Social Media Mapping: The Story Behind the Data

There are many tools available for ascertaining the Who, What and Where of social media, often in the form of a data dump. 

But according to Michael Lieberman, Founder, Multivariate Solutions, companies like Twitter offer data visualization maps that more clearly define all of the attributes of a campaign, hashtag, meme, site or other social phenomena and reveal the story behind the data structure.

Twitter, Google, Yahoo, WhatsApp and Facebook passively cull our personal information via a negative default – that is, requiring the user to opt-out rather than request them to opt-in. This leaves them with a treasure trove of our personal information.

“Social media maps help us visualize the patterns of connection that form when people follow, reply and mention one another in internet communication services like Twitter,” Lieberman explained. The web-like look of these maps show the nature of the conversation whether they are divided, unified, fragmented or clustered.

The use of mapping reveals four types of centrality measures – Degree (how popular), Betweenness (the amount of influence), Closeness (the ability to spread information efficiently) and Eigenvector (how importantly connected) that provide context to social media flow that shows key players and influencers.

According to Lieberman, there are six kinds of Twitter social network maps ——

1-Polarized Map – Using the Egyptian uprising as an example, this map shows two opposing opinions; Feminism and the Uprising (which may not support feminism). Polarized social media discussions have different, often opposing, hashtags.

2-In Groups/Community Map – For a hashtag like #cx (customer experience), these maps show conversations that all use the same or similar hashtags. This indicates the conversation around your hashtag and the penetration of its popularity based on the number of tweets.

3-Bazaar Map – Using @hillaryclinton as an example, the map displays several independent user clusters on many different topics which are not necessarily related to each other.

4-Brand Map – Showcases a public topic such as Disney cruises #disneycruises. These maps show a lot of different groups and hashtags that show what the conversation is around a subject.

5-Broadcast Map – Using @madmagazine or @CNN as an example, these maps show one large group that is essentially talking about same thing. It summarizes what is being shown in the Twitter feed, often stories of the day.

6- Support Maps – Are often corporate maps such as help@dell which has a single originating source that connects directly to many different individual participants.

“The use of a relatively easy analysis such as Social Network Analysis makes understanding the Twitter or Wikipedia conversation far easier than massive social listening platforms,” concluded Lieberman.

This article first appeared in Cynopsis.

Michelle Klein of Facebook on Video, Mobile and “Thumb-Stopping” Content

Michelle Klein has had an interesting career path starting as a writer for The Sydney Morning Herald in Australia. She traveled the world, settling in the U.K. and working for the Sea Containers Group, including Orient Express Hotels. It was there that she gained experience in new media as part of an internal digital agency which led to a stint at Agency.com, followed by Diageo and ultimately Facebook where she is currently the Director of Business Marketing for North America .  

Klein is an emerging leader in the media and advertising community.

I asked her the following questions:

Charlene Weisler:  Tell me about your current job at Facebook.

Michelle Klein: My job is to bring the Facebook story to life in the market, for large advertisers to small businesses and agencies alike.. We are partners to sales and product working behind the scenes to create meaningful storytelling. 

Charlene Weisler: How has Facebook changed since you first started there?

Michelle Klein: One of Facebook’s five core values is to move fast – which has made the last year incredibly exciting. On the platform, one of the biggest shifts we’ve seen is in how people consume video. There are now 100 millions hours of video watched daily on Facebook, a significant portion of which happens on mobile. Similarly, we’ve watched video become an important and powerful medium for businesses of all sizes.

Charlene Weisler: Where do you think video viewing on mobile is headed? 

Michelle Klein: The shift has already happened – on Facebook, 75% of video views are on mobile. Our research shows that the brain actually engages differently when viewing content on mobile – people are more attentive and tend to feel more positively toward information presented on the mobile screen New video products, like 360 video and Facebook Live will only continue to evolve the way we consume content on our devices.

Charlene Weisler: Is advertising on mobile different than on other platforms?

Michelle Klein: Advertising on mobile requires a fresh approach to creative. You have to capture attention through thumb stopping content, usually with the sound off. So the first 3 seconds are important in the story telling. There are some really great examples out there of brands creating compelling content with the sound off and through strong, emotive visuals.

 

Charlene Weisler: Has consumer behavior changed in a year since you started at Facebook?

Michelle Klein: The consumer shift to mobile is arguably the most important thing that has happened to the media and advertising world since the advent of TV, and we continued to see its impact over the last year. As part of this shift, we’ve seen the rise of messaging apps around the world that are set to usher in the next great evolution in communication. Six of the ten most downloaded apps are messaging apps. At Facebook, we have 800 million active people on Messenger and a billion on WhatsApp. 

Charlene Weisler: You must have a very immersive and intensive work life. How do you achieve work / life balance?

Michelle Klein: I am so happy that you asked that question. One thing I love about working at Facebook is how serious our leaders are about everyone leading meaningful lives, both personally and professionally. When you have that balance, integration, whatever you want to call it, you do better work, and you can make a larger impact in everything you do. It’s all about understanding what’s important in our lives, and working around those things. So for example, if you need to drop off your child at school twice a week, you book the time to do it. If going to the gym regularly is important to you, you take time out of your day to do it. I like to work out in the mornings so I can arrive at work at 9:30 and I can leave by 5:45p to be with my children. Everyone is respectful of that and it has had profound impact on morale.

Charlene Weisler: What advice would you give a current college graduate seeking a career in media?

Michelle Klein: Take every opportunity that comes your way. There is no direct career path anymore and by taking on a variety of roles you can learn and grow into new opportunities. Sheryl Sandberg called this a “career jungle gym” and that has been true of my experiences leading up to and at Facebook. Many Millennials have this ethos already, gone are the days of having one type of career in one type of industry. 

This article first appeared in www.MediaBizBloggers.com