland and Lonsdale. Irregular election candidates are right up there with the other bastions of British strangeness - along with Morris Dancing, Cheese rolling, and Bog Snorkling. As well as entertaining us, they remind us that we live in a truly democratic country, and that you’re free to make a complete fool of yourself in front of millions if you so choose. During the build up to the election, conversations on social media were, as expected, all about the issues – Brexit, the NHS, immigration and defence, all topping our custom election tracker. But on the night the discussion around irregular candidates suddenly spiked... and one in particular stood out after stealing the limelight from the Prime Minister. He appeared next to Theresa May in every shot, and became an immediate online sensation by dabbing as his vote count was called. It was none other than…

Lord Buckethead

Stats : 249 votes. 27.4k conversations, 82.2k engagements, 99.6 million impressions and a 716 million potential reach. An intergalactic space lord who, according to his Twitter bio, enjoys planet-conquering, dominating inferior species, and Lovejoy. Lord Buckethead captured the British imagination on election night, and his manifesto became a real driver of conversations with popular policies such as “Stop selling arms to Saudi Arabia. Start buying lasers from Lord Buckethead” and “Katie Hopkins to be banished to the Phantom Zone”. He had an international appeal, with conversations stemming from all over the world, including the USA, Australia, Canada, and even Ecuador, Morocco, India and Nepal. He was even picked up by some major international news organisations: And compared to other fantastical competitors above, he was by far and away the most discussed on the night: He was a hit on social media, with a thick line connecting the key topics “love” and “buckethead” – much thicker than the line between “love” and “Theresa”, for interest. So, whilst he only managed to bring in 249 votes (which, incidentally, was a new Buckethead record), content around him appeared on 716 million social media newsfeeds globally, and his following grew to 82.5k followers overnight. And all this, by leveraging humour and taking the misery out of what had been a gruelling campaign for all parties involved. Although he didn't stand a chance of winning (well, it was unlikely at best), offering a respite to the seriousness of the matter lifted spirits and gave audiences something to be happy about, as well as amuse themselves in conversation over. Want to grow your online coverage like our nascent Lord? Try donning a cape, some cricket pads and a bucket, and track your success with Pulsar!

Can social data show Macron's journey from a nobody to a very significant somebody?

Hannah Le Tissier — Fri, 16 Jun 2017 11:19:09 +0000

Emmanuel Macron’s rise to power has been called ‘meteoric’, ‘surprising’, and even ‘mysterious’. But can social data tell us about this dark horse and his unlikely win? First things first, can we infer the direction of the election using social media? Well, that’s a tricky one…but we can see that the word Président is far more readily associated with #EnMarche and @EmmanuelMacron than Marine Le Pen or Le Front National, and that (faire) barrage – to block – is in the top five words associated with Le Pen. So, although we can’t say with certainty that social data could have revealed the result before the ballot papers did, things on social definitely weren’t looking good for Le Pen.

“When Marine Le Pen gets egged in Brittany, Macron receives the support of Barack Obama. #EnMarche”

Comparisons between Macron and Obama have been rife as the media has pointed out similarities in their progressive ideals and grassroots campaigns. In my view, however, a more interesting, perhaps more unsettling, comparison can be drawn between Macron and Trump. Ignoring their political differences, both rose to power quickly and efficiently, fuelling their campaigns with emotion and by really listening to what people wanted. Political stagnation and disillusionment amongst voters has led to the perfect environment for figures like Macron and Trump to be born: both, for very different reasons and to very different people, are figures of hope for a brighter future. At the age of 39, Macron was elected as French President – significantly fresher faced and less experienced than any of his predecessors. So much less experienced, in fact, that he wasn’t widely known by the French electorate before his presidential campaign began. In August 2015 he announced that he no longer belonged to the Socialist Party and on 6^th April 2016 founded En Marche! – Forward! or On the Move! – his liberal, centrist movement. As the trend lines below show, Macron and En Marche! literally came out of nowhere when compared to Le Pen and her National Front (French: Front national / FN) party. These graphs also show that Macron is more widely spoken about as a candidate than Le Pen, but En Marche! as a party is mentioned less frequently than the FN. Could this perhaps be to do with our obsession with individuals rather than parties? Take Theresa May for example, her campaign centred on positioning herself as a ‘strong and stable’ leader - referencing the Conservative party (which is associated with negative sentiment) as little as possible. Or, does it stem from our love of supporting a dark horse? Or, is it because Macron cleverly positioned (dare I say, marketed) himself as a true ambassador of the ideals that he promoted? I would argue that the latter is the most pertinent explanation. Again, Macron’s personality and behaviour has shades of Trump: he doesn’t just say different things but he does things differently. Both figures have presented themselves as offering a fresh alternative to a tired political class that people don’t identify with. For example, En Marche! carried out a nationwide campaign, knocking on 25,000 doors and interviewing people about what they want from their government. Two simple questions were asked: What works in France? And what doesn’t work? From his party’s name ‘The Republic On the Move!” (and its enthusiastic exclamation mark that seems to out of place in mainstream politics) to his recent troll-like tweet, Macron is showing that he is dynamic, inclusive and pragmatic. However, what social data shows us is even more enlightening: Macron is more closely associated with France - and French ideals - than Le Pen. This visualisation shows that the FN is barely linked to France at all. In fact, Le Pen and her party are much more semantically associated with the Russian Mafia than the country they want to serve: “We are faced with an attack led by #Russia for the benefit of the #FN, not only against @EmmanuelMacron but against #France.” I would argue that the French voted for Macron (at least in part) because they associate him with France and French values. For all the chatter – some of it factual, some of it sensational – in the press about the rise of a dangerous and irreparable Nationalism, the recent victory in France has shown us that there is still hope: hope that nations can strive to protect their unique culture and values, while still looking outwards, not inwards…still moving forwards, not backwards.

Are you living in the year 3017? Welcome to the crap life-hack craze making a splash online

Alice Crossland — Mon, 26 Jun 2017 14:53:39 +0000

First we had the Ice Bucket Challenge, then batmanning – now the latest craze in social sharing is sarcastic images of life-hacks we might use in 1,000 years. If this craze has not so far passed you by, panic not, Pulsar are here to explain all. To give this trend its full and original name would be ‘Y’all living in 2017, but this guy already in 3017’. However the catchier ‘living in 3017’ or #3017 is usually used – these two terms alone have raked up almost 200k mentions in the last month. The images or videos showcase ingenious but mundane improvements to every day life, i.e. ‘in the year 3017 we will be doing this so much better, and I’m ahead of the curve’. Solutions to every day problems are cobbled together from items around the house, a technique sometimes called ‘kludges’. In this earliest example of the trend from May 2017, you can see the ingenuity displayed in using your cereal box in which to pour milk and use as a bowl. The popularity of this post is incredible – 18K retweets and 42K likes. From this catalyst people quickly began to post their own ‘future self’ life hacks. The more mundane the better, with the best examples including – The trend originated as a reference to musicians who are so ahead of their time, they are already living in the future. Black Twitter, a movement within the main platform, is said to have propagated the term - with the rapper Wintertime often described in this way. However the phrase has quickly spread into the mainstream. In the last month it has raked up 317K mentions across Twitter, news, forums and blogs alone. The below chart also indicates that people are taking an increasing interest in searching for related terms on Youtube: The trend saw its highest climax so far last week, this time with a post which showed a business card with a scan code to the owner’s social media accounts. The card was also an exact replica of his mobile phone, including picture of himself. Such is the popularity of these posts that the trend has been covered by Time, The Daily Mail and the Guardian, amongst others. However it has yet to be picked up by a brand or adopted by a celebrity, adding to its home grown charm. With the seemingly never ending advancements in every day tech, its refreshing to see real people develop crap hacks to make light of how we might live in the future. With all the terrible news around the world at the moment, it can feel unlikely that we might even make it to the year 3017 sometimes- but at least these people are preparing for the best (or worst). With 1,000 years of practice, they are bound to come up with something that actually works in time. With this trend only in its infancy, who knows were it will take us? If you want to live in 3017 and get insights like these for your brand or client, get in touch at info@pulsarplatform.com or call 020 7874 6577 today.

Kim Kardashian’s KKW: The Birth of A Backlash

Alice Crossland — Mon, 03 Jul 2017 17:09:18 +0000

Kim Kardashian, pop culture’s reigning Queen of social media, has been embroiled in yet another online scandal. This time Kim took to Instagram to tease her 180 million combined social media fans about the launch of her new beauty website. Queue her legions of loyal fashion pack followers speculating on what her ‘beauty’ offering would be, and whether a makeup range will be competition to her little sister Kylie’s.The internet didn’t have to wait long to see how Kim would promote her range. Never shying away from attempts to ‘break the internet’, on the 14th June Kim released an image of herself to promote her new KKW Crème Counter and Highlight Kit. Her skin was noticeably darker than usual. The internet immediately responded with claims that Kim had darkened either her skin or the photo, in what was referred to as ‘blackface’. The response has so far totalled 8.9K direct mentions online. < > Although ‘blackface’ may sound like a modern term, it actually originates from 19th century America, when white actors darkened their faces with makeup to ridicule African Americans. Such an act understandably offends a lot of people and over the years several scandals have ensued when celebrities have ‘blacked up’ to impersonate other people. So how does this kind of backlash play out online? Let’s take a look at some of Pulsar’s data visualisations to find out more…

The Birth of a Backlash

With this kind of scandal, you may expect to see a sharp peak in online conversation (as the topic is analysed, shared and discussed), followed by a decline. However this is not the case with Kim and her KKW blackface controversy. After an initial peak, we see conversation increase to a second peak, higher than the first. This is when Kim, after a gap of a few days, responded to the scandal by speaking directly to The New York Times. She was quoted as saying:

‘I obviously never wanted to offend anyone…I was really tan [sic] when we shot the images, and it might be that the contrast was off.’

In this second peak, Kim has actually managed to increase the amount of exposure for the story, and therefore for her product range. Kim’s seeming innocence in the face of the accusation of blackface seems genuine. Whether a deliberate darkening of the image took place to drive awareness of her beauty range (which sold out in a few short hours despite the controversy), is now besides the point – the image is out there and increasing the impact of the range with each click, comment and share. Initial awareness of the product range (and immediate backlash) grew more slowly than the second, more established peak. Interestingly the whole period of activity was dotted with articles, although few drove the peaks in conversation. The main story was driven by fans discussing the image online, supplemented by articles. Engagement can be seen to be noticeably higher in the second peak, when Kim responds to the allegations. Showing the dissipation of articles throughout the scandal and the split between mentions (dark blue) and engagement (light blue) Below you can see that the term ‘blackface’ permeated all sections of conversation around the controversy. This shows how powerful the use of a specific phrase or hashtag can be when driving buzz. It can also help to define the parameters of an issue or scandal within an online world saturated with stories about the Kardashian clan. Despite the seriousness of the allegation made against Kim’s image, the reaction to the scandal was only 26% negative, with the majority of conversation neutral (70%). The image also got consumers successfully talking about the benefits and possibilities of contouring, the very product that Kim was promoting. Despite the controversy, Kim has not removed the image from her pages. The image is in fact still the profile image for all her social media accounts, albeit as a slightly lighter version. Clearly the bad press did little to damage the prospects for her beauty range, which remains out of stock. This scandal has shown Kim to be a master of controlling a wave of online conversation, something she is sure to put to good use as future events no doubt thrust her once again into the limelight. If you want to live in 3017 and get insights like these for your brand or client, get in touch at info@pulsarplatform.com or call 020 7874 6577 today.

What Trump’s Visual Style Tells Us About His Presidency

Alice Crossland — Wed, 19 Jul 2017 12:36:25 +0000

Trump is famous for his love of social media, relying heavily on Twitter to communicate with his online following. Whatever your politics, Trump makes a fascinating object of study so here at Pulsar we have been tracking his Twitter footprint for the last seven years - giving us access to the metrics behind his media preferences. In the last year, Trump has tweeted 3,800 times from his personal account @realDonaldTrump, which he started using in March 2009. These tweets have received over 11.6 billion impressions. In this new blog series, we will highlight the surprising aspects of Trump’s tweets. This week we will be investigating the kinds of images have most commonly been posted by the President in the last year (July 2016-July 2017). Using Pulsar’s image recognition software we can see immediately that ‘crowds’ are the most popular type of image posted, followed by ‘person’, ‘sport’, and ‘people’. Examples of crowds in Trump’s image posts include: Through his use of crowds, Trump reinforces his popularity by visually surrounding himself with as many people as possible. Whether they are members of the public or like-minded politicians, this bolsters his constant claim to be the spokesman of the American public. Often the figures take up the whole image from pane to pane. The figures are condensed into a generic mass of support. Trump is not always the central figure, the emphasis being instead on reinforcing the mass of popular support for the president. This trend also harks back to the controversy which seems in hindsight to have sparked the ‘fake news’ phenomenon. Think back to Trump’s refusal to accept that Obama had more people in attendance at his inauguration back in 2009: In a move that now seems commonplace, Trump refused to believe the image he saw, and instead posted an image of the inauguration with the crowd filling the frame. Using crowds as a symbol of political power is nothing new, check out the similarities used by 17th century English philosopher Thomas Hobbes in his monumental frontispiece of The Leviathan, published in 1651: Through this image, Hobbes shows the power of the sovereign ruler, illustrated through the crowd of blurred-together figures making up his body. Individuals cannot be distinguished and all face the sovereign ruler. In this way, the power of the ruler is literally and figuratively made up of the citizens within his kingdom. The images Trump tweets show his administration as powerful and popular. His Twitter following also acts as a secondary, digital crowd, the number of likes indicative of the number of bodies in the images he posts. Whether you believe the size of the crowds are representative of Trump’s actual popularity or just ‘fake news’, what is clear is that this is a man attempting to control the projection of his own popularity. Like Hobbes’s sovereign ruler, this projection is packing some serious punch. Keep tuned for next Top Trumps!

How Brands Need to Utilise Voice Activation As A New Touch Point

LaurenRoberts — Tue, 29 Aug 2017 10:57:13 +0000

For a good while, brands have been on a mission to create meaningful connections with the consumer, through digital platforms. Teams have been hard at work creating interactions, services and platforms that convey the brand and evoke loyalty and a relationship with the user. These experiences now tie brand comms directly to the point of sale, or consumable seamlessly. Millions are spent annually on interface based experiences, providing users with usable, useful brand connections; and where this is done well, it offers a serious competitive advantage. But the market is mature, and this has added to a lack of patience from the user. And as all of you fellow brand experience professionals will know, if the user isn’t happy, they are not short of other choices to seek out. A newer option for users is voice activation with products such as Google Home and Amazon Echo. A key function of experiences is about connecting the user to our products, what smoother way is there than voice control. It is instant, has no learning curve, low error rate (word accuracy is above 90%) and the voice is likely the most natural and intuitive of all behaviours that we could leverage when physical gestures are not always universal. The normal user barriers and frustrations associated with experience design are becoming diminished, and the payoff for the user is instant: they can get the content they want, and buy washing powder in one fell swoop - a truly useful brand experience. Great stuff. So long as your brand is there to listen... The issue lies in the lack of obvious branding and active brand choice associated with voice activation. For example, when a user asks Alexa to “play the most popular song”, and Despacito comes on instantly, the brand has been removed from the experience completely here (bar Amazon’s Alexa)...where is the music coming from? So now brands need to consider this platform as a competitor touch point within their consumer journey.

Credit: BBC

As with getting your brand on smart TV menus, partnering with voice activated device manufacturers to get your service on their device, and vocally ‘reminding’ the user that they’re using your service is always going to be beneficial as a shorter term solution - ensuring your brand is present, where the active brand choice is currently being diminished. But for services and brands reliant on and invested in an interface, it’s not all doom and gloom. Interface based experiences are not going to go away. More and more users prefer to communicate more visually, and (when it is engaging) many enjoy app and service use simply for the pleasure of use. So for brands wanting to stay buoyant among a sea of competitors (with and without an interface), a brand experience needs to not just be a useful and usable friction-free vehicle to get the user to their end goal, but be treated as an engaging, unique destination in its own right.

South African Elections: Unravelling the social conversation on voting day

josh — Tue, 05 Sep 2017 13:41:18 +0000

The recent vote of no confidence in the South African elections called for the removal of the current president, Jacob Zuma, from his seat in office. The goal of Conversation LAB, a full service digital and communications agency based in South Africa, was to understand and identify the major channels and networks through which people were communicating during the voting day. This would help them understand what conversations were the most impactful, and the networks these spread to, and how integrated or segregated these networks were. During the election campaign, major opposition parties joined ranks in this effort to stand up to ruling party ANC, who said they would not vote in favour of this motion, despite several of their own MPs defiantly supporting it. The vote was a major divisive catalyst for an already fractured government, considering that the ANC whipped their members to not vote with their own conscience and instead vote with the ANC party line. It is claimed that the ANC government has been heavily implicated in corruption, nepotism, kleptocracy, and cronyism amongst a myriad of other charges. The way in which the vote was carried out shed light on a bigger narrative concerning the country's future and governance. As Conversation LAB started to use Audience Intelligence methods using Pulsar’s TRAC platform, they were able to uncover unique insights which then, in turn, converted into eye opening visualisations. The visualisations were used to identify what networks were communicating throughout different times of the voting day, and to see the most impactful and dominant. Result What was uncovered showed that the conversation, whilst broached by many macro and micro-influencers, spanned far and wide encompassing a variety of online communities. Conversation wasn’t driven by any single group of influencers, it was present uniformly across the social web. Klout or connections clearly had held no significance when it came to ensuring your voice was heard.

This visualisation shows conversations by network during a spike in conversation in the afternoon. Many networks (colourised) are driving the conversation, with even smaller networks being dominant drivers, intersecting and extending beyond the main network hub.

This visualisation shows conversation by network throughout the voting day. What’s important to note is that there is no single set of networks driving the conversation. Many different networks, some interconnected and some not, are contributing to the narrative. How It’s Done Data exported directly from the Pulsar TRAC platform into Gephi provided the opportunity to show the closeness and / or scale of the individual or entire network(s) and custom colour-code the graphs so that the biggest networks were easily identifiable. In addition, we were able to view networks as a percentage of the conversation which was very useful when dealing with datasets of this size. In this way we were able to capture a key moment in South African political history using social data as a medium. It's often difficult to translate large numbers into something cognitively palatable, but with a combination of structured Pulsar data & sophisticated Gephi visualisations we can start to comprehend the scale of nation wide conversations.

Trump’s pre-election rhetoric – a look at the metrics

Alice Crossland — Mon, 11 Sep 2017 15:23:04 +0000

For Part Two of our series on US President Donald Trump's Twitter activity (check out Part One here), this week at Pulsar we have been diving into Trump’s tweeting history in more detail, looking as far back as the beginning of 2013. Below we have charted Trump’s tweets from his @realDonaldTrump account to show a month on month shift from Jan 2013 – July 2017. We can easily see the highest volume of tweets were in January 2015 at 1,297 posts: Many of these tweets relate to Trump’s hosting of The Apprentice. However, January 2015 also saw Trump retweeting content from fans who supported the then seemingly inconceivable idea that he could run for the Presidency. Trump appears to have floated the idea of his political career change by airing the Twitter voices of those of his earliest followers. Some of the many examples include:

Mentions of Presidency Trump is typically seen as having exploded onto the political scene in early 2015, having never held public office before. With this in mind, here at Pulsar we thought it would be interesting to look more closely at when Trump started tweeting words related to the presidency. We saw that terms ‘president, presidency, White House, Oval Office’ became increasingly popular in the run up to January 2015. They reached their peak in April 2015, two months before Trump was officially announced as a presidential candidate. Even more interestingly, since the announcement this set of terms has been on the decline. N.B. Note secondary axis used The rise of the ‘Make America Great Again’ slogan The slogan ‘Make America Great Again’, sometimes shortened to MAGA and often used as a hashtag, has become synonymous with Trump’s campaign and is the rallying call of his supporters. It was used as Trump’s slogan during the 2016 presidential campaign, however it was originally used by Ronald Reagan in his 1980 campaign, albeit then slightly amended to ‘Let’s Make America Great Again’. Here we look at Trump’s tweets again, alongside mentions of ‘Make America Great Again, MAGA, #maga’ etc.: N.B. Note secondary axis used We can see that the MAGA terms come into use most prominently as early as January 2015, when Trump begins to retweet content running for president. The number of mentions increases relatively steadily, peaking in the run-up to the election. In October 2016 alone, there with 236 mentions from Trump’s Twitter account. Interestingly since Trump won the election these terms too have declined. Since using his Twitter account to great effect to communicate to his followers during the campaign, in the months following the election result there was a significant drop in month-on-month mentions. Trump’s commitment to the account has however continued. Since his inauguration he has tweeted on average 185 times a month from this account. The presidential @POTUS account is still primarily used to retweet the posts made from Trump’s personal account. A recent report from Brandwatch suggested that 19% of @POTUS’s tweets are retweets of @realDonaldTrump’s posts, spreading Trump’s word to the account’s 20.2M followers. Interestingly though, none of the tweets from @POTUS are retweeted from the @realDonaldTrump account. This is a heritage account adopted by Trump when he took office, having previously been established by Barack Obama in 2016. When Obama handed it over, the account’s content was archived but the 13M followers it had collected remained. Even now, a year later and bumped up to 20.2M followers, this pales in comparison to @realDonaldTrump’s 37.6M followers. Trump retains the use of his original account, which has a larger fan base and through which he can communicate in his own unique style. His early use of terms such as ‘president’, ‘presidency’ and ‘Make America Great Again’ show how Trump used Twitter as an important political tool to gather early support and momentum for his endeavours, not something he is likely to change any time soon. How do you think he'll continue to use social media as the main channel when seeking re-election? If you want to get insights like these for your brand or client, get in touch at info@pulsarplatform.com or call 020 7874 6577 today.

When You Absolutely NAIL a TV Ad…

Marcus — Tue, 19 Sep 2017 09:20:27 +0000

MoneySuperMarket have been running some pretty quirky ads for years now, but on Saturday a couple of weeks ago, they absolutely nailed it. He-Man and Skeletor, the Dirty Dancing routine, and a quick tribute to The Fonz – this ad had it all. An extended version ran for the first time right in the middle of X-Factor, sparking a huge spike in conversations around the brand on social media.

Conversations around MoneySuperMarket immediately leapt from around 100 posts per day to over 35,000 in an hour, adding an additional 10 million impressions to coverage they’d already secured. This is in line with their Epic Strut ad, which led to 20% growth in revenue for them in Q4 2016. The conversation truly went viral, reaching Peru, Ecuador, The Philippines, Uganda, Finland and Japan, despite the ad only running in the UK. This is an indication that their brand awareness extends internationally even though they are a UK company.

Using Pulsar’s emotional analysis, we can see that the response was almost universally positive, with a big spike in joy around the brand at 7pm when the ad went out. This is a great win for the MoneySuperMarket ad team, as the sentiment on their Epic Strut twerking campaign was faced with fierce backlash.

The traditional big-spend, prime time TV advert has declined in recent years since the glory days of Budweiser’s “whasaaaaap” and Apple’s Superbowl ad, as spend has gravitated towards below the line targeted advertising. But with increasing frustration and a lack of trust around flashing pop-up ads, retargeting and not-so-subtle influencer marketing, as well as the ability to measure in real time the effect a TV ad is having on an audience, will we start to see its return? If you want to get insights like these for your brand or client, get in touch at info@pulsarplatform.com or call 020 7874 6577 today.

How Adidas managed to embed themselves in the heart of a cultural movement

Emmanuel Demuren — Tue, 26 Sep 2017 12:10:59 +0000

“I don’t get how people can be SO obsessed with trainers”; these are words that you have more than likely been exposed to if you’ve been anywhere near the queue of a trainer (sneaker if you’re across the pond) store on a launch day of the latest Vapormax, Yeezy Boost [https://www.gq.com/story/yeezy-boost-sneaker-350-design-influence] or Vapormax x Yeezy boost v3 (ok this doesn’t exist but I almost had you). It can get more crazy than Walmart on Black Friday. If there’s one thing that the trainer subculture does better than pretty much anyone; it’s building hype. In light of this fact, I thought it would be interesting to track discussions on one of the most “hypebeast” brands going: Adidas. Adidas has relaunched its EQT range which originally came to fame in the 90s. Since then a lot has changed. We have phones that take pictures, I’m older than 7 and we now have a wonderful thing called Twitter. The above graph is showing tracked mentions of “EQT” from the beginning of 2017 until the last week of August. As you can see there was a spike on the 28^th January when Adidas released the news that a “new era of EQT” had arrived-and they didn’t stop there; this was accompanied by the restock of the Pusha T x Adidas EQT ‘King push’ trainers in Europe. This news was met by fans that could not contain their excitement and exclaimed how “lit” the new trainers looked.

A ‘lit’ pair of Adidas EQT’s

Now you may be wondering just who this Pusha T guy is. He’s an American rapper that has collaborated with Adidas on several trainers with painfully long names so I won’t include them. Adidas have also collaborated with a fair few artists for their EQT line, so I thought it would be interesting to take a look at how some of these partners fared against one another. Unsurprisingly in light of the fact that he has several EQT trainers named after him, Pusha T has dominated discussions over the last six months. However, more interestingly Stormzy and Hailey Baldwin both collaborated with Adidas UK and JD Sports (a large British retailer), but her volumes were a much larger portion of the discussion. Our analysis shows that this is largely the result of a “Q and A” video released on Twitter that showed the model answering some classic ‘which do you prefer’ questions which included “Birthday or Christmas?” Since this is a highly interactive and engaging way to reach out to millennial fans and more fun than text (who has time to read), this post was shared by a number of Hailey Baldwin fanpages as well as Hypebae. This contributed heavily to the difference in discussions. Whilst celebrity partnerships are a great way to increase exposure for the brand by appealing to the figure in question’s fanbase, I often feel like there is something disingenuous about them. Don’t get me wrong, this is Adidas we’re talking about so they have got some “lit” partnerships with talented rappers, artists and models that are doing great things. But I can’t help but feel like there’s always something slightly off with them. This brings us to the question of: How should a brand like Adidas go about creating a closeness with fans? The EQT Creator studio. This was an immersive pop up space that ran a week-long programme of free gigs, workshops and talks. The real value of this is the fact that it called for fans to interact with the brand; they came and experienced the EQT concept first hand rather than passively reposting about news on their social channels. Adidas brought together a few different subcultures and united them to learn together. This is an excellent way to get fans organically posting about the brand as they shared posts that sufficiently created unmistakeable feelings of FOMO to all of their followers that didn’t manage to get down to the events. This therefore created a dynamic where attendees were genuine, unpaid endorsers of the brand. Authentic.

(This is social proof marketing at its best-FOMO is no joke)

Like the jam in a doughnut, Adidas have placed themselves right in the middle of a cultural movement. This visualisation of the key influencers responsible for posting about the EQT Creator studio conveys this; in this instance, you have “Grime Daily” and “Complex Sneakers” collaborating with Adidas to put on events and posting about this on social, therefore effectively bringing together fans of both music and trainers. They effectively unite cultures and in so doing become a melting point for creativity. This is when brands can truly engage audiences; when they successfully embed themselves in the culture and don’t try to dictate to it. If you want to get insights like these for your brand or client, get in touch at info@pulsarplatform.com or call 020 7874 6577 today.

What is Audience Marketing?

louis — Tue, 24 Oct 2017 14:48:18 +0000

Static methods of marketing to audiences look at age, gender and geography to segment consumers which has become the norm in digital marketing, with consumers who don’t fit those segments disregarded. These missed potential consumers are known as “valuable wastage”. However, this method of targeting can miss out on many potential customers of the brand in that advertising campaign. Enter Audience Marketing, which takes a different approach to targeting. This looks at the personal aspects of people in all demographics, such as behaviors, perceptions and mindsets, and targets them according to those characteristics. For instance if 2 people in different demographics show similar behavior and mindsets which are right for the campaign, they should be included in the targeting and not just discarded based on their age alone.

Important Characteristics for Audience Marketing

These three characteristics can be combined to identify your audience, splitting them into sub-categories which are much narrower than traditional demographic targeting would allow. Let’s take a closer look at how to use them: Behaviors: The audience show a particular interest in your product or service area, through actions such as sharing certain articles or searching for specific retailers. This could indicate that they are close to buy or have recently bought a product in your relevant category. Perceptions: They present their views about topics relating to your campaign, whether positive, negative or neutral. They could be more emotional about a certain topic, posting multiple times about it. This can be used to engage with them. Moments: People display distinct emotions and opinions when they are in specific moments in time, be it commuting or having a cup of joe at a coffee shop. Audiences share their annoyance or joy about being in these scenarios, which can be used to narrow down your campaign to a single one of these moments. This will give your campaign the maximum impact on your audience.

The power of social data

Social data allows you to identify these audiences and discover their interests and mindsets through the conversations they have about them. This provides insights which can inform campaign strategy and content creation. No longer is there the risk of missing out on large portions of the audience using demographic targeting, the right people can be exactly identified for the campaign. Thus the creative direction and messaging can be tailored directly towards the right audience for an engaging campaign. Not only does this potentially save a lot of money on unengaging campaigns and products, marketers can use the audience insights to be bolder than ever before. They are safe in the knowledge that the strategy is based on real insights from social data, the largest dataset on consumer behavior and attitudes. Using the 3 characteristics set out above, marketers can also gain from the unique ability to identify emerging audiences that show signs of moving into their focus and engage them with relevant content for additional growth.

The changing face of marketing

Marketing campaigns are moving away from demographic targeting and focusing more on specific audiences. With a wealth of data from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Youtube along with news, blogs, forums and review sites, planners can identify their audience for their campaign and tailor ads and content to maximise engagement. In this way advertisers can be confident in the underlying insights behind the creative and be bolder, while also minimising wasted spend. As we gain access to more data we must keep in mind that finding out details about your audience is only half the battle. The key to successful campaigns will continue to rely on great creative. If you would like to harness audience marketing yourself, you can book a demo here and we’ll show you how it can be done, or get in touch at info@pulsarplatform.com.

Does It Give You Tingles or The Heebie-Jeebies? The Rise and Rise of ASMR

Sameer Shah — Mon, 13 Nov 2017 16:42:37 +0000

ASMR – short for Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response – is somewhat of a hidden but burgeoning online phenomenon. It’s basically an experience, triggered by a unique set of sounds and potentially visuals that gives the listener a static-like sensation, going from their scalp and go down their neck and back. Rather similar to the hairs on the back of your neck rising. In its current online form, ASMR is tapping into the triggers and tingles that induce relaxation, and is often used to help people fall asleep. Some swear by it as a useful methodology, but others are less convinced.

ASMR is bigger than you’d expect

A simple YouTube search reveals a whopping 10.6 million videos under the category. For context, Arsenal Football Club has 7.2 million results, and Jeremy Corbyn just 300k. Given the magnitude of the latter two subjects, that alone tells you how large ASMR is online. Indeed, the top “ASMRtists” have hundreds of thousands of subscribers on YouTube, and now almost a cult following.

Here’s one of the top results found in Autumn of 2017. We can clearly see that these ‘experiences’ now have a narrative which has grown way beyond role play and visual context of the video is a major factor in the overall experience.

As ASMR has attained more and more press coverage – with articles and stories being published by the likes of the BBC, Guardian and New York Times – there has inevitably been more searching of it; as evidenced by the following Google Trends data:

Social media discussion has caught up to the curiosity

A look at historical social media conversation around ASMR reveals that it was slow on the uptake compared to the people Googling the topic, but has accelerated over the past year as the online community and its audience grew:

This culminated in the massive spike in April 2017 due to #InternationalASMRDay – which gained far more traction than its previous annual instances. The first six-months of 2017 witnessed over 960k social media mentions of ASMR; compared to 800k in the entirety of 2016.

Have we reached peak online ASMR?

Though the raw numbers may not show it, does the decline in the proportion of long-form conversation on blogs and forums (from 5% in 2016; to 3% in 2017) indicate that the growth of ASMR could be stagnating? Is it starting to be mentioned more in passing than discussed in-depth? There are numerous potential explanations behind this hypothesis, with the most basic one being a desensitisation to the tingles. Simply put, if one watches too many ASMR videos, they run the risk of diminishing returns from the sensations they gain. Another one could be that ASMR has become too mainstream, and those who fuelled its “underground” growth may no longer wish to be associated with it…especially in light of Rule 34.

Rule 34

A dig deep into online subculture reveals the “Rules of the Internet”, and Rule 34 states rather simply and crudely that:

“If it exists, there is porn of it – no exceptions.”

In nearly all the top results on YouTube for ASMR, you’d find some form of roleplay scenario or visual demonstration by the presenter that has a sexual connotation. However, those who genuinely enjoy the ASMR sound experience claim to discount the visuals and resent the idea that their attraction to the experience is anything sexual.

With regards to ASMR, this feeds strongly into the fetishisation of the category – especially given the prominence of young females as ASMRtists. Google Trends search behaviour reflects this:

This has caused much uproar within the community between the more “traditional” ASMRtists and their fans, versus those who they believe are purposely leveraging on sexuality to attain popularity. Could it be that re-positioning ASMR as a turn-on for the casual mainstream audience may make it a turn-off for the hardcores and trigger the ultimate demise of the online phenomenon?

How Brands Can Ride the Stranger Things Eighties Wave

louis — Wed, 22 Nov 2017 14:05:54 +0000

Our culture nowadays is one of remixing and reworking older things, presenting them in a fresh way. Those kids who grew up in the Eighties are now the people creating art, fashion and films. With the US population alone numbering over 78 million Millennials, this demographic is a key one to target for advertising. For instance, the popular Eighties-themed TV show, Stranger Things has dominated Netflix and internet chatter amongst Millennials for months. One notable reason behind this success seems to be its Eighties throwback style, appealing to Millennials’ earliest pop culture memories; and it’s not alone.

Style it out

Topshop, a large UK retail fashion chain is a brand who are constantly targeting the Millennial demographic, and seem to have jumped at the chance to team up with Netflix for the latest line ‘Topshop X Stranger Things’. While the line carries some Stranger Things branded items, the core line of items are Eighties-inspired clothing without any clear Stranger Things branding. The collection subtly applies the aesthetic of the Eighties, while maintaining today’s fashion trends. Unlike other uses of the Eighties theme, it’s not completely in your face, and the collection stands on its own.

Assemble your squad

Domino’s Pizza has also used the Eighties aesthetic subtly, while also drawing on another theme so prevalent in Stranger Things, groups of friends, in its “The official food of squads” campaign.

By mixing the Eighties clothes with a Noughties song (P. Diddy’s Bad Boys For Life), the ad resonates with the whole spectrum of ages in Dominos’ 16-34 target audience. The unity of the nerdy Eighties ‘squad’ is juxtaposed with more modern music and everyone’s favourite 2017 trend, fidget spinners. Having the squad in the starring role capitalizes on the overtone of Stranger Things, whose own protagonists are united by their friendship. While showing no other signs of repeating what the show has done, it sets itself apart such because the connection is discreet, again, not ramming it down the viewer’s throat. This ad is a good example of ‘remixing’ as it uses a small feature of the show but brings a lot of new ideas to the table.

Beware nostalgia without reinvention

A key note is that brands must use the Eighties theme thoughtfully, especially when borrowing elements from successful TV shows like Stranger Things, executing it only if it fits well with their brand identity. It’s not just about throwing in the proverbial kitchen sink of references to the era, but selecting poignant moments people - and here specifically millennials - will remember, to make them nostalgic. In a sea of reruns and reboots, the use of nostalgia has been an enduring characteristic in advertising for a long time. But as it’s exploited more and more, the public will start to engage with it less and less. Millennials have now become savvy to an obvious pluck on the nostalgic heartstring. Brands, therefore, need to reiterate and reinvent to ensure their creatives stay fresh, and actually resonate with a modern audience, rather than just nodding to their interests. Adding in contemporary cultural components and new technologies can create a refreshing mix with the recognisable nostalgic foundation. With the Eighties beginning to tire, is it now time for the Nineties to take centre stage in advertising? I can see it now, Augmented Reality Tamagotchis and Spice Girls iPhone X cases everywhere.

Is social media FOMO the best way to gain millennial banking customers?

Emmanuel Demuren — Tue, 28 Nov 2017 14:50:05 +0000

Who could have guessed that the latest millennial trend wouldn’t be related to avocado on toast or fidget spinners, but banking. Monzo is the current buzzword of the strapped-for-cash generation, but how has it managed to make budgeting…cool? And is this a bubble set to burst or is it signalling a (cash) flow into the future of banking? A quick introduction: Monzo is a Fintech startup set up in 2015, that allows users to control and monitor their transactions from an intuitive app on their smartphones. Although it started out as a prepaid card, in April 2017 Monzo received its full banking licence and is currently in the process of rolling out a current account for customers in the UK. Amongst other clever things, the banking app sends notifications to users’ phones when they make a transaction, for an in-the-moment read of their spending. Monzo’s purely digital nature makes it unsurprisingly popular amongst millennials and its marketing takes full advantage of this.

Social validation and FOMO in marketing is thriving

The first time we came across Monzo was via a friend asking if a group had Monzo so we could transfer him money owed for a 5 a-side football match through the app. The next week, at dinner, the same thing happened again for splitting the bill. It very quickly began to seem like everybody had all been invited to a party thrown by someone we didn’t know. Taking a quick look on Twitter it turns out we weren’t alone:

It’s not just you feeling left out

Monzo’s marketers have been very clever in the way that they have influenced this FOMO feeling. There is an enormously long queue to get a Monzo card, but you can skip it if you are invited by someone who has a Golden Ticket. On Twitter, this strategy is incredibly effective for creating a perception of a community or club that people want to be a part of. It works in the same way that when you see a large queue outside a restaurant you’re more inclined to stop by and find out what all the fuss is about.

So what’s the big deal?

Once they’ve been overcome by banking FOMO and got themselves a coral card, what exactly is it that people like about Monzo? We set up a search on Twitter using Pulsar to uncover some insights. The first thing we came across was that the top three benefits that users are saying they like about Monzo are:

there are no fees abroad (although this has recently changed a little)
it helps them with budgeting
it is easy to transfer money to other users through the app

From here we wanted to see what was most important and found that the most mentioned factor is the budgeting potential that Monzo has, with 45% of the discussion dominated by this, compared to 31% of people talking about the favourable rates abroad. This suggests there may have been a shift in thinking, with millennial consumers now feeling like their banking provider has more of a role to play in helping them keep track of their spending.

Is it just a millennial thing?

To test this idea about what consumers want from their banking we had a look into another bank that has been said to be disrupting the industry: Metro Bank. A similar deep dive into what customers are saying reveals that the main thing people seem to like about Metro Bank is the quality of the customer service, and the way that they can carry out banking tasks so quickly - especially in comparison to a more traditional bank. A resounding 93% of discussions mention Metro Bank’s customer service as opposed to the other benefits it shares with Monzo, such as budgeting or transfers.

Those who are keen on Metro Bank seem to want something different from their bank to the Monzo audience, who generally tend to be younger. Monzo’s largely millennial audience are looking for their bank to give them the autonomy to get their own finances in order, whereas for Metro Bank customers the main onus is on the bank to provide fast and efficient customer service.

But they’re not the only one

Using improved tech to challenge the traditional frustrations people have with banks is clearly a trend, but what about companies operating in a similar space to Monzo - is its success coming from just the FOMO-based marketing strategy alone? Throughout this investigation we’ve been constantly coming into contact with competitors that consumers would be mentioning in comparison to Monzo. So we decided to check one of them out: Revolut. We were wondering why we’d never heard of it and so had a look through some of the data to see what was going on. On the way we found this tweet:

Here we have a bank presenting a similar product to Monzo, but with less of a focus on the marketing that Monzo has been so successful with. And this speaks volumes: since the beginning of 2017 discussions about Monzo has had over double the amount of Twitter impressions as Revolut. In other words, half the amount of people have seen something on their timeline about Revolut than Monzo. These two Fintech startups have made a conscious decision to bring their products to market in very different ways; Monzo has placed more focus on marketing, whilst Revolut claim to be diverting this attention towards product. It’s worth noting that there is some evidence that Revolut’s decision to focus on the product hasn’t gone unnoticed:

But what will be interesting to see is how these decisions play out in the months to come. Is Revolut’s decision to focus on features rather than marketing justified? Will Monzo’s focus on marketing mean that more people are aware about them and therefore they have obtained an unattainable lead?

Will this style of banking last?

Overall, the new digital banks have been a hit with the online community, but this is only one facet of success. Ultimately the question for brands like Monzo, Metro Bank and Revolut is whether or not their current popularity will translate to a significant disruption of the already-established larger banks. Monzo currently exists as a pre-paid card that couldn’t offer a direct threat to the banking model until it rolled out its full current accounts. It’s possible a reason for Monzo’s prosperity thus far could be because it played a different role and acted as a complementary account to people’s main current accounts. Is the need to more effectively track their own finances something that customers want from banking more generally, and will this take precedence over other more traditional factors such as customer service? And will it be the most popular amongst its competitors? Whilst there are a few examples on Twitter of people willing to switch over to Monzo as their main current account provider, time will tell if they have done enough to take a slice out of the main banking providers’ cake.

As Bitcoin surges past $15k, it’s time we asked: has cryptocurrency gone mainstream?

marcgeffen — Fri, 08 Dec 2017 10:59:31 +0000

As we turn toward the finish line of 2017, we look back on a year in which our politics, our news, and many social conventions and institutions - key pillars of our society - have been called into question. Depending on who you listen to (or who you follow), it may seem like another seismic shift is about to shake yet another pillar: our money. The market for cryptocurrency - digital currency exchanged and secured via open-source software - has been growing since 2009, and the value of each Bitcoin recently passed the $15,000 mark. This has made a lot of people sit up and suddenly take interest. Some are convinced that cryptocurrency is the next great disruptive technology. Others are concerned with speculative behavior in the space and warn of a bubble, though many of these skeptics also concede that crypto may fundamentally change the way we store value, exchange money, and validate transactions in the long-term. What’s clear, though, is that we are nearing an inflection point where cryptocurrency, particularly Bitcoin, will enter the consciousness of the mainstream.

To measure cryptocurrency interest and adoption, we could examine price data, trading volume, market capitalization, hash rate on the bitcoin network, etc. Yet these figures mostly focus on the small sliver of the population who are early adopters in the crypto game. The fringes are already well-documented. Our curiosity in this case lies with the mainstream, pushing us to take a different approach, analyzing recent social media conversation and audience data: are everyday people actually talking about cryptocurrency? We delved into data around US, English-speaking cryptocurrency conversation to shed light on the buzz and the hype from a completely new angle.

Who’s talking about Bitcoin? It’s not just the tech-bros...

Bitcoin buzz is driven by a diverse audience beyond the young, male, tech community. The stereotype we might imagine of a Bitcoin investor or enthusiast is that of a techie jumping into the next digital trend. But looking at the data of those discussing it online, relative to social media platform user benchmarks, cryptocurrency discussion is actually well distributed across age segments and other demographics. While the social audience does skew male, women are well-represented - over 250K women have posted about cryptocurrency in the last two months. Politically, the social audience leans liberal, suggesting that the libertarian values common among the core crypto community are also reflected in the mainstream audience.

When it comes to questions about Bitcoin and digital currencies, what are people discussing?

The mainstream is very much still at square one, asking: what is it? Of conversations in which people are asking questions about Bitcoin and other crypto- or digital-currencies, a majority (51%) still seek a basic understanding of what it is. This holds true across all age groups, though people 35-44 years old lead the What is it? conversation. 25-34 year olds show a slight edge in terms of eagerness to invest, leading the Where to buy? conversation. Interestingly, 45-54 year olds drive the Who accepts? conversation, suggesting that this age segment is more likely to judge the legitimacy of a digital currency by the strength of its payment use cases/applications.

What is the focus of the cryptocurrency conversation, and how have perceptions changed over time?

Sentiment tides are shifting as recent conversation shows less skepticism, more optimism. While pessimism still leads the emotional chatter around cryptocurrency, it seems opinions are changing course; since mid-October, pessimism has decreased by more than 10%, while optimism and predictions conversation have grown. The 35+ segment of the audience have driven this shift in perception, becoming notably more optimistic in the last month. This implies a turn away from the skepticism that’s often found in mainstream media conversation about Bitcoin.

Bitcoin is clearly the brand name carrying the cryptocurrency market forward. Mentions of bitcoin, #bitcoin, and similar terms far outpace generic mentions of the category (cryptocurrency, digital currency, etc) - showing that people like having a brand name to latch onto. Brands are symbols for certain values (freedom, innovation) and help simplify choices in complex markets (What new tech should I consider? Where should I invest my money?). While Bitcoin does dominate the buzz and is leading the race toward high awareness, it’s notable that Ethereum holds a strong spot among the top twenty conversation topics.

So, to what extent does mainstream buzz respond to, or affect, the cryptocurrency market?

Patterns in social media conversation signal upcoming Bitcoin price movements. One might assume that online cryptocurrency conversation is mostly reactionary, trailing prominent media buzz - but social conversation actually seems to stimulate interest and action in the space. Spikes in conversation volume often precede spikes in search volume by one full day, and Bitcoin price peaks by one to three days. In nearly every case, a rise of 10% or more in social cryptocurrency buzz from one day to the next “predicts” a rise of at least 5% in the price of Bitcoin within three days time. And, over the full period measured, higher social conversation volumes are strongly correlated with higher Bitcoin price levels (r = .76). It’s clear that Bitcoin, and cryptocurrency generally, is creeping into the mainstream consciousness. While sentiment analysis shows there’s still plenty of skepticism around this relatively new asset class, many social data indicators point toward a more positive outlook: pessimism is on the decline, the topic is reaching an increasingly diverse online audience over time, and rising prices are correlated to conversation momentum. We’ve moved past the point of niche interest and into an early phase of public participation in digital currency; whether that move is feeding a bubble or a healthy market, time will tell.

On-Demand Webinar: What marketers can learn from Billion Dollar companies

Amir — Tue, 12 Dec 2017 10:18:32 +0000

In December we ran a webinar detailing techniques and methodologies where social data has successfully optimized campaigns run by some of our largest customers, and discussed how these can be applied by any marketer - even if you don’t have the budget of a billion-dollar brand. If you missed the webinar, the video is available to watch below - a few key takeaways included: Go beyond listening to your audience. Understand them Just knowing your demographic is no longer good enough. Before putting your creative advertisement or marketing campaign together, look to speak the same language as your audience. We looked at the sponsorship of the British Lions rugby team to find the due diligence you should do before every campaign, using social listening and audience intelligence platforms to really understand your audience, what they’re talking about and what’s important to them. Don’t preach to your audience. Join the conversation Once you’ve understood the language of your audience, look to join the conversation instead of speaking at them. We detailed how to analyze and gain insights from social data by looking at our work with the Great British Bake Off’s sponsors, to show how to join the conversation as it happens and organically position your brand with the audience, rather than marketing at them when they’re not looking to engage. Understand your success by using social data to prove ROI When it comes to PR and OOH advertising and marketing, it becomes quite difficult to measure ROI. Utilizing Audience Intelligence platforms allows you to measure your brand reach and the sentiment that goes with it in real time; which in turn helps you to measure your campaigns and ROI more accurately. We looked at how a leading car brand’s always-on listening makes reports quick and easy.

Check out rest of the invaluable lessons we learned from this webinar by signing up to watch it now on-demand:

Guest post: why should you be tracking a social media campaign?

admin — Fri, 15 Dec 2017 14:48:06 +0000

This month we have a guest post from one of Pulsar's clients, Zeal - an award-winning full service digital and creative agency, on the importance of tracking social media campaigns correctly. They share seven things to keep front of mind before starting any social media campaign: Social media campaigns are a cheap method of driving awareness and targeting your market interests in a much more precise way than a scatter-gun advertising campaign. But, like anything, they will take up your time and effort, so it's vital to create a campaign that both gets you the results, and targets existing audiences as well as opening you up to new ones. For a social media campaign to actually be effective, it needs to be properly tracked, so you can show the worth of the time and any money invested, and learn for next time.

1. Why is tracking so important?

Advertising campaigns fail every day. They either don’t get the message across, or simply don’t appeal to the audience they're targeted at. With social media marketing you are able to respond quickly and change tacts, for instance using split A/B tests. After all, there’s no point flogging a tagline to death if nobody is responding to it. Tracking your social media campaign lets you see (often in real-time) how effective it is and whether posts have the capability to go viral and raise conversion rates. For paid social campaigns it’s absolutely essential to track effectively, as you’re investing hard cash and need to make sure you’re getting a solid ROI right from the beginning.

2. What kind of engagements do you want to drive?

There’s a pretty simple answer to that question – the kind that result in sales. But it's never that black and white, and it’s also important to cultivate engagements that develop into long-lasting relationships. Those high-value repeat customers and those who have a strong commitment to your brand will in time be the most valuable. Through tracking social media you can develop those kind of warm leads. Your social followers are already people who are interested in the brand, are usually of the right demographic, and are therefore more likely to respond positively to your message. Tracking your campaign will tell you who's responded, and more about their behaviours so you can serve them the right pitch at the right time.

3. The value of impressions vs interactions

Your branded website is your shop window, the gateway through which online clients interact with you. And it's easy to pop links to said website in your social media content. But how do you know whether those click-throughs and visits are merely impressions or interactions? Are visitors simply having a look around and then bouncing, or filling up a shopping cart or signing up for more in-depth interaction such as email newsletters? One is valueless, whereas the other is potentially value-rich. Tracking will let you know if you’re getting more impressions than interactions. That could indicate your campaign needs more work to convert them into solid leads, or if everything's going well.

4. Planning your social media campaign: the essentials

It’s important to develop a clear plan of action if you want your social media campaign to succeed. Don't just throw out a few tweets and hope it goes viral. Develop short and long-term objectives for each platform, such as gaining a set number of Facebook likes and shares every day, new LinkedIn followers, retweets, or new followers and users on Pinterest. Without careful planning you’ll waste time (and money if you’re including social media marketing or spending money on employing copywriters to create your content for you). Your campaign will blend into the background noise without actually achieving anything. The best decision is often to seek help from a social media marketing agency like Zeal who manage many campaigns simultaneously, and have the experience to mitigate misguided strategy that could create heavy losses and have a negative impact on your brand, as well as tracking which content performs best, and when.

5. Choose the right platform

Before you launch, make sure you’re in the right arena. Is your target audience older professionals? Snapchat probably isn’t the right place to be – you need to be focusing on LinkedIn. Want to generate an instant buzz? Keep it short, punchy and simple with Twitter. The best way to track if you’re on the right platform is to research with an audience intelligence platform such as Pulsar. This will tell you which activities, on which channels, receive the most impressions and engagements. With daily reports, you’ll be able to instantly see where your weak spots are and correct quickly.

6. Speaking of analytics…

Analysing your campaign is much easier if you set up a comprehensive analytics and tracking platform before you go live. There are hundreds of different packages on offer, including the native insights programs from the social channels themselves, but audience intelligence platforms like Pulsar allow you to track everything from hashtags to influencers and trending tweets, and benchmark against industry averages. Adapt your analytics to suit your campaign model and the platforms you’re using.

7. How often should you post?

How much time you spend on your campaign will ultimately depend on a number of key variables. These include your targets, your audience, which platforms you’re using, and how much resource you have. So work efficiently and keep those posts relevant, and try to avoid over-posting. Stuff up potential customers’ timelines with rambling tweets and dull, irrelevant status updates and you’ll start haemorrhaging followers. Like any campaign, it needs to be lean, smart and eye-catching to have an impact, so tracking the results in real time means you can ensure it's exactly that.

In conclusion...

Social media engagements can have a lasting effect on business, as marketing professionals are well aware. To others within a business however, social media has to be accountable. One of the joys of sharing cleverly created hashtags and trackable links is a chance to unlock, with audience intelligence tools, not just volumes of impressions and engagements, but also the value those have for your brand and product. Whether that be for immediate sales, or the number of brand advocates that you create in the process, there are huge advantages in tracking all campaigns properly.

New on Pulsar: CORE Creative tab

Emily — Mon, 18 Dec 2017 11:49:01 +0000

If one gift wasn't enough, we've got a second Pulsar product update coming your way just before the holidays. As well as our new Platform Launch Pad we're introducing the Pulsar CORE Creative Tab!

Say you wanted to understand how to create the best content. Not unusual. You would need to know the media format, what copy you should use, the images that work best for you and how you measure up to your competitors. To give you better tools to quickly arrive at a creative insight, we have added a Creative tab to the Contents section of CORE. There are three sections of the CORE creative tab, and two new features we'd like to draw your attention to:

Format

The format tab (previously known to users as ‘media type’) has been designed to show you which media types you should include in your content to get the highest engagement and impact from your audience. For example, you can see if images are generating higher engagements than links.

Copy

The copy tab (previously known to users as ‘keywords’) shows you which keywords have been working best for your content. You can now choose the copy of your content based on what has previously generated the highest engagements, visibility, impressions or engagement rate.

Images

We have also added image recognition, which analyzes the contents of any images within your posts. So you can see (above) that the best performing image colours that work for Kim Kardashian are ‘gray colours’, whilst ‘sea green’ works for Kendall and ‘light brown’ is Khloé’s most popular colour. If the Kardashians sisters need a little help choosing the best colour scheme for their next Instagram post, they know where to find us!

Competitor Comparison

Now you can compare yourself against your competitors, and benchmark format, copy, and images within your industry. Looking at the treemap chart above, if Kim wants to see, by engagement, how the format of her content compares to her sisters, she can do this on the Format Tab. She can see that she has around 20 million more engagements on images than her sister Kylie, and 60 million more than Kourtney!

Over Indexing

Finally, we have visualized the data so you can understand competitor performance proportionally, shown by the degree of shading. The darker the shade of color, the higher that insight is performing compared to the rest of your content, and your competitors. When you hover over the tile, we will also show you the average percentage of this insight’s performance, showing whether it is better or worse. If we look at Kylie, we can see (above) that she has 38 million more engagements on her images than Kourtney. However, the engagements she is receiving are actually -8.8% below the average amount she should be getting, compared to her content formats and those of her sisters. Equally, Kourtney is getting +7.1% higher average engagements on her images than her sisters. So despite having fewer overall engagements, Kourtney’s images are actually performing better than Kylie's. As always, if you have any questions around the CORE Creative Tab, or any Pulsar features just open up the Intercom chat in the bottom right hand corner, and our online support team take you through them. Happy holidays!

New on Pulsar: Platform Launch Pad

Emily — Mon, 18 Dec 2017 11:50:15 +0000

‘Tis the season to be jolly and today at Pulsar we’ve come bearing gifts. We’re delighted to be releasing a new Platform Launch Pad, plus a Creative tab on CORE, giving you a nice early holiday present.

The Platform Launch Pad

As we add new products and build integrations between them, Pulsar is evolving as a platform. As with any platform, it serves multiple use cases and it has become more and more important to give you better tools to decide what to use and when. To show our full range of services, when you open Pulsar you’ll now both see products that you own and ones you are not yet subscribed to; as well as brand new, innovative tools that we are developing.

For products that you are not yet using, we’ve made sure that these are always visible and interactive on the Launch Pad, clicking them takes you straight to the relevant part of our website for more detail.

Lastly, we have created a holding space for you to see brand new products that we are creating while they're in process, so that you can see what's coming up next. You can access the Product Launch Pad every time you log into Pulsar or open up Pulsar to restart your session. Once you click on the product icon you want to work with, you will be returned to the last place you were in that product. As always, if you have any questions around these new features just open up the Intercom chat in the bottom right hand corner of Pulsar and our support team take you through them. Happy holidays!

What’s your score? How Uber’s rating system inspires emotional engagement

Anna — Tue, 02 Jan 2018 10:35:35 +0000

Online ratings systems are an undeniable ego-rub. Consumers rating one another is nothing new and reviews of individuals have been a staple feature on sites such as Amazon and eBay for years. However, Uber's scores out of five - for both drivers and riders, based on face-to-face interactions - are taking the rating system outside of the shopping context and into the wider world of pop culture. From cropping up in Tinder and Twitter bios to saving you in an awkward dinner party scenario, an Uber rating is a relatable reference. This Bloomberg article even invites Uber users with the rating 4.7 and below to seek an assessment of their behaviour from friends and family, suggesting their rating reveals something deeper about who they really are. Queue the Black Mirror references. So why are Uber ratings gaining this degree of cultural importance, and should other brands be paying attention? We had a look at the social conversation around the subject to find out.

Off the charts

A quick look at Google search data reveals the volume of searches around “Uber ratings” growing at a faster rate than eBay or Amazon review terms.

Search interest peaks in January 2016. This spike is likely a result of the 'Five Stars' Saturday Night Live sketch featuring Aziz Ansari, in which he plays a rider desperate to improve his 3.9 score during his next trip at any cost necessary (including giving a driver a back rub).

The frequency of people searching for Uber ratings on Google has since been decreasing.

However, a different picture is revealed by looking at Twitter data (above). eBay and Amazon ratings discussion is virtually non-existent, but the conversation about Uber ratings has been growing during the past couple of years and isn’t showing signs of subsiding, emphasizing that it remains a relevant discussion topic.

What are people rating one another for?

When it comes to riders rating drivers, they tend to report giving a five-star rating, unless something goes really wrong. There is, however, one factor that appears to be more of a deal-breaker than actual driving skills: their driver’s music choice.

Overall, though, rating drivers is not top of riders’ minds, with less than a quarter of the conversation focusing on this. It is, perhaps predictably, their own rider rating that app users are eager to discuss. Achieving a high score is a source of pride for many:

Scores which riders perceive to be low, on the other hand, trigger a sense of frustration and confusion. App users try to figure out the reasons behind their scores going down. Being late or cancelling is cited as the biggest offense, followed by the debate around whether starting a conversation with the driver helps or hinders one’s score. Worries over being polite enough, tipping, eating in a car and being drunk, or simply “annoying” all feature within the conversation as well.

Of course, expressing of a sense of extreme pride for a high score, or being “devastated” about a low Uber rating might be largely exaggerated. However, the fact that these jokes are recurring and relatable confirms that many people see Uber ratings as - at least somewhat - a wider reflection on who we are, and can shake a sense of identity, even for a moment.

But does your rating increase your brand loyalty?

So what are the implications of the rating system when it comes to the consumer brand-relationship between riders and Uber? Does receiving a score which a rider feels is an inaccurate reflection on themselves trigger one to turn away from the brand? It seems like a high-risk strategy, to have users possibly feel inadequate while using the app. But riders’ posts suggest it’s unlikely. While they may be disillusioned with their score, many work hard to “fix it”, or sustain the score they are happy with, even if it requires effort. What could be the reasons behind this? According to the recent study from the Harvard Business review, there is a set of emotional motivators brands can leverage in order to get consumers more emotionally invested. These motivations include consumers’ desire to stand out from the crowd, feel a sense of belonging and living up to one’s ideal self-image. Having a perfect Uber rating, arguably, taps into all of these, resulting in a high degree of emotional investment.

Working to improve one’s rating can also be tied to the sociological concept of the “ the escalation of commitment”. This is a phenomenon where a person or a group will continue investing effort into something that already has had a negative consequence. In this case, one might continually care about their Uber rating and work on it, even if they don’t believe the rating system to be fair or realise them caring isn’t rational, simply because they have previously already invested time and effort into their relationship with the brand.

What's next?

Today brands increasingly thrive for a two-way dialogue with consumers, in order to truly connect with them. Some of the ways they try to achieve this connection is through reaching out to consumers directly on social media and creating unique collaborative experiences, where consumers get to contribute to the crafting of the brand’s identity. Perhaps, through creating an eco-system where the interaction between riders and the drivers - who represent the brand during the ride - become so important, Uber scores an ultimate jackpot when it comes to stimulating this brand dialogue, and, most importantly, emotional investment. People want to use the app to improve their rating, guaranteeing business. We're not suggesting all brands should seek to introduce rating systems, and this is where of course the Black Mirror comparisons would become all too real. However, testing unconventional opportunities to stimulate consumer-brand dialogue can go a long way in inspiring emotional engagement.

A network view of passion communities on Twitter

Amir — Mon, 26 Feb 2018 14:22:47 +0000

“Passion areas are not monolithic audiences, rather they are articulated in a dense network of well-defined sub-communities.”

Understanding audiences and people is key to what we do here at Pulsar, and to our clients. And it's just as important to social media users - people define themselves by what they're interested in, and use social media to re-enforce these definitions daily. For brands and agencies to get a clear message across to these individuals, it's important to know what hooks them about these interests. Working with Twitter, we randomly sampled and analysed 800,000 Twitter users globally to understand the demographic traits and interests of eight major passion networks: Fashion, Technology, Politics, TV & Film, Fitness, Music, Food and Sports. The analysis clearly shows that the sub-communities emerging in each passion area tend to cluster around either geographic, ethnic or interest affinities, sometimes a mix of all three. We have put together a whitepaper on this research and will be starting a series of blog articles based on this research, each time diving into a different community. Using the Twitter Graph API means we can tap into the following/follower relationship in Twitter’s Social Graph, which maps these cultural affinities clearly and delivers a granular ready-to-use audience segmentation. For brands and agencies, understanding these sub-communities around their passion which they talk about we can prove that a single message aimed at targeting the generic audience of a passion area won’t spread across the entire audience because the audience is fragmented and the message will only be relevant to a portion of that audience. We will demonstrate when it comes to strategy, developing creative that is tailored to the key sub-communities of a passion area rather than following a one-size-fits-all approach is best. Lastly, we’ll give examples of how brands are currently creating micro-targets based on a cultural profile of the select sub-community in order to increase relevance and engagement. Let’s delve into some of our findings:

	Fashion A diverse audience fragmented in a large number of small national and international communities congregating around global influencers, cultural scenes and professional hubs.		Technology A very homogenous audience, extremely interconnected and clustered into a small number of large global or city-level communities showing a consistent overlap of interests and passions.
	Politics A very homogenous audience sharing common interests and passions, well interconnected in a small number of large national and international communities brought together by national and global influencers.		TV & Film A diverse audience showing a wide range of interests and passions, not well connected but less fragmented than expected. Unlike other diverse audiences, the TV & Film one tend to congregate in global communities built around genre affiliations and global influencers.
	Fitness A fairly homogenous audience sharing a similar set of passions (sports, health, food, lifestyle) but fragmented in many small communities congregating around local influencers.		Music A very diverse audience, extremely fragmented in many small communities showing almost no overlap of interests and passions. This audience comes together around music genres, music scenes and niche influencers but has a global footprint.
	Food A very diverse audience rooted in local scenes (city-level) resulting in the most fragmented passion area, featuring the smallest communities which tend to cluster around geography and ethnicity.		Sports Diverse audience but very interconnected into a small number of very large communities. The communities form around specific sports, sports personalities and sport-specific media outlets, tend to have a national profile (rather than global) and are very insular (no crossover between sports communities).

In the full whitepaper, we've delved into each of these passion communities, to find out what their main sub-communities are: what kind of traits they may have, how fragmented each community is and how brands could utilise this data to create content and creative to successfully resonate with each sub-community. We will be publishing a monthly blog post on these findings, to offer insights into how to produce relevant marketing in sync with the moments, the behaviours and the affinities of these audiences. Tune in back here as we delve into this passion network and the sub-communities involved.

Twitter passion report: how brands could engage TV and film buffs

Amir — Thu, 15 Mar 2018 15:12:38 +0000

Recently we introduced our work with Twitter, uncovering a series of audiences on the platform who are united by their interests. We found that it is simply not enough to approach audience targeting by generic demographics, and by delving into the ways audiences group themselves, you can learn a lot about how to communicate successfully with them. Take a look at the full whitepaper for more details. Now we're taking a closer look at the community whose main passion is identified as TV & Film. The TV & Film passion community is a varied audience. Although on average about 60% of this passion community are men aged 22 to 32 living in English-speaking cities such as New York, London and LA, its sub-communities cluster around genres and less around geography. This is a contrast to most of the other passion areas whose sub communities are often focused around local interests, and indicates a progressive Twitter audience which resonates with media in a global fashion. The four largest sub-communities in the TV&Film area make up around 30% of the total users we sampled and can be defined as:

film buffs
TV fanatics
supernaturals
sports nuts

An overlay graph of the sub-groups within this Twitter community

Each sub-community is rather unique in its conversations and interests, so for brands to successfully resonate with them through strategy and advertising, it's important to dive deeper and learn from these audiences. For instance, the film buffs group tend to mainly talk about large movie franchises such as Star Wars, and consider iconic actors such as Tom Hanks as influencers. As well as films, they tend to enjoy comedy and big-budget TV shows, such as Game of Thrones, a natural evolution as the TV and film worlds become more and more similar. This creates an interesting cue for brands to take on how to get the film buffs' attention. Since the start of TV advertising, we’re used to seeing celebrities taking part in commercials, usually the biggest film actors and models. However, consumer brands seem to be utilising the rise in big-budget TV shows, and they are starting to star niche actors who are part of these shows in their campaigns. And what show is bigger than Game of Thrones at the moment?

KFC hiring actor Kristian Nairn who played Hodor for a GoT themed ad

Let’s move on to another sub-community: sports nuts. The main sports they enjoy watching are football (the American kind) and basketball. But as well as sports, they actually talk about their eating likes and dislikes - presumably while watching the game - and one brand they particularly enjoy is the Mexican chain Chipotle. To see if Chipotle has picked up on this, we looked at some of its latest creatives and marketing activity. In recent years the brand has begun to engage the sports communities through the backing of soccer teams as well as the eSports (video game as a sport) world, by becoming the official sponsor of Optic Gaming. However away from this activity, we’ve failed to spot any examples of creatives being generated to specifically target this demographic. This is a great example of where brands and agencies need to be a bit smarter and utilise audience intelligence to uncover new target markets.

The takeaway

As we can see, the demographics of this passion community are rather broad. For example, the age gap between opposite ends of the scale is 10 years. And a difference in average income is $30,000! However, their overlapping general interests include other shows, books and arts rather than specific brands or activities. An assumption we can make is that this passion group is so ingrained with paid online streaming services or cable TV and satellite channels as well as cinema that they’re not as engaged with commercials. Brands will need to get creative in regards to what channels they try and target in this Twitter passion network. To get their attention brands must out which stars are influential for the sub-communities around the world. To download the full whitepaper, visit our resources section

How mattress companies should use social data and behavioral insights to get more people into bed

Vic — Mon, 08 Jan 2018 11:44:37 +0000

Made a resolution to get to bed earlier this year? You're not alone - sleep is set to be a big lifestyle topic for 2018. Yes, you heard us right, sleep. With blue-light emitting screens and busier-than-ever lifestyles destroying the quality of our shut-eye, ‘clean sleeping’ is fast becoming the new clean eating (thanks to, of course, Goop), and ‘sleep vacations’ are the latest type of holiday, a kind of detox for the sleep-deprived. Taking a quick look at Google searches, sleep has slowly been trending upwards over the last few years, with spikes every New Year as everybody resolves to sleep better. So how can we actually do that?

Enter the mattress-in-a-box

The tools we use for getting a decent night’s sleep are undergoing a rebranding. We’ve recently never heard, or seen, so much about mattresses. Our beds are the latest source of tech disruption - new technology has unleashed a series of online purchased mattresses that can be vacuum-packed into a box, making them easy to deliver, quick to assemble, and, the companies say, the most comfortable sleep ever. The companies selling them are dominating the millennial advertising space of podcasts, as well as using paid search and retargeting almost to a point of becoming oversaturated online.

I went on 1 mattress website, and now my entire online life is plastered in mattress adverts.
— Scott Robertson (@scottymeuk) September 8, 2017

Wow, the mattress market must've been incredibly slow until podcasts started and they finally found somewhere to put adverts. — Martin Stiff (@martinstiff) December 5, 2017

Since we ordered a new mattress last week, my Twitter timeline has been flooded with adverts for them. YOU’RE TOO LATE, TWITTER! 🙄
— Miles with Michelle (@mileswithshell) December 28, 2017

But with so much choice, how can a humble mattress stand out from the (sleepy) crowd? Dr Jillian Ney suggests some tips on how to use behavioral science to improve mattress marketing in a new ebook, The Ultimate Guide to Using Behavioural Insights to Sell Innovation: The case of a Mattress-in-a-Box. Dr Jillian is an expert in social media and behavioral science - and the UK’s first doctor of social media. She analyzes social data to find out how people make decisions, helping clients to understand customer behavior. In this book, she looks at the data around mattresses-in-a-box companies to exemplify the six important questions brands should be asking to increase conversion rate optimization.

Decisions, decisions...

To understand decision making, we must first understand our brains. If we look at the different 'types', or levels, of the brain as defined by Paul D MacLean, they break down into:

the reptilian brain: our primal responses, mainly controlled by fear
the emotional brain: our moods and hormonal responses
the executive brain: the rational part of ourselves, controlled by logic

You would think that decisions are made by the executive brain, but this is actually not true. There are six stimuli, including selfish desire, contrasts, emotion provoking, visual benefits, tangible benefits, and beginnings and endings, that encourage us to make a decision. Using your executive brain takes energy, so the brain is hardwired to create shortcuts to conserve energy. Dr Jillian tells us “when things are too complex, the non-conscious brain takes over”. Therefore to remove barriers to complex decisions like making a purchase, we need to understand the shortcuts people take. “When communication matches what we believe it will be easier to pass through the non-conscious [blockers]... into active processing.” Good communications have a strong link to the rational or emotional sensation businesses want to be associated with. Dr Jillian’s research looked at over 20,000 mentions of 20 globally leading mattress-in-a-box companies across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and review sites using leading social listening technology, and distilled these into 7,800 usable pieces of data. From this data, she was able to answer her six questions that give insight to customer behavior for conversion rate optimisation. We’ve detailed three examples below: What is the psychological reason for this purchase? You would think this would be ‘comfort’ for mattresses, but social conversation suggests that people have varying desires between a comfortable and a ‘firm’ mattress. It’s a “good night’s sleep” that people are really searching for - which obviously is something comfort leads to. Looking at four leading brands’ Twitter accounts - Simba, Casper, Eve and Leesa - key terms like 'sleep', 'asleep', 'slumber', '#sleep' and Eve’s own hashtag of #sleeprich were consistently amongst the words that got the brands highest engagement during 2017 (although interestingly the most engagement of all came from Leesa’s decision to drop their ads from Fox News presenter Sean Hannity’s shows, after he endorsed a controversial conspiracy theory). What are the intrinsic and extrinsic purchase drivers? These are reasons that the selfish side of our brain - the reptilian and emotional sides - control. The research showed that key reasons people talk about buying a new mattress include pain, usually back pain - the main driver to prompt someone to look for a new mattress - and moving house. The companies Dr Jillian looked into aren’t appealing to the selfish brain with the images they’re using, nor specifically pointing out that they solve these problems - none of these words appear in their most engaged tweets. When we looked at our brands’ Instagram accounts using Pulsar CORE’s image analysis (below), the images that drew most engagement were often categorized as 'indoors', and using muted colours like alabaster, gray and ivory, implying a sense of calm is what people will associate with a mattress company, wanting to be soothed from pain, and settled in a new space. What is the customer’s anchor? The anchor is a psychological term to describe how the brain tends to hang off one trait or specific piece of information when making decisions about a topic. In the case of mattresses-in-a-box, Dr Jillian found that this is a comparison to the customer’s current or old mattress - the only thing they have direct experience of. Dr Jillian says “Remember the biggest reason for a new mattress purchase is pain – pain in the upper back, lower back and hips to be exact. By using language and symbolism in marketing that contrasts between the pain (primary purchase driver) and the tangible benefits of the new mattress-in-a-box the communication is optimised for the reptilian brain.”

Getting more people into bed

Dr Jillian concludes her book with some tips for how the mattress-in-a-box companies could optimize. We won’t give away the ending, but one key point is that no brand is standing out as entirely unique. They are positioning themselves as innovative tech companies, rather than an integral part of offline life, appealing to their investors rather than their customers. Although ramping up the marketing has been the norm for these brands, many ads simply aren’t appealing to the lifestyle side of the trend, with images showing the mattresses themselves, rather than a mattress in situ, appealing to the executive brain before getting the reptilian brain hooked. Hopefully, if sleep is to be a lifestyle ‘trend’ this year (if an essential part of sustaining life can be counted as a trend), the mattress companies will take heed of some of these messages, and the mattress ad nightmares will cease, letting us all get a good night’s sleep. To read more about the mattress-in-a-box, download Dr Jillian's full ebook The Ultimate Guide to Using Behavioural Insights to Sell Innovation: The case of a Mattress-in-a-Box for free here

Did the retail industry win the holiday season social media brand battle?

Amir — Fri, 12 Jan 2018 14:56:57 +0000

Each year, brands spend enormous amounts on Christmas advertising, with many holiday season campaigns being a brand’s biggest or only campaign of the year. As the cold light of the new year dawns, most of these campaigns are immediately forgotten. But there's a lot of holiday marketing can teach us to inform our new year's resolutions, particularly in the realm of social campaigns. The battle to have the best Christmas advert among the biggest stores is well-documented every year, but with always-on social coverage, it’s a case of maintaining a presence during the festive period. We decided to compare some of the brands whose business goals revolve around holiday shopping with some non-retail brands, in order to see how taking advantage of the holiday season plays out. For instance, do pharmaceutical companies have any insights to take from high street fashion brands who ride the holiday wave to maintain social media engagement? Can a Burberry learn anything from a bank?

The research: the key players this holiday season

For this search, we used Pulsar CORE to track six brand sets’ engagement on Twitter from December 4th to January 4th 2018. The brand sets consisted of the below six groups, a mix of organizations who wouldn’t necessarily need to increase their marketing during the festive period in order to impact business goals, and some of the usual suspects who generate considerable portions of their revenue during this time:

Brand set 1 - UK Banks: Barclays - @Barclays Nationwide - @AskNationwide HSBC - @HSBC_UK Lloyds Bank - @AskLloydsBank	Brand set 4 - Luxury Fashion: Mulberry - @MulberryEngland Burberry - @Burberry Chanel - @Chanel Louis Vuitton - @LouisVuitton
Brand set 2 - Pharmaceuticals: Pfizer - @pfizer Johnson & Johnson - @JNJNews GSK - @GSK Bayer - @Bayer	Brand set 5 - High Street Fashion: River Island - @riverisland Topshop - @Topshop ZARA - @ZARA H&M - @hm
Brand set 3 - Premier League: Arsenal - @Arsenal Chelsea - @ChelseaFC Manchester United - @ManUtd Liverpool - @LFC	Brand set 6 - UK Supermarkets: Waitrose - @Waitrose M&S - @marksandspencers Sainsbury’s - @sainsburys Tesco - @tesco

Retail brands overview

A snapshot of brand sets for Luxury Fashion, High Street Fashion and UK Supermarkets, showing peaks and troughs of audience engagement on Twitter over the time period of 4th December 2017 to January 4th 2018. The different colored circles (and their size compared to others) represent Twitter posts which have had the highest engagement. A top level view reveals that high street brands retained decent engagement throughout the holiday period, with spikes around Christmas Day, and most engagement between December 8th to December 16th. This makes sense, as a lot of us are either frantically looking to buy last-minute presents or looking to jump on post-Christmas sales, so would be looking at the brands’ Twitter accounts for shopping inspiration. No surprise here: with a quick look at the posts which had the highest engagement with users, we can clearly see that the majority are holiday related:

Non-Retail Brands Overview

Looking at the generalist brands who are not necessarily looking to ride the festive wave, it’s a different story. We can see an interesting mix of engagement: UK Banks and Pharmaceutical brands and their engagement over Twitter during this time period show a similar story - there are a couple of dominant social accounts and the engagement with posts don’t follow a distinct pattern. When it comes to our four Premier League football teams, it’s business as usual. The text, images and media types in their posts were hardly different than any other time period, and their engagement actually mainly increased during the holiday season. This is likely down to the fact that month of December is a busy period for English football and fans were off work so had more time to concentrate on it. It’s very interesting to see that none of these three brand sets found the need to maintain their engagement through the holiday and festively themed posts, yet haven’t suffered at all. Looking deeper into the content created during this period using Pulsar CORE's creative analysis, the phrases used in posts and how much these posts were dominated by holiday-related content, we found that overall around half of the accounts increased their engagement. This was not just the retail brands, nor was there a direct correlation to discussing the time of year or the holidays. Breakdown of the phrases used in posts with the highest engagement for @pfizer In fact, H&M actually had lower engagement, as much as 48.9% less in the holiday season, compared to the engagement in the previous 30 day period! In addition, what’s more interesting is that none of their top performing posts in December were holiday-related, whereas about 30% of their worst performing posts were so.

Don’t fall down the chimney

The main takeaway from this brief analysis is that there doesn’t seem to be a need to jump on the holiday season bandwagon, no matter what industry your brand is in. As a result, it is best to stay true to your social media and content strategy when it comes to maintaining and increasing your engagement during a period where user behavior and the timeframes where they are online, fluctuates.

Marketers invented Blue Monday, and it worked. But what can they learn from its continued success?

Vic — Tue, 16 Jan 2018 17:25:36 +0000

Nobody likes Mondays. And nobody likes Mondays in January. That’s how in 2005 Dr Cliff Arnall came up with a ‘formula’ for the combination of the bad weather, debt from being in the middle of two pay days, time since Christmas, failed new year’s resolutions, and general low motivation, ‘proving’ that the third Monday in January was the worst day of the year: Blue Monday. The confusing 'formula' for Blue Monday The formula – which has been labeled “scientifically ridiculous”– was created to promote a travel service, implying this would be the best day to book a holiday to cheer yourself up. The idea has since been taken on by countless marketers. But is this actually the most miserable day of the year? And thirteen years later, how should marketers handle this creation of theirs? We used Pulsar TRAC to measure on Twitter terms around Dr Arnall’s Blue Monday ‘triggers’, to see if we could gain any insight to whether this formula holds true, and if the conception of the day itself, which is now saturated with marketing offers and light attempts to ‘cheer ourselves up’, has had any effect. We found that Blue Monday clearly works for marketers. On the day itself in 2017, discussion of tedious topics and routine were the perfect opening for marketing activity. Our social research shows that they did indeed cheer people up. However, perhaps unsurprisingly, it is not a unique day for gloomy feelings, as the following week in 2017 showed perhaps more genuine occurrences of sadness.

The search

On Pulsar TRAC, we searched UK Twitter accounts for keywords that might show somebody is posting about being down (taking into account of course that many people are not going to instantly take to social media about their mood) like ‘feeling sad’, ‘hate life’, as well as keywords around the triggers that were stated in the formula that concluded Blue Monday was the most miserable day of the year, and compared the mood on the third Monday in January with other days throughout that month in 2016 and 2017. While this is by no means a comprehensive analysis of Blue Monday as a whole, we managed to get some insight into whether it is indeed the saddest day of the year on social media.

The results

During January 2017, there was indeed a spike for the search terms on the third Monday in January - Blue Monday that year. Looking more closely at the content posted, a lot of this was discussing Blue Monday itself, and its triggers. Interestingly, sentiment leaned more to joy than sadness, so it seemed that people were more excited at perhaps redeeming a marketing related offer. Either Blue Monday had achieved its goals and cheered everybody up, or they weren’t that sad in the first place because they knew it was coming and they could cash in on some deals. Sentiment analysis of posts on Blue Monday 2017 Perhaps more poignantly, in January 2017 there were larger volumes for these keywords the following Monday, and the sentiment analysis detected up to 50% more sadness. A scan of keywords within these posts implied that there were perhaps more serious concerns at stake the week after, with fewer occurrences of the arguably lighter Blue Monday triggers, and a larger amount of tweets posted around sleep, change and hating our jobs. Discussion of the Blue Monday 'triggers' had almost faded by the following week in 2017 Similarly, in 2016, although there was a spike of the ‘sad’ keywords on Blue Monday - that year January 18 - there were also high volumes of conversation around these keywords the week beforehand, with the second largest volumes on January 10, a Sunday, perhaps because of people dreading the Monday ahead. Blue Monday certainly provokes discussions of sadness, but it is not a silo, and these topics are important on other days too.

What does this mean for Blue Monday?

Blue Monday seems to have become a self-fulfilling prophecy, the fact it exists is causing people to talk about it. This year, the Blue Monday conversation had a lot of extra focus around mental health, perhaps the most obvious conversation that should be had on a supposedly sad day. While it has proved a repetitively successful formula for marketing offers year after year, some of Blue Monday 2018's most successful content revolved around seeing the day as a milestone to get past, and being happier as a whole. Social conversation around mental health on Blue Monday 2018 Cheering yourself up for a day is an easy marketing win, but perhaps in the social media realm, interacting with people and creating user-generated content about happiness is where marketers could succeed next with the Blue Monday idea. Self-care is a popular conversation topic on social media, and a sensitive approach to the bigger problems that are true whatever day of the week or month could provide the next winning formula.

Binaries are no longer the norm, so how should your campaign talk about gender?

Anna — Wed, 24 Jan 2018 11:57:32 +0000

Over the past year, the global, collective conversation about gender equality has shifted. On social media, #MeToo dominated the end of last year and now gave way to #TimesUp. Mainstream media also caught on, with Time Magazine picking the Silence Breakers as person of the year, while in the cities around the world just this last weekend, hundreds of thousands gathered for Women’s Marches in support of equality. Even in Adland, something seems to be changing. This year – following on from the deluge of complaints triggered by Protein World's infamous 'beach body ready' campaign in 2015 – the UK's Advertising Standards Authority banned the use of harmful gender stereotyping in advertising, such as instances where a woman is solely responsible for cleaning. Casually sexist ads also routinely get shamed in end-of the year lists. Yet brands and agencies are still quite careful: most are aware that any attempts to dive into controversial topics might expose them to backlash, boycotts, or labels of opportunism. That is doubly true with gender stereotypes, given the ad industry's less than stellar record on that front in past decades, and an ad targeting system that is still mostly based on binary demographics. Some companies, however recently took the plunge. Here's what they had to say, how they were received on social media, and what we can learn:

Getting it right - Bodyform and Nike India

In April 2016, Bodyform released its “Blood” ad, featuring women engaged in extreme sports. Blood is the key visual theme, and there’s a lot of it! The campaign garnered a lot of praise, with many women hailing it as a “game-changer”. A look at the topic visualisation on Pulsar TRAC around the campaign reveals that the ad evoked a high degree of emotional resonance, with words like “goosebumps” coming up frequently. (Source: Pulsar TRAC topics visualisation) This reaction provides an encouraging glimpse into how speaking to women in the way that resonates with them really pays off. Taking a risk paid dividends for Bodyform, partially because of the pioneering fact that the ad was amongst the first sanitary product commercials in the UK to feature blood, as opposed to clinical blue liquid. This was responsible for a lot of its online celebration. Nike India’s 2016 ‘Da Da Ding’ ad also offered a bold snapshot of powerful women that resonated with feminist audiences, invoking the ‘strong not skinny’ trend that has dominated women’s fitness campaigns recently. This spot felt even more striking within the Indian market, whose gender inequality is often reported in the news. Drawing on an established successful formula for sports ads, this video didn’t take wild risks, and while in this case the brand’s target audience is exclusively made up of women, it also managed to appeal to an intersection of women. It works, for now. When it comes to brands whose audiences are not gender-specific, does the recipe for success differ? Perhaps the key to successfully connecting with the audience is looking beyond binaries.

Beyond gender segmentation - Smirnoff and Levi’s

While using gender as a starting point for demographic targeting may appear inevitable, it may not always be the most effective way of segmenting the audience. Cue Smirnoff’s #WeAreOpen campaign. It has the bold tagline “labels are for bottles, not people”, and is made up of a series of ads celebrating diversity. The latest spot features trans and non-binary party-goers, while a previous commercial focuses on a Swedish-Iranian artist Nadia Tehran. People of different genders, ages and ethnicities are present in both ads, with the urban underground music scene serving as a backdrop. Similarly – if a bit less boldly – the recent Levi’s 'Circles' spot is high-energy, depicting people from all walks of life, united through their passion for dance. The message at the end encourages to put aside the differences and “live how we dance.” Both campaigns were embraced by the audience, with people praising the brands for the positive unity message.

Absolutely LOVE the new @SmirnoffEurope advert, #labelsareforbottlesnotpeople couldn't have put it better any other way! #beyourself #bewhatmakesyouhappy
— Alex Kane (@AlexKaneWriter) December 23, 2017

So happy to see "Circles" from @LEVIS on this list. LOVE that ad 💃🏻 https://t.co/5a86fxzkuP — Daynah Singh (@Daynah_Singh) December 16, 2017

These brands are appealing to the audience’s interests and passion areas, rather than basic demographics attributes. The argument for segmenting audiences based on their belonging to a passion tribe, rather than a pre-set demographic segment has been gaining more traction in the last few years. By championing the message of unity in their ads, both Smirnoff and Levi’s are able to speak to a number of potential audience tribes at once: LGBTQ, activists and equality advocates, young creatives, immigrants, dance and music lovers, and street fashion followers, to name but a few. For many consumers, belonging to these tribes may be way more meaningful to their self-identification than their gender. Communicating with a range of macro-stories rather than the generic umbrella of gender allowed the brands to connect in new ways.

Where to next?

The world is accelerating, and so is the pace of conversations happening in the socially networked space. Brands and agencies can expect controversial topics and polarizing issues to keep catalyzing attention and conversations. Knowing whether to say something, and what to say, will come down to how well companies understand their audience.

On-demand webinar: How to identify micro-influencers who speak to your audience

Vic — Fri, 09 Feb 2018 10:00:07 +0000

Cutting through the noise in order to reach your target on social media can seem daunting. Not only is it challenging to segment your audience into the right subgroups, but finding the right influencer that can help you deliver your message to the right people is becoming increasingly difficult. While the world of influencers is becoming heavily saturated, micro-influencers, generally defined as individuals with between 1000 and 10,000 followers on a social media platform, who speak to a specific audience on a specific niche, are key to individual brand strategies because they both exemplify and influence the behaviour of a typical member of a segment of your audience. This makes micro-influencer panels ideal for product planning and testing content. But how do you find these micro-influencers? We’ve been doing a lot of work on audience segmentation and identifying micro-influencers this week, running a webinar and a session at Masterclassing. If you missed the webinar, the video is available to watch below – a few key takeaways included:

Find audience-specific influencers that engage with your customers around the moments you’re interested in Find your audience by searching around who is talking about both your product and the problems it’s looking to solve. Slice and dice the data by demographics, moments and mindsets. We used an example of an automotive client who wanted to understand why people share image of supercars, to find the right influencers to share content around an event.

Map influencers to find digital tribes and communities online – understand which influencers will have the greatest impact Analyze the most influential posts around these moments to create a list of influencers. Once you have found some influencers, follow them to get a sound knowledge of what are they talking about and what gets the most traction. This will help you discover the digital tribes and communities around your brand, and identify the most impactful influencers.

Inform creative by discovering what content your audience segments engage and interact with organically Following these influencers means you can understand quickly what sort of content has an impact with their, and your, audience. Find out how different new stories affect them, what products and events they’re excited about and how they behave around these moments. Here you can find qualitative insights from them you wouldn’t be able to pull out of large datasets

Check out rest of the invaluable lessons we learned from this webinar by signing up to watch it now on-demand:

Why is it so hard to analyze social media images at scale?

Vic — Fri, 26 Jan 2018 16:23:28 +0000

It’s not just Instagram and Snapchat. Inexorably, visuals are taking over feeds that used to be text-based, like Twitter or the Facebook News Feed. So much that logging on to Twitter and not seeing images turns each post into a riddle. Yet at the global level, we still don’t really understand how, or why, most images spread. While analytical tools that parse and understand text are widespread and effective, machines often still struggle to identify what is depicted in images, much less understand the layers of meaning these images acquire in the context of social media conversations. As online conversations become more and more visual, brands and agencies are also very inclined to intercept, understand, and participate in these conversations at scale. Yet since images are difficult to analyze both quantitatively and in detail, on the brand-side, this often means that entire conversations are missed. Academics are beginning to dive into the matter, and with Farida Vis & Simon Faulkner, our own VP of Product and Research at Pulsar Francesco D’Orazio tried to tackle some of these questions by analyzing different datasets and subjects with three different approaches, in a chapter in The SAGE Handbook of Social Media. One key aspect of the chapter is Francesco’s analysis of how the images of the death of refugee Alan Kurdi –the small child – in 2015 spread around social media, shifting the perception of the global debate around the refugee crisis. The chapter advocates that the study of visual social media may benefit from including a range of methods that, combined can offer deep insight into a single dataset. The main takeaways from the chapter are:

There is no ‘catch-all’ method for analyzing images on social media, doing just quantitative network analysis or close qualitative work misses important aspects of the image’s subject matter and context
Studying social media images requires the use of a range of methods for deep insights such as content analysis, network analysis, deep learning, online ethnography;
These methods can be used to draw different insights from the same data and function in a mutually supportive way

Now let’s dive into some of the case studies:

Large-scale image analysis: The Phototrails and Selfiecity projects

Developed by Lev Manovich and the Software Studies Institute, the Phototrails data collection began in early 2011 and ended in 2012. City-specific data was extracted from Instagram geolocations and timestamps and displayed on the project website to display ‘visual signatures’ and ‘rhythms’ of the cities. Although specifying individual images, the research identified macro-level patterns, rather than analyzing the pictorial content of the individual images. It tells us about the intensity with which images are posted to Instagram at certain times in specific places, they tell us little about what the images depict and why people created and uploaded them. Selfiecity however, focused on a specific type of image, the selfie. The Selfiecity team narrowed down a large dataset to result in 640 selfies from five cities: Bangkok, Berlin, Sao Paolo, Moscow and New York. These were processed using facial analysis software to classify for face size, pose, emotional demeanor, the presence of glasses and smiles, whether eyes and mouth are open or closed, as well as gender and age. They found that more selfies were taken by women and younger people and more people were identified as smiling in selfies from Bangkok and Sao Paolo than Moscow. Overall, this approach keeps discussion generic and does not address the question of how to reconcile the big data approach with a close study.

Working with images at different scales

Other studies have grappled with both large image-based datasets and specificities of specific images. One study in London after the 2011 riots discussed a mix of screengrabs and cameraphone photos of TV news in relation to John Berger’s understanding that the act of making a photographic images involves the basic statement ‘I have decided that this is worth recording’. This study required a shift from a systematic analytical methodology to a relatively arbitrary choice of a category of images and the images in the category. This involved a mix of methods to break down large datasets to facilitate close qualitative analysis of specific images, but the researchers’ approaches responded to the specific content of the image. Therefore, this indicates that at the level of qualitative work, researchers must make intuitive choices about how to approach the analysis of images.

In-depth qualitative analysis of images

Several studies focus solely on the close reading of specific images. They offer good examples of how close interpretation of images can attend to the socio-cultural meanings of visual social media. Yet much of this work excludes context through which images were communicated and the scale of their circulation.

Case study combining these methodologies: the death of Alan Kurdi on Twitter

Alan Kurdi was a three-year old Syrian refugee who died with other members of his family in a failed attempt to cross the Mediterranean from Turkey to Greece. The Turkish photojournalist Nilüfer Demir photographed Alan’s dead body after it washed up on Bodrum beach in Turkey, producing a series of striking photographs that depicted the body lying at the meeting point between the sea and the beach, or picked up in the arms of a Turkish policeman. These photographs were first published by a Turkish news agency and circulated via mainstream and social media, triggering a significant on-the-ground response to the refugee crisis, including in the UK, where the VSML report the case study was based on focused. Data, research questions and methods Data was collected through Pulsar using historical data for 1-14 September 2015 from news, blogs, forums, Twitter and Tumblr, accounting to nearly 2.5m posts in various languages. Google search data was also included in the report to get a sense of global search patterns. The report tried to explore three questions: who was the child? Why did these particular images spread? Why was this the trigger to a the large-scale response after so many refugees had already died? Below is a graph of the spread of the images during the first three hours they were published: Select findings:

The findings from the network analysis show that the diffusion of the story was constantly image led, but that didn’t mean that the same images were always being distributed.
The mediation of Alan Kurdi’s death was a process deeply entwined with the capacity of Twitter to act as a catalyst that allowed the communication of emerging stories to relevant audiences: Twitter made it possible for the story to spread before the mainstream media got hold of it.
It presented a particularly strong example of the ‘migration of images’ that has been a crucial aspect of their cultural function for millennia, but has been accelerated by social media.

The full chapter ‘Analysing social media images’ can be read in The SAGE Handbook of Social Media, SAGE publishing

Finding an edge on social media: from Japanese traders to flight deal hounds

Vic — Mon, 05 Feb 2018 10:19:07 +0000

Everybody’s online, and more and more, everyone has access to the same information. So when something is scarce –a cheap flight fare, an opportunity to cash in on a stock market spike, or an online deal– you can count on a crowd to swoop in and try and snag it Just like stock traders on Wall Street (or these days, crypto-traders on Telegram), in this competitive environment, people are looking for ways to get an edge that may help them beat the crowd. This might be being the first to hear scoops, or getting to the front of the queue for the cheapest flights. We scoured different industries to try and find some of these influencers that have a way of swaying the market itself with the information they publish.

Finance: @Okasanman

Anonymous Japanese account Okasanman has more followers than the Bank of Japan, and its tweets can quite literally sway the stock market. In August 2017, the account was among the first to share news of a pharmaceutical takeover bit, sending shares of the company up by 13%, and it beat financial reporters to news about the notoriously secretive Bank of Japan’s change in monetary policy. Why do people trust Okasanman? Although the account is anonymous, it discusses more than just markets. Whether it’s run by one or several people, there are human touches like pet pictures and discussion of non-stock market news stories. And of course the information it shares is genuinely useful for traders, and there are no signs that Okasanman itself might be profiting from the news it spreads. Okasanman’s followers are growing by the thousands every month, but given much of the interest is based on its influence on the market, it will be interesting to see if a saturation point comes. If too many people begin relying on the account’s tips to trade one way or another, it may cease to be effective. And if this happens, will followers stay around for the content regardless?

Travel: Jack’s Flight Club

Inside trading has come to the holiday scene too. Jack Sheldon, a UK-based Texan, has been sharing flight deals in his newsletter since 2016. Sharing these findings on Reddit grew subscriptions, which now number over 300,000. There are countless flight deal sites which track fluctuations in prices, but Jack’s advantage is himself, an ‘average Joe’, speaking to people of a similar age with similar priorities - young professionals in their late 20s and 30s. Posts on Jack’s Flight Club’s Facebook page are written in a casual tone, full of emojis, to give the feeling of being recommended by a friend. Being part of the club offers an in to find unusually low and ‘mistake’ fares, that are either a glitch in the flight companies’ systems, or an unannounced flash sale as airlines try to fill up flights. More and more airlines honouring these ‘mistake fares’ and allowing headline-worthy cheap flights because of sites like Jack’s Flight Club. Jack claims to have saved users millions of pounds in the last year. While the edge the club offers is not as dramatic as accounts like Okasanman, operating through a personality makes its deals seem exclusive to the person reading them.

Politics: Guido Fawkes

In the UK, the blog Guido Fawkes has been influential in the world of politics since its inception in 2004. The provocative name Guido Fawkes references the plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament in the 1600s. The anti-establishment blog gives readers an information edge, often being the first one to break political news: from scooping political journalists to revelations of politician affairs, shady dealings among the UK political class, and even getting involved in press regulation. Its original editor has gone on to write for national newspapers and founded a digital advertising agency which has advised political parties during elections. The blog continues to be influential, with sources within government, and breaking stories on Twitter.

Shopping: Wirecutter

Wirecutter is another success story. Founded in 2011, it calls itself a “a best-of list for everyday things”. Its uniquely rigorous test-and-review approach struck a chord, and after five years of growth, it was acquired by The New York Times for more than $30 million in 2016. Wirecutter get an affiliate cut of online sales made by their recommendations, but they have built the trust needed for readers to support that. On Twitter, Wirecutter owns another account @wirecutterdeals, which tweets out discount codes for the products it recommends. Although a lot younger than the original Wirecutter, Wirecutter Deals is growing rapidly, reaching half of the follower count Wirecutter has, despite tweeting nothing but deals. Wirecutter deals comes in very handy during shopping holidays, such as Black Friday in the US, when retailers offer limited quantities of very attractive deals, along with a smattering of less interesting ones. Who did we miss? Where else on social media are people looking for an edge? Let us know on Twitter @pulsarplatform

Virtuous, not tedious: 3 times audiences were made to care about the environment

Vic — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 16:54:44 +0000

The environment and climate change are BIG topics. But something being important is no guarantee that people will find it interesting: backing up your hard drive, flossing your teeth, doing cardio do not a great story make. And neither, sadly, does the damage we are doing to our environment. A 2016 study by the Yale program on Climate Change Communication found that for the most part, Americans care about the topic, but don’t really talk about it, partially because they don’t hear about it much. Part of the problem might be that in most cases, everybody agrees: unlike political topics, or conversations revolving around gender, talking about our planet doesn’t risk upsetting anyone. So can anybody say something interesting about climate change? And if yes, how do you pull it off? We took a look at a few cases in which a company or a project managed to pierce the veil of indifference and make the topic become the talk of the town.

Shock: Polar bear

Towards the end of 2017 a picture of an emaciated polar bear went viral, following on from a similarly shocking photograph in 2015 of a starving bear trapped on an floating piece of ice. The below graphs from Pulsar TRENDS show a spike in conversation about climate change and global warming soon after the pictures of the polar bears came out: one topic led to another. The polar bear images were shocking because they brought to life stereotypes about global warming and environment concerns: the images told a story that didn’t need to be explained, fitting into a narrative that people immediately understood. The 2017 image was distributed by Sea Legacy, an organization aiming to push conservation narratives, so it was not an objective reportage on the state of climate change or polar bears: Sea Legacy admits even they don’t know what caused the bear to starve. But it did get many people talking. But as time went on, with no way to act on the issue, the topics dropped off the agenda. While polar bear images were high impact, these stories only contributed to the conversation fleetingly.

Going small: Pret a Manger

If the internet has taught us one thing, it’s that people will weigh in with their opinions whatever the topic. And that’s exactly how Pret A Manger CEO Clive Schlee caught users’ interests in late 2017 when he crowdsourced a decision on a small, but important sustainability policy: how to discourage people from using paper cups.

How do we encourage more customers to bring reusable coffee cups to @Pret? We’re thinking of increasing the discount for bringing your own cup from 25p to 50p. Our organic filter coffee would cost just 49p! I’d love to hear your thoughts.
— Clive Schlee (@Cliveschlee) November 27, 2017

Thousands of people weighed in on Twitter, and it was decided that the cost of bringing your own cup to Pret would be decreased. In the replies to Schlee’s Tweet, customers suggested hundreds of different solutions to the problem, creating a real debate out of sustainability. The company wasn’t trying to end climate change there and then, and likely that was the key to the initiative’s success. Having the top dog start a conversation around a product that most customers have a direct relationship with the brand helped individuals feel validated, involved, and greener. Pret may very well have already made their decision before crowdsourcing ideas, but the strategy allowed for a broader conversation to grow around the topic organically, while earning the brand much goodwill for being both environmentally concerned and open.

Respect: Blue Planet

Sir David Attenborough is the face of nature documentaries in the UK. His soothing narration, and deep, authentic passion for the subject have hit a winning formula with his blockbuster documentaries Planet Earth and Blue Planet. The recent series Blue Planet II was watched around the world - with the UK’s highest viewing figures for 2017 - and included an impassioned plea in the final episode to take better care of the oceans that had just been so beautifully depicted throughout the series. The UK government took advantage of the passion Blue Planet II inspired on social media, with a chorus of tweets advocating for its message after the programme aired. This seemed to open the door to a series of sustainable policy decisions that at times referenced Blue Planet’s message. Whether those policies will have an impact is hard to say, but by going deep, Attenborough managed to start more than just a conversation about the environment.

New on Pulsar: improved image performance analysis and image text recognition

LindaM — Mon, 19 Feb 2018 12:24:15 +0000

A natural shift in digital marketing and advertising has seen an increase in utilization of images. However, providing the technology for image analysis at scale has been a major challenge. This is a problem for agency and brand teams, especially when they are trying to gauge who has taken notice of their content and images during a campaign. Pulsar are always trying help solve problems like this through innovation and use of AI. Today we’re introducing an improved and ever more accurate image text recognition service, as well as an image performance through Pulsar TRAC.

Image Text Recognition

Pulsar TRAC’s Image Text Recognition module detects and recognizes text within images. The platform identifies any text contained in an image and extracts it, making it possible to mine images using keyword filtering and analyze them using Natural Language Processing. This applies to conversational images like memes, but also to posters, signs, labels, packaging and even logos. This functionality is therefore useful to identify brands pictured in an image and understand the buzz and visual associations of brands on social. It currently works best for picking up English text. Other languages like French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, Chinese may work, but this AI model has been trained mainly for English content, while it catches up with the rest. To add image text recognition, simply log in to Pulsar TRAC and enable this module in your search set up under the AI Modules section and then start detecting any text and logos in the images in your dataset. You can then use Pulsar’s powerful filtering capabilities to segment and find the relevant images.

Image analysis use case

A Pulsar client sponsored a national rugby team’s tour: their logo was imprinted on the rugby shirts and around stadiums during the tour. Rugby fans talked a lot on social media about the team and the games they watched or attended, but of course, they were unlikely to mention the client’s brand explicitly. But that doesn’t mean they hadn’t seen the logo. Using a Pulsar TRAC Topic search to monitor all mentions of the tour, the brand was then able to identify where their logo appeared in images shared on various social posts. This allowed them to gauge the number of impressions their sponsorship had generated across social media and measure the success of the partnership.

Image Tags Performance

Additionally, Pulsar has now added context to the existing Image Recognition technology (above). Instead of only looking at visual concepts that produce the highest volume of mentions, the tool can now add more context, to help you understand which of those images are most engaging within specific social networks and users. With Pulsar’s Image Analysis module, Pulsar has always been able to scan images and attach up to 20 tags. These summarize scenes, objects and stylistic features, to identify objects such as chairs, dogs, buildings; recognize scenes, like streets, stores, beaches, landscapes, mountains; detect people and faces as well as colour palettes. Now you will be able to find out whether beaches get higher impressions than dogs, or faces have a higher visibility impact than landscapes. These updates mean Pulsar TRAC is now even more optimized for tracing and providing in-depth image analysis.

New on Pulsar: introducing search cloning on Pulsar TRAC

LindaM — Mon, 19 Feb 2018 12:26:46 +0000

As a Pulsar TRAC user, sometimes you will find yourself having to repeat the same search strategy across different brands and categories. This can be frustrating, especially when you just don’t have the time and all you want to do is to quickly arrive to an insight. So, following feedback from clients, Pulsar has now introduced the ability to clone TRAC searches (above). Pulsar believes it’s key to provide the right tools that help simplify the analysis process and make it easier and quicker for clients to conduct their research. Search cloning is a simple yet powerful functionality, which reduces the time needed to set up a search on TRAC. You can use cloning as a foundation or a starting point for building and refining an existing search strategy. So all you’d need to do is select the “clone” button from the searches dropdown, let Pulsar do all the work in the background, and when your search has been successfully copied, edit the parts you want to customize, then hit start. Or you might be running a study in different markets and you want to keep the data separate for easier analysis. So instead of having to repeat the same search set up many times, with cloning, now all you need to do is choose clone, edit the location target, and then you’re all set. Having the ability to simply duplicate a given study reduces the time needed to launch your trackers on TRAC, leaving you with more time to do the fun stuff.

The troll’s ugly coming of age

Vic — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 14:50:32 +0000

During the web’s infancy in the 1980s, trolls emerged as tricksters. They were annoying, usually anonymous, mischievous, confusing, and full of counter-cultural significance, mirroring the quirks of the nerds that had created the web. This idea of the troll has not aged well, argues Pulsar research director Jay Owens, and is in dire need of a major cultural update. Researchers and specialized journalists have been chronicling this change for years, but two meanings of the word continue to be conflated in the public’s imagination. From an excellent 2013 history of trolling on the Daily Dot by Mercer University assistant professor of writing Whitney Phillips: “Back then, the term “trolling” first referred to disruptive or otherwise annoying speech and behavior online. These trollers, as they were then called, would clog a particular discussion with non-sequiturs, engage in so-called identity deception, and/or commit various crimes against language and logic. It’s likely that many of these early trollers knew exactly what they were doing, and undoubtedly took a great deal of pleasure from their exploits.” As McGill professor and cultural anthropologist Gabriella Coleman chronicled, trolls went from a group with "a rich aesthetic tradition of spectacle and transgression" to “scum of the earth douchebags.” And scummy they have become. As the web expanded, playing devil’s advocate began to encapsulate organized mobs, sexual harassment, state-sponsored propaganda attempting to swing elections. Methods included coordinated mass intimidationà la gamergate, meme-making, doxxing, and in some cases, threats that were serious enough to be taken out of the online space, into the hands of the police. By comparison, while the cultural understanding of hacker has been mainstreamed and sanitized into a positive, troll has gone the opposite way. A hacker, previously an online intruder, has become something that has its own news publication and medium channel with lifestyle overtones, and can be taught at “hacker school.” The word troll on the other hand often still has the gentle fairy-tale villain associations: hiding under the metaphorical bridge to stop you in your tracks. If we want to continue using the term, we might need to update our collective understanding to reflect that the trickster has turned into a full-on criminal. Trolls first became more malicious on image-based forum 4chan, where the word evolved from a practice of online heckling and pranking, to an identity. You didn’t just troll someone, you were a troll. Mercer University professor Whitney Phillips explains that, as media picked up on trolling, it became a subculture. For instance, many memes - including lolcats, Rickrolling and another internet ‘classics’ - started in the trolling space. But as this trickster identity became well-known by the mainstream, a division was created between the self-proclaimed trolls and perceptions of their work. 'Troll' took on a darker identity as an umbrella term for all sorts of online aggression as the media spread the term while reporting the spread of cyberbullying and any other digital misdemeanours or offences. This in turn created a sort of 'othering' of the aggressors, which in itself ushered in a form of compartmentalizing of behaving badly online. Online aggression itself has branched into several different manifestations in the same way that concepts of the troll have. It is a problem that can’t be captured by a catch-all term anymore. And as Pulsar Research Director Jay Owens pointed out on Twitter in the context of Phillips’ 2013 book Why We Can’t Have Nice Things, even though early on, trolling was supposed ‘4 the lulz’, perhaps there was never any pure lulz. There was always some sort of aggression, it was never harmless, but aggression in its infancy. Both Owens and Philips argue that trolls are not just a self-contained group of bad actors: they are “us” surfacing behaviors latent in our society as a whole. The image of a troll as a supposedly harmless trickster is now 15 years out of date, and nostalgia for old archetypes and a web that no longer exists, must not cloud our judgement of the extremes of online aggression.

Subway pulse: what people are saying (and doing) underground in 5 major cities

Vic — Wed, 21 Feb 2018 15:12:26 +0000

If you want to know a city, spend some time on the subway. You’ll be sure to overhear some interesting conversations. The systems that move us around are part of what shape the culture of the cities themselves. The public spaces that are shared between hundreds of people of different ages, classes and backgrounds, as well as visitors to a city trying to get around, creating the framework for hundreds of tiny stories about systems, authority and change in that city. We took a look at what people were saying on Twitter about the subway system in five different global cities around the world for a week at the end of January 2018 using Pulsar TRAC. Here’s what we learned.

London

The world’s oldest underground rail system is also one of the most stereotypical. Complaints about the morning commute, queues and manspreading dominate. There’s everything you would expect for a commuter system that has existed for over 100 years, but it is also where Londoners show their humor: this London-based barrister for instance, turned a sneeze in a crowded tube carriage into a riveting story of heroism which went viral during the week we monitored.

New York

The New York subway is in crisis. And the tweets show New Yorkers witnessed assaults, flames on the tracks, tragic stories of homelessness, and talked about delays (often using swear words), the dire state of the system, the MTA (the public agency running the subway) running out of money, and rich citizens lobbying against elevators for people in wheelchairs. We even saw a story about Joe Lhota, the head of the MTA, pleading for more subway love on Twitter. Not sure that’ll work, Joe.

Tokyo

The Tokyo subway system is the world’s busiest, moving 8.7million people a day. Japan’s rail system is famed around the world, and it appears the subway is no different. Although differences and language and alphabet may have held this search back a little, the users of the Tokyo metro seem to have little to complain about. The most mentions of the metro came up around a story about the Hibiya line playing classical music in the cars for relaxation purposes- provoking a spike in mentions on Thursday 26 January as can be seen above in our stream graph - although this didn’t seem provoke a huge change in sentiment around the subway. Another very popular conversation happened around this 3D model of the Tokyo subway made out of metal strips.

Mexico City

Mexico City’s subway is a huge part of the city’s cultural identity. It’s subsidized by the government, with food stalls, shops, murals and even a metro museum within the network. And people seem to use it to have a lot of public sex. Several of the top tweets over the week we analyzed included unequivocal footage along those lines: we’ll spare you a link, but if you’re marketing condoms or planning a safe-sex campaign in Mexico, you might want to take a look at the hashtag #cruising.

Delhi

Although again, language barriers challenged our search a little, the search around the Delhi metro - still a relatively new system which only opened in 2009 - showed an interesting perspective on how people talk about Delhi, and wider Indian culture. One of the stories that got most engagement over the week was about maids and nannies of middle-class families sitting on the floor of subway cars and the ensuing controversy about the role of class in India.

People hate platform updates and redesigns. Or do they secretly love them?

Vic — Tue, 06 Mar 2018 15:32:13 +0000

Earlier in February, Snapchat changed its design, and users hated it. A million people signed a Change.org petition to roll back those changes. Even minor tweaks to any social network: from Twitter to Facebook and Instagram, and beyond, prompts discussion and often instant dislike. But either days, weeks, or months later, users get over it and apps see their usage go up The platform updates fade into the background and becomes the norm, as apps see their design choices validated with usage growth. So why the outcry? Is it just human nature to overreact to change, or does this tell us more about our overdependence on social media than we’d like to admit? We looked into some cases of social platform updates to see what we can learn about how users behave online.

Snapchat: a redesign gone south

Snapchat’s update was dropped unannounced in early February 2018. This was unusual, particularly as there hadn’t been many significant updates to the design of the platform preceding it. The update also broke several users ‘streaks’ of sending and receiving snaps with friends and even prompted users to create a hack to restore the old design temporarily. This prompted an inevitable outcry. Snapchat users are overwhelmingly in the under-20 bracket, and teens are an expressive audience. Many Snapchat users have grown up online, and don’t remember a world before living your social life on apps. Changing the foundations of the platforms they use to express themselves is a fundamental re-adjustment of the spaces in which they spend most of their time and energy. Will the furore die down? A week later, Snapchat released a new version of the app, taking into account some complaints, but by no means reversing any. It’s incredibly unlikely it will ultimately drive users from the platform, and this dependence on the social networks is what is key to people ‘getting over’ these updates, but it may have shaken teens’ trust in Snapchat.

Twitter: from 140 to 280

Twitter’s decision to increase the character limit on Tweets to 280 in September 2017 prompted a similar response: mostly dismay. But since Twitter has a history of evolving as a product –often incorporating into the product user behavior that it observed on the platform, like retweets or @ replies– the acrimony died down quickly. Twitter was built on the idea of short updates. This limit has been inflated in the past, with links and images being excluded from the character limit - for the focus on what users are saying, but the one thing users knew about Twitter was that they had to get their messages across in 140 characters. So when it was announced this would be doubled, users were up in arms. The thinkpieces came in droves, from worrying that undesirable users would be talking more, to criticising Twitter for not addressing more pressing problems first. But even amidst the outrage, many still wanted to be the first to get 280. And by the time the update was rolled out, people adjusted.

Instagram: dropping the chronological feed

In 2016, Instagram - now owned by Facebook - announced it would be moving to an algorithmically-run feed, showing what it believed users would enjoy the most based on what they’d been looking at and liking. As in the two other cases, there was an instant uproar. This continued when the platform updates actually rolled out, and perhaps is the one that they never got away with. A whole two years later, users are still unhappy about a feed that provides them with a groundhog-Valentine’s day mash up that means they’re still content that was ‘in the moment’ days ago. Instagram also got a petition (although a lot fewer people signed it) and while the feedback isn’t visible on Instagram itself because it’s hard to illustrate with an image, many users have taken to Twitter. But the new algorithm doesn’t seem to have driven people away, with Instagram users growing by several hundred million in the last couple of years. In the end, it does seem like social platforms know what they are doing.

A few bad apples: the vocal, tiny (1%) minority starting most wars on Reddit

Davide Berretta — Thu, 15 Mar 2018 14:04:13 +0000

Can social media platforms do anything about online conflict and abuse without restricting free speech? Two new, unrelated accounts published in the past few days studying the weirdest and wildest large social media platform (Reddit) may help us get a bit closer to an answer. For years, New Yorker magazine contributing editor Andrew Marantz tried to get inside those social media “decision rooms,” and witness first-hand how executives make tough calls about bans, censorship and hate speech. Just how that process plays out on each platform becoming increasingly important. As more and more of people’s private, professional and social life moves online, so do malicious actors aiming to influence, confuse, persuade, disturb and harass. Twitter, Snapchat and Facebook were not particularly interested in letting a reporter listen in to those conversations. But management at Reddit, the 4th largest website in the United States, decided to let him hang out at Reddit for a year. The result is an in-depth, outstanding article, which you should go ahead and read. But Reddit’s approach to content moderation is well synthesized by this quote by Reddit co-founder & CEO Steven Huffman: “I don’t think I’m going to leave the office one Friday and go, ‘Mission accomplished—we fixed the Internet.’ Every day, you keep visiting different parts of the site, opening this random door or that random door—‘What’s it like in here? Does this feel like a shitty place to be? No, people are generally having a good time, nobody’s hatching any evil plots, nobody’s crying. O.K., great.’ And you move on to the next room.” The piece raises more questions than it gives answers, but if we pair it with a recent Stanford study about conflict on Reddit, we can begin to see how Reddit’s strategy might be a promising one, The study set out to “examine cases of intercommunity conflict ('wars' or 'raids'), where members of one Reddit community, called "subreddit", collectively mobilize to participate in or attack another community.” The study is encouraging because it shows how it is a few small, vocal minorities who tend to start most of the fights online. Here are the main takeaways from the study (full paper here):

“A small number of communities initiate most conflicts, with 1% of communities initiating 74% of all conflicts ....These communities attack other communities that are similar in topic but different in point of view.

Conflicts are initiated by active community members but are carried out by less active users. It is usually highly active users that post hyperlinks to target communities, but it is more peripheral users who actually follow these links and participate in conflicts.

Conflicts are marked by the formation of "echo-chambers"...."attackers" interact with "attackers" and "defenders" with "defenders"

Conflicts have long-term adverse effects on the engagement of members of the target community, but these adverse effects are mitigated when the "defending" community members engage in heated, direct debates with the "attackers".

Conflicts can be defended against when the attacked community directly engages with ('fights back') the attacking users.”

The authors of the study, researchers from the Computer Science & Linguistics department at Stanford, also created a “model to predict whether a link from one community to another is going to lead to conflict,” which “could be used to create a 'raid' early-warning system for moderators to inform them of a potential impending influx of toxic users.” Huffman might looking into these techniques, in order to keep Reddit an interesting, humorous place where the mostly-non-belligerent 99% of the communities sometimes come together to create beautiful things. On April Fools’ day last year, while most tech companies amused themselves with predictable marketing-driven parodies, Reddit set out to create, what Marantz calls “a genuine social experiment”. “It was called r/Place, and it was a blank square, a thousand pixels by a thousand pixels. In the beginning, all million pixels were white. Once the experiment started, anyone could change a single pixel, anywhere on the grid, to one of sixteen colors. The only restriction was speed: the algorithm allowed each redditor to alter just one pixel every five minutes.” The result is below (the .GIF is a heavy one, so let it load)

The entire Time Lapse of r/place

Marantz of course yesterday held an AMA –a crowdsourced interview that is one of the trademark formats on Reddit– discussing his article.

New on Pulsar: go deeper into your audience analysis

LindaM — Mon, 19 Mar 2018 17:03:13 +0000

Knowing how people discuss or engage with a topic is the first step into understanding your audience. After this, comes the “who” part - finding out exactly who these people are, their demographic traits and interests, and how you can best understand what motivates them. Our audience analysis on Pulsar now allows you to do just that. You can profile a brand’s organic audience; profile the audience that talks about a specific topic; the audience that shares specific content; or the audience that follows certain accounts. And Pulsar can help you achieve this by providing you with the following metrics:

Demographics of the users engaged in the conversation: their gender; their location (country and city), and the language they speak.
Their interests, based on their bios.
Segmentation by bio keywords, so you can identify groups of people involved in the conversation, based on their self-identification in their bios (eg. ‘mum’, ‘developer’, ‘foodie’).

Having insight into your audience composition is useful for a number of reasons:

For planners, this helps them understand who they are creating content for. They can test the validity of their targeting and assess whether they can uncover new segments, or tap into unknown territories.
For in-house creatives working for brands, this could be useful for gaining a deeper understanding of their current customer base or potential customers, and therefore inform how their brand is perceived and how it resonates with their target audience.

So, how can you best leverage this feature on Pulsar? Well, let's say you're someone who is developing a pitch for a brand that sells soft drinks. You could start by creating a topic tracker based around soft drinks (eg. ‘fizzy’, ‘refreshing’, ‘thirsty’), and then you can profile the audience talking about these topics, and understand, whether they are male or female, whether they live in urban or rural areas, and what sort of other topics they discuss alongside fizzy drinks. Or, you could have been running a campaign on fizzy drinks already, and you want to find out how it has been shared and by whom. Using Pulsar, you can start to further understand the audience your campaign has resonated with. You can even go one step further, this time by profiling the audiences of various soft drink brands using Pulsar’s panel tracking capabilities - which helps you to find gaps in the market. Ready to get started? You can access the audience analysis via the Audience section, which sits right next to the Overview tab when you go into any search on Pulsar TRAC. See below for more examples: Graph showing top bio keywords grouped by Gender (Male or Female) Treemap Graph showing top bio keywords grouped by Location (Country or City) Network graph showing top bio keywords of the people who discuss the topic “milk”, grouped into 5 different segments.

The great Cambridge Analytica/Facebook roundup

Davide Berretta — Tue, 20 Mar 2018 18:11:54 +0000

This week may well turn out to be a defining, watershed moment for Facebook and for the social media industry as a whole. As you might have heard, these past few days have seen Facebook get in very hot water because of how an outfit called Cambridge Analytica collected and used its data. Most of the information that is coming out is not news among people who study social media, but circumstances are creating a perfect storm. Since the story is still developing, and the number of takes is growing by the minute, we decided to put together a roundup of some interesting, often opposing perspectives and viewpoints, which we hope will help you make sense of this story. Let’s dive in.

If you haven’t already, you should start by reading the Guardian reportage that started it all: an interview with the former Cambridge Analytica employee who “built Steve Bannon’s psychological warfare tool” out of Facebook data
And the (parallel) New York Times story.
UK authorities are investigating, as is Massachusetts’ Attorney General, the FTC, and everybody else.
The CEO of Cambridge Analytica was filmed boasting about unethical practices to undercover reporters - although he says it was just “playing along.”
And it turns out, it wasn’t just Cambridge Analytica...

Ok, now show me some of those hot Twitter takes..

Tech news editor: what Cambridge Analytica (from now on “CA”) was doing should not surprise us: it is an example of Facebook (from now on, “FB”) being used exactly as intended
Tech and society academic: the problem is not CA. It’s surveillance capitalism as a business model
Former FB employee: it’s no big deal, CA are not that good anyway and please stop glamorizing them
No, really, these CA people might not be the sharpest after all
No, really, CA’s service was useless, except for extracting money from Ted Cruz and Trump’s campaigns
We can’t expect social media platforms to self regulate, and our only hope is legislation like GDPR
This kind of public and voter manipulation did not just happen in the US/UK: it was possibly much worse elsewhere.
An idea to fix this problem: social networks should retain personal data for 30 days max
Wylie the whistleblower’s style, though

Keep going...

This is FB’s biggest test, ever, and its leadership is failing to address it
Also, FB’s new company strategy to focus on private groups “as a key source of valuable engagement” might not work out in the company’s favor
You should just go ahead and delete FB...
But actually many people in the developing world can’t afford to do that
And nevermind anyway, FB profiles non-users too
You know what, let’s just all move to Linkedin already

The Stamos saga...

FB’s Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos, a widely respected figure, and one of the most vocal public advocates for Facebook’s decisions over the past year: please don’t call it a breach!
But now Stamos is said to be leaving the company, or maybe not?
Stamos had been investigating Russian activity on Facebook since June 2016: that month Zuckerberg said fake news influencing the election was a “pretty crazy idea.”

There’s more...

The Parsons/New School prof who has been on CA’s case for months, suing its parent company (SCL) to get his personal data back from them
Facebook has a history of being lax with app permissions (and thus with the data it shares with third parties)
Former Googler: programmers building these tools and then blowing the whistle shows us that computer science as a discipline science needs an ethical awakening

But what about the research...

Scholars have been sounding the alarm about data harvesting for a decade: what took FB so long?
One way to fix this: give researchers access to more, not less, data
Our very own Francesco on how FB had excellent APIs with “privacy by design, best balance of safety for the user and value for the researcher” but recently shut them down
But FB is currently in a bind: it’s damned if it does (lock down APIs), and damned if it doesn’t